[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MAY JOBS NUMBERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, when is President Bush going to level with 
the American people about the U.S. economy? This past weekend during 
his weekly radio address he said the economy is on the right track. The 
President's statement came one day after disappointing job numbers 
showed our economy only created 78,000 new jobs in May, the smallest 
number in almost 2 years.
  Keep in mind the economy has to create 150,000 each month just to 
keep pace with more workers entering the workforce. Last month's 
numbers created only half that number.
  Mr. Speaker, President Bush has yet to create his first job since 
coming to office 5 years ago. In fact, the economy has to create an 
additional 24,000 jobs just to get back to where it was when he took 
office in 2001.
  Let us compare President Bush's 5-year jobs record to past 
Presidents. No other modern day President has presided over an economy 
where not a single job was created over a 4-year period. The Center for 
American Progress averaged the number of jobs created by modern 
Presidents who served 2 years. The Center determined the average number 
of jobs created by those Presidents through 52 months was 5.9 million 
jobs. The largest job creation came under the last two Democratic 
Presidents to serve two terms, President Clinton, who created 11.9 
million jobs during his 52 months of his Presidency, followed by 
President Lyndon Johnson who created 7.6 million jobs.
  It is hard for me to believe after hearing these numbers President 
Bush could possibly be satisfied with the fact that his policies have 
yet to create one single private sector job. It is also hard to believe 
that congressional Republicans seem satisfied with these abysmal job 
numbers.

                              {time}  2015

  You do not hear any of my Republican colleagues questioning the 
President's economic proposals of the last 4 years.
  You also do not hear President Bush or congressional Republicans 
voice any concern over the sharp cut in manufacturing jobs that has 
taken place on their watch. Since President Bush took office 5 years 
ago, our economy has lost 2.8 million manufacturing jobs, including 
7,000 more in May. Yet neither the President nor congressional 
Republicans are willing to do anything to strengthen the manufacturing 
sector. In fact, congressional Republicans have blocked Democratic 
initiatives to help the manufacturing industry. Instead, they are more 
interested in passing $36 billion worth of tax incentives for large 
corporations to ship American jobs overseas.
  The weakness of the job market is also showing up, Mr. Speaker, in 
the continued stagnation of workers' earnings. It is almost hard to 
believe, but wages have actually declined since the end of the 
recession. Again, according to a report from the Center For American 
Progress, real average hourly earnings declined to $16 in April of this 
year. That is 7 cents lower than the earnings mark at the end of the 
recession in November 2001. This means that over the last 4 years, on 
average, American workers are not getting paid any more than they were 
when our economy was actually in a recession.
  It is no wonder Americans are trying to squeeze every last dollar out 
of every paycheck. While wages have stalled in my home State of New 
Jersey, health care, college tuition, child care and gasoline costs 
have increased an average of $6,000 for a New Jersey family every year.
  President Bush and congressional Republicans tell the American people 
that the policies they have implemented over the last 4 years are 
working. If the President and congressional Republicans believe this 
economy is on the right track, I shudder to imagine what a wrong-track 
economy would look like.
  Mr. Speaker, polls show only 32 percent of the American people think 
the economy is moving in the right direction. It is clear the 
Republican way of growing this economy simply is not working. If they 
would only admit that the economy is a concern, maybe we could begin to 
fix it collectively. I think it is time for a new economic plan that 
creates millions of high-paying jobs, penalizes companies that send job 
overseas, and helps companies confront skyrocketing health care costs. 
Our economy will not be back on track again until the middle class 
stops feeling squeezed.

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