Budget Control Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the ranking member, Ms. Slaughter, for her generosity.

I advise my colleagues, budgets will balance when people go back to work. I rise against this amendment, the rule, and the underlying bill as ``inartful'' dodges from necessity. When a patient is weak, do you pull out their intravenous feeding tubes, or do you help them recover? Do you do everything possible to build their strength, or do you keep shutting off their oxygen machine?

America's economy is struggling to grow after the deep Bush recession triggered by his bailout of Wall Street abuse, two wars, and trillions in tax cuts to the super-rich who, by the way, didn't create any jobs with it. Revenues to our Federal Government have fallen over $400 billion a year due to unemployment. That's $4 trillion over a decade. So what does the majority do to the patient? They pull out the tubes, and they now shove them down the elevator chute.

Never before has any political party chosen to hurt America when she was recovering by edging her toward default. Their dangerous behavior has already caused hundreds of billions of dollars of losses in the stock market, pension funds and annuities. Social Security and Medicare checks are threatened, and economic growth and jobs are stalled due to all this uncertainty in the markets.

Madam Speaker, America needs a Congress and President that focus on economic recovery and job creation. Budgets will balance when people go back to work. To delude oneself the cause is otherwise is to take America down the proverbial black hole. Jobs are the answer--not more dodges, not pushing the patient down the shaft, and not proposing amendments that truly dodge the real question, which is full economic recovery for the people of this country.

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