On the recordNovember 30, 2012
Thank you for that, Mr. Scott. That is a major point, that unemployment compensation extension would provide the greatest stimulative impact, not only for those people who are desperately in need of it, but for our economy as a whole. We often hear so much about how much people love the little children, and I guess there's only one way to show it during these discussions. The Congressional Black Caucus agrees that we need to maintain some of the provisions that are expiring under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the so-called stimulus, and that's the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. The austerity, Mr. Scott, that we're trying to avoid is that children bear the burden of this recession. They are often hidden faces. They don't vote. They don't contribute to campaigns. But we thought, the Congressional Black Caucus thought, it was really important to put on the table the need to protect children. Again, we don't think Social Security should be on the table in these fiscal cliff discussions. It's not the driver of the deficits. And further down the line, we think it's important to not mess with the age or switch, change CPI, or any other cuts that would affect beneficiaries.
