Im also pleased to be joined by Congressman Bob Matsui, an outstanding leader as a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee. We are also joined here today by Garfield Warren of New Jersey, who unfortunately lost his job two years ago and has been unable to find work.
He is just one of the nine million people across the country who are currently unemployed. And there are millions more, not included in that number, who have stopped looking for work.
Sadly, the Labor Department announced this morning that the unemployment rate in May increased to 6.1 percent -- the highest rate since July 1994. And that brings the total number of private sector jobs lost since President Bush took office to 3.1 million, the worst record of job creation of any President since the Great Depression.
The Bush economic record is clear: America is nearly $3 trillion deeper in debt, and has lost more than 3 million jobs.
And what is the Republican plan? More of the same. A reckless, irresponsible, fiscally unsound, unfair tax cut that benefits those who need it least and does not create jobs. And to make matters worse, in the dark of night, they took out the expansion of the child tax credit leaving behind 12 million children from working and military families.
Whether it is excluding working and military families them from the child tax credit, delaying unemployment insurance, or eliminating overtime pay, and calling that family friendly, Republicans are taking money out of the wallets of everyday Americans. The unemployment figures released today are yet another indicator that Congress must act immediately to help Americas working families.
And now Id like to introduce Garfield Warren, whose presence here today speaks to the difficulty of the current job market. And his situation demonstrates so clearly why the Republican economic plan is the wrong way to go. Welcome, Garfield Warren.
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