[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 27, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H531-H532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TURN AROUND THE MALDISTRIBUTION OF THIS NATION'S WEALTH AND INCOME

  (Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, as we consider the stimulus bill 
today, it's important to reflect on how we got into this financial 
morass.
  After all, over the last 8 years of the Bush administration, we saw 
the highest corporate profit and the deepest tax cuts in American 
history. So what's the problem? Well, 96 percent of the income growth 
over those 8 years went to the top 10 percent, only the wealthiest 
Americans.
  They were the ones that benefited from the tax cuts. They benefited 
from the corporate deregulation. Forty-six percent of the profit went 
to financial services firms. So the problem is that only 4 percent of 
the income growth during the Bush years went to the 90 percent of 
middle-class Americans and those struggling to get into the middle 
class.
  But what did they do to cope with this static income? Well, they did 
what the President told them to do. After 9/11 he said go shop in the 
mall, and that's what they did by borrowing. The increase in consumer 
spending was exactly equal to the amount of money borrowed from 
inflated home equity values.

[[Page H532]]

  That's what they did, and now we have the bust in real estate values 
and almost 40 percent of Americans are technically insolvent. That's 
why this bill starts to turn around that maldistribution of this 
Nation's wealth and income. That's why it should be supported today.

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