[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12207-12209]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CREATE JOBS AND GROW THE ECONOMY

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, on the floor today we've heard some of our 
colleagues in the majority, starting with the Speaker of the House, 
demand the President work with Congress to create jobs and grow the 
economy. If Republicans were willing to spend time on these issues, 
that would really be good news.

[[Page 12208]]

  I think it is necessary for us to have a reality check. In the 6 
months of this Congress, with the Republicans in the majority, there 
has been no jobs bill brought to the floor; there has been no budget 
bill brought to the floor. The budget is the blueprint for job 
creation, for deficit reduction, for growing the economy, for creating 
jobs, for keeping America competitive, for making sure that America is 
number one.
  At the beginning of the year, the Republicans said, we want regular 
order, we want to pass a budget bill--and we did--and then the Senate 
will pass a budget that is not a good budget and not a statement of our 
values, but nonetheless, a bill passed the House. They said, we want 
regular order, we want the Senate to pass a budget bill before we can 
proceed with any jobs legislation.

                              {time}  1245

  Over 3 months ago--I think nearly 4 months ago--the Senate passed a 
budget bill--again, a blueprint for job creation, deficit reduction, 
growth in the economy. The minute the Senate passed the bill, the 
Republicans said, Never mind.
  Never mind? No. It is our business to mind, to mind this Congress to 
make sure that we create solutions, that we get results, that we are in 
the business of job creation in the public and private sectors with 
public and private partnerships. With no budget and with no jobs bill, 
that cannot happen.
  So when the Speaker of the House comes to the floor and makes demands 
on the President--and the President has made offer, after offer, after 
offer. He has extended the hand of cooperation so many times that I 
want to count his fingers to see how intact his hand is because of the 
reaction from the Republicans. The Republicans' response to the 
President's offer of cooperation? Nothing.
  ``Nothing'' is our agenda.
  Does ``nothing'' work for you, Mr. President?
  Our timetable: ``Never.''
  Does ``never'' work for you? Because that's the only time that we are 
going to work together with you to pass a jobs bill.
  Previous speakers talked about jobs being created. Why? By giving tax 
cuts to the wealthiest people in our country?
  I am so glad that the President is out there today, saying that we 
are going to build jobs and build our economy from the middle class 
out. It's really important that the prosperity of our country is 
enjoyed by many more people and, in fact, is inspired by their 
ingenuity, by their creativity, by their entrepreneurship; and we have 
to have policies that incentivize that.
  Today, the President will put more ideas on the table to grow our 
economy. He recognizes--and I think we on the Democratic side all 
agree--that the economy best works when it grows from the middle out, 
not by the trickle down, top down.
  Our friends on the Republican side said, Trickle down, what's wrong 
with that? If it trickles down, it could create jobs. If that happens, 
that's great. If it doesn't, that's the free market. If it doesn't 
create jobs, in their words, so be it.
  So be it? No, I don't think so.
  Our country has come a long way since the depths of the Great 
Recession, which was caused by these very same trickle-down policies. 
Tax cuts for the rich, that is the Republican jobs program.
  Do you know what is interesting to me? Coming up in September is the 
5-year anniversary of the meltdown, of the announcement of the meltdown 
during the Bush administration. Under the trickle-down policies and the 
laissez, laissez, laissez, laissez, laissez, laissez-faire attitudes of 
the Republicans in Congress and in the White House, we were facing a 
great meltdown of our financial institutions, a great recklessness by 
some--not all--on Wall Street, causing joblessness on Main Street.
  And what's interesting about it is, when we were notified finally--
when we asked, what's going on here? and they finally told us what was 
happening--no less a person than the Chairman of the Fed said, in 
response to a description given by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
Secretary Paulson, about the seriousness of the meltdown that was 
occurring--and this was Thursday night--that we could, by Monday, have 
no economy.
  Have no economy? That is the place that these trickle-down policies--
this laissez-faire attitude toward no regulation and no supervision--
took us in our economy coming up 5 years ago in September.
  That's why it's really important for the President to be out there 
and for the public to understand, not so that we can create divisions 
between Democrats and Republicans, but so that we can come together as 
a people and make the decisions here about a budget that does grow the 
economy by creating jobs while reducing the deficit at the same time, 
keeping America number one--that we build the infrastructure of 
America, that we make it in America by giving incentives for jobs to 
stay here rather than, as the Republicans suggest, to give tax breaks 
to businesses that send jobs overseas. Building the infrastructure of 
America. Make It In America. Have our communities suggest how they 
would like to grow with the proper education of our children, with the 
safety of our neighborhoods, with the security of our people.
  So, really, it's almost like another universe to listen to the 
Republicans talk about the economy when they have had a complete 
``never, nothing'' agenda and timetable for bringing a jobs bill to the 
floor that really does address the challenges that working families in 
our country face.
  On the positive side, I am very pleased that the President's strategy 
for growth, of course, which is centered around the middle class, 
ensures that every American has the opportunity to have a good job that 
pays enough to support a middle-income life, a strong education that 
equips our youth for the job market, a home that is not at risk of 
being taken away as it was 5 years ago, a retirement free of financial 
anxiety, secure health care with decent benefits, a higher minimum 
wage.
  And when I talk about what happened 5 years ago, what's interesting 
to me is that the Republicans still have the nerve to be asking the 
question: Are you better off now than you were 5 years ago?
  Five years ago, we weren't going to have an economy by Monday. We 
weren't going to have an economy by Monday under their policies. The 
President has led us out of that Great Recession. He did so in the 
first 2 years with a Democratic Congress that had a recovery package 
and initiatives to grow the economy. Since then, it has been, again, 
the ``never, nothing'' timetable and agenda of the Republicans. How 
much faster our economy could be growing if the Republicans would 
cooperate with their ideas and the President's, working together in a 
bipartisan way to get the job done for the American people.
  While I'm at it, I want to put in a word for our agenda for America's 
women and families.
  When women succeed, America succeeds. It's an agenda that recognizes 
and values the work of women in the workplace by having pay equity, by 
raising the minimum wage, by rewarding work. It's an agenda that helps 
women balance home and work by saying--and we will be celebrating the 
20-year anniversary of the implementation of family medical leave--that 
we need some paid sick leave as well and paid maternity leave as well. 
Third is the need--and a bigger issue that will take a longer time in 
facing the challenge--for affordable quality child care for all of 
America's families so that our children can be learning while their 
parents are earning. An important component of it is the 
entrepreneurship of women in the workplace. Women's business ownership 
is the fastest growing rate of small business growth in our country, 
minority women-owned businesses as well.
  So we do believe that our economy will grow, that our families will 
prosper, that our Nation will continue to be number one to the extent 
that we invest in the middle class and in those aspiring to it, and 
that we should place

[[Page 12209]]

a special emphasis on women in the workplace, because, again, when 
American women succeed, America succeeds.
  That's how we want to ignite the American Dream--to build ladders of 
opportunity for all who want to work hard, play by the rules, and take 
responsibility.
  We have work to do. Let's do it instead of living in a world of 
illusion in which the leadership won't bring a real jobs bill to the 
floor that can be enacted into law. The Speaker has said that it isn't 
a measure of success as to how many bills you can enact; it's about how 
much law you can repeal.
  You haven't even succeeded in that. You haven't repealed anything. So 
let's get to work on the positive side to create jobs. That's the best 
thing that we can do for the American people, and let's do it soon.
  ``Never'' doesn't work for us.

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