Political Quotes

“I rise to address the Obama-Boehner debt deal. I must say it is an issue on which I have been immersed in wrestling to understand the impact on unemployment, the impact on investments that will strengthen our Nation down the road; certainly an impact on programs that strengthen our families. It is in that context we try to understand how do we build the strongest possible Nation for working families. How do we do that? Is the Obama-Boehner debt deal the right path? I must conclude that it is not the right path. I conclude that for four reasons. The first is the impact on jobs. We are facing a gathering storm on the job front. We have 5 to 8 million additional foreclosures that are suppressing the success of our construction market, driving down the value of houses and having a devastating impact on the attempts at a recovery. Second, the unemployment benefits. The extended unemployment benefits expire this year, and the rough estimate is that that will result in a reduction of around 500,000 jobs. That is a tremendous blow in 2012. Then we have the termination of a payroll tax holiday and the estimate is that may well produce losses of jobs of more than 900,000 across America. Add them and you are talking about nearly 1.5 million lost jobs that we will face in 2012. So on top of this gathering storm comes the Obama-Boehner debt deal that is estimated to produce another job loss--and by varying estimates--from 100,000 to 300,000.…”