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For Immediate Release
Contact: Mia Jacobs,Communications Director, CPC,Email:,Mia.Jacobs@mail.house.gov,Phone: (202) 225-3106

Co-Chairs React to Obama Jobs Speech

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Reps. Raul M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison today released the following statement on the president's jobs speech:

WASHINGTON

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Reps. Raul M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison today released the following statement on the president's jobs speech:

"The President has delivered a good start for putting Americans back to work that includes elements we as progressives have been calling for. Our country will finally make essential repairs to America's roads and bridges. Wall Street and multi-millionaires will start to pay their fair share and support the country that has helped them prosper. The long-term unemployed, who have been hit hardest by the recession, will have the support they need while they find jobs.

For eight months, the Republicans have successfully paralyzed the national conversation by holding the people's business hostage. They have shown no interest in putting the livelihoods of millions of working families ahead of their own narrow political goals. They have refused to take job creation seriously. As a result, we have seen record numbers of laid-off teachers, returning veterans struggling to find work, and firefighters and first respondershurting for funding.

The crisis is so severe that we must do morethan the president has proposed. That's why next week the Congressional Progressive Caucus will unveil our Framework to Rebuild the American Dream. It offers a bold, comprehensive progressive vision for America based on what we can do, not the Tea Party vision of what America can't do. As we showed with the People's Budget, we can create millions of jobs and eliminate the deficit within ten yearsif we choose the right priorities and make good decisions.

We join the President in calling on Congressional Republicans to put the national interest ahead of partisan stonewalling. We stand ready to move forward and put American families back to work."

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is made up of nearly 100 members standing up for progressive ideals in Washington and throughout the country. Since 1991, the CPC has advocated for progressive policies that prioritize working Americans over corporate interests, fight economic and social inequality, and advance civil liberties.

(202) 225-3106