On the recordDecember 16, 2010
I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his leadership on fairness for growing the economy, for reducing the deficit and for creating jobs, because that is some of what is done in this bill. I think I want to use my time to make some distinctions here. President Obama and the Democrats have supported initiatives to protect the middle class. We are fighting for the middle class. We are wanting to grow the economy and to create jobs and reduce the deficit, so we must subject whatever legislation that comes before us as to how it meets those tests. This legislation on the Democratic side of the ledger does create jobs and the demand that creating jobs injects into the economy helps reduce the deficit. For example, unemployment insurance provisions that are in the legislation economists across the board tell us return more money to the economy than almost any initiative you can name. People spend that money quickly. These are people who are looking for work, people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Their unemployment insurance is spent immediately, again injecting demand into the economy, creating jobs. Low income tax credit, refundable. Child tax credit; refundable. All of this placed in the hands of the working families in America, again, spent immediately, injecting demand, creating jobs. The college tuition tax credit, very important for America's working families and their children.
