Jobs and Growth Package - May 8, 2003

Mr. Speaker, just yesterday our friends across the aisle introduced their version of a jobs and growth package. I have looked into the details of this plan, and it is nothing more than another empty promise to America's workers and entrepreneurs.

On a daily basis, we in Congress meet with our constituents, and the message that they are sending should be clear to each and every one of us. Significant tax relief and jobs growth is what our economy needs most. We do not need another do-nothing plan, and American workers will not accept more spending on government programs. They will not accept more spending on government programs. They are sick and tired of tax and spend and tax and spend some more. And they are sick and tired of the old class warfare tactics.

The Democrats have proposed a $152 billion stimulus plan for a Nation with a GDP of over $10 trillion each year. Putting this in perspective, you may as well try and boost nationwide bubble gum sales by buying a single piece of bubble gum. The American people are not dumb. They know that you cannot expect significant economic growth without significant investment, and by ``investment'' I mean tax relief. Tax relief is an investment. It provides the capital that businesses and investors need to fuel expansion and jobs growth. There is no mystery here.

Republicans have a jobs and growth plan that is absolutely necessary. It amounts to much more than a drop-in-the-bucket plan that is proposed by those across the aisle whose talents lay more in spending taxpayer dollars than trusting hardworking Americans to manage their own paychecks.

In Tennessee, it is going to create 11,500 new jobs per year for the next 4 to 5 years. That is about 55,000 new jobs for Tennesseans alone. Nationwide we are talking about 1.2 million new jobs by the end of 2004, and almost 2.9 million new jobs in the next 4 to 5 years. This is a jobs and growth plan. Increasing the child tax credit to $1,000 is good for American families. When we are talking about the child tax credit, that is money back in the hands of 27 million Americans during 2003. Moving the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 is good for American families. It means less money taken from their paycheck to pay for taxes. Accelerating the individual rate reductions in 2003 is good for millions of taxpayers. Again, that means less money from their paycheck to pay for taxes. Providing marriage penalty relief now is the right thing to do. Marriage penalty relief means less money from their paycheck to pay for taxes.