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Vice President Biden: Good morning, everyone.
I'm here with the OMB director, Jack Lew,
and the secretary of the Treasury and --
to discuss the ongoing debate about tax cuts and about our
efforts to ensure that taxes don't go up for middle-class Americans.
But before we get on with that discussion, though,
I want to comment on today's job report.
Today's report means that we have now seen private-sector
growth 11 months in a row.
And that means since last December we have added 1.2
million private-sector jobs to the economy.
In November alone, the private sector added 50,000 jobs.
But still, there's no denying that the report is
disappointing, because we were, quite frankly,
hoping for even stronger job growth.
But the bottom line is, and what this tells us and makes
absolutely clear is, that while we've made progress creating
jobs, it's clearly not enough.
There is too much pain out there.
There's still millions of people out of work and trying to make
do with -- without a paycheck and without the dignity or the
respect that goes with a job.
And that leads to two, I think, absolutely undeniable conclusions.
The first is that we need to extend -- we need to extend --
unemployment insurance benefits.
Earlier this week, those benefits expired,
leaving millions of Americans without a lifeline that they
need to make ends meet, at a particularly difficult time as
they move into the Christmas season.
And extending that support to those hardest hit by this crisis
is not only the right thing to do --
not only the right thing to do, which we always have done in
similar circumstances -- it is economically necessary for us to do it.
Those unemployment checks get spent,
especially in the holiday season, and when they get spent,
that spurs economic growth.
That helps create jobs.
In fact, according to a report released yesterday by the
Council of Economic Advisers, that report said that extending
-- not extending these benefits, if we in fact do not extend them
-- they've expired.
If we don't extend them, we will lose an additional 600,000 jobs.
We'll lose 600,000 jobs by not extending unemployment benefits.
Unemployment insurance is a powerful driver of economic growth.
It's as simple and plain as that.
And you can't let it be cut off for these families, again,
not only at a time when they need it but when the nation
needs this money being spent and the economy generating new jobs.
That's why the President and I urge Congress to enact the
extension of the emergency unemployment insurance benefits
and to do so as soon as possible.
It must be done before they leave town.
We must have uninsurance -- the -- excuse me --
unemployment insurance extended.
The second thing the report makes crystal-clear to me and to
all of us is that -- it reminds us that we have to make these
middle-class tax cuts permanent.
And it's -- to me, it's unthinkable that we would
continue the uncertainty in the job market,
that we would risk letting -- we'd risk letting these
middle-class tax credits falter.
It would be -- have a significant economic impact.
Our recovery is under way, but it's fragile.
It's too slow, especially for the American middle class,
and Congress needs to act now -- again, before they leave town --
to make sure taxes do not go up for middle-class Americans.
They can't afford it, but the economy cannot afford it either.
So I urge the Senate to join the House.
The Senate will be today or tomorrow --
I guess it may be tomorrow now --
voting on the bill passed by the House to permanently extend tax
cuts for the middle class.
And I urge them to do so.
There's nothing we do for our economy that's more immediate
and more important than ensuring that these tax cuts remain in place.
And as a bipartisan task -- talks are going on --
these two gentlemen are conducting these talks --
as those talks are going on, we want to make sure that all tax
relief that helps -- all tax relief that helps middle-class
families and working-class families and has the significant
added benefit of helping the economy continue to grow --
that all of them, all the ones we passed last year,
including the Obama initiative to Make Work Pay,
which affects -- which has benefitted 110 million families,
that all of these tax cuts are extended in these difficult times.
The consequences of letting this aid lapse are, quite frankly, dire.
In the month of December alone, during the holiday season,
2 million workers, 2 million workers,
as of yesterday or two days ago, I guess it was,
are going to lose their unemployment insurance.
And if we don't act, almost 7 million additional workers will
lose coverage over the next year.
Never before in our history when we had unemployment at this rate
have we not extended unemployment.
And the tax relief for middle class that I've mentioned twice
now are also critically important to the economy,
and the right thing to do for strapped families that find
themselves working harder than ever just to make their
paychecks cover their bills.
And that's why we're gathered here today.
We're going to discuss how we move from here.
We're waiting for the Senate vote.
We hope that we succeed in extending the permanent
middle-class tax cut.
But we're discussing how we as an administration can ensure
that middle-class tax cuts are maintained and unemployment
benefits are continued.
So thank you all very, very much.