On the recordJuly 13, 2011
I am delighted to stand this morning and simply ask the question, where are the jobs, and why have we been here for some 27 weeks and we have not been able to say to the American people we are on your side? Let me deviate for a moment and say the debt ceiling that has consumed us is a procedural matter that has occurred over the years and decades of Presidents, Republicans and Democrats. And so let's not castigate President Obama and say a deal would not be made because he is here. Let's look at ways of finding jobs. The energy industry, for example, has a program that says veterans to jobs, energy jobs. Let's have youth to jobs, 18-35, energy jobs, and begin to create the jobs that Democrats have been fighting for, putting on the floor of the House, job creation. Let's have the energy industry broadly look at a tax structure that is responsible and invests back in America. And let's realize that the vulnerable cannot be the brunt of our confusion about the debt ceiling. This is not a fight that we need on behalf of the American people. What we need to do is to say to the American people here is a job, and we are staying on this floor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to create jobs. Now is the time for jobs. ____________________
