Ron Kind: “Mr. Chairman, just to wrap up this debate, I would love to have a national referendum asking the American people what…”

“Mr. Chairman, just to wrap up this debate, I would love to have a national referendum asking the American people what economy they would more likely adopt today, the economy of the 1990s or the current economy that this majority party and the administration have given them because, to set the record straight, it was in the first Bush administration in 1990 when, in fact, some tax increases were had on the wealthiest Americans. And then the budget that passed in 1993 by just one vote had a slight increase on the wealthiest 1 percent in this Nation. With all the doom and gloom and procrastination and the prediction of recession and great depression, it led to 28 million new jobs being created in the 1990s, 4 consecutive years of deficit reduction followed by 4 consecutive years of budget surpluses, where the Social Security and Medicare trust fund was not even being touched. That is what is so disturbing about the vision that they offer in their budget today. It is a status quo budget based on a failed economic policy that is not working for working families in this country, and especially is not going to be working for the future of our Nation, our children and grandchildren with historically large budget deficits that are due to explode in future years.”