[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 140 (Wednesday, October 9, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H6418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CREATING JOBS IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Wilson) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WILSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it has been more than 1,000 days 
since I arrived in Congress, and Republican leaders have still not 
allowed a single vote on serious legislation to address our jobs 
crisis. Instead, this House has voted 46 times to defund or delay 
health care for people who desperately need it, wasting precious time.
  Wake up, Republicans. ObamaCare is not only the law of the land; it 
is not only a safeguard to save the millions of people with preexisting 
conditions; it is an essential tool to give people the economic 
security and purchasing power they need to revive our economy.
  People need ObamaCare. President Obama cares about the American 
people, and we should, too. Even a Tea Party member of my freshman 
class of 2010 understood this when he stood and expressed his hopes of 
being able to receive federally subsidized health coverage immediately 
upon taking office. He was incensed. He couldn't wait 30 days, but he 
acts as if he wants his constituents to wait forever.
  People all over the world are amazed that we do not have universal 
health care like they do. We are a world power, and they are saying, 
You don't have universal health care in America?
  Mr. Speaker, people want health care; people deserve health care; 
and, Mr. Speaker, people want jobs. No one wants to revive the Great 
Recession by playing dangerous games with our economy. But do you know 
what? That is precisely what this House is doing.
  This is scary. I am nervous. I am stunned by the insensitivity. The 
whole world economy rests on America's Treasury bonds. Let me repeat: 
The whole world economy rests on America's Treasury bonds.
  Mr. Speaker, when we play with fire on the debt ceiling, you threaten 
to burn down the buttress on which Americans' 401(k)s, mutual funds, 
small businesses, and stock portfolios rest. Just consider what 
happened the last time Republicans simply threatened to breach the debt 
ceiling in 2011. Government bonds were downgraded, retirement assets 
plummeted, and homeowners saw big hikes in their monthly payments. That 
was just for talking about breaching the debt ceiling.
  Independent analysts have concluded that a debt default would be as 
bad as the global financial crisis of 2008. After that crisis, American 
savers lost decades' worth of wealth in their homes and 401(k)s. We are 
still living with massive unemployment from that crisis to this date.
  While some Members of Congress may like to behave as though we have 
moved past our unemployment crisis, it is a different story when you 
look at African Americans--13 percent unemployment; the Hispanic 
community, 9.3 percent unemployment; and the youngest workers, 22 
percent unemployment.
  Across America there are nearly 12 million people officially out of 
work and tens of millions more who are underemployed or who have simply 
given up looking. America's public sector workers--our teachers, 
firefighters, construction workers, public health workers, medical 
researchers, public defenders, bus drivers, social workers, and 
police--have already suffered so painfully, first under the sequester, 
and now under the shutdown.
  But a default would devastate every worker and every retiree. It 
would hit every 401(k), every mutual fund, every stock portfolio, every 
mortgage payment, every student loan, and every business loan. It is 
impossible to be fiscally conservatively or probusiness and 
simultaneously try to use this financial weapon of mass destruction 
against American businesses and American taxpayers. It is time for 
Congress to pass a clean debt ceiling bill.
  Mr. Speaker, open the government. Mr. Speaker, raise the debt 
ceiling. Mr. Speaker, let's begin to address our real crisis: jobs, 
jobs, jobs.

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