On the recordDecember 13, 2011
No bill is perfect but this has much to admire in it. Moving the unemployed back into the workforce after a year makes sense--so does allowing States to drug test, stopping taxpayer fraud, helping small businesses invest in equipment, paying local doctors fairly for treating our seniors, telling the President ``he can't wait'' to approve the thousands of jobs created by the Keystone pipeline, and spending cuts and entitlement reforms so we don't add to the dangerous deficit. All of that is very good. Like many in Congress, I am very troubled about reducing Social Security revenue another year. The bill's authors have responsibly included reforms that fill this hole and then some; but over the long term, cutting Social Security contributions makes an already fragile program more fragile. So in support, I want my constituents to know that 2012 is it. I will not support another extension of the Social Security tax holiday. Instead, I will work to replace it with tax relief of an equal amount that doesn't impact Social Security or that doesn't make it harder to preserve this program for future generations.
