[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 24, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H6532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PAYING ATTENTION TO ECONOMIC PROBLEMS IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, there is an old saying about whether people 
are able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We are chewing on a lot 
of war, but we certainly are not walking with our economy.
  I have come to the floor, in case one does not know it, to announce 
that the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level in 4 
years, down 189 points today. Let us pay attention. Even more serious, 
the Fed's Open Market Committee had two dissenters, something that 
rarely happens, two dissenters from the decision to hold the Fed funds 
rate steady.
  The Fed repeated its concerns about the slow pace of the recovery of 
the economy, and it went so far as to indicate that there was a concern 
about war in Iraq. I am going to quote from that concern: ``Considered 
uncertainty persists about the extent and time of the expected pickup 
in production and employment owing in part to the emergence of 
heightened geopolitical risks. You stand forewarned,'' we stand 
forewarned.
  At the middle and lower end of the income spectrum, the Annual Report 
of the Census Bureau came out today, and the Census Bureau reported 
that 1.3 million people slipped below the government's official poverty 
line. We know that that official poverty line is 20 years old and all 
the analysts say it is outdated, so there are obviously more than 1.3 
million.
  Perhaps of greatest importance to the Members of this body, because 
most of our constituents are middle income, the Census Bureau reported 
that the median household income, median, fell 2.2 percent last year, 
and that that was the first decline in median income in our country 
since 1991.
  Everybody lost, my friends. All but the top 5 to 10 percent of 
households by income lost. The only Americans to gain last year were 
those with incomes above $150,000.
  Why are we not paying any attention to the American economy? Why is 
the only attention of this body and of this administration on Iraq, 
thousands of miles away? Can we not talk about Iraq and talk about what 
the American people talk about every day as well, how their own 
household income is plunging and going down?
  Watch your constituents; watch your district. If you are from the 
Midwest, your median income fell 3.7 percent. If you are from the West, 
it fell 2.3 percent. Are my colleagues paying attention to what is 
happening in their face, in their districts, to their own constituents? 
Is there not something we can do for them before this House recesses?
  I am as worried about war as the next person. I am in a city that has 
every reason to worry about war. But there are a lot of worries on my 
mind.
  Another worry needs the attention of this body at least as much, and 
that is the economy of our country and the living standards of our 
constituents. That, my friends, is getting no attention from this body. 
That, my friends, is getting all the attention at home after they turn 
off all of the war talk.
  I hope that the pressure that I feel, the pressure of the economy, 
the decline of the Dow Jones today, the rise in the number of Americans 
falling below the poverty line, the reduction, the worst reduction in 
more than a decade, in the median income of American families, I hope 
that is enough to get our attention before it is too late.

                              {time}  1930

  One has to be able to walk and chew gum if one is a Member of 
Congress. If all we can do is talk about one subject, if all we are 
worried about is Iraq and not around the corner from where we live, 
then when we go home, those of us who insist upon a single focus will 
be punished and should be punished. Let us listen to what most worries 
the American people. Let us listen to household incomes.

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