Political Quotes

“and colleagues, I have been struck in the discussion about cut, cap, and balance that there has been virtually no mention--virtually no mention--of the No. 1 issue on the minds of the American people, and that is jobs. What we need above anything else is to create more good-paying jobs. In this discussion about cut, cap, and balance, the whole question of jobs has virtually not come up. Now, what we know is that between the worst of this fiscal crisis and the end of 2010 we lost 8.5 million jobs, and our country has only recovered a small portion of those jobs. The fact is, many of those new jobs that have been created don't pay as much as the jobs that have been lost. We also know millions of our people can't find full-time work, and they have had to settle for part-time jobs to make ends meet. Cut, cap, and balance virtually ignores that question. I hear, for example, from our business community that they have a very serious challenge in terms of generating sales. Sales are all about middle-class folks coming into our stores and, in a consumer- driven economy, making purchases. As we have seen a number of times, David Leonhardt--particularly over the weekend in an excellent piece in the New York Times--described how in one area after another, in terms of consumer durable goods, middle-class folks have essentially walked off the economic playing field.…”