American Jobs

Floor Speech

Mrs. MALONEY. I would like to thank my colleague from the great State of California for bringing the American Jobs Act to the floor, every single week, speaking out in favor of American workers, small businesses, and a sane, balanced approach that not only has a cutback in order to cut back our deficit and our debt, but also a revenue leg and a jobs leg. And the President has come forward with a balanced approach that has won support not only from New York and California but clear across this country. Economists are speaking out in support of the American Jobs Act. There have been two Nobel Laureates that have come out in support of it. Mark Zandi, who was the economist in Senator McCain's race for the Presidency, he has come out and he has said that next year it would increase the GDP by 2 percent. It would lower the unemployment rate by 1 percent, and would create 1.9 million jobs.

Now, after hearing your Special Orders on this, I think it would create even more jobs. But this is just a sense of economists from all sides of the country coming out in support of it.

I think it is unfortunate that the Senate did not pass it because we need this act, and we need it now. Americans have shown that they are worried about their future and they want this Jobs Act. Analysts have speculated that our country faces the same kind of lost decade that Japan has struggled with.

In a New York Times article by Daniel Alpert, a managing partner at a private capital firm, he was quoted as saying, and I'd like to bring it to your attention and the American people's attention: ``Unless we take dramatic steps, it will be Japan all over again--continuous deflation, no economic growth, in and out of recessions, and high unemployment.''

Robert Hockett, a professor of financial law at Cornell in New York and a consultant to the New York Federal Reserve, added: ``It will be like the economic version of chronic fatigue syndrome--a low-grade fever all the time.''

So we need to prevent that fatigue and cure the low-grade fever. That's why we need to pass this bill. It would be the kind of short-term immediate impact that our economy needs. With job creation stalled and median income dropping, Americans just aren't buying. That's why economists and forecasters are so strongly in support of it. And the American Jobs Act goes after unemployment in three big ways: it cuts taxes to spur small business hiring and consumer spending; it prevents layoffs of our vital services, our teachers, our firefighters, and our law enforcement officers; and it puts people to work building roads, bridges, and schools. That's so important.

The infrastructure jobs not only create good paying jobs now, they're an investment in the future to help America compete in the world economy. I know from my own State many of our bridges and tunnels and roads and mass transit are crumbling, and we could use this influx of infrastructure money to rebuild and put people back to work. Very importantly, the President's plan maintains a safety net for Americans most hurt by the economic downturn. It's a good plan.

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Mrs. MALONEY. I would like to respond to the point that the gentleman made. Economists tell us that one of the ways that we climb out of recessions--and we're in the worst recession that I've experienced in my lifetime, the worst since the Great Depression--the way we climb out is often small businesses. Small businesses hire and grow. Two out of three people hired in America are hired by small businesses. But at this time their hiring has not moved forward. That's why this subsidy and support for small businesses is so important, and I applaud the President for including it in the American Jobs Act.

But because of the economic downturn, localities across our country are having to lay off workers, essential workers who are investors in the future of our young people: Teachers and the protectors of our communities, firefighters and our law enforcement, are being laid off.

I want to talk a little bit about New York, the great State that I have the honor of representing, and I have some numbers that I would like to share with you, but they are the same in many localities across the country. In my own State of New York, according to the Congressional Research Service, the estimated grant for the teachers and the first responders would be $1.7 billion, which would save an estimated 18,000 educators and first responder jobs. That's important not only to these families but to the localities. These teachers are needed. These fire and police are needed. And very importantly, one of the things that I think is so important is the focus that the President has put on modernizing our schools.

When I was in school, all you needed was a piece of paper and a teacher and a pencil. Now our young people need computers, and we need to start teaching them computer sciences and math and technology very, very early. This would have grants to modernize schools so they are really ready for the 21st century, wired appropriately for high-tech computers. This would have a grant for New York City alone of $1.6 billion to modernize the community colleges and the public schools so they are ready for the next century.

But it's our infrastructure that is so important. We are falling behind in terms of high-speed rail. Much of our infrastructure is crumbling. And the infrastructure investment would total over $105 billion, including $50 billion on transportation infrastructure. This not only moves people and makes a more livable environment, it's an investment also for not being dependent on oil that we have to import.

Very importantly, there is $10 billion on a new national infrastructure bank that would help finance private ventures of public roads and highways and bridges and railroads. And so that's a very, very important part of it.

Very importantly, it also talks about rehabilitating the foreclosed or vacant properties. This is a problem. Some of my colleagues in Ohio tell me they're literally bulldozing down vacant foreclosed properties. And this would allow to help these blighted neighborhoods and help rebuild.

All in all, it is a great plan. We need to get behind it. We need to put Americans back to work. And we should have passed it yesterday. But I'm here tonight supporting the President's plan to put Americans back to work and to invest in our future, invest in America's competitiveness, and our leadership in so many areas depends on getting our economy moving again.

I appreciate being here with my good friend and colleague, and thank you so much for raising these issues. You're doing an excellent job.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. I can go through each one of those numbers that my colleague from the wonderful State of New York talked about. California, similarly, would receive very, very significant benefits.

However, we need to look at the reality of what is happening here in this Chamber where the Speaker of the House refuses to even allow a vote on the President's proposal. All of the things you talked about that would benefit New York will come to nothing unless the Speaker of the House will allow these proposals to come to a vote.

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Mrs. MALONEY. Will the gentleman yield?

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Certainly.

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Mrs. MALONEY. This is a democracy, and I believe that there is no idea in the world that is so dangerous or challenging that you can't debate it in the United States Congress. It should be put up for a debate and have it fully debated and have a vote. That's the least that the Speaker should provide for the American people.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Over on the Senate side, the leader of the Senate, Mr. Reid, brought the issue to the Senate floor and was unable to even get a vote on the Senate floor because of the Republican threat of a filibuster and the 60-vote requirement to end that filibuster. And so even though on the Senate side they almost came to a vote, they were stopped short by a filibuster. And the reason, apparently, was that the Republicans did not want to raise a one-half of 1 percent tax on those very small number--the top 1 percent of Americans that are earning more than a million dollars of adjusted gross income a year. And so with that small tax increase, they refused to go along.

So here we are in this House without a vote and on the other side because of the threat of a filibuster, and 280,000 teachers are not going to be hired unless we're able to break through. The only way to break through is for the American public to rise up, the 99ers out there, and say: Enough. Give us our jobs. Give us the opportunity to go back to work.

I yield to my colleague.

Mrs. MALONEY. It could not be stated more appropriately. The 99ers and all Americans should speak out and demand a vote on this.

Now, the President has pointed out that it should be a three-legged stool. It should be revenues, we need to cut back on other expenditures, and we need to invest in jobs. Right now, we have roughly 15 percent of our GDP is revenues, but our expenditures are roughly 35 percent.

The gentleman points out the tax on millionaires and other areas that they were looking at. You have to bring that in balance. You cannot continue with 35 percent of the GDP being expenditures and only 15 percent being revenues. Granted, we do have to cut back, and that's what the supercommittee is working on, but it needs to be a balanced approach. Actually, that's what's always worked in the past. It's always been a balanced approach. That's the only way we can get this country on firm ground to reduce our debt, reduce our deficit, invest in opportunities, innovation, and jobs for the future.

You expressed it very well, and I support your efforts here tonight.

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