We are in the middle of a very severe economic recession. We have had more than 9.5 percent unemployment for 16 out of the last 17 months. We have only had 30 months in modern history where we have had unemployment that high. Almost half of those months have been lately. Making it easier and cheaper to create private sector jobs should be our main objective. Almost every economist--the President's former budget director, almost everyone who has looked at this--says raising taxes on anybody in the middle of an economic downturn makes it harder to create jobs.
Heidi Alexander: “We are in the middle of a very severe economic recession. We have had more than 9.5 percent unemployment for 16 out of…”
On the recordDecember 1, 2010
Said by
Heidi Alexander
Labour Party
Editor's note · Context
The speaker addresses the impact of tax increases during an economic recession.
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