[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17839]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            REPUBLICANS ARE HOLDING THE MIDDLE CLASS HOSTAGE

  (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, I urge our Republican colleagues to join 
us in doing the right thing for working families in this difficult time 
on unemployment. I've heard them say, well, we just can't afford this. 
Well, that's a little interesting to me when they say we can afford to 
blow a $700 billion hole in the Federal deficit by giving away tax cuts 
to millionaires.
  We Democrats stand for working middle class folks to give them middle 
class tax relief but not grow the Federal deficit another $700 billion.
  Now what is going on here is a hostage-taking situation, because the 
Republicans are holding the middle class hostage by not allowing 100 
percent of Americans to have tax relief just so their friends who might 
be hedge fund managers or otherwise can get additional tax relief on 
top of it. Well, here is what we should say: Americans do not negotiate 
with hostage-takers.
  We ought to have the right economic policy. And I'll tell you what: 
We are not going to allow the trickle-down economics of George Bush to 
be foisted on America anymore.

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