Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his leadership. I would like to quote Bruce Bartlett, who was the economics adviser to both President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush. He said this in an article in The New York Times this week. ``Republicans have a problem. People are increasingly concerned about unemployment, but Republicans have nothing to offer them. The GOP opposes additional government spending for jobs programs and, in fact, favors big cuts in spending that would be likely to lead to further layoffs at all levels of government. Republicans favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, but these had no stimulative effect during the George W. Bush administration and there is no reason to believe that more of them will have any today. And the Republicans' oft-stated concern for the deficit makes tax cuts a hard sell. On August 29, the House majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, sent a memorandum to members of the House Republican Conference, telling them to make the repeal of job-destroying regulations the key point in the Republican jobs agenda. Evidence supporting Mr. Cantor's contention that deregulation would increase unemployment is very weak. As one can see, the number of layoffs nationwide caused by government regulation is minuscule and shows no evidence of getting worse during the Obama administration.'' The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.”