[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 29, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H4950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JOBS AND THE ECONOMY

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, Democrats in Congress will continue to 
take America in a new direction, creating good American jobs, lowering 
taxes for the middle class and small businesses, and building a strong 
new foundation for the economy and for Main Street.
  We continue to see signs of economic recovery resulting from the 
economic policies of the Democratic Congress and the Obama 
administration responding to the Bush recession and the worst financial 
crisis since the Great Depression. More must be done to create and save 
jobs, but the latest signs of recovery include the HIRE Act, a 
bipartisan bill to create 300 jobs; American Workers, State, and 
Business Relief Act, tax incentives to spur business innovation and tax 
cuts; the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act extends aid to 
States to provide subsidies to employers, including small businesses; 
and the Home Star bill, which creates much-needed jobs in the 
manufacturing sector by providing tax rebates to homeowners who install 
energy-saving products.
  Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $29 million in 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to develop and expand 
weatherization training centers across the country. These projects will 
provide green job training for local workers in energy efficiency 
retrofitting and weatherization services.
  Congress and the President have worked together to enact an array of 
broad-based tax cuts for working and middle-class families and small 
business owners--ending an era of Republican tax breaks focused only on 
the wealthy. These tax cuts are injecting consumer demand into the 
economy and spurring job creation.
  All totaled, Congress has enacted more than $800 billion in tax cuts, 
with another $285 billion making their way through Congress, such as 
permanent estate tax relief and the R&D tax credit to spur business 
innovation.


                      Republican Record of Failure

  Congressional Republicans threaten to take us back to the failed 
policies that created the economic crisis--siding with the special 
interests: Wall Street banks, credit card companies, Big Oil, and 
insurance companies.
  These economic and fiscal policies created the Bush recession--the 
worst financial crisis since the Great Depression--with job losses of 
nearly 800,000 a month--and nearly doubled our national debt.
  Republicans have voted against every major piece of economic 
legislation--from the Recovery Act to Wall Street reform--choosing the 
special interests over American workers, their families and small 
businesses.
  Democrats in Congress will continue to take America in a New 
Direction, working to create American jobs and a strong new foundation 
for the economy, protecting Main Street and the middle class. We're 
getting results.
  During the last 3 months of the Bush administration, we lost on 
average 726,000 jobs. In the last 3 months, we have created an average 
of 186,000 jobs. The current unemployment rate is 9.9 percent.

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