[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               THE DEFAULT CRISIS AND HOW IT IMPACTS JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Waters) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in American history we 
are at the brink of compromising the full faith and credit of the 
United States Government--the pledge that America has made to be the 
strongest, most trustworthy economy in the world, the promise that we 
will always keep our word and pay back the money we have already spent.
  And why are we on the brink of a default crisis? Is it because of a 
natural disaster that has devastated our Nation? Is it because of a 
catastrophic national security threat? Is it because of another 
meltdown of our financial system like the one we saw in 2008? No.
  The default crisis is for none of these reasons. Instead, it is a 
crisis wholly manufactured by my Republican colleagues, who are holding 
our economy hostage to pursue a radical agenda. This is an agenda that 
seeks to continue the Bush policies of wars and tax cuts paid for by 
undoing the New Deal, shrinking the social safety net, and pulling the 
rug out from under millions of Americans who are still struggling to 
recover from a financial crisis that was created by Wall Street.
  Mr. Speaker, the debt ceiling is being used as political leverage to 
pursue this agenda. Remember, the debt ceiling was raised 18 times 
under President Reagan and seven times under President George Bush. 
Instead of this phony crisis, we should be debating the real crisis 
facing this Nation, the crisis that is consistently named as the number 
one concern of American taxpayers, that is, the jobs crisis.
  Today, about 14 million people are unemployed, wages are declining, 
and home values are still plummeting. The unsurprising result is 
consumers aren't buying, businesses don't need to hire as many workers. 
And the cycle continues. In minority communities, these problems are 
even worse, with over 16 percent of African Americans and 11 percent of 
Hispanics out of work. In fact, just yesterday, the Pew Research Center 
reported that while all households lost wealth during the recession, 
minority families experienced disproportionate losses, and the wealth 
gap between minority and white households is actually growing. The 
median wealth of U.S. households in 2009 was $13,000, compared to just 
over $6,000 for Hispanics and $5,600 for African Americans.
  But to hear my Republican colleagues, it's as if these unemployed 
Americans are living in the shadows instead of the communities we 
represent. Because instead of pursuing a jobs agenda, my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle have proposed a continuation of failed Bush 
policies, this time on steroids. First under the Ryan budget, and now 
under these debt ceiling hostage negotiations, my Republican colleagues 
are pushing to cut Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and job-
creating domestic programs no matter the cost. Mr. Speaker, now is the 
time to invest in our communities, not retreat.
  We need jobs to get people employed and get them back paying taxes to 
pay down our deficit. In fact, the Congressional Progressive Caucus is 
happy to provide for you, Mr. Speaker, a long list of ways to create 
jobs. We can create a new civilian conservation corps; we can close tax 
loopholes and bring jobs back from overseas; we can encourage 
investments in the new green economy; and we can provide incentives for 
businesses to train and hire the long-term unemployed. And guess what? 
We can do this while balancing the budget. In fact, the people's 
budget, offered by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, can balance 
our books at least 10 years before the Ryan budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to stand opposed to Republican 
efforts to perpetuate this default crisis and balance our budget on the 
backs of seniors and the middle class. It will amount to an unmitigated 
and unprecedented disaster to not only America's reputation, but to our 
capital markets, our job-creating businesses, and our economic 
recovery.
  Mr. Speaker, I held two town hall meetings this past weekend on 
Saturday, one in the city of Inglewood and one in the area of 
Westchester. They made it very, very clear that they want us to 
increase this debt limit, they want us to get about the business of 
creating jobs, and they want to close tax loopholes for the richest 
corporations in America that receive tax breaks under the Bush 
administration. They are sick of us playing with this issue. They want 
us to do the people's business and look out for the interests of the 
least of these.

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