[Excerpt] On behalf of the AFL-CIO, I am writing to urge you to vote for a one-year extension of a reduction in payroll taxes, as provided by the Middle Class Tax Cut Act of 2011 (S. 1917). The U.S. economy is still suffering from an economic crisis that was caused by economic policies that failed because they served the interests of Wall Street and the richest one percent of Americans, rather than the remaining 99 percent of us. Much more needs to be done to get us out of this crisis, to close our jobs deficit and put America back to work. The AFL-CIO has proposed a 6-point jobs plan, and we challenge both parties to fight for solutions that are on the same scale as the problems we face.