Pelosi: GOP Economic Policies ‘Took Our Country to the Brink’

“Today, September 18th -- six years ago -- today -- the secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the fed, the federal reserve bank, came to my office, gathered there with health and Senate, Democratic and Republican leaders. And in our office, the secretary of treasury described a terrible scenario about how our economy and our financial institutions were in jeopardy. And there was a meltdown, a meltdown in our economy. And I sad to the chairman of the fed, 'Mr. Bernanke, what do you think about what the secretary had to say?' And he said, 'If we do not act immediately, we will not have an economy by Monday.' Thank you to the Republicans and their economic policies to undermine our economy. If we are concerned that they are not there supporting Medicare, social security and Medicaid, we should also be concerned that they were not there supporting the middle class. Their lack of regulation and supervision took our country to the brink. Took our country to the brink. Took our country to the brink. And so when President Obama won the election, he took us out of that brink. But people are still scared, they are still uncertain. We still have to make the fight all the time. The people who do not share our values of security for our seniors and the three pillars upholding it, still want to return to the failed policies of the Bush administration of no regulation, no supervision, that took us to that place. We have a long way back from there. But when the president took office, unemployment was over 9 percent, it's 6 percent. The deficit was $1,3 trillion, it's $500 billion. The stock market was at 7,000, it's now at 17,000. The list goes on. Fifteen million more people have access to quality health care. All of these subjects are related because it's a question of whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the economy that exploits the workers? Are you on the side of the economy that sees the middle class as the backbone for our democracy. We, Democrats, want to jump start that economy with good paying jobs here in the U.S., building the infrastructure of our country, making college affordable. And when women succeed America succeeds by paying equal pay for equal work."