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BY JEANETTE FRIEDMAN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
During the congressional recess, Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-8) spoke to community journalists on Thursday, Aug. 12, to say he has learned a lot from the Tea Party and wants to go in the opposite direction.
In his feisty fashion, Pascrell excoriated those who caused the national debt ceiling debacle. “They want to stop the government cold because they view it as “‘satanic’—their words, not mine!” he exclaimed.
In Pascrell’s view, the debate and gridlock in DC is a result of “the other side” refusing to compromise. “The debt is the debt and we need to bring it down. Not by cutting taxes, but by creating jobs. We have never gone to war without paying for it with tax revenues—the major cause of our crisis. But they argue it’s not about raising taxes, it’s about cutting spending. They don’t realize you can’t put people out of work and expect them to spend money on consumer goods to jump start the economy.”
Pascrell offered a mini-history lesson. “Bush took a surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in the nation’s history. No other administration ever cut taxes during war time, and his tax cuts didn’t create a single job in eight years, which is borne out by the statistics.”
A chart given to reporters shows the greatest job losses occurred in 2009, and also shows that as Obama’s first year progressed, fewer jobs were being lost until January 2010, when jobs creation began. Pascrell admitted it was slow and in smaller numbers than the economy needed —but it was better than it would have been if the administration hadn’t voted for the stimulus package.“By 2019, eight years from now,” said the Congressman, “46 percent of what we owe will be a result of the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His administration did not invest anything in infrastructure, either. 40 percent of the bridges in New Jersey need repair, and we can’t get the people to fix them—yet the other side shows up when such local projects manage to be completed to take credit, even though they voted against it.”
Pascrell said, “It seemed like 2,000 years before we finally did the debt ceiling deal. I voted for it after almost eight weeks of debate, though I really support the Bowles/Simpson deal. That had specific cuts, including the defense budget. We tried to make it clear that we cannot balance the budget unless there was revenue on the table—in vain.”
Pascrell held his nose and did what he had to do. “I voted for it to stop the chaos. Holding the American people hostage is not what democracy is all about. Hamilton warned about it in the Federalist papers. Gridlock is never helpful and I do what I can to break the logjam.
"It’s sad to see that the deep hate that exists out there has colored our politics. Compromise isn't even in their vocabulary. I realize that I can't always get everything that I want for my constituents—but the other side acts like adolescents; no one gets anything, period. That’s pretty childish.
"We need 200,000 jobs a month for a healthy economy, to make a place for new people coming into the workforce. We were losing up to 600,000 jobs a month and were on the brink of a depression, but Congress didn’t understand that throwing money at the problem is not the only cure. You have to create jobs. The only thing that has ever gotten this country out of this kind of a situation was the government spending money on creating jobs. The big corporations and banks are sitting on the billions and trillions they got in the bail out—but refuse to use any of it to create jobs in the U.S.
“During every administration, until this one, raising the debt ceiling was standard operating procedure—you gotta pay the bills and we have never defaulted—but the other side turned it into a game, and said they would refuse to pay our bills. It’s un-American to say that we will not pay our bills until you guys in Congress cut x amount of dollars, and lay off a lot more people—to the tune of 500,000 jobs. After Speaker Boehner cut a deal with the president, he didn't realize his caucus would turn on him that way.”
The former school teacher, who majored in journalism, predicted that, “If we don’t come up with deal by Thanksgiving, it will be a disaster. So, do I vote for a terrible deal and push it beyond 2012? We will fight again in November, and if the super-committee doesn't come up with a deal, we will be cutting off our noses to spite our faces. We’ve laid-off teachers, firefighters and police, and we continue to lose public sector jobs. We are forcing experienced people to retire early. We even went home without voting on the FAA’s 80,000 employees, and put all our air traffic at risk. We fire the older folks so they wouldn’t have to pay big salaries and replace them with green kids.”
