John Spratt: “as my colleagues can surmise, we are here tonight because my Republican colleagues have put another round of tax cuts on…”

“as my colleagues can surmise, we are here tonight because my Republican colleagues have put another round of tax cuts on a fast track. In fact, by next week, early next week there may be what we call a markup of a bill we have yet to see in the Committee on Ways and Means. Within 24 hours after that markup, that bill may be on the House floor for fast track consideration, probably not amendable. And, in the blink of an eye, we could very well adopt another round of tax reduction equal to $500 billion to $600 billion even more, a reduction in the budget rammed through this House. We have already seen taxes cut by $1.35 trillion. That happened in June of 2001. That was a historic tax cut, given its size. Let us just ask, what are the results of that tax cut? Well, let us look at the economy today, barely eking out positive growth at 1 percent to 1.3 percent annual growth, barely growing, 2.5 million jobs in the private sector lost since January of 2001, 4 million Americans have literally quit looking for jobs, the unemployment rate is between 5.8 and 6 percent; but that is only because 4 million people since 2001 have dropped out of the job pool, quit looking for a job. All of this, and we had a tax cut which the administration said we needed to boost the economy. Where is the boost? Where is the economy? What were the effects? The main effect was on the bottom line of the budget.”