[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 9, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1173-H1174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RESTORING AMERICANS' NET WORTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam Speaker, since it began in 2007, the 
Great Recession has caused tremendous hardships throughout the Nation. 
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, in increasingly larger 
numbers

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every month, including 741,000 in January 2009 alone. Our economy 
contracted an astounding 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, and 
an unbelievable 6.4 percent as this Congress and the Obama 
administration were taking office in the first quarter of 2009. 
Foreclosures were skyrocketing, up 81 percent in 2008, with more than 
2.3 million homes in default or seized. Our economy was on the brink. 
Nowhere was that more evident than in the precipitous drop of American 
households' net worth.
  I brought a visual aid today because words alone cannot do this loss 
justice. From December 2007 through March 2009, Americans lost $17.5 
trillion in net worth. That is trillion with a ``t.'' That is larger 
than the entire economy of the United States. If we dedicated the 
entire output of the U.S. economy, every penny spent by every single 
person, it still would not equal that loss. It represented a loss of 
$56,000 for every single person in our country.
  I am not talking about the value of a business, or corporate profit. 
The net worth of American households is their 401(k) and retirement 
accounts. It is in the value of their children's education fund. It is 
their emergency savings and nest eggs. It is the equity in their homes, 
the single largest asset most Americans have. In fact, foreclosed homes 
have decreased the equity of existing homeowners by $502 billion alone. 
American homeowners who always have remained current on their mortgage 
payments nonetheless have lost more than half a trillion dollars in 
equity, simply because of those foreclosures. And the broader housing 
market troubles have only exacerbated that loss.
  This long red line represents that loss. It represents $17.5 trillion 
of lost college payments, $17.5 trillion of delayed retirement, $17.5 
trillion lost from the American dream.
  This blue line represents the return to growth for that net worth. 
One of the very first acts this Congress undertook was to pass the 
Recovery Act. The economy was in free fall, and Americans were 
literally losing trillions of dollars. And it worked. The first quarter 
after we passed the Recovery Act, the economy slipped only 0.7 percent, 
and by the end of last year it had recovered and grown by 5.9 percent, 
the largest increase in 6 years.
  Housing prices had an unprecedented 22 straight months of decline 
starting in 2007, leaving more than 20 percent of all homeowners 
underwater with negative equity. Not only are these homeowners unable 
to access home equity in case of emergencies, they cannot sell their 
homes without risking bankruptcy if they need to relocate for their 
jobs. As a result of our actions through the Recovery Act, and the 
extension and expansion of the first time home buyers tax credit, and 
overall mortgage refinancing support, housing prices stabilized. And in 
December 2009, they grew for the seventh consecutive month. While their 
value has not fully recovered, the average home sale price increased 
$45,000 from January 2009 through January of this year, restoring tens 
of thousands of dollars in equity to each homeowner.
  The stock market, representing the retirement funds, 401(k)s and life 
savings of so many Americans, has grown almost 60 percent since its 
March 2009 low. Although there is still a way to go to fully restore 
the value, the increases have been steady.
  The result of these improvements to the American people is the blue 
line. It is $5 trillion of value restored to American households. Madam 
Speaker, I ask you to look at that red line again. The decline was 
continuous until our interventions. Since our actions, the growth has 
been continuous.
  We are not out of the woods just yet. Households lost value every 
month for the longest recession since World War II. But we have turned 
the corner, and Americans today have $5 trillion more in net worth 
because of our actions. That is why it is vital to stay the course so 
we can continue to help every homeowner recover their life savings and 
restore prosperity to every household.

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