House Proceeding on Mar 31st, 2009 :: 0:13:25 to 0:17:15
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0:13:15 to 0:13:35( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: it would be funny if we weren't in such dire financial straits as the government thanks to a number of years of the republican rule. george bush inherited a balanced budget. he inherited projections of a surplus for years to come and paying down the financia--

0:13:25 to 0:17:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Peter A. DeFazio

0:13:36 to 0:13:56( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: the debt of the united states substantially. well, he went to work and using restrictive legislative rules the republican passed massive tax cuts favoring the wealthiest among us, those with us states over $5 million, those who earn more than a quarter million dollars a year,

0:13:57 to 0:14:18( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: got huge cuts from the republican party. george bush launched an unnecessary war in iraq and decided to pay for it off the books, i.e., he did not score it in the budget and just every year declared it an emergency as much as it might cost. so far close to $700 billion

0:14:19 to 0:14:42( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: spent on george bush's war in iraq. and, of course, george bush's tax cuts and his off-the-book spending and a massive expansion of government under total republican rule took us from a time of surplus to a time of massive deficits. george bush set record after record with deficits during his

0:14:43 to 0:15:03( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: presidency, and he managed in eight short years, george bush managed in eight short years to taken us 200 years to accumulate. but now the republicans are for it. now they would have us believe that they are born again fiscal

0:15:04 to 0:15:24( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: conservatives with legislation this is how we're going to balance the budget, folks, for tax cuts for rich people. oh, what a surprise. that will solve everything. they do have this theory, and it's, well, if we give all the money to the rich people the rich people will go ouand invest that money. when they invest that money the

0:15:25 to 0:15:45( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: little people will get the jobs and the little people will pay taxes because the rich people shouldn't. that's plain and simple. eliminate the estate tax. that means if bill gates died tomorrow, god forbid he won't but if he did his unrealized capital gains of his stock would then become nontaxable.

0:15:46 to 0:16:06( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: no t paid on that stock, passed on tois kids. if his kids invested for a living under the republican plan they would just earn capital gains and under that plan investors don't pay taxes. so you could have multigenerations of people accumulating more and more wealth who never paid a penny in taxes. but don't worry, the republicans tell us they'll

0:16:07 to 0:16:28( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: invest that money in america and put the little people to work. no, maybe they'll invest that money in china where labor is cheaper or mexico where labor is cheaper or who knows where or who knows how they'll waste it or who knows what speculative instruments they'll come up with. their so-called alternative would be funny if it wasn't so serious. but this is deadly serious.

0:16:29 to 0:16:50( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: president obama is trying to dig us out of an incredibly deep hole at a very difficult time in the american economy. . all the wealth creation on wall street which has now tanked, many people's pensions, 401-k's, killing jobs, we are trying to fix that, and we are trying to

0:16:51 to 0:17:11( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: reinstill a sense of fiscal responsibility here in washington, d.c. it will not be easy. particularly it won't be easy if the republicans continue to play the clown on their side of the aisle and say that eliminating taxes for rich people will solve all the problems confronting the american people. it will somehow -- maybe it will provide them health care, i'm not sure how that works. maybe it will help educate their

0:17:12 to 0:17:16( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: kids in public schools. i don't get that part. maybe it will rebuild our infrastructure, hum.