[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 69 (Friday, May 9, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3861-H3862]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REPUBLICAN ECONOMIC PLAN FAILS

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, today the House of Representatives has a 
historic decision to make. We can get the economy moving again with a 
fair, fast-acting, and fiscally sound Democratic plan; or we can pass a 
reckless plan that the Republicans are proposing that does not create 
jobs.
  The debate today is about leadership. Sadly, that leadership is 
lacking from

[[Page H3862]]

President Bush and from the Republicans in Congress. In 2 years, 
President Bush and the Republicans in Congress have presided over the 
most dramatic deterioration in our Nation's economic health in our 
Nation's history. We have lost 563 jobs every working hour of every 
working day since President Bush became President. That is 2.7 million 
jobs.
  That is why today is so tragic. We have an opportunity to create jobs 
and build a strong economy in a fiscally sound way. Instead, the 
reckless tax plan that the President has proposed has not only set a 
bad example; it has set in motion a feeding frenzy of one-upmanship on 
tax cuts.
  None of these tax cuts is affordable. None of them creates jobs, and 
they are not fair. All of them do damage to our long-term economic 
growth and contribute to the national deficit.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject the Republican tax cut 
for millionaires that leaves working families out in the cold. Vote 
``no,'' reject the Republican proposal, reject their undermining of 
opportunity in our country. Unfortunately, we do not have an 
opportunity for Members to support the Democratic plan because the 
Republican leadership would not allow the free debate on the floor of 
this House of another proposal to promote economic growth to create 
jobs in a fiscally sound way.

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