Jobs & the Economy
Throughout the 117th Congress, House Democrats have partnered with President Biden to enact policies that expand economic opportunity for businesses, workers, and communities across America. Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the unemployment rate is at its lowest in more than 50 years with more than 10 million jobs created, helping more of our people get ahead in today’s economy and Make It In America.
Democrats pursue an economic agenda that helps American businesses create good-paying jobs and ensure that workers have the tools not only to get by but to get ahead in our global economy. From raising the minimum wage to providing skills training and apprenticeship opportunities to ensuring equal pay for equal work, from making childcare more affordable to making it easier to save for retirement, Democrats’ economic policies are aimed at helping workers and their families attain real economic security at every stage of life.
Democrats have also delivered historic legislation investing in infrastructure and greater access to high-speed internet, taking the lead in the clean-energy economy, and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. The generational Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already begun to expand economic opportunity for Americans in communities across the country and takes action to repair our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, and other infrastructure while creating nearly 1.5 million jobs annually over the next decade. It contains the first major American investment in climate resilience to help communities upgrade their critical infrastructure and mitigate the impact of climate change-driven extreme weather. Likewise, the Inflation Reduction Act also advances America’s clean energy goals, turbocharging clean energy research and transmission while promoting electric vehicle domestic manufacturing to reduce American dependence on gasoline while revitalizing our auto industry.
The CHIPS and Science Act includes bipartisan measures to revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur research. By strengthening domestic supply chains, this law acts directly to accelerate American innovation in the long-term while acting immediately to address inflation and create good paying jobs. House Democrats will continue to champion skills training and education at every level – from early childhood learning through higher education – to prepare our people for success and advancement in a changing economy. In all of these efforts, Democrats will continue to look for ways to make access to opportunities more equitable and to combat the lingering effects of legalized discrimination that continue to make it harder for minorities to access credit for loans, seek investment capital for startups, and build wealth to pass on to the next generation.
With historic job creation under President Biden, House Democrats will continue to advance policies that expand economic opportunity for working families, support small businesses, and create better-paying jobs.
Today, on Equal Pay Day, we pause to consider that to earn the same wages as a man in 2011, a woman would have had to work from January 1, 2011 until April 17, 2012. It should be unacceptable in America today that women still earn only 77 cents to the dollar of a man’s wages for the same job. This is why Democrats enacted the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 – the first piece of legislation signed by President Obama – and it’s why we continue to push for measures that will close the gender gap in wages and bring greater economic opportunities for women. It’s also why I am proud to be a co-sponsor, along with 177 other Democratic Members of Congress, of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
This week, House Republicans will vote again for their budget that ends the Medicare guarantee and puts our economic recovery at risk, while cutting taxes for the wealthy. Back in their districts, it was poorly received by voters who are concerned about the impact of the budget.
Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act being signed into law by President Obama. This law, passed by a Democratic-led Congress, makes higher education more accessible and affordable:
But there is no balance in this proposal. Seniors, middle class, vulnerable, working Americans are asked to pay the price of this agreement. And, indeed, not only are they asked to pay the price, but the best-off among us is asked to do the least. That's not the America of which we are all proud that has worked together, sacrificed together at times, to come together to make a joint contribution to the welfare of this country.
The Democratic Whip’s office has created the following online quiz to show how the Republican budget will impact seniors, the middle class, working families, and the most vulnerable by refusing to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute.
The Chairman of the Budget Committee has spoken of a choice between two futures. He is correct in framing it this way. The budget he proposes would end the Medicare guarantee, cut taxes for the wealthiest, and place our economic recovery at risk.
Last week, House Republicans put forward a more-of-the-same budget that ends the Medicare guarantee while protecting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and puts our economic recovery and jobs at risk. While Republicans were clear that they want to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and place the burden of deficit reduction onto seniors, the middle class, working families, and the most vulnerable, their budget left several questions unanswered.
They have offered a budget that is somewhat a reprise of last year's. It savages Medicare, turns the guarantee into a higher cost, problematic benefit. We don't think that's what the American people want. Secondly, it makes again the tax disparities between our people even greater. It shifts resources from the middle class and poor to the wealthiest in America. It gives $150,000 additional tax cut to millionaires and doesn't say how you're going to pay for that, $10 trillion in additional tax cuts, which clearly means you're going to explode the deficit even more. They pretend they will cut out preference items. They also in that process severely undermine investments in our future, investments in education, investments in research, investments in growing jobs, investments in infrastructure. Clearly, with the result of diminishing the quality of our society in the long run, and don't get to balance.
Last week, House Republicans introduced a budget for fiscal year 2013 that is a repeat of the budget they put forward last year. It ends the Medicare guarantee while protecting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and according to the Economic Policy Institute, puts four million jobs at risk. Instead of pursuing a budget that creates jobs, strengthens entitlements, reduces the deficit in a balanced way, and asks all Americans to contribute their fair share, the Republican budget makes the wrong choices.
The American people say to every member of the House and Senate: when are you guys going to get together? When are you going to work together on behalf of the welfare of the country? On behalf of us. Not your politics in Washington, DC, but on behalf of us?