On the recordJanuary 18, 2012
I thank my colleague, Mr. Levin. You know, day after day, month after month, we hear Members of Congress--Republicans and Democrats alike--come to the floor of this House and say we've got to do more on jobs, we've got to make sure that we get this fragile economy moving again. Unfortunately, while we say those things in this body, we haven't yet taken up the President's jobs initiative that he presented to this Congress last September. We've taken little bits and pieces here and there. We've had 2 months now in the payroll tax cut--that's good news, I hope we can get the rest of it--but the rest of it has been absolutely ignored. But at least people said they wanted to focus on job creation and getting the economy moving again. And what's incredible about today is we have our Republican colleagues advocating a course of action which, if we took them seriously, would wreak absolute havoc on the economy. It would destroy jobs throughout the economy. That's not just me saying it, that's Republican economists, independent economists, Democratic economists. If the United States, for the first time in its history, refused to pay its debts, if the United States, for the first time in its history, refused to make good on the full faith and credit of the United States, the economy would fall to pieces, millions of people would lose their jobs. You know, if we want to be taken seriously we have to be serious about the consequences of our actions.…
