American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Floor Speech

AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - January 28, 2009)

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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Before I yield to Mr. Levin, I want to challenge something that the gentleman from Texas has said. I want everybody to remember what it was like on January 19, 2001, when I hear the Republicans complaining about debt and deficits. We were looking at a $5.7 trillion surplus. The debt had come down and the deficits had been eliminated.

Now their argument is--frankly, a stale one, but they cling to it--that tax cuts pay for themselves as we look at now a debt of almost $10 trillion. And I hear these protestations of what this legislation will do after they were in control of two branches of government, two Chambers of the House, and the Presidency, and they rolled up these extraordinary deficits and debts.

Reminder. The war in Iraq, which is going to cost almost $2 trillion before it comes to conclusion. And they pontificate on this House floor about the debt?

With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin).

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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The Bush tax cuts don't expire until 2010. There will be sufficient opportunity for us to discuss many of the issues raised by the gentleman from Wisconsin. We will have plenty of time to discuss those.

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