[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11122-11123]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TAX CUTS AND THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, just 3 years ago when the President took 
office, San Jose, California's unemployment rate was only 1.7 percent. 
At that time, our Nation had a projected $5.6 trillion 10-year surplus. 
Today, instead, we have an 8.5 percent unemployment rate in Santa Clara 
County, and with this tax package a $2 trillion projected national 
deficit.
  Since the President took office, San Jose has lost almost 16 percent 
of its jobs. When all is said and done, it is projected that we will, 
in fact, use the over $12 trillion in debt ceiling that Republicans 
slipped into the budget resolution a few weeks ago. What a turnaround.
  What does the President propose? For the most part, more of the same 
failed tax schemes. Tax cuts for a select few have done nothing to 
improve the economy so far and more of the same will not help. Further, 
the Republican tax plan does nothing to help unemployed workers and 
will leave millions of families out in the cold when their unemployment 
benefits expire on May 31.
  Mr. Speaker, since the President took office, California has lost 
239,000 jobs. Over 175,000 of those jobs were deleted from my home, 
Santa Clara County, and I hear from people at home, well-qualified, 
well-educated and talented people who have been laid off for over a 
year, people who have sent out 2,000 resumes who cannot get a job 
interview, people whose stock portfolios are shot, whose bank accounts 
are drained, whose unemployment insurance is running out and who cannot 
find work.
  It is pathetic that the President's answer is this tax cut scheme. 
While there are a few temporary crumbs to small business and normal 
people, the vast majority of the financial impact is caused by the tax 
cuts for the few, which will not create economic growth. The 
President's words about creating jobs and stimulating growth are right. 
It is just that his plan is disconnected from his rhetoric.
  He must think the unemployed are also dumb, that they will not see 
the truth of what is happening here, but I think he is wrong on that 
score and is it not ironic that those few provisions in this tax bill 
we passed today, like the child tax credit and marriage tax reform and 
expensing for small businesses, the things that benefit normal people, 
those sunset. The real expensive part of the program that is skewed to 
the select, those go on forever.
  The Republican plan is irresponsible, deceptive, will not create jobs 
or grow the economy and will saddle the country with debt to hurt our 
potential for long-term economic growth. We are actually borrowing 
money from the Social Security Trust Fund to cut taxes for the top 5 
percent of households.
  Economists tell us that this plan is the smallest bang for the buck 
in terms of creating economic stimulus of any of the plans that have 
been publicly discussed. It is projected to create less jobs in the 
next year than we have lost in the last 2 months.
  Republicans both in this House and in the White House talk a lot 
about faith-based programs. The man who calls the shots here in the 
House, the majority leader, does not even believe in evolution, and I 
have heard that is true for the President as well. They have a right to 
have faith, even when it seems at odds with the facts in their 
religious lives, but when their faith in tax cuts for the few threaten 
the economic stability for our Nation, then I think it is time to draw 
the line on their blind faith.
  Today, the Republicans in this House used their narrow majority to 
shorten debate and prevent consideration of the fiscally responsible 
growth plan. There is an aura of corruption that clings to the 
Republican leaders who celebrate the onset of democracy in Iraq but 
cannot abide real democratic processes in the Congress of our Nation 
that is supposed to be freedom's leader.
  This is a watershed day, one that I think in later years we will 
recall with dread and with regret.

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