[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14779]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             REPUBLICAN CONGRESS IGNORES MIDDLE CLASS NEEDS

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, we are more than 
halfway through the year, and the Republican do-nothing Congress has 
yet to pass any meaningful legislation that will benefit America's 
middle class.
  For too long, President Bush and his friends here in the Congress 
have worked exclusively on behalf of the CEOs and the most privileged 
in our Nation. But Democrats believe it is time to take our Nation in a 
new direction, one where America works for all Americans.
  Thanks to the misplaced priorities of Washington Republicans, middle-
class Americans are working for less today than they were when the 
recovery began in November 2001. While wages are stagnant, monthly 
bills have gone through the roof. College costs 40 percent more. Health 
care costs are 75 percent more, and gas prices have doubled. These 
dramatic increases have forced millions of hardworking Americans to 
take on debt.
  And yet Washington Republicans continue to tout this economy. They 
really are out of touch. I think they have been spending way too much 
time at the country club. It is time that the voices of all Americans 
are heard, and that will only happen with a Democratic Congress.

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