John Spratt: “I want to welcome everyone to our hearing this morning on The Social Safety Net: Impact of the Recession and of the…”

I want to thank Congresswoman Gwen Moore for suggesting this hearing and for her role in bringing it about and putting it together.

When President Obama was sworn into office at the beginning of this year, the economy was in deep contraction and jobs were being lost at a rate of 741,000 per month.

I think it is a bit irresponsible to at least articulate to the American people, to the Congress, why you think we need a new policy direction.

The moral of the story is, if the leaders of both parties don't want a commission to succeed, if the leaders of both parties aren't willing to put both parts of the budget, taxes and spending, on the table, the chances that it is going to…