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“ Democratic priorities are clear: we will fight to get the economy back on track, we will create jobs, and we will help unemployed workers. ” |
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House GOP Following White House's Bad Example on Taxes
Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today at a news conference on the House Republican tax bill, which the House Ways and Means Committee is debating this afternoon and is expected to be on the House floor on Friday:
“Thank you all for coming. I am so pleased to be joined by my distinguished colleagues from the Ways and Means Committee. They are led, of course, by the ranking Democrat, Charlie Rangel, and a senior Member of the Committee, Bob Matsui. Both have been leaders in the fight against the misguided Republican plans and in putting together our own Democratic jobs and growth plan.
“Since President Bush took office two and half years ago, the American people have seen the most dramatic economic deterioration the nation has ever experienced in such a short time.
“We have gone from historically low unemployment rates to losing 2.7 million jobs -- the worst record of job creation in nearly 60 years; and we have gone from the largest federal surplus in history to the largest deficit in history, saddling our children with a mountain of debt. We were on the course to a $5.6 trillion surplus and now we're headed to a $1.4 trillion deficit. That is a swing of about $7 trillion in our fiscal state of affairs in two and a half years.
“Republican economic policies have failed. They have taken the wrong steps to get our economy moving again. And they are preparing to repeat their errors. It is time for something new.
“The House Republican plan does not create jobs; it irresponsibly piles up debt; it raids the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthy; and it continues the failed economic policies that do nothing to pull us out of our current slump.
“The 6 percent unemployment rate announced last week translates to nearly nine million Americans out of work -- the worst job slump since the Great Depression. And that does not include the perhaps four million Americans who have given up looking for work, who have taken themselves out of the job market.
"On average during the Bush presidency, Americans have lost 74,000 jobs per month -- the worst record by far. And yet the House Republican bill will do little or nothing to create new jobs and spur economic growth.
“Just last August, President Bush said: ‘We cannot go down the path of soaring budget deficits.’ But the House Republican plan, once phony sunsets and other gimmicks are removed, increases the federal deficit by at least $1 trillion over the next decade.
“In contrast, our House Democratic plan, which will be announced later this week, will create more than one million jobs this year and will strengthen the economy without adding to the long-term deficit. It will be fair, in terms of who benefits from the tax plan. It will be fiscally sound, in that it will be paid for. And it will be fast acting in that it will create one million new jobs this year. The Republican plan fails on all three scores.
"I would just like to say, in closing, that what you will see this afternoon in the Ways and Means markup is really a continuation of a feeding frenzy on the part of the Republicans. Instead of demonstrating leadership from the White House in terms of fiscal soundness, fairness, and job creation, the Bush Administration instead put forth a plan that was so fiscally unsound, so unfair, and so lacking in job creation it set a standard so low that now the Republicans in Congress think: 'It's OK. We don't have to have that exact plan, but we can even make it worse in terms of the unfairness and the fiscal unsoundness of it all.'
"So instead of leadership from the White House for the American people on getting the economy moving again, we have just the reverse. We have a bad example of what a tax plan should look like. And we have the Republicans in Congress following that bad example."
“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
