Date: 2009-01-27
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman and Members of the House. I must say that I truly admire the courage of my friends on the other side of the aisle. In the middle of the worst economic downturn that any of us can remember. our parents told us about the Depression. an unprecedented and accelerating job loss all across the American economy in every sector. our friends on the other side of the aisle ask us just for one last time to do what theyve beendoing the last 8 years. to just one more time give the tax cuts to the richest people in the country. to just one more time dive into the tank of fiscal irresponsibility. They inherited a $5 trillion surplus. and they squandered it to an $8 trillion deficit. They created the slowest job creation since World War I. the slowest job creation since Wdrld War H in a recovery. They held middle income wages stagnate. In fact. many families lost ground. The wealthy did the best. They stood by while banks created liar loans. while banks created nodoc loans. while people on Wall Street played fast and easy with hardworking Americans money in their pension plans. And what do we get for their 8 years? We see people now getting their returns on their pensions. their 401(k) plans. and 30. 40. 50 percent of their assets are gone and those who are over 55 living in panic about how will they have a retirement. And yet they stand here day after day and say just let us have more of what we were doing in the past. You know. when that helicopter took off outside here in this plaza. millions of Americans gave that President a wave goodbye because in the middle of this historic downturn. millions and millions of Americans made a decision to go in another direction because what you were doing hadnt worked for them or for their families. hadnt worked for them or their families. because that was your policy. Mr. Chairman. that was their policy. crude and rude with respect to working Americans in this country and their families. So what do we have now? We have an incredible consensus of economists who are on the left. who are on the right. who advised Republican candidates in -the past. Ronald Reagan. JOHN MCCAIN. and they have said you have got to put together a recovery act where the government spends this money on projects to put people back to work to create jobs. It will not stop unemployment. but it will help. It will help. And thats what were doing here. Thats what were doing here. They also said from the right and the left. as they told us that the American economy is shutting down while youre asking to do more of the same. they said dont forget education. We cannot have young people lose a year or 2 years of education because of an economic downturn. You must support education at the local level. Why? Because the States and local governments are hemorrhaging. hemorrhaging the loss of revenues. Because people cant afford to buy a car. theyre not buying a car. Because home price values are dropping so fast that theyre going in and getting their property taxes reestablished because of the loss of value in homes. and thats costing local governments and school districts money from sales tax and property tax. So were trying to make sure that those students dont lose that educational opportunity. We see a number of students are now starting to forego college who are in the middle of their college education because of costs. Yes. were going to increase the Pell grant so they can stay. Were going to give an income tax credit so they can stay in school. Were going to give them work opportunities on campus so they can stay in school. Because thats what the economists. thats what the venture capitalists said. thats the captains of industry said needs to be done. Dont lose that. because when this economy reemerges. we need those people to be competitive with the rest of the world. Yes. were going to help school districts and school construction so that young students can go to school in a cleaner. better environment. so theyll be connected to the latest technology. so theyll have the educational opportunities. And it will be a safe school. It will be a modern school. Yes. were going to help them out and do that because they dont have the ability to do that because your economic policies froze municipal bonds and school bonds where people voted to impose taxes on themselves to improve their schools. to improve their cities. But the credit markets are seized. so were trying to help them out for the time being until those markets unfreeze. And. yes. $300 billion was given to the Bush administration and Secretary Paulson. and so far it appears it was given without conditions in terms of any effort by the big banks to unfreeze the credit markets to lend to small businesses. to lend to families in need. Yes. were changing policy. And were doing it at the direction of the American people because the policy you gave them for 8 years was a disaster for them. their families. their retirements. their wages. their health care. They want to go in a different direction. and we will take them in a different direction. We will take them to job creation. Well take them to better education. And. hopefully. well take them to a stronger economy on the advice. on the advice. with all due respect. of not the other side uf the aisle. but. of economists from the left to the right of impeccable credentials who said the only question about this package really is. is it large enough?