Frank Pallone: “it is amazing to all of us on this side of the aisle that the Republicans would bring up this tax cut legislation which…”

“it is amazing to all of us on this side of the aisle that the Republicans would bring up this tax cut legislation which basically just gives money back to wealthy individuals and does nothing to help the economy, and at the same time we face this huge job recession throughout the country. The most egregious part of it was today when the Democrats tried to bring up their alternative as a substitute, the Republican majority under the Committee on Rules refused to allow the Democratic substitute to even be brought to the floor, refused to even have a debate on a Democratic alternative which we believe very strongly would provide economic stimulus, create jobs, grow the economy, and bring us out of a recession, one of the worst we have had now long-term for the last couple of years. All the Democrats were asking for was an opportunity to debate. I think the fear on the part of the Republican leadership was that if the Democratic substitute was allowed to be considered today, perhaps some of the Republicans might have voted for it, or at least the public and the media's attention would have been focused on an alternative and have shown that the Republican proposal was not a good one and just basically was a tax giveaway to millionaires. Mr. Speaker, our Nation is in a job recession with 2.7 million jobs lost since President Bush took office, the worst jobs record in 40 years.”