[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THE STRONG NATIONAL ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in the Chamber today to 
talk about a very important issue to all Americans, and that is our 
economy, and specifically what I would like to address is some of the 
questions surrounding why is our economy doing so well.
  There are lots of economists, people on Wall Street, who are 
marveling at the low unemployment rates, the low inflation rate, the 
very, very strong stock market. Indeed many people are saying that this 
is the best economy since World War II, possibly one of the best 
economies in our Nation's history. Why is that? What is going on? What 
are the causes for this?

                              {time}  1630

  In particular, I want to address an issue that a lot of people have 
been bringing up, is it indeed secondary to the consequences of the 
policies and programs of the Clinton administration?
  I have had the opportunity to hear both the Vice President and the 
President speak on a number of occasions, and, indeed, taking advantage 
of the situation with this strong economy and taking some credit for 
the good times that exist right now.
  I would like to just, first of all, begin by extending my opinion 
that I personally believe the single biggest reason why the economy is 
as strong as it is right now is because of the hard work of the 
American people.
  It has, in my opinion, little to do with the policies that are 
emanating from Washington DC, but very much everything to do with 
people all over this country who are willing to get up in the morning, 
work hard to make a living, and, in particular, those people who are 
willing to take a risk and invest some of their hard-earned money in a 
new business, start a new company or, more importantly, many of the 
entrepreneurs all over this country who deny themselves pay raises and 
instead reinvest their money back into their business, and, in so 
doing, they create new jobs and make the country a better place to 
live.
  Getting back to the issue I was talking about earlier regarding what 
impact have the policies of the Clinton administration so far on all 
this, as we all know, the economy began to turn around in 1992, even 
before the election when Bill Clinton was elected.
  There were lots of economic indicators that we were coming out of the 
recession of the early nineties and that the economy was going to be 
turning around.
  After being elected, the administration put forward its economic 
stimulus package to help jump start, quote-unquote, the economy, even 
though it was beginning to take off, and that was defeated in this 
House. That was one of the centerpiece issues of the economic package.
  The other centerpiece piece was their health care plan, and their 
health care plan additionally was defeated. Their rationale for their 
health care plan helping the economy, of course, was by lowering health 
care costs, our businesses would become more competitive.
  One of the most compelling reasons why this economy is going so well 
is revealed in this chart next to me on the left. What is shown here is 
interest rates, long-term interest rates, and this very much impacts 
the ability of businesses to borrow money, their competitiveness, their 
ability to be profitable and reinvest money back into creating new 
jobs.
  After Bill Clinton was elected, interest rates went up and up and up, 
and that is because budgets were being presented and passed by this 
House that increased spending, deficits as far as the eye can see.
  This line right here demonstrates the November election of 1994. You 
can see on this chart that interest rates dropped dramatically, almost 
2 points, following the election of 1994, when, for the first time in 
40 years, you had a Republican Congress that was going to hold the line 
on spending, you were going to get the budget balanced. And when the 
Government is not out there borrowing $200 billion every year, the cost 
of borrowing money goes down, and that not only helps businesses to do 
better, it helps moms and dads to make ends meet better because they 
can get a home mortgage for less money, they can buy a car for less 
money.
  Now, interest rates went back up over here, and that was after the 
government shutdown. Now they have leveled off since then. In my 
opinion, yes, if you wanted to say who is responsible for this strong 
economy, it is the hard working American people.
  But if anything coming out of this city has played a role in these 
economic good times that we are in right now, it has been Washington 
holding the line on spending, getting the budget balanced, and that was 
a consequence of the Republican Congress coming in and holding the line 
on spending.
  There another dividend of the Government spending less. Interest 
rates go down, yes, and that makes it easier for businesses to be 
successful and for families to be able to refinance a home mortgage. 
But when the Government is not spending so much money, it helps keep 
the inflation rate low. That is why we have this good situation, a 
situation that has not existed since the 1950's, the last time there 
was a Republican Congress, where you have low interest rates, a strong 
economy, low unemployment rates, and, importantly, low inflation rates, 
because inflation robs people of their hard-earned money.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I have to say that though I believe that this 
economy is so strong, that there is a lot to be proud of, an economy is 
a fragile thing, and we need to continue to hold the line on spending, 
we need to continue to work toward balancing the budget.

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