On the recordJune 23, 2011
And if someone could at least rationalize the benefit of that program, if they could at least quantify good, societal good that comes with that sort of thinking. In recent history, twice over in recent history we've witnessed that relief, that that top income strata has not caused and inspired a trickle down that produced jobs, that enabled people to see investments made in an economic recovery. In fact, the reverse was true. We saw what happened. They reduced these taxes for millionaires and billionaires, 8.2 million jobs lost, and the American economy brought to its knees, when in fact, now, the people have said, look, our top priority is jobs. We heard it. All of us that serve in this wonderful Chamber heard it in the last election of November of 2010. It couldn't have resonated more boldly, more clearly. It's about jobs. It's about growing the economy. Stop shrinking the middle class. Start growing the economy. That was the directive, and so what they wanted was to make certain that we would allow for dignity to continue, that health care costs would be contained. As we did the reforms to health care, we included improvements for Medicare. They wanted that Medicare program to continue. And when you listen to the American public out there--and we'll talk about this in a minute--the polling, most recent, today that was released indicates there is strong support for continuing Medicare.…
