[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 26, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H358-H359]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRESSIONAL JOBS NOW CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the single most important concern for 
Americans throughout our Nation is the vast and growing rate of 
joblessness. This is not difficult to understand. Bob Herbert asked in 
a recent New York Times column, ``How loud do alarm bells have to 
ring?''
  More than 15 million Americans--more than 1 in 10 people--are out of 
work. Another 15 million people are underemployed or have quit looking. 
That means that over 30 million Americans want to work but cannot find 
the job they want. More people join their ranks every single day. 
Worse, 4 in 10 unemployed workers have been jobless for 27 weeks or 
longer.
  Yes, we have a jobs crisis in our country, and it's everybody's 
number one issue. That's why I joined with colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle to form the Congressional Jobs Now Caucus, to keep the focus 
where it needs to be. That's why I sponsored bills to create jobs in 
America to stem our rising trade deficits and to bring justice to Wall 
Street, which has shut down normal lending across this country, 
contributing to the jobs crisis.
  Job creation is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. We are 
all in this together. Last month, Toledo, a city I represent, lost an 
additional 1,200 jobs. Added to the yearly tally, more than 38,600 
individuals, or 11.8 percent of the city's population, are without 
work.
  The unemployment rate in the adjoining rural Ottawa County, also in 
our district, is now over 17 percent. Again, these are official numbers 
which did not include those who have part-time jobs and need more hours 
or those who have simply given up because there are no jobs to be had.
  Job creation is not just an urban issue. The damage has spread to the 
suburbs of our country, and no one is safe from the jobs hemorrhage. In 
fact,

[[Page H359]]

a recent study by the Brookings Institute, as examined by Mr. Herbert 
in his article, found that the largest and fastest-growing population 
of poor people in the United States are in the suburbs.
  The number of poor people in our country grew by 5.2 million when 
President Bush was President between 2002 and 2008, and more than 90 
million Americans--90 million; that's a third of our country--are 
living on less than $21,834 for a family of four. The alarm bells are 
roaring.
  At the same time, the basic goodness and generosity of the American 
people remains one of our greatest strengths. Through it all, the 
American people remain compassionate and caring. Last weekend, a local 
television station in our region organized a telethon for relief to 
Haiti. Even with double-digit unemployment and great economic 
uncertainty, the people of our community opened their hearts to the 
people they've never seen in a country most of them have never visited 
and donated tens of thousands of dollars to that end.
  For our community and our country, the first alarm bells started 
ringing with the empty promises and rapid failure of NAFTA as it 
outsourced jobs everywhere, certainly to Mexico. The next alarm bell 
rang every time another trade deal came down the pike that took more of 
our jobs that used to exist in this country and doled them out to every 
undemocratic place in the world.
  You can't make televisions in our country anymore--not a single one 
is made here--or clothing, or cars, or electrical parts, or even toys. 
More and more, even our food is being imported. You mean we are falling 
behind in even that?
  There was plenty of warning, but big business and big money insisted 
on the right to seek out the lowest common denominator in the most 
undemocratic places, and they found it in China, in Mexico, in 
Bangladesh, in Pakistan, in Guatemala and every poor, undemocratic 
place where penny-wage workers are treated like the expendable pieces 
of equipment that they work with.
  In our country, now we need those jobs because people without jobs 
can't pay mortgages. They can't pay their health insurance. They can't 
buy cars. They can't plan for their children's future or even get 
enough food and clothing to meet their families' needs.
  Unemployment also means our Federal deficits rise as people can't pay 
their way forward. Unemployment and COBRA benefits are running out. 
State funds are depleted. Our private charities are overwhelmed. The 
American people need work and they need good jobs. It's really that 
simple. We simply can't rest until we get our economy back on track and 
create jobs for everyone who wants to work. I hope it is to this 
subject--the economy and job creation--that President Obama will direct 
his address tomorrow night.
  We know that under President Bush we were hemorrhaging 734,000 jobs 
when he left at the end of his term, and though we haven't been losing 
as many jobs, now is the time during this fiscal year where we need to 
do more for our people to put them back to work, to use that productive 
energy to help pull our country forward rather than allow her to 
continue to fall behind, and that begins with work for every single 
American who needs a job.

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