U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding a proposed extension to the payroll tax cut and the need to provide tax relief without raising taxes on job creators.

In the Weekly Republican Address, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, discusses the importance of "restoring economic growth and bringing our deficits under control."

Sen. Toomey says, "The best way to revive the American economy is to reform our broken tax code. We should seize this opportunity to throw out this unfair monstrosity and replace it with a system that will lower tax rates for every single American, simplify the code, and get rid of the special interest tax breaks and loopholes that make this code the 70,000 page mess that it is. Our tax code has to go. Every bipartisan commission that has looked at our deficit crisis has come to the same conclusion: Pro-growth tax reform is a vital part of the solution. That's why we Republican members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction have proposed a plan that replaces our current tax code with a simpler and fairer version that will encourage small businesses to expand and hire new workers and encourage creative hardworking Americans to open new businesses. Furthermore, this reform should be permanent so that job creators across America will know they will not be subject to the biggest tax hike in American history, which is currently looming a mere 14 months away."

He points out, "Now, in addition to kick-starting our economy with tax reform, our proposal will curb the deficit by cutting spending. After all, the problem is not that Americans are under-taxed, but that our government overspends. And that's why we've proposed cutting spending by $750 billion over 10 years. Now, let me be clear. We've identified several trillion dollars in sensible, responsible spending reductions that would actually resolve our fiscal crisis. But in the face of intense Democratic opposition, we've scaled back our proposal to just $750 billion -- less than 2 percent of what our government is projected to spend over the next 10 years. Surely our Democratic colleagues can agree that a bloated federal government that has grown by about 25 percent in the last few years can tighten its belt by 2 percent over the next 10 years."

Sen. Toomey concludes, "The hour is late. By law, our work on this committee must be completed this coming week. But I remain hopeful that we can meet our goal and I urge my Democratic colleagues to join us in this effort. We have what is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pass legislation that will generate millions of jobs, create a simpler, fairer tax system with lower rates for everyone, and put our government on a path toward fiscal sanity. We don't have to follow the path that Europe has taken. We can learn from their mistakes. We can continue to be the land of unparalleled opportunity and prosperity. And the 21st century can be another great American century. The American people will make sure of that if we in Washington will just let them."