[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 108 (Monday, September 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H7035-H7036]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       U.S. ECONOMY IS IN A MESS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, every time I hear the administration 
announce that the economy is going very well, I wish they could ride 
home on a United Airlines flight with me. On the way back today, four 
out of the six flight attendants raised the same question with me: Is 
there money in the pension guarantee fund for our pensions?
  Mr. Speaker, we know that this country is in a mess. USAir declared 
bankruptcy this morning. There go the pension for those folks. And 
Delta Airlines over the weekend, they are talking

[[Page H7036]]

about it. They are saying if the pilots take those pensions, they will 
bankrupt the company; it will be gone. United is in the same position. 
All those people who were out there with Enron, Enron went down; and 
what did they have left? All they had left was Social Security. 
Nothing, if this administration had its way.
  We have an administration that has to be changed. We have lost 1.4 
million people's health insurance, 1.5 million people's jobs, and 
countless numbers of pensions. The regime change ought to come in 49 
days.

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