A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from south dakota. Mr. Thune madam president , i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune madam president , i come to the floor today to talk about the damage obamacare is doing to the struggling economy. Now after months of unrelenting coverage of obamacares many problems and after fridays release of decembers dismal jobs report, im sure democrats here in the senate would prefer that we talk about almost anything else. After all, when you have held most of the power in washington here for the last five years, you dont want to mention the fact that your main legacy is a sluggish economy and a disastrous train wreck of a health care program. This past friday, we found out that december marked the weakest month of job growth since january of 2011. The economy added just 74,000 jobs in december, less than half of the monthly job growth needed for a real recovery. Some are saying that perhaps this is an aberration and perhaps it was for a onemonth period, but the one thing, madam president , you cant get away from is that decembers drop in the Unemployment Rate, the slight drop that we saw as a percentage was driven by nearly 350,000 americans dropping out of the work force altogether. Driving the Labor Participation rate to its lowest level in 36 years. We havent seen a Labor Participation rate this low literally since the carter administration. Had millions of americans not stopped looking for work since january of 2009, the Unemployment Rate would be a staggering 10. 8 . What i mean by that, madam president , is that the Labor Participation rate were today what it was in 2009 in other words, a number of americans actually in the labor force out there looking for jobs, the Unemployment Rate would be almost 11 , significantly higher than what we use as the official Unemployment Rate today. Even without that, the wall street journal points out, and i quote, the Unemployment Rate remains near levels previously seen only during recessions. Let me repeat that. The wall street journal states, and i quote the Unemployment Rate remains near levels previously seen only during recessions. End quote. Now, thats a pretty damning statement. The president , his advisors would like us to believe that president obamas policies are growing our economy and putting americans back to work, but in the five years of his presidency, all democrats have been able to accomplish is a recovery that looks a lot like other president s recessions. In his weekly address on saturday, the president said he would do, and i quote everything i can to create new jobs and new opportunities for american families. End quote. And how does he propose to do that . By treating the symptoms, not the causes of economic stagnation. Economic bandaids like the president proposes may temporarily help a few americans, but they will do nothing to bring about the real longterm job growth that our country needs, and unfortunately the president s policies are actually hurting already struggling middleclass families and making it more difficult for businesses to grow and create jobs. Chief among the president s failed policies is the massive boondoggle known as the Affordable Care act. If there is one thing that you dont want in an economy where businesses are already struggling, its legislation that places everything from new taxes to new burdensome regulations on businesses, and yet that is just exactly what obamacare does. There is a tax on medical devices like pacemakers and prosthetics thats driving medical device jobs overseas and driving medical bills up for american patients. There is a pill tax. Its a tax on prescription drugs. A tax on businesses that do not provide governmentapproved health care, a tax multiple taxes, i should say, on Health Insurance companies, and more. And then there are the scores of new regulations that raise the costs of doing business. Regulations like the requirement that any business with 50 or more workers provide obamacareapproved Health Insurance benefits to its fulltime employees which the Health Care Law defines as 30 hours or more per week. Thats all very well for some employers, but for Many Employers in industries with small profit margins, providing obamaapproved health care to fulltime workers is the difference between making a profit and making none at all. And for employers in nonprofit fields like education, it can be the difference between staying in operation or closing. Around the country, school systems, Community Colleges and universities and restaurants and other Small Businesses are being forced to cut workers hours to avoid the full burden of obamacares mandate. Its no wonder, its no wonder, madam president , the Health Care Law is so unpopular with the owners of businesses both large and small. Cbs news reported in december, and i quote nearly half of u. S. Companies said that they are reluctant to hire fulltime employees because of the law. End quote. A survey from the National Association of manufacturers found that more than 75 of manufacturers cite soaring Health Care Costs as the Biggest Issue facing their businesses. The presiding officer the senators time has expired. Mr. Thune madam president , i would ask for additional time, for an additional five minutes. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune in addition to being bad for business bottom line, obamacare is placing a tremendous financial burden on american families. The president claimed his Health Care Law reduced the cost of health care but the average family has seen a 2,500 premium increase since the laws passage, and now that the law is being fully implemented, that number is set to soar even higher. One of my constituents, kerry, emailed me to tell me that she may have to take a parttime job to afford the Health Care Premium she was quoted for her family of six. Thats a parttime job on top of the two parttime jobs she already works and the fulltime job that her husband works. Another constituent, matt, from rapid city, south dakota, emailed to tell me that his insurance has gone up 60 since obamacares passage. Meanwhile, his wifes hours at work have been reduced below the obamacare fulltime threshold of 30 hours. We have had to cut back on our basic needs, he told me. Terry contacted me to tell me that his insurance policy was canceled and that he was offered a replacement policy for twice the cost of his original policy. Now he says one quarter of my salary will go to my insurance. A quarter of his salary. Is this the Affordable Care americans were promised. Madam president , democrats claim they want to grow the economy. What do they think happens to our economy when businesses arent growing and people arent spending . When americans have to devote more of their income to pay their health care bills, they cut back on other spending. They go out to fewer restaurants. They keep their old car for a few more years. They put a bucket under the leak instead of paying for a new roof. Thats a lot of money not going to local businesses. Similarly, when businesses are hit with burdensome taxes and regulations, they cut back on hiring and investment. They cut workers hours. They move jobs overseas. And that means fewer jobs for the millions of americans looking for work and lower wages for families already struggling to get by. If democrats are really serious about growing the economy and creating jobs, they would stop focusing on economic bandaids and take a long, hard look at the damage that obamacare is doing to our economy. As members of congress, we need to make it easier to create jobs, not harder. We should be repealing burdensome mandates, not creating them. We should be reducing the tax burden, not increasing it. And we should be creating incentives for business to expand, not eliminating them. Millions of americans spend too much time wondering how theyre going to afford their Health Care Premiums or buy a house or send their kids to college. We need to give them the Economic Opportunities they need. Over the past few weeks, republicans in the house and senate have introduced plan after plan to get our economy moving again and to help struggling families find better jobs and increased wages. I currently introduced a plan to exempt longterm unemployed workers from the obamacare employer mandate, which is an onerous and unpopular provision that will destroy jobs and reduce hours for hardworking americans. In fact, this mandate is so unpopular and so unworkable that the administration unilaterally delayed it until past the next election. It seems even the administration doesnt want to enforce it. I think we can all agree that exempting the longterm unemployed will help break the cycle of extended unemployment that plagues the obamacare economy. The obama economy. Madam president , we hope that democrats will abandon their shortterm cosmetic fixes and join us in talking about the kind of longterm reforms that will truly grow the economy and offer Economic Opportunity to every american. We have lived in the obamacare economy long enough. Madam president , i yield the floor. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from hawaii. Ms. Hirono madam president , i am here to speak in opposition to the offset amendment ayotte number 2603. The bipartisan amendment that passed in december included a republican provision that changed the annual cost of living adjustments or so colas for military retirees. I opposed that provision and i believe there is bipartisan support for repealing it. The main question is how to pay for that repeal. Amendment 2603 would pay for fixing the cola problem by denying the refundable Child Tax Credit to millions of eligible u. S. Citizen children. This amendment asks in effect whether military retirees are more deserving of help than u. S. Citizen children who are on the edge of poverty. That is a false choice. That is not the right approach. The Child Tax Credit is one of our most important programs to reduce Child Poverty. Tens of millions of families claim the Child Tax Credit each year, more than 35 million families in 2009, both using Social Security numbers and individual taxpayer identification numbers. According to the Congressional Research service, the Child Tax Credit reduces Child Poverty by approximately one fifth. For such an important and widely used program as this, we should be careful that any changes we make to the program does not harm lowincome children and working families. Many of these lowincome families are headed by women. Any Large Program is susceptible to fraud and misuse. When fraud is alleged, the cases should be investigated and the people who commit fraud should be punished. This means targeted, aggressive auditing and enforcement, not wholesale changes to the program that will deny help to kids who are legally receiving it today. The proponents of the amendment tell us that individuals are fraudulently claiming the Child Tax Credit for kids who live in mexico or for kids who do not exist. That is already a violation of the law. This is fraud. I agree with the amendments sponsor that we should take steps to prevent this fraud. But the i. R. S. Says this amendment would not solve the fraud problem. In 2012, five senators wrote to the i. R. S. Regarding this matter and the letter asked quote does the fact that a person filing the return has a Social Security number indicate whether the child claimed for the credit met the residency requirements required under the law the response from i. R. S. In a letter dated july 20, 2012 was quote the position of an s. S. N. Or Social Security number by the filer is not relevant in determining whether the child met the residency requirements. In other words, imposing a Social Security number requirement does not prevent the fraud that the amendments sponsor seeks to prevent and that makes intuitive sense. If a person is going to lie about the existence of a kid, theyll lie about the s. S. N. Too. So this amendment does not solve the problem. If this amendment does not solve problem would the real impact of this amendment be . Heres what the amendment would do. First, it would deny help to roughly four million u. S. Citizen children from lowincome households by making their families ineligible for the Child Tax Credit. The average family claiming the refundable Child Tax Credit earns only about 21,000 a year, and as i mentioned earlier, many of these families are led by women. Every dollar matters to these families. The Child Tax Credit lifts roughly 1. 5 million children out of poverty each year and this amendment would plunge many of these children back into pompt. I want to emphasize because of the Child Tax Credit is structured in the tax code, only working families are eligible for the refundable portion. These families are working and paying taxes but in lean years they would be denied helped from the Child Tax Credit if this amendment were to become law. They are paying taxes but would be denied help. This is not fair. Second, this amendment would render these four million u. S. Children secondclass citizen status because of who their parents are. That is contrary to the principle of equality on which this country was founded. All citizens should be treated fairly and equally. This amendment says some citizen children will receive help and others wont. Depending on who their parents are. That is simply not right. In closing, there is a better way to pay for repealing the military retiree cola provision that was included in the budget, and that is to close Corporate Tax loopholes. The proponents cite a news report from indiana which an undocumented worker admitted that hed allow four other undocumented workers to use his address to file tax returns. The four workers did not live there but he allowed them to use his address anyway. I agree, this is fraud, and should be stopped. But this story reminds me of the story of the ugland house in the cayman islands. It is a fivestory building identified as the official address for 18,857 companies all at the same time. Some of the inhabit tantsz of this address are some of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. As i understand it, this is not a violation of u. S. Laws. Tens of thousands of corporations can legally use the same building for their official address. It is not fraud but merely tax planning, im told. Offshore mailing addresses and accounting tricks are allowing corporations to shelter enormous profits from u. S. Taxes. According to bloom bloomberg news, 83 of the Largest Companies in the u. S. Held 1. 46 trillion in profits offshore in 2012. Another report by j. P. Morgan chase estimates the amount of chof shore profits is even higher, nearly 1. 7 trillion. How does this work . One thing corporations do is funnel their revenues through Shell Companies to escape taxation. According to the center for american progress, countries like bermuda, ireland, luxembourg, the netherlands and switzerland which combined account for less than half of 1 of the worlds population, generated 43 of the profits reported by American Companies in 2008. Clearly there is a major tax problem here. So while our colleagues rail against five workers using one address to file taxes, we hear nothing about more than 18,000 companies that have used one address to file their taxes. Talk about egregious. These Corporate Tax loopholes resulting in huge amount of taxes corporations dont pay are what this congress should focus on, not on denying a few hundred dollars of help to a u. S. Citizen child who is on the edge of poverty. Senator shaheen has filed an amendment that begins to address these Corporate Tax problems. Her amendment, number 2618, of which i am a cosponsor, will prevent more than 18,000 corporations from pretending that they are headquartered in a single building in the cayman islands. Like senator ayottes amendment, the shaheen amendment will repeal the military retiree cola provision that was in the budget deal. The difference is senator neen shaheens amendment would pay for the repeal by Holding Corporations accountable for the taxes they owe instead of denying help to u. S. Citizen children of working parents many of whom are women, who are in poverty. We all recognize that we have a responsibility to our veterans, taxpayers and to future generations. Senator shaheens amendment will allow us to meet all of these commitments at the same time. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense approach and vote in favor of the shaheen amendment and not the ayotte amendment. I yield back. Mr. Menendez madam president . The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Menendez madam president , i want to join my colleague from hawaii in her remarks and her