Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. I move to strike the last word.

The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Minnesota is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. ELLISON. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of Mr. Flake's amendment to cut wasteful defense spending. Unfortunately, the underlying bill is just another part of the Republican no jobs agenda. Since the Republican caucus has taken over the majority, they haven't put one jobs bill on. I mean, they haven't done a poor job--they haven't done anything. It is as if they are not in favor of Americans having jobs. We know they are, but they haven't demonstrated it in anything they have done, which is the important thing.

Instead, as part of the Republican no jobs agenda, they bring up a bill to cut 1 million jobs, cut 1 million jobs from the American middle class. These cuts are Republican answers for the job crisis that they created. Cutting 1 million jobs. If you are a nurse, no jobs. If you are a teacher, no jobs. If you are a firefighter or police officer, no jobs. If your jobs are from American manufacturing, no jobs. And if you are a small business person, who is going to have any money to even go into your store? No jobs for them either. The list goes on and on.

If you want to know how we cut the deficit, it is by putting America to work, not by cutting Social Security. Make no mistake: When the Republicans say they are cutting costs, they are cutting Social Security, they are cutting Medicare, they are cutting Medicaid, until they cease to exist. Republicans want working Americans to shoulder the whole burden, the burden of a taxpayer-funded spending spree for the rich while protecting millionaires and billionaires who refuse to pay their fair share.

The Republican answer to the crisis they created is, you pay, American people. They must make you pay for Big Oil's billion dollar subsidies. They want to make you pay for higher drug prices. They want to make you pay for taxes to start a small business. They want to make you pay for CEO bonuses. They want Main Street to take the hit while Wall Street gets a bonus.

While Democrats work to create jobs, reduce the deficit, and rebuild America, Republican Speaker John Boehner said, so be it if we lose hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Is that what the American people said they wanted in November? The American people want Republican leaders to look out for constituents first, not corporate friends. And now the American people are saying, show us the jobs.

We have been seeing a no jobs agenda, a jobless agenda. Forty days in the majority, and nothing to create jobs. No jobs for the American people. Madam Chairman, we need to make this change.

Will the Republican caucus even today, Madam Chairman, say you know what, we are not going to cut 1 million people, 1 million public employees out of work. We are going to actually do something to create jobs? It appears not, Madam Chairman.

What we need to do is withdraw some of these massive oil subsidies. What we need to do is save some money by not rewarding the wealthiest among us and industries who have not been responsible corporate citizens and actually use it to put Americans back to work so that they can pay some taxes and actually reduce this deficit.

Make no mistake about it, Madam Chairman, we are concerned about the deficit: $200 billion of it goes to interest on the debt. That money could be going to programs that help people, to help children, to help seniors, that can make and strengthen and improve our infrastructure and our country. But instead it goes to this massive debt, built up by Republicans with their massive tax cuts to the rich, two wars and a big pharma giveaway. They created the problem. Now when we try to solve it, they want to put us back in the hole.

So, Madam Chair, I want to say that if this country--our country--has a deficit to fix, let's fix it by a bold, creative, courageous vision of America where we create infrastructure, we create work, we create jobs, rather than just cutting back the social safety net and taking away what little people have. We need to stop the Republican no-jobs agenda.

I yield back.

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