Erik Paulsen: “Mr. Chairman, our number one priority in Congress should be enacting pro-growth policies that will put Americans back to…”

“Mr. Chairman, our number one priority in Congress should be enacting pro-growth policies that will put Americans back to work and get our economy back on track. Sadly, in the past 2 years, this body has done very little to accommodate the record high unemployment that this country has faced. And this tax bill before us today will give us an opportunity to finally change that, because in just 2 weeks our country's small businesses will see a huge job-killing tax increase imposed upon them. Now, we all know small businesses have been the backbone of our economy for a long period of years. They have served as our Nation's top and chief job creators, generating nearly 7 out of every 10 new jobs created. But according to the National Federation of Independent Business, small business optimism is still at a recessionary level, and only a net 4 percent of firms are even planning to create new jobs. Stopping these tax increases on January 1 will add jobs to the economy. On the other hand, imposing these job-killing tax increases on our small businesses is only going to further delay an economic recovery that has been denied to the American people. So we must act now to prevent this from happening. This bill also has a significant impact on our Nation's families. Voting against this bill will lead to a nearly $100 tax increase on every hardworking American family every single week.”