On the recordMarch 1, 2010
The bill has been denominated by my colleagues on the Democratic side as a jobs bill, but it will not create any new jobs and when considered in conjunction with the health care legislation the President has proposed will actually cost jobs and I wish to address that. This legislation extends some current provisions of law, including tax provisions, unemployment compensation, COBRA insurance. It extends a provision of Federal subsidies to the States for Medicaid, and there are a few other provisions. None of these create new jobs. The tax extenders are useful. That is our Washington, DC, speak for provisions of the Tax Code that last 1 year and have to be renewed each year. They are generally used to enable businesses to deduct from their taxes ordinary business expenses and include things such as research and development tax credits which I think are supported by all 100 Senators. So we do this every year. We extend these tax provisions for another year. It should have been done at the end of last year; it wasn't. So it has to be done now and made retroactive to the beginning of the year. One could argue that some of those may theoretically create a few jobs, but they are something we do every year, and they are not for the purpose of creating jobs; they are simply good business practices.
