“I am very disappointed at what happened this week in Congress.  What began as a discussion over how to stimulate our economy turned into head butting over whose hands to put money into.  The tax cut debate degenerated into nothing more than class warfare, with still no guarantee that the bill passed in the House of Representatives will provide what we need most of all; new jobs.

“I’m sick and tired of all the partisan bickering that goes on in our nation’s Capitol.  Rather than shout about what we’re not going to support, Congressman Marion Berry and I offered a solution.  H.R.2 will spend $550 billion to create only one million jobs, we came up with a plan to spend $441 billion – that’s $109 billion less than the Republican bill – to create more than 18 million new jobs.

“The amendment would have replaced the so-called economic stimulus plan with a plan to spend one billion dollars in every Congressional District solely on transportation and infrastructure.  For every billion dollars spent on roads, 42,000 new jobs are created.  Our amendment would create 42,000 new jobs in every Congressional District in America.

“Some of you heard President Bush speak in Little Rock this week about the need to cut taxes on dividends, well let me tell you how Arkansans would benefit from such cuts.  In the tax cut proposal under debate, 80 percent of Arkansans who work for a living and pay taxes would get back less than a dollar a day.  Is that truly worth increasing our national debt and putting our economic future in jeopardy?  

“Under the Ross-Berry Amendment, 100 percent of Arkansans would benefit from the immediate economic stimulus of improved transportation infrastructure.  Unfortunately, the House Republican Leadership refused to let our amendment be considered on the House floor, and insisted on pushing their more expensive and less effective bill forward. 

“I was one of 28 Democrats who supported President Bush’s tax cut in 2001, the largest tax cut in 20 years, totaling $1.3 trillion, because we had a surplus to pay for it.  That is not the case with this plan, and that’s why I voted against it.  By passing a second tax cut during a time when our country has returned to deficit spending, Congress will only increase our national debt and force our children and grandchildren to pay for it.”