Sestak Rejects Republican Policies of Toomey and Specter that Led to Economic Meltdown

By SESTAK FOR SENATE

MEDIA, PA – Today, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Joe Sestak responded to Pat Toomey’s unfounded criticism of our economic recovery efforts:

“Instead of criticism now, Republicans President Bush, Pat Toomey and Arlen Specter should have demonstrated leadership over the past decades to prevent the harmful policies that caused the current economic crisis and the need for TARP and the Economic Stimulus Bill. Instead of leadership, they created the mess that Democrats are now cleaning up.”

With the Presidency and Congress under Republican control, Bush, Toomey and Specter made irresponsible decisions with dire consequences:

Deregulated Wall Street, leading to a financial industry meltdown that devastated working families’ savings and caused overall economic turmoil by:
Forbidding any requirement for reporting derivative transactions;
Tearing down the walls between investment companies and consumer banks; and
Removing requirements that banks keep sufficient cash reserves on hand. When the financial crises occurred, institutions were therefore unable to avoid collapse — or protect working Americans;
(S. 900, Vote #105, 5/6/99) (H.R. 4577, 12/15/2000)
Eliminated “pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) rules, which had created 3 budget surpluses under President Clinton by requiring Congress to offset the cost of any new spending programs; and
(H.R. 5708, Vote #482, 11/14/2002)
Voted time and again for Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy — of which more than 50% went to the top one percent. In fact, between 2001 through 2008, under Pat’s, Arlen’s and President Bush’s economic and tax policies — without a “pay-as-you-go” requirement — the national debt more than doubled from $4.5 trillion to over $9 trillion.
“As a result of Toomey and Specter’s non-accountable approach to oversight, accountability and fiscal discipline, Pennsylvanians were faced with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economic recovery efforts currently underway — including TARP and the Economic Stabilization Act — were necessary to bring our economy back from the brink of collapse that Pat and Arlen left us with. After a Clinton Administration during which 23 million new jobs were created in 8 years, the Bush Administration’s policies — with Pat and Arlen’s votes– resulted in only 3 million.

“Failure to act by Bush, Toomey and Specter gravely harmed our economy and risked an even deeper and more protracted recession. In fact, the first day I voted for the Economic Stabilization Act, LIBOR– the overnight lending rate that banks charge to each other– shot up six and a half percent when usually it is below 0.2%. No bank was lending to any other, and the Federal Reserve was forced to take urgent action just so that the banks could open the next morning.

“If we had not acted quickly and aggressively to address the economic situation, GDP would not have returned to its previous 2007 peak until 2014; three million additional Americans would have lost their jobs in the first half of 2009; and the unemployment rate would be over 12%. Instead, our economic recovery package:

In the last six months of the Bush Administration, the GDP declined 6%. In contrast, the Economic Stimulus added 2.7 percentage points to the nation’s economic growth in the third quarter for an overall growth of 3.5%. Without the package, growth would have only reached .8%;
Created and salvaged 600,000 jobs; and
Cut job losses by 40% in each of the second and third quarters of this year (from 700,000 average monthly losses in January through March, to 190,000 losses in October).
“It is still intense, but not cratering. This Great Recession — caused by Pat Toomey’s and Arlen Specter’s ill informed policies and votes — is now ending. How can Pat say that the Economic Stimulus did not work in the face of the above facts?

“It is easy for Pat to stand on the sidelines and criticize those of us involved in cleaning up his and Arlen’s mess. However, theirs’ is not the type of leadership Pennsylvanians need nor want,” said Joe.

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