The Default Crisis and How it Impacts Jobs

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) for 5 minutes.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in American history we are at the brink of compromising the full faith and credit of the United States Government--the pledge that America has made to be the strongest, most trustworthy economy in the world, the promise that we will always keep our word and pay back the money we have already spent.

And why are we on the brink of a default crisis? Is it because of a natural disaster that has devastated our Nation? Is it because of a catastrophic national security threat? Is it because of another meltdown of our financial system like the one we saw in 2008? No.

The default crisis is for none of these reasons. Instead, it is a crisis wholly manufactured by my Republican colleagues, who are holding our economy hostage to pursue a radical agenda. This is an agenda that seeks to continue the Bush policies of wars and tax cuts paid for by undoing the New Deal, shrinking the social safety net, and pulling the rug out from under millions of Americans who are still struggling to recover from a financial crisis that was created by Wall Street.

Mr. Speaker, the debt ceiling is being used as political leverage to pursue this agenda. Remember, the debt ceiling was raised 18 times under President Reagan and seven times under President George Bush. Instead of this phony crisis, we should be debating the real crisis facing this Nation, the crisis that is consistently named as the number one concern of American taxpayers, that is, the jobs crisis.

Today, about 14 million people are unemployed, wages are declining, and home values are still plummeting. The unsurprising result is consumers aren't buying, businesses don't need to hire as many workers. And the cycle continues. In minority communities, these problems are even worse, with over 16 percent of African Americans and 11 percent of Hispanics out of work. In fact, just yesterday, the Pew Research Center reported that while all households lost wealth during the recession, minority families experienced disproportionate losses, and the wealth gap between minority and white households is actually growing. The median wealth of U.S. households in 2009 was $13,000, compared to just over $6,000 for Hispanics and $5,600 for African Americans.

But to hear my Republican colleagues, it's as if these unemployed Americans are living in the shadows instead of the communities we represent. Because instead of pursuing a jobs agenda, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have proposed a continuation of failed Bush policies, this time on steroids. First under the Ryan budget, and now under these debt ceiling hostage negotiations, my Republican colleagues are pushing to cut Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and job-creating domestic programs no matter the cost. Mr. Speaker, now is the time to invest in our communities, not retreat.

We need jobs to get people employed and get them back paying taxes to pay down our deficit. In fact, the Congressional Progressive Caucus is happy to provide for you, Mr. Speaker, a long list of ways to create jobs. We can create a new civilian conservation corps; we can close tax loopholes and bring jobs back from overseas; we can encourage investments in the new green economy; and we can provide incentives for businesses to train and hire the long-term unemployed. And guess what? We can do this while balancing the budget. In fact, the people's budget, offered by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, can balance our books at least 10 years before the Ryan budget.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to stand opposed to Republican efforts to perpetuate this default crisis and balance our budget on the backs of seniors and the middle class. It will amount to an unmitigated and unprecedented disaster to not only America's reputation, but to our capital markets, our job-creating businesses, and our economic recovery.

Mr. Speaker, I held two town hall meetings this past weekend on Saturday, one in the city of Inglewood and one in the area of Westchester. They made it very, very clear that they want us to increase this debt limit, they want us to get about the business of creating jobs, and they want to close tax loopholes for the richest corporations in America that receive tax breaks under the Bush administration. They are sick of us playing with this issue. They want us to do the people's business and look out for the interests of the least of these.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source