[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 22, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H4650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE NOT TELLING US

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE: Mr. Speaker, when President Bush took office, he 
inherited a $236 billion budget surplus and an economy that had created 
22 million jobs over 8 years, and lowered poverty levels to their 
lowest rate in 20 years. Four years later, 8.2 million Americans are 
looking for work, unemployment is 30 percent higher, 1.9 million 
private sector jobs and 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost, 
and the average household income has decreased by almost $1,500.
  However, recent statements by the Bush administration and my 
Republican colleagues in Congress are beginning to paint an 
increasingly cheery picture of our economy.
  What the Republicans are not telling us is that about 90 percent of 
the new jobs they are boasting about pay an average hourly wage that is 
less than the national average. What they are not telling us is that in 
States like New Jersey, my State, those lower-paying jobs are 11 
percent less likely to include health care coverage.
  Combine all that with rising education costs: tuition in New Jersey 
has gone up 36 percent; and rising gas prices: the average price of gas 
in New Jersey is over $2 a gallon.
  Mr. Speaker, middle class Americans are being squeezed by Republican 
policies that have allowed these prices to skyrocket and create record 
deficits. What they are not telling us is that middle-class American 
families are paying the price.

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