[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DO THE RIGHT THING

  (Mr. MORAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I'll never forget the day that we voted for 
the Clinton tax rates. We were told by all of the Republicans that this 
was going to cause massive job losses, an unbalanced budget, and drive 
us into recession. And not one Republican voted with us. Well, we know 
exactly what happened: More than 20 million new jobs were created; we 
had the lowest level of poverty, the highest expansion of the middle 
class, three straight budget surpluses, and the people at the highest 
tax rates took home more after-tax income than at any time in American 
history. It worked. And we had over $5.6 trillion in surplus projected 
over the now past decade.
  Then when the Republicans took power again, what happened? 
Immediately they cut taxes--but not across the board--in a way designed 
primarily to benefit the wealthy. That's why the top 1 percent have 42 
percent of this Nation's wealth; while the bottom 90 percent have 26 
percent, the greatest income disparity ever. This is a manufactured 
crisis, Mr. Speaker. Do what Alan Greenspan recommended: Go back to the 
Clinton tax rates; balance the budget; pay for the wars; pay for tax 
cuts; pay for expansion of Medicare; meet your obligations; don't 
manufacture crises; and don't drive us to deadlines when the whole 
world is watching and wondering if we are serious about governing the 
world's strongest economy.

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