John Spratt: “Mr. Speaker, on October 4 the Committee on the Budget principals, with OMB concurring, laid down principles for economic…”

“Mr. Speaker, on October 4 the Committee on the Budget principals, with OMB concurring, laid down principles for economic stimulus. We now have before us the Economic Security and Recovery Act, and it breaches all of those principles. It does little to help the economy recover. It does even less to help those this recession will hurt. This bill consists mostly of corporate tax cuts that were originally intended as Round Two of the President's tax agenda, now relabeled as tax relief for an ailing economy. This bill bends over backwards to help corporate taxpayers; yet it barely stoops to help unemployed Americans. The total impact of this bill on the budget is $275 billion over 10 years when interest is added; and of this $275 billion total, all of $6 billion at most is made available to assist the victims of this recession, the unemployed. By contrast, there is $21 billion in tax relief for multinational holding companies. This bill not only ignores the bipartisan principles, it repeats all the mistakes of the first Republican budget.”