Political Quotes

“I am rising today in strong support of Leader Reid's proposal to stop the sequester. We need to reduce our debt and deficit. We should do so in a thoughtful manner. We have so often on this floor heard our Republican friends criticize Democratic legislation as job killing: a job-killing bill, a job- killing proposal. We hear that all the time. Often that charge has been without much factual support, but it is part of the common rhetoric in this room. But now we face an event that actually is expected to cause the loss of 1 million jobs, and yet so many Republicans support these cuts in their fixation, frankly, on what economists call budget austerity, cutting your way out of a recession. How has the budget austerity record worked? There is a record now, because a lot of countries have tried it--from Spain to Portugal to Greece, countries slashed spending to address deficits in the name of budget austerity. Their record? Lousy. Persistent double-digit unemployment and negative economic growth. The U.S. unemployment rate of 7.9 percent--which is actually even higher in my home State--is for sure too high, but it is far better than the rate of 26 percent unemployment in Spain and Greece, the record of 16 percent unemployment in Portugal.…”