[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2898]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYBODY

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, the richest 1 percent of Americans now 
control one-third of our Nation's income, 120 percent more than they 
did 30 years ago.
  CEOs now earn hundreds of times what the average worker does. Wall 
Street profits are up 720 percent since 2007, and corporate taxes are 
at their lowest point since the fifties. All things considered, the 
wealthiest Americans are doing pretty well, much better than the rest 
of the country, in fact.
  So you would think that after all these gains, the super rich--a 
handful of Americans who control fully a third of our economy--would 
understandably be asked to help as we try to bring our fiscal house 
back into order. But the Republican spending plan does none of this. It 
puts the burden of cuts solely on the shoulders of working families, 
those already struggling to make ends meet and provide for their 
families. The Republican plan spares the richest Americans from even 
the slightest inconvenience.
  They have proposed to slash the budgets for programs that help 
seniors heat their homes, help low-income women find a doctor, and help 
millions of American students access job training or affordable college 
or health care. This is a reckless plan. We need to reject it and 
instead work to create an economy that works for everybody, and not 
just a wealthy few.

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