Speeches
Pelosi: Economic Stimulus Will Inject Demand Into the Economy and Create Jobs
02/08/2008
Washington,
D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor tonight in support of the
final passage of the bipartisan economic stimulus package. The bill passed by a
vote of 380 to 34. Below are her remarks:
“I
thank the gentleman for his kind words and his extraordinary leadership, which
made it possible for us to come to the floor with this bipartisan historic
legislation tonight. Thank you, Mr. Rangel, for your leadership. And thank you,
Mr. McCrery, for yours. It's quite an evening when we can come together in a
bipartisan way for legislation that helps the middle class, helps those who
aspire to the middle class, and gives incentives to businesses to create jobs
to stimulate our economy. I thank you for that.
“I
acknowledge the leadership of Chairman Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial
Services Committee, for his leadership, along with Ranking Member Bachus for
his, because those who are concerned about the subprime crisis, and that is all
of us, can see some relief in this legislation because of their leadership.
“I
want to acknowledge another member of the Financial Services Committee, Mr.
Kanjorski, and salute him for his leadership dropping the bill even before we
took this up this evening for seniors and disabled veterans to be getting the
recovery rebates as well. I also thank him for the clarification of language
regarding undocumented persons in our country getting that benefit. Thank you,
Mr. Kanjorski, for your leadership.
“Before
I go on too long, I must salute Leader Boehner. It was a privilege to work with
him on this. Mr. Hoyer and I shared a view of our caucus. We came with
consensus to the table. None of us got everything we wanted in the legislation,
but we did get a great deal for the American people. We did so in a manner that
was timely. We were acting in record time, targeted on the middle class and
those who aspire to it, targeted to businesses, tax incentives to businesses to
create jobs, and temporary. So these resources and these tax incentives will be
used and spent in a way that will have an impact in the economy.
“I
also want to salute Secretary Paulson for his persistence and his leadership
and his receptivity, shall we say, and responsiveness to some of the values
that the Democrats were putting on the table regarding those who have not
participated in receiving a recovery rebate before, but do so in this bill.
“This
was across the aisle, but it is also across the Capitol. We worked it out in
record time, again, with Leader Reid and the Republican leader, Mitch
McConnell, on the Senate side, so that tonight we could bring this bill to the
floor.
“It
was only about 2 1/2 weeks ago that leadership was on the telephone with the
President of the United States. He had just returned from his trip to the
Middle East. And we talked about what every homemaker in America has known for
a long time, that our economy is going into a downturn. We wanted to prevent it
from being more of a downturn, and a stimulus was needed.
“We
had heard from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke about the state of the economy
and that a stimulus was needed and that it should have certain features of
being timely, targeted, and temporary. And the President, on that phone call,
agreed that we should go forward with a stimulus package in record time. The
House put it together and sent it over to the Senate. And I'm very, very proud
of that.
“If
I boast of it, it's because it's highly unusual that we can respond in such
record time. But we did so because it was urgent for the American people. So
often they listen in on the debate on the floor of the House which seems
irrelevant to their lives. This is very relevant to their lives because there
are many firsts in here.
“For
the first time, those who don't make over a certain income are able to
participate in the recovery rebates and the child tax credit. In fact, more
than 40 million families will be receiving those rebates and tax credits who
had never received a rebate or a tax refundable child tax credit before. That's
just astounding.
“It
was different from the bill the President originally proposed because his
proposal did not have a cap, so some of the wealthiest people in America could
get this rebate. Instead, we said, God bless them for their success, but we
need to put this money in the pockets of those who are living paycheck to
paycheck, who are finding it hard or struggling to make ends meet with the
price of gasoline, the price of groceries, the price of health care, the price
of education, anything that you can name. Costs were going up and the
purchasing power of their income was not.
“And
so we believe that the stimulus, the way it is targeted, will put money in the
hands of those who will spend it immediately, injecting demand into the economy
and therefore creating jobs. That’s the impact that we want the stimulus to
have. Same thing with the small business incentives.
“One
of the reasons we were able to move so quickly is because we were ready. The
reason we were ready with the child tax credit is because Congresswoman DeLauro
has worked on this issue for her lifetime in Congress. And of course as
Chairman of the committee, Mr. Rangel has had this as a high priority. So it
wasn't something that we had to go create. It's something that we had in our
minds and in our hearts to do for a long time.
“The
tax credits and the incentives for small businesses have been a part of the
bipartisan support we have in the House for an Innovation Agenda so that small
and medium-size businesses can take advantage, in a short period of time, of
this incentive that they have to invest and to purchase equipment and for job
creation. Good-paying jobs here in America.
“We
were ready because the Financial Services Committee, under the leadership of
Mr. Barney Frank and Ranking Member Bachus, had already passed these bills on
the floor of the House. Not everything in the bill is included in this
stimulus, but these bills have passed the House and had been sent over to the
Senate. Certain features are contained in this bill so that there is some
relief for the subprime crisis.
“The
list goes on and on. But we had our priorities; they have been our priorities for
a while. They are particularly essential now in the time of a need of stimulus.
So when the time came and the President said he would sign such a bill, we were
ready with our priorities.
“We
fought it out. It wasn't an easy fight, but we knew we had to do it in the
shortest period of time. And it wasn't easy. And there were some things that I
said to the President on the phone when he congratulated us for going forward
that I would have liked to have seen in the bill, like unemployment insurance
and LIHEAP and food stamps and the rest. But we will take care of those issues
in due course. Every bill cannot accomplish every goal that we have.
“I
want to identify myself with the comments that Mr. Bachus made. This is a
fiscally sound bill. There were those who wanted to make it larger with
elements that were not necessarily stimulus that we resisted, even though they
were excellent ideas. They should be revisited in another piece of legislation
for another day.
“But
we had been cautioned over and over, and we have cautioned each other that
whatever we did in the stimulus, even though it would not have to conform with
PAYGO, strictly speaking, would not be so overloaded that it would be a
deterrent to recovery because we would be taking our country more deeply in
debt than was justified by our stimulus package for recovery.
“So,
because of all of this cooperation, hopefully, it will serve as a model. I
again want to commend Secretary Paulson for his perseverance and his
leadership. And we look forward to soon, in a few days, perhaps, the President
of the United States signing this bill. But the Secretary has assured us that
with the passage of this bill tonight, even before the Presidential signature,
the word will go to the IRS to begin the process of getting these checks out to
the families.
“So
I think every Member of this body should take great pride in the bipartisanship
of it, in the focus of it, the discipline of it, and what it means: that it is
relevant to the lives of the American people. A typical middle-income family, a
family of four with two children, will get $1,800. Eighteen hundred dollars. I
think that that is impressive. And families making less than that, other
families, depending on the number of their children, will get a sizable check in
the mail.
“This
says to them we respect your contribution to our country, to our economy, to
our society, and even if you don't make a lot of money and pay income tax, that
your contribution to our economy is recognized and acknowledging the FICA tax
that you pay. And that's why once more I will reiterate that 40 million
American families will participate in the recovery rebates to the tune of about
$28 billion infused into our economy through their hands.
“This
is a new direction. I urge my colleagues to support it and am proud to be
associated with it. And I thank all for their leadership in making it possible
this evening.”