Nancy Pelosi: “I rise today to ask the question that President-to-be Ronald Reagan made famous in the debate in 1980: "Are you better…”

“I rise today to ask the question that President-to-be Ronald Reagan made famous in the debate in 1980: "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?" The answer, of course, for most Americans is "no." Under President Bush and the Republican Congress, most Americans have suffered. If you are a taxpayer, you are not better off. We went from a budget that was in balance in 1999, the deficit was zero, and on a path to a $5.6 trillion surplus to one now that is half a trillion dollars in debt this year alone. If you are a senior, you are not better off because prescription drug costs for seniors have skyrocketed 44 percent in the last 4 years. And what do they get but a hoax of a prescription drug bill. If you are a student, you are not better off because the Bush administration has underfunded the No Child Left Behind Act by $27 billion since 2001 and wants to cut funding for higher education by $1.3 billion while college tuition has increased by 28 percent. If you are a worker, you are not better off because 2.2 million jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate is 5.6 percent, one-third higher than the 4.2 percent when President Bush took office. And workers are not better off because wages have failed to keep pace with inflation. Wages rose a mere nickel between March and April. If you are a consumer, you are not better off because gas prices have increased from $1.26 to a record $2.01 a gallon since President Bush took office.”