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Public Statements

American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012

Floor Speech

Location: Unknown


Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I'll add my appreciation to the service of Mr. Dreier as well.

And ask the question: Why are we here? I know why I'm here--to protect working Americans, the vulnerable and middle class. The reason why we're in this position is because at the end of the Clinton administration we had $5 trillion in surplus, and it went out the window with Bush tax cuts and wars that we could not pay for.

So I stand here today to say that working class and the vulnerable will have their unemployment insurance and earned income tax and cuts in their taxes that they really need, but we still have work to do. I want to make sure that we restore some very serious cuts that impact on the health care of Americans.

We have work to do on the sequestration. Our fight is the same fight that Richard Trumka has with the AFL-CIO. We're here to make sure that the working Americans, the most vulnerable, do not pay for the rich getting richer. We're going to fight against Social Security cuts and Medicare cuts and Medicaid cuts.

What we have to do today is to make sure that we can go forward, but we should not do it without the understanding that there's some restoration work and there's some fight work in the sequestration. It will not be done on the backs of those who cannot pay. But we will work together as Americans to make things better. That is what I hope we will see as we go forward.

I want to thank the Senate for putting that bill forward that now we have to address.


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