Albio Sires: “across the country more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Unemployment has risen to 5 percent. Home…”

“across the country more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Unemployment has risen to 5 percent. Home values are dropping and millions of Americans are getting hit with mortgage rate adjustments. At the same time, the costs of health care, groceries, gasoline, home heating oil, and college educations continue to rise. It is welcome news that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke is signaling that the Fed will cut interest rates to address the slowing economy. But this is not enough. Democrats want to work with the President and the Republican Congress in the coming weeks to jump-start the economy and provide sound relief to American families. I would hope that we can all agree that the economy needs a jolt. Democrats believe a fiscal stimulus plan should adhere to three simple principles to be effective: It must be timely, targeted, and temporary. Madam Speaker, we want to work in a bipartisan fashion immediately to develop a legislative plan based on these three principles so that the stimulus plan can be passed and implemented into law without delay.”