[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 15 (Monday, January 26, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          PRESIDENT NOT WELL-SERVED BY SOME ECONOMIC ADVISERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, today's headlines are pretty grim about 
job losses across America. The Bush legacy lives on.
  George Bush has made a horrible hash out of this economy with his 
trickle-down economics favoring those at the top, with his deregulatory 
policies, dismantling those things which protect consumers, people's 
401(k)s and their investments from fraud and abuse, and with his 
unnecessary war.
  President Obama sees and realizes the pain across America and wants 
to take positive steps to put people back to work and get this economy 
back on course. That is the good news.
  The bad news is that I don't believe the President is well-served by 
a number of his economic advisers. Some of them do not now, nor have 
they ever believed, that rebuilding the foundations of our economy with 
investment in infrastructure, putting millions to work, increasing the 
wealth of the country, making us more efficient and competitive in the 
international economy, delivering our goods more fuel effectively, 
getting people out of congestion in their cars and getting them to work 
more efficiently, they don't think those are good investments. They say 
that is not what we want. They want tax cuts. They want other spending 
that is more immediate. We do not need another consumer-driven, 
borrowed-money--because all this money is borrowed--bubble for this 
economy. We need to get back to basics. We need to rebuild our 
foundations.
  Unfortunately, this bill dedicates about 6 percent, 6 percent of $825 
billion, to our transportation infrastructure. In contrast, the Chinese 
are spending, over the next 2 years, $600 billion on their 
transportation infrastructure to make their country more fuel 
efficient, to make their country more competitive. And we in the United 
States can only come up with $40 billion for transportation 
infrastructure?
  They say that it can't be spent quickly enough. That is not true. The 
list of deferred maintenance in projects is long. The known need far 
exceeds that short-term outlook, just for this year's deficiency in 
investment. We could spend much more, we could spend it more 
productively, and we could put millions of Americans back to work.
  For every $1 billion we spend on transportation infrastructure, by 
the most conservative of estimates, you get a six times multiplier 
effect in the economy and you put 28,000 to 30,000 people to work. For 
a dollar in tax cuts, you get back, depending on whether or not people 
spend them or use it to replenish their depleted savings, very, very 
little stimulative effect.
  The Bush tax cuts, $160 billion borrowed last spring, gave us a whole 
one-quarter of one percent bounce in one quarter for the economy. $160 
billion borrowed, an obligation for the next 30 years for our kids and 
grandkids, and that is what we got? No, we need more substantial 
investment.
  There a lot of talk about ``shovel-ready.'' There is a lot of talk 
about infrastructure. We need to deliver on those promises, and thus 
far this legislation that is being proposed falls short.
  I don't fault my colleagues here. It is coming from the Senate. It is 
coming from downtown. But we can do better. We are the people's House, 
the House of Representatives. We don't need to have $275 billion in tax 
cuts and we don't need to take those dictates from somewhere else, and 
particularly the President's advisers when they are wrong.
  I know the President's heart is in the right place. I am hoping we 
can do a better bill.

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