Press Release

Today’s release of OMB’s Mid-Session Review serves as yet another reminder that we must take a balanced approach to reducing our deficit, one that includes both spending cuts and revenues. While many challenges remain to get our fiscal house in order, the Mid-Session Review shows that if we find the right balance of spending cuts and tax reform, we will be able to achieve the $4 trillion in deficit reduction necessary to stabilize our debt and continue to grow our economy.

I welcome the President’s speech before a Joint Session of Congress next week to discuss the critical issues of putting more Americans back to work and getting our fiscal house in order. While Republicans have yet to put forth a comprehensive jobs plan, I look forward to hearing President Obama’s ideas and to working with him to implement the Democrats’ Make It In America plan to revitalize our economy and get more Americans back to work.

“I’m disappointed that House Republicans still do not have a real, comprehensive jobs agenda that will create the millions of jobs we need to get Americans back to work. Instead they have a list of proposals to end regulations intended to protect consumers and the environment, making their agenda more about partisan ideology than jobs. While it’s important to continually review regulations to ensure they strike the right balance between protecting consumers and allowing businesses to grow, that is not a jobs agenda. Democrats’ have a real jobs agenda: the Make It In America plan to restore economic growth by creating manufacturing jobs and revitalizing American industry and innovation. I hope this Fall Republicans will work with us to move pieces of this plan forward so more families will make it in America.”

Yesterday marked the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when more than a quarter million people came to our nation’s capital to demand equality for all Americans, regardless of race, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his landmark ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech. Armed with the power of nonviolence, their efforts helped end a system of racial discrimination. Let us mark this anniversary by honoring the legacy of these civil rights activists who pursued justice for all Americans and rededicate ourselves to equality and fairness. While we have come a long way in achieving racial equality since the March 48 years ago, disparities in employment and opportunity still exist today. Democrats are committed to closing that gap and promoting equality and opportunity through our Make It In America plan, an effort to create well-paying, middle-class jobs so that every American has the chance to succeed.

I welcome President Obama's nomination of Alan Krueger to be the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. An experienced public servant, Krueger's expertise will help our efforts to grow our economy, create jobs and address the causes of long-term unemployment. I look forward to working with Mr. Krueger and President Obama to create jobs, advance the Democrats' Make It In America plan and help get more Americans back to work.

Today, Christopher Shays and Mark Thibault, co-chairs of the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, previewed their commission’s findings in a Washington Post op-ed. Among their most sobering conclusions: ‘At least one in every six dollars of U.S. spending for contracts and grants in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade, or more than $30 billion, has been wasted.’ This alarming finding is just one more reason our nation needs stronger oversight of defense spending—so that taxpayer dollars can be spent efficiently on keeping our country safe and fulfilling our military’s missions. As the bipartisan select committee on deficit reduction begins its work, it is essential that the committee’s members focus on all of the contributors to our deficit, on both the revenue and spending sides. The findings detailed today remind us that all of our nation’s spending, including defense spending, deserve to be closely scrutinized.

 This afternoon, I joined Southern Maryland officials for an aerial tour of Calvert and St. Mary's Counties to assess the damage to our district from last night's storm. According to reports, portions of Calvert and St. Mary's appear to be among the state's worst hit areas, leaving tens of thousands of residents without power. It appears that our electric grid experienced the most damage, in addition to that experienced by individual homeowners. Fortunately, there is not as much devastating flooding as we've seen in the past with other storms, such as that experienced after Hurricane Isabel.

"I believe that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke was correct today when he observed that partisan brinksmanship over the debt limit damaged financial markets and the American economy. Now that both parties have named the members of the bipartisan joint committee on the deficit, it is time to address our nation's serious budget challenges with less concern for partisan advantage, and more concern for the common good and our shared fiscal future...