[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 82 (Tuesday, June 15, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H4142-H4143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RATE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH OR LACK THEREOF IN AMERICA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last night on the floor of this
Chamber there were two interesting 1-hour presentations, as many of you
remember. One was several colleagues from the Republican side, if I
recall from Texas, Illinois, Arizona, my State of Ohio, West Virginia,
Florida, Indiana and a couple other States, who spoke about the rapid
economic growth we are experiencing; how this is, as the Secretary of
Commerce said, quoting now, ``It is the best economic climate in my
lifetime,'' he said; that ``things were great on the job front; lots of
new jobs created, lots of economic prosperity.''
Then there also was a group of people, mostly from my State of Ohio,
that told stories of letters we have received from constituents, people
saying that their college tuition has gone up sharply, 13 percent at
Ohio State, for example; they have lost their drug coverage; their
programs for education in their communities have been cut, both by
local governments and also State governments, and, thirdly, in some
cases the Federal Government.
{time} 1745
There was major job loss. Companies like Timken in Ohio, for
instance, have lost one out of six manufacturing jobs. But what was
curious about the difference in the view of the country is that it is
pretty clear my Republican friends kind of all meet in a huddle like a
football game and they are all coming out, I do not mean to mix
metaphors, but coming out as cheerleaders because they have been sort
of instructed by the White House that the only way to win this election
is by saying over and over and over and over that this is the best
economy we have had in years.
The problem is, and I do not think we are being nay-sayers, I am just
passing on, we are all passing on what our constituents in Ohio and
Illinois, like the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) and
others, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) and the gentleman
from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) here and others are just passing on what our
constituents are telling us, that we need to change the direction of
this country.
If the cheerleaders on the other side of the aisle, the President's
football squad, if you will, that comes out of the huddle, if they
continue to talk about how great the economy is, it means that they are
not willing to admit the mistakes of the last 3 years in how our
economy and our country are going in the wrong direction.
The only way to correct things is to say, well, maybe we are going in
the wrong direction and maybe we need to change course. But the
President's answer in every single situation, for every bad piece of
economic news the President says two things: we need to cut taxes for
the 5 percent wealthiest Americans, maybe some of it will trickle down
and create jobs. That clearly has not worked. We have lost 2.7 million
jobs since he took office. President Bush will be the first President
since President Hoover to have lost jobs during his time in office.
And his other answer is more trade agreements like the North American
Free Trade Agreement. He wants us to pass the Central American Free
Trade Agreement; free trade agreements with Singapore, Chile, Morocco,
Australia, the Free Trade Area of America, which will quadruple the
number of low-income workers in the NAFTA trade block. He wants us to
continue to do that when those policies clearly are shipping American
jobs overseas.
Now, those policies, as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) said on
the floor last night, those policies clearly help the President's
political friends, they help his wealthy contributors; but they are not
helping workers in this country.
I do not question the motives of my friends on the other side of the
aisle, the cheerleading, for saying this economy is in such great
shape. I think they really believe it because they spend their time
with the 5 or 10 percent of the people in this country who are doing
great, the 5 or 10 percent of the people who see profits going up. They
are corporate executives, they are big stockholders, they are getting
bigger dividends, they see the stock
[[Page H4143]]
market going up in some cases, not very regularly, and so they get tax
cuts because they are in the upper 1 or 2 or 5 percent income brackets.
So the economy is going well for them. But unfortunately, it is simply
not going well for so many others in this country.
I am not here to criticize and to throw cold water on their birthday
party, but what I am here for is to say let us change direction,
because those economic plans and programs have clearly not worked. For
3 years, the President has gotten whatever he wanted from this Congress
in terms of tax cuts, in terms of cutting spending on education and
health care and veterans benefits, but the economy and the country are
worse off than they were 3 years ago.
In my State, we have lost one out of six manufacturing jobs since
George Bush took office. Let me explain sort of what happened. There is
a company in Ohio called Timken, T-I-M-K-E-N. It is a major employer
and has been a good company for northeast Ohio and Canton, Ohio. It is
President Bush's favorite company everyone says. The CEO of Timken,
fourth generation, very wealthy family, are some of George Bush's
biggest contributors and fund-raisers. A year ago President Bush came
to Timken and spoke to assembled workers and mostly management and
applauded the company because the workers are 10 percent more
productive, a year ago 10 percent more productive than they were the
year before, and congratulations to them and to that company for that.
But then earlier this year, Timken put out a news release saying that
they enjoyed record sales for the first quarter, all-time record sales
for Timken, and they said that they had a 60-some percent increase in
earnings per share from a year ago. A week later Timken announced, we
are building another factory in China and we are closing our three
factories in Canton where the corporate headquarters is and laying off
1,300 well-paid Ohioans.
So that is what we are seeing. We are seeing on this side of the
aisle, my Republican friends sort of parroting what George Bush is
saying, saying this economy is really great; and we are hearing people
on this side tell stories, with facts backing it up, about how we need
change because these policies are not working. Clearly the policies are
working if you are in the upper 5 or 10 percent, because corporate
profits are up, dividends are up, tax cuts are being enjoyed by the 1
or 2 or 5 percent wealthiest people.
But in the case of so many others, there are more people that are
receiving, going to food pantries, there are more people who are seeing
their college educations going through the roof, the increases in
college tuition, there are more people who have seen their drug
benefits pulled back or scaled down or eliminated; and it is time that
we take a different direction.
In this country when you criticize, you need to say, what do you do
in place? We should pass the Crane-Rangel bill, which will reward
American companies that manufacture here rather than abroad; instead of
giving tax cuts abroad, pass unemployment benefits, and pass a better
prescription drug bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett of New Jersey). Under a previous
order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is
recognized for 5 minutes.
(Mr. BURTON of Indiana addressed the House. His remarks will appear
hereafter in the Extension of Remarks.)
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