Date: 2003-03-13
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. I was sitting in a military congressional hearing and could not get out in time. but we are here now and really excited about having so many of our Blue Dogs come here today to talk about the real problem on our hands. And what is the problem on our hands? The problem is that a couple of years ago. many of us who were here in the Congress unuerstood that we were in a surplus situation. We were getting more money in taxes than we were spending. And so we had a surplus. In just 2 years. under the Bush administration. we are in a deficit situation. a projected deficit. anybody that you. talk to in this years budget. of anywhere between about $300 billion and $350 billion. That does not include the war on terrorism. the war In Iraq. our work going on in Afghanistan. that is above and beyond the $300 billionplus deficit that we are running this year. Add that to almost a $6 trillion debt load that we are already carrying. and this becomes a major problem. Yet everything else seems to be going wrong. People are being laid Off. There are no jobs being created under this administration with the plan that he had. his great tax cut that was supposed to stimulate the economy. It has not. Businesses are closing. bankruptcies are up. We read that in todays newspaper. That is despite all the other problems that we are having in the international world and with respect to a war. So our economy is weak and in many cases. like in California. is getting smaller as we speak. So what do we do? The Presidents proposal has been to put forward a budget with stated aims of saying that the economy should get moving. that this budget of his would create jobs and that they would balance the budget. Strike one. strike two. strike three. This budget misses all marks of these three aims. I am going to go through that a little. and then we have got some Blue Dogs here who want to talk about what our proposal is for the budget of 2004. First of all. economic stimulus. The way that the President has structured his tax cut does not and will not stimulate our economy in the short term. It does very little. In fact. even the Presidents plan when you look at it. only 5 percent of his projected stimulus package would have any impact now. Now. while people are being laid off. Now. while unemployment benefits are running out. Simply put. the Presidents stimulus plan is not stimulative at all. In contrast. we Democrats. and in particular the Blue Dog budget. would help to expand the economy. It would help those who have lost their jobs. and it would call for immediate tax rebates. That puts money in the pockets of those people who will spend it. not the people who already have money. but the people who need it to live on a daytoday basis. It is going to create jobs. Let us take a look at the Presidents tenure. Unemployment went from 4 percent to its current 5.8 percent. In other words. he has not created jobs. We have been losing them. He has done a round of tax cuts. over $1 trillion worth of tax cuts. It did not work. It has not worked. And now he proposes to do the same thing. another tax cut. But if his first one did not work. his second one certainly will not work. We need job creation. and we want it to include small business. Small business is where jobs in America are created today. The stimulus effort needs to be focused in part on small business. The Blue Dog plan calls for immediate aid � to small businesses by calling for increases in small business expensing from $25.000 to $75.000 for equipment purchases in 2003 and 2004. right now. If businesses invest right now. we are going to give them a tax break. and that is going to stimulate the economy. Finally. the Presidents plan. he says. would bring down the debt. But it will not. It would increase the national debt far into the future. As my colleague. the gentleman from Tennessee