This morning the Senate voted 89-10 to extend the payroll tax holiday for two months. The bill also included provisions to require President Obama to approve the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline project.

Keystone XL will immediately begin to create jobs the NAM has been urging the State Department to approve the project as soon as possible. The project will create 118,000 jobs and get American’s back to work while providing a key source of energy for manufacturers.

The bill does not contain the provisions which would halt the current Boiler MACT rules the EPA has proposed. Manufacturers remain very concerned about the costly impact of these burdensome rules. The NAM will continue to urge the House and Senate to move forward with legislation to stop the Boiler MACT rules.

The Senate’s entire debate Saturday on extending the current tax rates to avoid raising taxes on targeted income groups was obviously important to manufacturers. The National Association of Manufacturers issued a statement from our Executive Vice President Jay Timmons, “Manufacturers Oppose Tax Increases on Business“:

Manufacturers oppose the Senate’s amendment to the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 because it would result in a tax increase for the vast majority of America’s small and medium manufacturers. The tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 played a key role in stimulating our economy as it repealed the estate tax and lowered both the individual tax rates and tax rates on investment. 

Yet in searching The Congressional Record’s account of the debate, we find just a single mention of the word “manufacturers.” Thanks to Sen. John Thune (R-SD) for the citation in his floor remarks, refering to medical device manufacturers, as well as the broader discussion of how the “millionaires’ tax” is really a tax on small business. Excerpt:

[Here] we are today debating what evidently has become the Democratic economic theory, which is to raise taxes to create jobs. We have seen this in play throughout the last couple of years. The cap-and-trade bill was a tax on energy. It didn’t get through the Senate because we were prepared to stop it, but it passed in the House of Representatives and was headed here. The health care bill raised taxes on medical device manufacturers and drug companies and health insurance plans, all of which is going to get passed on to small businesses in the form of higher insurance premiums. 

Here we are debating a frontal, direct tax increase on small businesses. It is the most astounding theory on how to create jobs I have ever seen–raising taxes to create jobs. That hasn’t worked in practice. The Senator from Iowa eloquently pointed out that, historically, if you go back over the past half century, not only does it not create jobs, it doesn’t generate additional revenue. As he pointed out, when you raise taxes, you don’t get more revenue. When you lower taxes, you get more revenue. Why? Because it affects the behavior of the American people. It affects investors, it affects the allocation of capital, and it affects people across this country when they know their tax rates are going to be low. (continue reading…)

In his full-bore populist speech in Cleveland today, President Obama repeated the now all-too familiar line about tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

And then he added something new.

This week, I proposed some additional steps to grow the economy and help businesses spur hiring. One of the keys to job creation is to encourage companies to invest more in the United States. But for years, our tax code has actually given billions of dollars in tax breaks that encourage companies to create jobs and profits in other countries.

I want to change that. I want to change that. [applause]

So now it’s bad to create profits overseas?

A reminder from a recent NAM Key Vote letter:

An estimated 22 million people in the United States – more than 19 percent of the private sector workforce and 53 percent of all manufacturing employees – are employed by companies with operations overseas. …Some of the proposed tax increases, which are mischaracterized as closing tax loopholes, actually represent significant changes to pro-growth tax policy supported by Congress and the Administration.

Which raises a larger point. Save perhaps for the familiar R&D tax credit, these new, large-scale tax policy proposals that the President rolled out this week — with just a month or so left before Congress leaves town again — cannot be adopted in isolation. Their impact extends throughout the tax code, changes that require serious examination for their impact on businesses, taxpayers as well as their potential unintended consequences.

Here’s the most detailed presentation on the President’s proposals we’ve seen at Whitehouse.gov, provided by Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer at the White House blog, “Rebuilding Our Economy to Work for Middle Class Americans Again“: (continue reading…)