Senator Carper Votes for President Obama's American Jobs Act

Statement

"The American people want their elected officials in Washington to do what's right to help our country continue to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. One of the greatest challenges facing the First State and the nation in the near-term is getting Delawareans and Americans back to work. Today, we had an opportunity to meet that challenge by moving forward to consider the American Jobs Act, President Obama's job-creating initiative that would provide tax relief to American businesses and workers in order to grow our economy. The bill would also encourage new hiring through tax credits; invest in infrastructure projects to modernize schools and rebuild homes; protect the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and first responders; and reshape the unemployment insurance system to include innovative, work-based reforms.

"These measures would all help foster what I refer to as the nurturing environment for job creation that businesses need to expand and create jobs right here at home. It's also worth noting that the commonsense measures included in the American Jobs Act have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past and the cost of the legislation is fully paid-for so it doesn't interfere with our efforts to curb our federal debt and deficit. At the end of the day, putting Americans back to work and growing our economy are also central to the effort to reduce our massive federal deficit. I believe that creating jobs today and working to reduce our debt and deficits in the long-run can be complementary, and Congress should not shy away from either challenge.

"While I'm disappointed that more of my colleagues didn't join me today in voting to support the American Jobs Act, we can't afford to postpone actions to help spur job preservation and creation in Delaware and across the country. We should continue our efforts to pass the Jobs Act as soon as possible by whatever means we can -- even if that means taking a piece-by-piece approach. Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done to address our fiscal challenges, whether it's creating jobs and growing our economy or whether it's reining in our federal debt and deficit. In Delaware, our elected leaders work closely together and don't shy away from compromise in order to find the common ground necessary to strengthen our local economies. Just last week, I was in Delaware City with leaders from the federal, state, and local government -- as well as from the business and labor communities -- to reopen its local refinery, which has created and will create hundreds of jobs. This project exemplifies the spirit of unity that pushes Delaware's leaders to do their best for their constituents. It's time for those of us in Congress to show that we too are capable of governing effectively by putting aside partisanship and enacting strong measures to help move our economy forward again."

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