Rules of the House
Floor Speech
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Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gen tle lady for yielding.
It is time to get to work. Americans don't care who won or lost in the election. They just want us to get our work done. They want us to work together to solve the problems that they see every day. They want us to boost job growth, and they want us to build an economy that works for all Americans, not just the privileged few.
The rules of the road that should guide this Congress should be built on the foundation that has increased opportunities for American families over the last few years--nearly 11 million new jobs, 57 consecutive months of job growth, the longest streak in our country's history. There are 10 million more Americans with health insurance, which means more security for those Americans. The deficit has been cut by two-thirds since 2009.
What is the one piece of the puzzle that we now need to work on? In that span of time since we have seen things go better; the economy has grown 12 percent; corporate profits have grown by 46 percent, and the stock market by 92 percent. What hasn't grown? The paycheck that the average American gets day in and day out for working to do all those things to make it possible for the stock market and corporations to succeed. So it is time for us to focus on the middle of America that works hard every month and gets a paycheck but doesn't see that paycheck grow.
This rules package requires Congress to use fuzzy math, so-called dynamic scoring, to make it easier to give massive tax breaks to special interests and the wealthy. Is that what the middle class wants? No.
Republicans have also added a midnight change to this rules package that rigs the rules against 59 million Americans who currently receive Social Security and to the 160 million Americans who are working today to get Social Security in the future and don't know if Social Security will be there based on these rules. That is not what Americans in the middle want.
Congress should be in the business of making life better, not worse, for everyday Americans. So let's establish rules of the road for this Congress that let us build on the economic progress of nearly 11 million new Americans going back to work, 57 months straight of job growth.
What we don't need are rules of the road for this House that give a green light to reckless legislating that favors special interests and the privileged few at the expense of the middle class and America's Social Security.
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