it is extraordinary .  if you assert something that is not true , it is true on the floor of the house .  there is no truth test here .  cut taxes for the rich , it will stimulate the economy .  put the little people to work who will pay taxes for their job cutting the lawns or washing their yachts .  that is the argument we are hearing from that side of the aisle .  trickle down economics works , they tell us .  unfortunately , that is not what most americans find with their real incomes stalled out over the last 5 years .  no , trickle down economics does one simple thing : it rewards the benefactors of the republican party .  let us just look at one of the elements of the `` not raising taxes today. '' it would be let the tax cuts in dividends on stocks .  now , i go to my town meetings and i say , everybody who has dividend paying stocks , raise your hand .  and i have a lot of people coming to my town meetings , but usually it is one , maybe two .  and i think that is pretty much the same across america .  but the millionaires and , yeah , the billionaires , they have a lot of dividend paying stocks .  in fact , their tax cuts average now , that is not even talking about the dividend tax .  let us talk about the dividend tax .  this bill will extend the cut in dividend taxes .  now , the american enterprise institute , no liberal bastion there , they just issued a report and it says the dividend tax break has not generated more business investment or jobs or productive economic activity but it has enhanced investor wealth .  that is what this is about .  this bill is to enhance investor wealth .  now , they have a newfound concern about the sea of red ink they have created , the 60 percent increase in our debt in the last 5 years .  so a couple of weeks ago we jammed through a bill at 2 a.m .  in the morning that cut things like student financial aid , medicaid , health care to poor people , dumping that burden on the states ; foster care , long-term care , the school lunch program .  those little kids are just eating too much .  they are chowing down .  they are going to help the obesity problem on this side of the aisle by starving kids .  now , what are we buying with those cuts ?  well , the student loan cuts , they say , oh , we are not cutting student loans , we are just charging them more for the loans .  right , you are not cutting student loans , you are just increasing their debt burden .  you are not cutting the loans , you are just jacking up the interest rate , charging them twice as much to take out a loan , and charging them a special new fee to get a very high fixed interest rate , something they can get now for free at a lower rate .  but they are not whacking the students too hard , only $ 14 billion .  and what do we get for that $ 14 billion ?  an extension of the dividend tax cut .  that is great .  so now the wealthy will be able to buy more yachts to float on the sea of red ink that the republicans have created .  they will be able to hire more help around the mansion .  that is trickle down economics .  they talk about how great the economy is doing .  here is a few facts .  unemployment rate , yes , it is recently down , but it is up eight-tenths of a percent over when the republican administration took charge .  there is 1.6 million more unemployed workers than when george bush took office .  there is the slowest private sector job growth of any administration since herbert hoover .  he is doing better than herbert hoover .  that is great .  the largest projected surpluses turned into the largest projected deficits , with $ 4.2 trillion more debt in 2008 .  now , that is the grand success of trickle down .  and they come out here and assert baldly that giving tax cuts to rich people will not only stimulate the economy , put people to work , but that it will reduce the deficit .  sure .  you really believe that ?  i do not think so .  the american people do not believe it .  what you are doing here is giving very generous tax cuts to the people who give you very generous campaign contributions .  