Create Jobs and Grow the Economy

Floor Speech

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, on the floor today we've heard some of our colleagues in the majority, starting with the Speaker of the House, demand the President work with Congress to create jobs and grow the economy. If Republicans were willing to spend time on these issues, that would really be good news.

I think it is necessary for us to have a reality check. In the 6 months of this Congress, with the Republicans in the majority, there has been no jobs bill brought to the floor; there has been no budget bill brought to the floor. The budget is the blueprint for job creation, for deficit reduction, for growing the economy, for creating jobs, for keeping America competitive, for making sure that America is number one.

At the beginning of the year, the Republicans said, we want regular order, we want to pass a budget bill--and we did--and then the Senate will pass a budget that is not a good budget and not a statement of our values, but nonetheless, a bill passed the House. They said, we want regular order, we want the Senate to pass a budget bill before we can proceed with any jobs legislation.

Over 3 months ago--I think nearly 4 months ago--the Senate passed a budget bill--again, a blueprint for job creation, deficit reduction, growth in the economy. The minute the Senate passed the bill, the Republicans said, Never mind.

Never mind? No. It is our business to mind, to mind this Congress to make sure that we create solutions, that we get results, that we are in the business of job creation in the public and private sectors with public and private partnerships. With no budget and with no jobs bill, that cannot happen.

So when the Speaker of the House comes to the floor and makes demands on the President--and the President has made offer, after offer, after offer. He has extended the hand of cooperation so many times that I want to count his fingers to see how intact his hand is because of the reaction from the Republicans. The Republicans' response to the President's offer of cooperation? Nothing.

``Nothing'' is our agenda.

Does ``nothing'' work for you, Mr. President?

Our timetable: ``Never.''

Does ``never'' work for you? Because that's the only time that we are going to work together with you to pass a jobs bill.

Previous speakers talked about jobs being created. Why? By giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country?

I am so glad that the President is out there today, saying that we are going to build jobs and build our economy from the middle class out. It's really important that the prosperity of our country is enjoyed by many more people and, in fact, is inspired by their ingenuity, by their creativity, by their entrepreneurship; and we have to have policies that incentivize that.

Today, the President will put more ideas on the table to grow our economy. He recognizes--and I think we on the Democratic side all agree--that the economy best works when it grows from the middle out, not by the trickle down, top down.

Our friends on the Republican side said, Trickle down, what's wrong with that? If it trickles down, it could create jobs. If that happens, that's great. If it doesn't, that's the free market. If it doesn't create jobs, in their words, so be it.

So be it? No, I don't think so.

Our country has come a long way since the depths of the Great Recession, which was caused by these very same trickle-down policies. Tax cuts for the rich, that is the Republican jobs program.

Do you know what is interesting to me? Coming up in September is the 5-year anniversary of the meltdown, of the announcement of the meltdown during the Bush administration. Under the trickle-down policies and the laissez, laissez, laissez, laissez, laissez, laissez-faire attitudes of the Republicans in Congress and in the White House, we were facing a great meltdown of our financial institutions, a great recklessness by some--not all--on Wall Street, causing joblessness on Main Street.

And what's interesting about it is, when we were notified finally--when we asked, what's going on here? and they finally told us what was happening--no less a person than the Chairman of the Fed said, in response to a description given by the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary Paulson, about the seriousness of the meltdown that was occurring--and this was Thursday night--that we could, by Monday, have no economy.

Have no economy? That is the place that these trickle-down policies--this laissez-faire attitude toward no regulation and no supervision--took us in our economy coming up 5 years ago in September.

That's why it's really important for the President to be out there and for the public to understand, not so that we can create divisions between Democrats and Republicans, but so that we can come together as a people and make the decisions here about a budget that does grow the economy by creating jobs while reducing the deficit at the same time, keeping America number one--that we build the infrastructure of America, that we make it in America by giving incentives for jobs to stay here rather than, as the Republicans suggest, to give tax breaks to businesses that send jobs overseas. Building the infrastructure of America. Make It In America. Have our communities suggest how they would like to grow with the proper education of our children, with the safety of our neighborhoods, with the security of our people.

So, really, it's almost like another universe to listen to the Republicans talk about the economy when they have had a complete ``never, nothing'' agenda and timetable for bringing a jobs bill to the floor that really does address the challenges that working families in our country face.

On the positive side, I am very pleased that the President's strategy for growth, of course, which is centered around the middle class, ensures that every American has the opportunity to have a good job that pays enough to support a middle-income life, a strong education that equips our youth for the job market, a home that is not at risk of being taken away as it was 5 years ago, a retirement free of financial anxiety, secure health care with decent benefits, a higher minimum wage.

And when I talk about what happened 5 years ago, what's interesting to me is that the Republicans still have the nerve to be asking the question: Are you better off now than you were 5 years ago?

Five years ago, we weren't going to have an economy by Monday. We weren't going to have an economy by Monday under their policies. The President has led us out of that Great Recession. He did so in the first 2 years with a Democratic Congress that had a recovery package and initiatives to grow the economy. Since then, it has been, again, the ``never, nothing'' timetable and agenda of the Republicans. How much faster our economy could be growing if the Republicans would cooperate with their ideas and the President's, working together in a bipartisan way to get the job done for the American people.

While I'm at it, I want to put in a word for our agenda for America's women and families.

When women succeed, America succeeds. It's an agenda that recognizes and values the work of women in the workplace by having pay equity, by raising the minimum wage, by rewarding work. It's an agenda that helps women balance home and work by saying--and we will be celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the implementation of family medical leave--that we need some paid sick leave as well and paid maternity leave as well. Third is the need--and a bigger issue that will take a longer time in facing the challenge--for affordable quality child care for all of America's families so that our children can be learning while their parents are earning. An important component of it is the entrepreneurship of women in the workplace. Women's business ownership is the fastest growing rate of small business growth in our country, minority women-owned businesses as well.

So we do believe that our economy will grow, that our families will prosper, that our Nation will continue to be number one to the extent that we invest in the middle class and in those aspiring to it, and that we should place a special emphasis on women in the workplace, because, again, when American women succeed, America succeeds.

That's how we want to ignite the American Dream--to build ladders of opportunity for all who want to work hard, play by the rules, and take responsibility.

We have work to do. Let's do it instead of living in a world of illusion in which the leadership won't bring a real jobs bill to the floor that can be enacted into law. The Speaker has said that it isn't a measure of success as to how many bills you can enact; it's about how much law you can repeal.

You haven't even succeeded in that. You haven't repealed anything. So let's get to work on the positive side to create jobs. That's the best thing that we can do for the American people, and let's do it soon.

``Never'' doesn't work for us.

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