[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 18, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3518-H3524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE 111TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, tonight and beginning each week, 
we will begin the week talking about the accomplishments of both 
President Obama, as well as the Democratic leadership in the 
legislature. The efforts of the Democratic Caucus over the last year 
and a half, particularly since President Obama was sworn in have truly 
been remarkable. The efforts have been remarkable, but also the 
accomplishments.
  And I think it's important that we continue to talk to the American 
people about those accomplishments, particularly when compared to some 
of the commentary that's out there in the media because, from watching 
some news programs, one would think that we were all here in the 
Chamber sitting in our chairs, fast asleep, as opposed to working and 
keeping our heads down and being very focused and working under the 
leadership of President Obama to make sure that we can turn the 
absolute nightmare that we were handed by the former Bush 
administration into the new direction that we talked about and that the 
American people elected us to take this country in.
  And so tonight my colleagues and I are going to spend some time 
outlining those accomplishments. But I think it's important and 
instructive to first look at where we were, and then talk about where 
we are now. So that's some of what we're going to do this evening.
  If you look back to January of 2009, which was the month, Mr. Tonko, 
that President Obama was sworn in, during that month the economy was 
yet again bleeding 700,000-plus jobs. And I think we have a chart here 
that I can use to illustrate that. But I think the most illustrative 
example of where we were, versus where we are today is this chart.
  If you look back, this chart begins in December of '07, and you can 
see through the end of the Bush administration, Mr. Speaker, that the 
economy was steadily getting worse. We were bleeding jobs. By the time 
President Obama took office in January of '09, we literally were at 
700,000-plus jobs lost, and that continued all the way up until 
February of '09 with the passage of the American Economic Recovery Act.
  Now, I've heard a lot of malarkey in the news media out there, and 
particularly quite a lot from our friends on the other side of the 
aisle, about the supposed absence of job creation that the Recovery Act 
generated.
  Well, the numbers don't lie, Mr. Speaker. If you look at the 
direction that job creation has gone in, and our economic recovery has 
begun, you look at the blue line beginning in February of '09 with the 
passage of the Recovery Act, and you progress all the way up where we 
were losing month by month fewer and fewer jobs; and we talked about 
how, obviously, any job losses are unacceptable, until we reached this 
most recent month in April. And I think actually this chart--it doesn't 
even, the numbers are even better, Mr. Altmire, than we have on this 
chart. But this chart shows it up through March where we added 167,000 
jobs.
  In April, Mrs. Dahlkemper, we actually added 290,000 jobs in April. 
The vast majority of those were private sector jobs. We do know that we 
have

[[Page H3519]]

some Census jobs that are temporary. But the point is that, as a direct 
result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we are moving in 
the right direction and beginning to turn the economy around. And I 
think it's incredibly important that we show the American people the 
results of our policies.
  And, Mr. Altmire, I'd be happy to yield to you.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. I appreciate the gentlewoman yielding her time. And it's 
wonderful to have the opportunity to be here tonight to talk about the 
success of some of the actions that this Congress has taken on the 
economy.
  I had a town meeting almost a year ago to the day. It was at the end 
of April in 2009, and there were a lot of folks there who were 
complaining about the vote for the Recovery Act, the stimulus bill. And 
I said to them at that time, look, I'll make a deal with you. How about 
we have this discussion today, but we also have this discussion a year 
from now. Why don't we reconvene and have a discussion about what has 
happened over the past year.
  And so I would invite anyone who wants to have that discussion in 
this Chamber or across the country, let's take a walk down memory lane. 
And as the gentlewoman talked about, let's take a look at where we were 
at the end of April in 2009.
  The 6-month period ending at the end of April 2009 resulted in an 
average monthly loss of over 600,000 jobs per month every month for 
that 6-month period. For that same 6-month period, ending at the end of 
April 2010, we have averaged over 100,000 jobs gained, including 
290,000 jobs created in the month of April alone.
  The stock market bottomed out in the middle of March 2009 at 6,500. 
Today, a little bit more than a year later, we're around 1,500.
  Gross domestic product, the first quarter of 2009 was minus six. By 
the end of 2009, it was plus six, which was the largest calendar year 
turnaround in 30 years in this country. And we've now had three 
consecutive months of positive growth.
  So the job market is exploding. Gross domestic product we're now 
likely in our fourth straight quarter of positive growth. The stock 
market has done quite well. And you might say, well, what does that 
matter? If you have a 401(k) in this country, if you have a retirement 
plan, as many people do in this Chamber and certainly in our districts, 
we care about that, and that's something our constituents care about.
  And some other numbers that I took down before I came down here, the 
consumer confidence level rose in April, reaching its highest level 
since September of 2008. The consumer spending is up for the sixth 
straight month, surpassing the pre-recession levels. Manufacturing 
activity has increased for the ninth straight month.
  And what I say to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz) and my colleagues from Pennsylvania and New York is all of 
that happened almost like precision clockwork at exactly the time that 
the Recovery Act bill passed, that turnaround. The gentlewoman, I'm 
sure, will show the chart again later and other charts that are 
similar. These numbers started to turn around exactly at the time that 
the Recovery Act began to take effect.
  Another issue that we're going to talk about tonight, as was reported 
in the national media very recently with tax day having just passed, is 
that we have the lowest tax rate in this country in the past 60 years. 
It hasn't been since 1950 that the tax burden to the individual has 
been lower in this country because we, in this Congress, as part of the 
Recovery Act, cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, 95 percent of 
families. I'm sure we're going to talk about that.
  And all of these things didn't happen by accident. They happened 
because this Congress took a very difficult vote at a very important 
time for this country, and the success is there for everyone to see. So 
I'm proud to have cast that vote, and I'm proud to be here tonight to 
talk about it.
  I would yield now to my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mrs. 
Dahlkemper).
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the 
Congresswoman, my friend from Florida, for bringing us together tonight 
to talk about just the very positive signs that we're seeing in our 
economy, the positive signs that have really come from the policies 
enacted by this Congress over the past 17 months since I've come to 
Congress.
  And I wanted to kind of go back to my colleague from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Altmire) when he was talking about the GDP numbers and this is, I 
think, just a great graph to show. You were talking about in 2009, the 
first quarter, we saw a drop, 6.4 in GDP, just over 6 points there. And 
that was prior to the President taking over and us just coming into our 
111th Congress. And here, with the policies that we've enacted, this 
shows the fourth quarter of '09, almost 6 points increase. And you can 
definitely see the change in GDP in the final years of the Bush 
administration to the first year in the Obama administration and the 
111th Congress, very stark numbers here showing the difference.
  I think one of the most exciting things that I've seen is the 
manufacturing increases. And you mentioned that, Mr. Altmire, the fact 
that we are seeing manufacturing increase in this country, the largest 
10-month gain since 1997. And I think there's so many of us here who 
believe we've got to be making things in this country. And from western 
Pennsylvania, my colleague and I, and certainly from New York State and 
I'm sure from Florida too, we really come from a manufacturing base, 
and a base that hired many people and gave them a good living wage and 
produced great product here in this country, and we really have slipped 
when you look at the global economy in terms of our manufacturing base. 
And so to see those manufacturing numbers returning and growing 
stronger to me is very, very encouraging; 290,000 jobs, as was 
mentioned, created in April. Certainly a small portion of those from 
the Census, but it is estimated 231,000 of those were created in the 
private sector.
  Looking back over the 8 years of the Bush administration, only 1 
million jobs were created over those 8 years. During the President 
Clinton 8 years, 22 million jobs were created. So far this year, we've 
created 500,000 jobs. One million during the Bush administration; 
500,000 so far this year.
  Now, for all of us, losing any jobs is not good. And too many people 
are still out of work. But I see positive signs that really show that 
the policies we've enacted, particularly since the American Recovery 
and Reinvestment Act, have moved our country into a positive direction 
for those who have really been out there struggling.
  And what I think is so exciting is the can-do attitude of American 
businesses and the American people that, when times are tough, the 
American people find a way through this, and we end up being stronger, 
more productive, more innovative, more creative, we diversify, and we 
find a way to get through this. That can-do attitude that Americans 
have certainly has worked well, along with the policies that we've had 
here in Congress in this last year and a half, moving this country from 
losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month to gaining hundreds of 
thousands of jobs. The GDP levels that were dropping significantly are 
now on the rise.
  And now I'd like to yield to my good friend, also a fellow freshman 
here in the Congress, Mr. Tonko.

                              {time}  2015

  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Dahlkemper, and thank you, 
Representative Wasserman Schultz, for bringing us together this evening 
to share the facts and just the facts, which I think is an important 
bit of exchange and messaging that needs to be done with the American 
public. And, you know, if you don't believe what you are hearing here, 
because perhaps you have been swayed by some very gloom-and-doom news 
info that's been coming your way, take the word from Fortune magazine 
of April 16 of this year.
  On April 16, Fortune magazine reported that we have taken a sharp U-
turn in the past couple of months and that there are better days for 
American businesses and workers just around the corner. Well, that's 
telling it like it is. And why? Because this House, the leadership of 
this House, the President and his administration, working together, we 
have enabled a

[[Page H3520]]

very sharp, laser-type focus on American workers, on working families 
in this country.
  And it's now that sort of priority that has been established here in 
the House of Representatives, working with the administration, to make 
certain that we crawl out of this economic recession, the Bush 
recession that gripped this Nation, brought this country to her knees 
economically, and now people have said, We will give you the keys; we 
will put you in charge. And there is a spirit of optimism that is 
obviously being expressed in consumer data that's being recorded now in 
the past several months where there is a swing upward.
  As Representative Wasserman Schultz pointed out in the V formation, 
that downward straight line of the V was under the Bush recession. And 
then as we swing upward, that upward straight line of the V is that 
blue portion of this graph that talks about the comeback. You know, 
it's mimicking a story of the past where under the Clinton 
administration 22 million jobs were created and under the Bush 
administration, 1 million. One million. So there is a stark difference 
there.
  The policies that are being initiated here under the watch of 
President Obama and the leadership of this House have produced a track 
already that if it's extrapolated over the next 8 months, for a year's 
worth of data, we will surpass in 1 year what 8 years' worth of 
information tells us happened during those Bush years. And 8 million 
jobs lost. That goes beyond what the Great Depression produced for this 
country.
  So I think that the spirit of optimism is driving the comeback. It's 
perhaps why that optimism spoke to those numbers of the new home sales. 
The home sales in March alone rose by 27 percent, a record month-to-
month increase that goes back 47 years. So it's that sort of consumer 
confidence, the optimism, as you alluded to, Representative Dahlkemper, 
of growth in the manufacturing activity out there which is extremely 
valuable.
  We see ourselves as a Nation that produces and responds to the needs 
of consumers out there. Any nation that wants to stay strong needs to 
grow its manufacturing sector. We are seeing that happen. So, so many 
of the indicators out there are suggesting that we are on that comeback 
trail. We are hoping it's a straight line comeback. We don't want any 
other format out there but a straight line.
  We believe that as we go forward and continue to invest, and I 
believe that's the right word, invest in the American workers, in 
businesses, where we have not aligned and put the highest priority 
value to Wall Street banks, to credit card companies, to the insurance 
industry, to all of these efforts and the big oil companies; we have 
instead put our focus and our priority with American workers, working 
families, job creation and retention, and the numbers are there. They 
are beginning to show that the proof in the pudding here is that sound 
policies to turn the thinking around, to pull us out of the economic 
woes, and we can trail it. We are trailing it now, and the data speak 
for themselves.
  So this is a great hour, a great opportunity to exchange the facts 
and nothing but the facts and allow people to understand that we are 
climbing upward with a spirit of optimism and confidence that's being 
marked by so many measurements out there that are to the good.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Tonko, I really appreciate your comments. 
I know that the folks listening do as well.
  Madam Speaker, I think one of the important facts that we need to 
talk about tonight, as well, is the stark reality that we are in an 
election year, and in a few months our constituents are going to have a 
choice. Elections are, after all, about choices. And we have an 
opportunity here to present the choice that the American people are 
going to have to make decisions on. They can go back to the ways of the 
last 8 years prior to President Obama's inauguration in which the tax-
cutting policy in America was focused exclusively on the wealthiest few 
and the middle class was essentially left out of the discussion. There 
was absolutely no focus on making sure that middle class tax cuts and 
job creation, targeted tax cuts and job creation would be focused on 
the middle class.
  I served in the minority and the majority during the Bush 
administration, and I can tell you that in neither 2-year period was 
there any discussion of how to get the middle class back to work, how 
to get small business back. Small business was never discussed under 
the Bush administration or the Republican leadership. Their focus was 
big business, corporate interests, as we saw with the collapse of Wall 
Street and, as a result, the collapse of our economy.
  And now when, as President Obama said, we have come in, President 
Obama was inaugurated and he is trying to clean up the mess he was 
handed, the Republicans refuse to even grab a mop. I mean, he is here 
mopping away, and not only do they refuse to grab a mop, to quote 
President Obama, but they also criticize the way he is holding the mop. 
I mean, it's just really--well, it's nothing short of brazen behavior. 
There is an expression for it, but on the House floor I won't use that 
expression.
  I think another important point, Mr. Tonko, that can't be overlooked 
is when I have been out there at home, I come from a State that does 
not have a manufacturing base. We are a service-based economy, a 
tourism-based economy, and our economy was quite focused and dependent 
upon housing. We had a tremendous bubble in Florida. The bubble burst, 
and now, because the housing market has not rebounded at the same rates 
as the rest of the economy, we are still struggling with a higher 
average unemployment rate.

  You will hear our friends on the other side of the aisle, Mr. 
Altmire, talk about, well, you can talk about all this fabulous job 
creation, but the unemployment rate still ticked up last month. Well, 
it's important to understand that the reason that the unemployment rate 
ticked up is because you have about 800,000 people who began looking 
for work again who had taken themselves out of the process because it 
was hopeless, because there was absolutely no chance of a recovery in 
their minds. And if they looked for a job, in their mind, it would have 
been pointless.
  So in an odd way, it's actually a good thing in the short term that 
the unemployment rate ticks up a little bit, because we know the 
unemployment rate has been artificially a little bit lower because of 
the people who have simply not been looking for work. And now because, 
as Mr. Altmire noted, U.S. consumer confidence in April reached its 
highest levels since September of 2008, we have an increase in the GDP, 
an increase in the manufacturing base, pending home sales up for the 
fifth straight month. All of these economic indicators are moving 
dramatically in the right direction. And as a result, we are going to 
be able to really begin to ramp up our progress, and it's very 
exciting.
  I want to spend some time tonight talking about, besides the Recovery 
Act, the other things that we have been doing to really put small 
businesses back in the black, make sure that they can have an 
opportunity to make hiring decisions and add to their workforce.
  With that, if the gentleman from New Mexico is ready, it's a pleasure 
to be joined by Mr. Heinrich of New Mexico.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
  Madam Speaker, I just wanted to return to sort of where we were a 
couple of years ago when several of us who are joining you here tonight 
were running for Congress for the very first time. Mr. Tonko from New 
York, for example, another mechanical engineer, has only been around 
here for what is it, 14 months now, 16 months now? And Mrs. Dahlkemper 
from Pennsylvania as well, the gentlelady from Pennsylvania, we didn't 
run on passing the Recovery Act. None of us went to Congress because we 
were hoping to pass a Recovery Act. We did what was necessary to be 
responsible to clean up the mess that we were left with.
  You can take the example of how the United States and this Congress 
has responded to this recession versus how a country like Japan, when 
it got into its last big recession, responded. They did too little too 
late, and as a result, they were left with 10 years of recession, a 
decade of job-killing recession, a decade of reduced tax revenues, when

[[Page H3521]]

their competitiveness in the world was dramatically reduced because 
they weren't willing to stand up and to lead and do what was right.
  So we passed the Recovery Act. And when you want to look back at 
history and judge what happened with this Recovery Act, as a mechanical 
engineer, rather than just listening to the rhetoric, I think it's very 
critical that we look at the data. And as you have shown here tonight, 
when you look at, well, let's take the stock market, for example. This 
graph shows what has happened with our investments over the end of the 
Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration and 
the leadership that this Congress showed.
  It's incredibly important to realize that this isn't about Wall 
Street. This is about the people in my home State of New Mexico who are 
relying on their investments for their retirement. It is about the 
people who have their retirement accounts tied up in investments and 
their annual and monthly incomes. Whether or not they get to do 
anything besides pay the mortgage is dependent on the value in those 
accounts. And we saw a precipitous decline that took real wealth out of 
the pockets of people all across this country as trillions of dollars 
of wealth literally disappeared in a matter of months from our 
constituents.
  After the Recovery Act was passed and the many other pieces of 
legislation that we passed to try and recover this economy, we have 
seen an increase in that value that you just can't argue with the data, 
between 10,000 and 11,000 in the Dow for the last month.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HEINRICH. Absolutely.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. I thank the gentleman.
  The facts are what we are talking about tonight, and I just want to 
quote from Business Week, April 8, 2010. This is a quote by Mark Zandi, 
chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. ``When you take it all 
together, the response to the recession was massive, unprecedented, and 
ultimately successful.'' And that's what we are showing by the numbers 
here tonight.

  Even the Obama critics, such as Phil Swagel, Assistant Treasury 
Secretary for Economic Policy under George Bush, acknowledged the White 
House policies have been successful. ``Their economic policies, 
including the stimulus,'' which I like to call the recovery bill, 
``have helped move the economy in the right direction.'' And so the 
facts are what we are showing here tonight.
  And I yield back.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Thank you. And I think that's a perfect example.
  You know, facts are stubborn things, and when you show these graphs, 
they don't lie. They tell a story of an economy out of control and how 
we have been able to turn that around and move it back in the right 
direction. And I think when you talk about the Recovery Act, it's 
important to realize that an enormous portion of the Recovery Act was 
about taxes as well.
  If you look at the rhetoric versus the data on the whole issue of 
taxes, you see a very different story than the one you might hear in 
some of the national media or see on a placard at a Tea Party rally for 
that matter.
  The USA today talked about how, Mr. Tonko, if you would be so kind as 
to hold this up, a headline, ``Tax bills in 2009 at the lowest level 
since 1950.'' We passed an enormous tax relief package as part of the 
Recovery Act so that people would have those hard-earned dollars in 
their pockets and put them to work for our Nation. And if you look at 
how much support we had to do that from our colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle, it was nonexistent, if you look at the work that we 
did for the homebuyer tax credit, which was absolutely critical to 
bringing back our housing market and construction jobs in this country.

                              {time}  2030

  I met a man named Julian Gomez who works in construction in 
Albuquerque, and he lost his job because of this recession. And he's 
back today swinging a hammer at New Life Homes, building homes in 
Albuquerque because of the financing that the Recovery Act made 
possible.
  So I think it's incredibly important that we look at the facts versus 
the rhetoric.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
  Mr. HEINRICH. Absolutely.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Does the gentleman recall how many of our 
friends on the other side of the aisle voted for the Recovery Act?
  Mr. HEINRICH. Actually, I don't recall that exact number.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I think it was none.
  Mr. HEINRICH. I knew it was one of those numbers you could count on 
your hand.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I think it was none. Goose eggs. And that was 
the Recovery Act that gave 98 percent of Americans a tax cut, the same 
one that created a situation where we have the lowest, as you said, the 
lowest tax bills, the lowest tax rate since 1950, the one that created 
a situation where the triangle that Mr. Tonko referred to a few minutes 
ago enabled us to go from bleeding more than 700,000 jobs prior to 
President Obama being sworn into office to gaining almost 300,000 jobs 
in this last month.
  So we, on our side of the aisle, created, conceived, passed, and 
President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law, and our friends on 
the other side of the aisle all said ``no.'' Is that right?
  Mr. HEINRICH. I believe you are absolutely correct.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that was 
accurate. Mr. Tonko, do you have something to add?
  Mr. TONKO. I do.
  Representative Wasserman Schultz, you talked about the comeback 
issue. One can't help but wonder what would have happened if these 
economic policies were continued to rule the outcome. If they had 
continued to rule the outcome, we would have probably hit the Great 
Depression level. And so I think the effort here is to bring in--it's 
not like we're excluding people from being part of this solution. But 
obviously, if we're not getting the support from the other side, we're 
going to continue to move forward with progressive policies and 
reforms.
  And I think what is inspiring is that this Nation is replete in her 
history of people responding in the toughest times, responding with 
their greatest sense of courage and determination at a time when we 
have faced some of our toughest struggles. We saw that happen in the 
Depression. We saw a President lead this Nation out of that depression 
and bring people back to work and invest in a way that grew us to a 
stronger level than when the economic crisis began.
  And certainly when we look at this, I believe that that history of 
this Nation, our history speaks to us in a very bold and noble measure 
to continue to pursue, to invest in a way that will create a stronger 
outcome. And we will put together an organized, structured, progressive 
bit of policies that will address and plan our future for this economic 
recovery.
  I represent a district that is the home of the Erie Canal and that 
canal is a series, a necklace, I like to call it, of mill towns. And 
they were given birth to by the creation of this Erie Canal. But it 
showcased--my point of mentioning it here is that it showcased the 
pioneer spirit that's in the DNA of Americans where these mill towns 
became the centers of invention and innovation. And it gave birth to a 
westward movement that built this Nation and continues to allow us to 
express our manufacturing prowess.
  Well, this package, the stimulus package, the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act, invested in America, in her workers, in her 
businesses, in her small businesses that was mentioned earlier, in a 
way that is now turning the picture around. It's that U-turn of which 
Fortune magazine speaks, wrote about it on April 16 of this year, that 
we are now seeing a brighter day; it's around the corner for business 
and workers.
  And so in the toughest times we have shown our best outcomes. We have 
come together in a way that allows us to be constructive and 
instructive on how we're going to crawl out of a mess.
  The important thing here is to please join in the effort. Don't 
thwart the effort, don't deny, diminish it. I see what we tried to do 
with America COMPETES as an act on this floor to grow the R&D 
investment, to allow us to compete effectively with China. And what do 
we have? We have an effort to diminish or deny that sort of progress.

[[Page H3522]]

  So join us in the constructive efforts. Join us in building the 
solutions. But do not deny American workers for generations out the 
sort of solutions that will enable us to be our best in the toughest 
times, and that's what we're seeing here. The numbers are showing it. 
We're on a comeback. And it's interesting how history is repeating 
herself where we have this administration proving that they are going 
to invest--invest in technology, invest in broadband, communication, 
hardwiring of communities that are rural or impoverished, as in inner 
city neighborhoods, allowing us to invest in energy with smart grids, 
smart meters, smart thermostats, invest in our transmission and 
distribution systems. All of it is important.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Will the gentleman yield?
  I know the gentleman from New York, Mr. Tonko, knows a great deal 
about this whole issue of energy security and of creating a new energy 
economy. And when we passed the Recovery Act, we made this single 
biggest investment in changing our economy to a clean energy economy 
ever in the history of this country.
  And I saw it directly. I went out to a company called Ktech that's at 
the Sandia Science and Tech Park in my district, and they are using 
Recovery Act grants to figure out new ways to store energy and to seam 
together a new grid that includes putting renewables into the system, 
unique storage devices, and how to manage all of that so that our 
entire grid is more secure and so that we can put people back to work 
in those new energy technologies.

  And I'd yield back to Mr. Tonko or Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I thank both gentlemen.
  Again, I think it's really important to stress the choices that we 
have in front of us. The American people have choices over the next few 
months about the direction that they want to go, whether they want to 
continue to go in the direction that the job creation chart that we 
just had up showed, whether they want to continue to go in the 
direction of the tax rate chart that Mr. Heinrich just had, or whether 
they want to go back in this direction because this direction shows us 
the history of Presidents and the deficit situation that the United 
States has been in under each President.
  So if you look at President Reagan, under President Reagan we had a 
$1.4 trillion deficit. Under President Bush 41, we had a $3.3 trillion 
deficit by the end of his Presidency. Then President Clinton was in 
office for 8 years and finished his second term with a $5.6 trillion 
surplus--a record surplus which he handed over to President Bush 43, 
who, in a very short period of time, handed off to President Obama an 
$11.5 trillion deficit. And that's because his focus was not on 
targeted tax cuts for the middle class, not on creating jobs and wealth 
for small business, not on making sure that we could focus on 
educational opportunities for our Nation's young people and focusing on 
investments and innovation and technology and energy, and particularly 
alternative energy--those weren't the focus of the Bush administration. 
Their focus was on the wealthiest Americans, the whole notion of 
trickle-down, which didn't work under President Reagan and clearly, as 
you can see, as big a red box as you are looking at here on this chart, 
didn't work under the Bush administration either.
  So the choice that the American people will have is to go back to big 
red boxes like this one and continue to bleed jobs, bleed money, and 
move in the wrong direction, or under President Obama and the 
Democratic Congress, continue to focus on job creation, on 
opportunities for young people, on investments in alternative energy, 
on weaning ourselves off dependence on foreign oil. I mean if what's 
going on in the Gulf of Mexico today doesn't prove that we need to do 
that, I don't know what would.
  But those are the choices that the American people have.
  But our friends on the other side of the aisle have choices, too, Mr. 
Tonko. They have choices, and they've repeatedly made them. They've 
repeatedly showed which side they're on. They've showed that they are 
not on the side of the American workers struggling to be able to get 
back to work and find a job. They've showed that they're only 
interested in coming back to power, and it's all--unfortunately, sadly, 
my observation is that that is the only thing that they care about, 
winning elections and focusing on power.
  Their agenda is tough to identify because other than siding with Wall 
Street, with big banks, with big corporations and the wealthy elite in 
this country, that's really the only side that I have been able to see 
that they appear to be on. Their voting records demonstrate that, and I 
think we have a pretty stark choice that the American people are going 
to be able to make come November.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And thank you again for bringing us together 
this evening. It's a pleasure to join with our colleague from New 
Mexico and you from the State of Florida to really share these regional 
observations because it's happening across the country.
  Just yesterday I was at a community that I represent, a small town, a 
small city, that is utilizing Recovery Act moneys to produce 
photovoltaic--to install, I should say, photovoltaic panels at their 
senior center, at their firehouse, and improvements in energy 
efficiency at their city hall. This translates to, like, $65,000 worth 
of savings per year. Who does that affect? The property taxpayer.
  So it's property tax reduction simply by creating jobs and reaching 
to innovation. That's the beauty of the investments made here. It's not 
about special interests, it's not about going to the big oil companies 
and the big Wall Street banks and going to the insurance industry and 
the like. It is a reform package that talks about long overdue 
investment.
  My gosh. We look at China and her investment in a clean-energy 
economy, and if we don't understand that we need to be in this global 
race to win it, we understand I hope--we show it here in this 
leadership, in the majority, the Democratic majority in the House--that 
we understand by our actions that whoever wins this global race on 
clean energy becomes the kingpin of the global economy. We will be the 
exporter of energy innovation and intellect. These are jobs that will 
grow, just like we saw technology grow when we won the space race 
four decades ago.

  Mr. HEINRICH. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Heinrich, I believe you want to join in.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Once again, I think you're painting this picture of 
contrast of leadership. And the important question here is asking whose 
side are you on. And our colleagues on the other side are busy 
protecting BP and making sure that we have a BP bailout, to make sure 
that their damage cap doesn't get raised. And we're passing legislation 
like the Recovery Act that invests directly not only in renewable 
energy, but in energy efficiency to make us more and more energy 
independent as a Nation.
  And I remember in asking whose side am I on, I spent some time at a 
gentleman's home just a couple months ago named Juan DeLeon whose house 
is being retrofitted with some of these Recovery Act loans to put 
insulation in the roof, to have high-efficiency appliances. And for 
someone who is low income, fixed income, in retirement, they literally 
see their bills change in a way that gives them economic freedom and 
independence for the first time. You know, we're standing up for 
homeowners like that. Retirees. People who've worked their whole life 
but who are throwing away huge amounts of money every month on their 
energy bills, and our colleagues on the other side are standing up for 
corporations like BP.
  Mr. TONKO. You know, when I spoke of the small town, the small city 
that we shared in the good news with yesterday, the city of Waterbury 
in Albany County in Upstate New York, that is one expression of what 
could be repeated, is being repeated over and over again with 
municipalities in this country.

                              {time}  2045

  Then you put that into the business sector and the energy efficiency 
improvements they are making with the stimulus activity. You talk about 
households where we put $5 billion into weatherization programs to 
again create stronger energy environments within which to live. No 
family should

[[Page H3523]]

be asked to live in poor energy environments. They are wasteful. Those 
are wasteful situations in terms of energy supply and dollars that are 
expended.
  So when we look at the track record here, you talk about whose side 
are you on, we are looking at over one-half million jobs created since 
December, 84 percent of which were in the private sector category.
  When we look at tax relief, we are not talking about just the upper 
income strata that was the situation for the Bush administration, but 
now we are talking about 98 percent of Americans getting relief, to the 
point where tax bills are at their lowest level since 1950.
  So we are talking about a whole different approach, a whole different 
attitude. And it is embracing the bigger landscape, the people-scape of 
America, where the masses are brought into consideration and the 
priority is with the working families. Main Street and side streets 
come before that Wall Street situation. Wall Street recklessness 
created Main Street joblessness, and that thinking is over.
  That huge red block pointed to by Representative Wasserman Schultz is 
now a situation that meant two wars, off-budget; it meant a doughnut 
hole, give it to the insurance industry in the Medicare program area. 
It meant all sorts of tax cuts to the few in society. That was economic 
ruination. And, now, this swing upward didn't just happen. It took 
straightforward thinking, it took laser-sharp focus, it took 
sensitivity to those who were bearing the brunt here.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. If the gentleman would yield, because I want 
to focus on results.
  We have been talking about the facts tonight. We have been talking 
about the impact and results of Democratic policies, the policies of 
the Democratic Congress, the policies of Democratic President Barack 
Obama, and the results that have occurred. And I think this chart right 
here is very illustrative of the direction that we continue to go in.
  If you look at the very ugly red end of the chart, that is an 
indication of where we were in terms of household wealth under the Bush 
administration. And if you look through those years, we had household 
wealth that dramatically, dramatically declined, so much so that people 
were in absolute dire straits. So we had an economy that was reeling, 
spiraling ever downward; we had deficits that were exploding from a 
President who was handed a record surplus, and that was the mess that 
President Obama found himself in.
  The additional mess that he found himself in was a plummeting 
statistic of household wealth. If you look at the progress that we have 
made and the direction that household wealth is going in now, as 
evidenced by the right side of the chart, you have an indicator that, 
since the Recovery Act took effect, we have gained nearly 30 percent 
back of household wealth that was lost under the Bush administration, 
$5 trillion in growth in household wealth, compared to $17.5 trillion 
in household wealth that was lost. We have gained in just 1 year $5 
trillion of that back.
  Mr. TONKO. If the gentlewoman would yield, what the Representative is 
pointing to in the red is 18 months' worth of activity, $17.5 trillion 
worth. That is $1 trillion per month.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Again, Mr. Tonko, we talk about choices. This 
is as stark a choice, Mr. Heinrich, as we can illustrate.
  We could go back to policies that got us in the ditch in the first 
place and give the keys back to the people who drove us into the ditch; 
or we can hold on to the keys that we wrested from them in November of 
2008 and continue to drive this economy in the direction that the 
American people want it to go.
  Mr. TONKO. And obviously the decline did not happen overnight. We saw 
that there were months upon months upon years of activity that really 
did not respond favorably to the needs of America's consumers, 
America's business community, in particular her small business 
community.
  So the huge climb back of 30 percent recovered, recaptured, $5-plus 
trillion, maybe $6 trillion, at this point is a remarkable comeback in 
a relatively few short months. So this is the start of a comeback, and 
it certainly is not good enough. We want more. We want more good news. 
But to keep the direction afloat, to keep the momentum rising means to 
allow for the progress to continue.
  And I believe it is very obvious that with the control here in 
Congress and in the White House, there is a serious desire and design 
to produce this comeback that was so desperately needed and in a way 
that is remarkably sound, in investing in issues and areas of activity 
that were back-burnered for far too long. They held back progress. And 
now, not only are we producing jobs, producing relief, strengthening 
confidence, growing the economy; we are doing it with an investment in 
futuristic outcomes where we are dealing with cutting-edge 
opportunities in R&D and basic research and job creation in activities 
from trades to Ph.D.s. This is the full spectrum. This is the beauty of 
this innovation economy. But at least there is a leadership that gets 
what needs to be done and is in fact impacting favorably the outcomes 
here.
  Mr. HEINRICH. And as you mentioned, we have a long way to go. We are 
just getting started trying to rebuild after 8 years of disastrous 
policies, the recession the likes of which we haven't seen since the 
Great Depression. But if we can stay on this path, if we can continue 
to grow these job numbers like the strong job numbers that we saw in 
March and April; if that trend can continue for the rest of 2010, we 
would see more jobs created in 2010 than the entire Bush 
administration, the entire 8 years of the Bush administration. And that 
is where we need to be headed as a Nation.
  We need to keep seeing that line of wealth in the average American 
family going up, up, up, not going down the way it did continuously 
during the Bush administration. And it really is about that contrast of 
responsible leadership versus policies that continue to put our Nation 
at a competitive disadvantage, not only our families, but versus 
countries around the world.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I am thrilled that we are joined by the 
gentleman from Ohio. He might still be getting organized. So while he 
does that, I wanted to focus a little bit.
  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act clearly is sort of the 
jewel in the crown, the linchpin to the beginning of our economic 
recovery, and all the indicators demonstrate that. But it is sort of a 
``but that's not all'' type thing.
  We had the Recovery Act, which gave us a huge boost, but we also 
passed and continue to propose numerous pieces of legislation designed 
to focus on different aspects of the economy: small business, the 
energy sector, technology and innovation, making sure that we cover as 
many bases as we can, because we know that there are so many potential 
gaps in the economy and you don't want to leave anybody behind.
  So in addition to the Recovery Act, Madam Speaker, we also passed the 
Worker Home Ownership and Business Assistance Act, which was 
legislation that expanded that first-time homebuyer tax credit and gave 
people an opportunity to purchase a home when they had been unable to 
previously, provided that tax relief for small businesses.
  Mr. HEINRICH. If the gentlewoman would yield for a question. How many 
of our colleagues pitched in on the other side of the aisle and said, 
We are going to support that kind of tax relief?
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I am glad you asked. I believe it was 
approximately 93 percent of Republicans voted against that legislation.
  Mr. HEINRICH. So just 7 percent actually said, We are going to be 
part of the solution?
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Yes.
  So, again, it is about choices. The American people have a choice. It 
is a very stark contrast. They can side with the people who voted 93 
percent in this instance with Wall Street and big corporations and 
continuing to pad their bottom line; or they can vote with the middle 
class and make sure that we can continue to boost small business and 
get our economy moving again and put folks back to work. It really is a 
very stark contrast with a very clear choice.
  Mr. BOCCIERI. I thank the gentlelady from Florida for organizing this 
hour to talk about jobs and the economy and what the Democratic Caucus 
has been doing to try to put our country back on track.

[[Page H3524]]

  Let me just say that I applaud all my Members for being here, because 
there is one singular issue that I hear over and over again in my 
Midwest district in Ohio: we need to be the producers of wealth. We 
need to build things here, not just move wealth. And that is why it is 
so important that we focus on putting our country back on track, 
creating jobs that can't be outsourced, investing in our green economy, 
investing in the infrastructure that is going to make our country 
energy independent, not only for the jobs that it will create, but 
because it is a matter of national security.
  This Congress has gone on lightning speed with great work to try to 
put that message and drive that message home in Midwest States like 
Ohio.
  And let me just say the fruits of what we have been trying to sow for 
the last several months here--and you hear the Just Say No crowd who 
get up and talk about how they are against everything. We know what 
they are against, but what are you for? Are you for putting people back 
to work in Ohio? Are you for growing our economy? Are you for putting 
our Nation on a path toward security, with lessening our dependence on 
foreign oil? Those are the things that we are standing for in this 
Congress, and we want them to join us. These answers aren't Democrat or 
Republican, they are not conservative or liberal. They are American 
answers that deserve American solutions.
  So if you are just trying to score political points, if you don't 
believe that you should bet against America and Americans, then join 
us, because we want to put our country back on track.
  Great things are happening in Ohio. We are starting to see the 
rebirth of our manufacturing sector after consecutive quarters of job 
loss and a stagnant economy that was handed to us.
  I remind my colleagues, when we took over in 2009, in the 111th 
Congress, we were facing exploding deficits; $3.5 trillion was handed 
off to this Congress, two unfunded undeclared wars, an economy that was 
in free-fall. We didn't know where we were going to land. We had greed 
on Wall Street and banking chaos. This was a lot of work that this 
Congress had try to get our arms around, but we see that what we have 
been able to do is begin to put our country back on track.

  Nine consecutive months of manufacturing growth, the best in the last 
6 years, that's a strong message. And while we still need to do some 
work, and we have a lot of work to do on unemployment, this economy is 
growing again.
  And let me just remind, you don't hear this on the conservative talk 
radio shows, you don't hear this on the conservative cable shows, but 
this is the reality of what the Congress has been dealing with: one 
Democratic President in the last 20 years, and we had a $5.6 trillion 
surplus that was turned into an $11 trillion deficit by the previous 
administration. You don't hear that talked about. You don't hear about 
the fact that we were handed a $3.5 trillion deficit just coming into 
office in 2009, but that is the facts and that is the reality.
  I want to tell you that we are beginning to grow this economy and 
beginning to put people back to work. Just in my district alone, 
Barbasol Shaving Company is expanding, adding new jobs in Ashland, 
Ohio. We have the NuEarth Corporation in my hometown of Alliance, 
adding new jobs and expanding. Luk Manufacturing is expanding, $40 
million investment. TekFor in Worcester ended up bringing back 200 
workers. These are real jobs that affect real families in our 
community, and that's what we have got to champion.
  Those are the things that we have been fighting for here in the 
Congress, and we want them to join us. We have a message to the Just 
Say No crowd: join us. Help us put America back on track. We need you.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Boccieri is right on point. I believe that, to the 
messaging out there, there could be those critics that want to resort 
to phantom statistics. But when you look at what is happening out 
there, there is no denying that these bits of fact that we are sharing 
here this evening are all recorded, they are documented. And it is that 
sort of fact, not fiction, that will rule and guide the policies as we 
go forward.
  The fact that factory orders have increased by the largest amount in 
more than 9 years is encouraging news. It is back to the point that 
Representative Boccieri made about people want to produce, they want to 
create, they want to manufacture in this Nation. And the fact that 
these factory orders are up beyond limits from 9 years back in 
recordkeeping is encouraging news. It tells us that there is confidence 
again, there is optimism that is ruling the day, and that the 
turnaround, that huge U-turn of which Fortune Magazine wrote is 
becoming more and more real in the lives of people. Car sales rising by 
20 percent. That is so important to a region like that of 
Representative Boccieri that is so hooked to the auto industry. Upstate 
New York in many of its regional economies is directly linked to that 
auto economy and to the industry.

                              {time}  2100

  So a 20 percent rise in sales for automobiles is an important stat 
that we ought to look at.
  So again, the repeated message here this evening--and again, 
Representative Wasserman Schultz, thank you for bringing us together. 
The tone, the theme that we have talked about, Representative Heinrich, 
is this wonderful opportunity to continue along the course of progress, 
or the reverse is to hand over the keys to those who drove the car into 
the ditch, and that pulling the car out of the ditch took quite an 
effort and it took a while.
  We're not where we want to be yet, but we're certainly moving in 
steps forward and upward that are taking us to a new plateau and doing 
it in a way that is investing in American workers, investing in 
American business in a way that allows us then to compete more 
effectively in the global marketplace. That is a multitude of good that 
we have embraced in the policies that have been established and that 
are being put into place and then now are obviously working.
  The proof is in the pudding, as they say. The facts, only the facts, 
that's what we need to share here. Forget the scare tactics. Forget the 
talk of doom and gloom. Let's look at what's happening, and let's 
embrace it with a spirit of optimism and with that tremendously 
characteristic sense of pioneer spirit that is part of the DNA of 
America. Americans, through all ages, have been about creating jobs and 
creating and discovering new opportunities. We won a space race four 
decades ago. We need to enter in boldly and armed to do what we can 
with this clean energy race that is global also.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Well, I think we should show that one graph of jobs one 
more time before we wrap up here tonight, because there's nothing more 
important than, one, as you said, just the facts, ma'am, and actually 
looking at data and not rhetoric; and, two, nothing's more important 
than jobs. We've seen our stock market recover.
  We've seen housing starts come back and those kinds of indicators, 
but what really matters to the American people are jobs; and that 
precipitous decline that we saw in the run-up to this horrible 
recession and the irresponsible activity that we saw within housing 
finance markets and within Wall Street and the reversal with the 
Recovery Act and new policies put in place by this Congress to jump-
start manufacturing again, to jump-start real jobs where we design it 
in the United States, we build it in the United States, we install it 
in the United States, and we put more people back to work, and watching 
that line go up and up to where now we're finally adding jobs at the 
kind of rates that we need to turn our entire country around.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. And, Mr. Heinrich, as we wrap up, we really 
want to talk about over the next weeks and months the choices that the 
American people will have. Over the next weeks and months, Madam 
Speaker, we'll be talking about those choices, the choice that the 
American people have to continue to go in the direction where we're 
nurturing our economy and helping it thrive or the direction that our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle would take us, which is to 
strangle our recovery in the crib. That's a very stark contrast that we 
will be presenting to the American people over the next few weeks and 
months, and we look forward to it.

                          ____________________