[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 92 (Wednesday, July 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               JUNE JOBS NUMBERS AND MIDDLE-CLASS SQUEEZE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized for half the time until midnight as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, last month we witnessed another 
disappointing jobs creation month. Economists say our economy must 
create 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with increases in 
population. But last month, only 112,000 jobs were created. And even 
more troubling, the economy witnessed declines in the length of the 
average work week and average weekly earnings.
  One would think this disappointing news would concern President Bush. 
After all, he already has the dubious distinction as the only President 
since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs on his watch. Mr. Speaker, 1.8 
million private sector jobs have been lost over the last 3 years, 
thanks to the economic neglect of both President Bush and Republicans 
here in Congress.
  Instead of showing any concern over these disappointing job numbers, 
President Bush embraced them, describing them as steady growth. The 
President also had the audacity to say that our economy does not need 
``boom or bust-type growth.''
  Now, I ask my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, when is President Bush going 
to realize that our economy desperately needs a boom? When is President 
Bush going to finally realize that the failed economic policies that he 
has been touting over the last 3 years are not creating enough jobs to 
put millions of Americans back to work? And when is President Bush 
going to realize that today's economy, the economy he created with his 
major tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, is benefiting the 
wealthiest Americans to the detriment of middle-class Americans? And 
when is he going to realize that while middle-class Americans face 
skyrocketing health care costs and ever-increasing college tuition 
costs, their paychecks are not even increasing at a rate that will keep 
them equal with inflation?
  The economic record of President Bush and this Republican House of 
Representatives has been an utter failure, and the President's 
statement that an economic boom is not needed today shows that he is 
certainly out of touch with the economic realities middle-class 
Americans presently face. Perhaps the President has been spending too 
much time hanging around with his wealthy friends to realize that 
middle-class Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
  A report over the weekend by Bloomberg News determined that record-
high corporate profits are not trickling down to U.S. workers in the 
form of pay increases. Economists Paul Krugman said today's economy is 
passing working Americans by. Krugman points to the fact that average 
weekly earnings of nonsupervisory workers rose only 1.7 percent over 
the past year, lagging well behind inflation. And this dismal increase 
takes place amid continued gains in worker productivity, the amount 
that workers produce in an hour. If middle-class workers are performing 
so well and if their hard work is paying off and making the economy 
grow, then one might ask, why are their wages not growing as well?
  Middle-class Americans are getting squeezed by their employers and by 
government policies. Since March of 2001, corporate profits skyrocketed 
by more than 50 percent, while wages and salaries decreased by 1.7 
percent. American companies raked in an enviable $1 trillion in profits 
in the last 3 months of 2003 alone, but even while profits soared, 
companies froze pay.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, Uncle Sam is only making matters worse by 
shifting the tax burden from wealth to work. Taxes on wages now average 
almost 24 percent. Taxes on income from investments, by contrast, like 
stock and bonds, average less than 10 percent. That means that middle-
class Americans who depend more on their paycheck than stock market 
investments are actually paying more in taxes on individual dollars 
than they bring in. It is an incredible, incredible fact.
  While families are earning less and less, ``kitchen table costs,'' 
the items that directly affect a family's budget, are soaring. Under 
President Bush, health care costs have skyrocketed almost 50 percent, 
college tuition has gone up 35 percent, and gas prices are up more than 
25 percent. How does a family face these skyrocketing price increases 
when their paychecks only increase about 1 percent from year to year?
  Now, Mr. Speaker, for the past 3 years, Republicans have been telling 
the American people that the best way to create jobs and expand the 
economy was to drastically cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Not 
only has that misguided policy created a $400 billion Federal deficit, 
but it has just not lived up to the expectations that the Republicans 
create.
  Democrats by contrast have a real plan that would truly boost 
America's economy. Over the last 3 years, many economists have argued 
that the most effective job creating policies would be increased aid to 
State and local governments, extended unemployment insurance, and tax 
rebates for lower and middle income families. Democrats have been 
fighting for measures that would create jobs immediately by ending the 
current tax incentives for shipping jobs overseas, enacting a 
bipartisan manufacturing tax cut bill, enacting a robust highway bill 
that would create jobs all over this country and pump millions of 
dollars into State and local economies, provide a tax credit to small 
businesses so they can lower health care costs, extend Federal 
unemployment insurance for more than 2.9 million Americans, and make 
tax cuts for the middle class permanent and paid for.
  Mr. Speaker, President Bush seems content with the economic status 
quo. Democrats, by contrast, realize that middle-class Americans have 
been squeezed by the policies of this President and this Republican 
House. We are not satisfied with the latest economic indicators, and we 
will not quit fighting until all Americans are back to work and 
bringing home a paycheck that will not squeeze every last dime.

                          ____________________