[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 13, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H5528-H5535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 2020
THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMIC FUTURE
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. Madam Speaker, it's a privilege to join my
colleagues on the floor this evening to talk about the future of our
economy and the new direction that we, the Democrats, are moving this
country since taking over the Congress. We will plan to spend the next
45 minutes to an hour talking about where we've been and where we are
at this point and the opportunities that we have to continue to go. My
colleagues and I will talk about the progress that we've made and the
efforts that we've employed to try to create jobs and turn the economy
around.
We feel really excited about the accomplishments that we've made thus
far. We have only to look back to the month before President Obama took
office in January of 2009 to see at that point the economy having bled
700,000-plus jobs. Fast-forward to June, now July of 2010, and we are
now adding, on average, between 125,000 and 200,000 jobs per month. And
those are private sector jobs. We also have the addition of public-
sector jobs through the census. But consistently month after month,
particularly starting at the beginning of this year, the economy has
consistently added private sector jobs, and that is incredibly
important. We know that the way we're going to continue to turn our
economy around, the key to our economic revival, is through job
creation.
We can attribute much of the success and much of the turnaround that
has occurred thus far to our passage of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act last February. We know that the $787 billion stimulus
package that we passed injected badly needed resources into the
economy. But, Madam Speaker, it also injected badly needed capital in
the form of tax cuts for the middle class and for working families, and
that's something that doesn't get talked about enough.
We do talk a whole lot about job creation, but one of the keys to job
creation, we know, is stimulating the economy through tax cuts targeted
towards the middle class, working families, and small businesses. We
have really endeavored to make sure that
[[Page H5529]]
we've struck a careful balance and the right balance between
stimulating the economy by injecting the badly needed resources and
also generating the tax cuts that we know are the lifeblood of so many
small businesses, for them to have the capital available to be able to
make the investments that they need in the infrastructure of their
businesses so that they can have the wherewithal to add new hires and
create more jobs.
And that's something that, if you compare and contrast the priorities
of the previous administration to the priorities of the Obama
administration and our leadership under Speaker Pelosi and the
Democratic leadership here in the House of Representatives, the
priorities back in the Bush era were, again, a return to the trickle-
down theory of economics; that if you focus tax cuts and if you focus
all of your attention on the wealthiest Americans, on the largest
corporations, then somehow that largess will flow downward through the
economy and, you know, ``rising tides lift all boats.'' Except in this
case, we know that that policy sunk the boats and, instead, we capsized
a whole lot of small businesses in the water; and now we have been
engaged in a really significant effort to try to right those ships and
get the economy back on track. We're excited about the progress that
we've made, but we also recognize that we have a long way to go.
There are a number of things that we are going to want to focus on
tonight. Let's just look at the weekly economic update just in the last
week and in the last month. If you look at employment, the private
sector in the month of June created an additional 83,000 jobs, and the
unemployment rate continues to fall. It fell to 9.5 percent. That's the
sixth straight month of job growth in the private sector, and the fall
in total unemployment reflected a decrease in our temporary census
jobs. We added 9,000 manufacturing jobs in June, and that is the 11th
month in a row that we have added manufacturing jobs.
So the progress that we're making is evident. We need to be able to
continue that progress and not get too timid or gun-shy while we
balance our priorities and make sure that we can focus on getting the
jobs done.
The June jobs report was another reminder of just how far we've come
since last year and how much work remains to be done to stop the free
fall. The President and Congress took strong and immediate steps in the
Recovery Act and put those people back to work after 22 straight months
of job loss before President Obama took office. We now have seen our
economy create private sector jobs for the last 6 months in a row, and
we need to make sure that we can continue that recovery.
We're moving in the right direction. We know it's not fast enough,
but that's why President Obama is fighting for additional steps to
speed up the recovery and keep the economy growing. And he and we have
made clear that creating jobs is our top priority.
Another priority, for example, in a State like mine, in my home State
of Florida, particularly in south Florida, is making sure that we can
get lending kick-started again and make sure that folks who are
struggling to be able to make their mortgage payments and remain in
their homes still have the ability to do that. We have been very
focused, and the administration has been very focused on creating
programs that will help keep people in their homes, that will give
banks and banking institutions the opportunity to work with homeowners
so that we don't see masses of individuals out on the street and
continue the flood of housing that has become available on the market
as a result. So we have a lot of things to think about.
I am joined tonight by several of my colleagues, the first of which
is my colleague from Houston, Texas, who has been a long-time Member,
focuses on the needs of her district like a laser beam, and has talked
quite a bit about the need for job growth. She is struggling in her
community, as a fellow Gulf Coast Stater, dealing with the aftermath of
the BP oil spill, my good friend, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I am very glad to join multiple friends
from a number of our great States in America. But more importantly, I
am glad to be part of the team, working with the Congresswoman, our
leadership, of course, and the President that focuses on creating jobs
for Americans. That's an exciting message for all of us.
And I am very delighted to sort of dash the misstatements that have
been going on about what we have accomplished here, and if I might just
be redundant and cite the fact that the private sector has created
83,000 jobs in June.
But I would like to add something else, Congresswoman. I think you
have seen this number as well, that this has been one of the best
quarters for corporations in terms of profits. It is well known, and of
course many of us encourage individuals to save money and to invest.
But I think it's particularly important for the American public to know
that our corporations have money. We've created the right economic
atmosphere for them to grow, but they've decided to not create all of
the jobs they could. And I would just like this evening to congratulate
them for the profits that they've made, but I want them to be inspired
to create jobs for the American people because the government has
worked very hard to create a banking system for them to feel
comfortable with as we pass the Wall Street reform so that they can
create jobs, hire people.
There were 9,000 manufacturing jobs created in June, and I think that
is extremely important, but 136,000 jobs since December. We have good
news for the American public. We have heard you, and we believe in
buying America and making it in America. Therefore, we're going to be
looking, over the next couple of months, to craft an agenda where you
will see jobs being created by the message of this Democratic
leadership.
We can tell you that we mean business because we can show you the
facts. For the 11th consecutive month, the manufacturing sector has
expanded. They have heard our call. They have heard our creed.
The Purchasing Managers Index registered at 56.2 in June. Of the 18
industries surveyed, 13 reported growth.
Look at, if you will, the gigantic change that we have seen in the
automobile manufacturing sector where our companies are coming back.
Many people complain about the approach we utilize, but we can look at
the bottom line. Ford never took the money. GM has paid the money back.
But what we want them to do is to manufacture smartly, hire people and
create jobs. We have created--this Democratic leadership, this
President has created the atmosphere for these companies to grow, and
we want them to grow more.
Let me just add these one or two points. Consumers who have been
feeling the pinch--we know there's unemployment, and right now, today,
we're fighting to extend unemployment for those hardworking Americans
who have seen their jobs go but need to support their families.
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And let me make it very clear. Unemployment insurance is not a
handout. It is a gift coming back, or it is an acknowledgment of your
hard work, and we want to keep you over a bridge. We want to give you a
bridge until you get another job.
But disposable personal income grew by 0.5 percent in May. It grew by
.6 percent in April, and it grew by .4 percent in May. So you can see
that it's steadily going up. It's steadily going up, and this is making
a difference.
As I cite these last points, Congresswoman, to emphasize how we, on
this side of the aisle, the Democrats, have a positive attitude about
knowing that America's going to make it as we make products and as
manufacturing grows, I'm disappointed that some of my friends who are
on the other side of the aisle are thinking differently.
One of the things that they don't like to say is that when President
Obama first came into office he inherited an economy that was losing an
average of 750,000 jobs in 1 month. Now, I'm not the kind of
personality that wants to look back and blame the last administration.
But we know for a fact that there were no jobs created in the last 8
years.
And so let me conclude on remarks that have been made by a good
friend. The minority whip asked the question, stimulus dollars have not
produced jobs. This is what the minority whip
[[Page H5530]]
said while hosting a job fair in Virginia. And I would only like to say
that to help the American people, it would be grand for us to work and
march in step, in a bipartisan step, and that is the only thing we're
concerned about, no matter what region we come from, is creating jobs.
Many of you know that we are being hit in the Gulf in many different
ways by the BP oil spill. My good friend is being hit for tourism. I
just had one of her mayors before my committee, and they said they're
not being listened to about tourism.
I'm being hit because of fishermen and shrimpers and oysters, but
also I'm being hit by the hardworking people who work in the energy
industry who are innocent who may be losing jobs who cannot work
offshore.
But our good friend, Mr. Cantor, rather than working together to
produce jobs, has said this: He hasn't seen any evidence of jobs being
created.
Well, according to the Council of Economic Advisers, the Recovery Act
created or saved more than 48,000 jobs in Virginia in 2009. In May, the
Congressional Budget Office reported that in the first quarter of 2010
the Recovery Act was responsible for an increase in the number of
people employed by 1.2 million, and 2.8 million. This is stunning.
And the job fair that Mr. Cantor had, and I congratulate him for
having a job fair. I congratulate the companies for coming, and I'm
very glad that the companies that were in the room had gotten $52
million in Recovery Act funds to create jobs.
Can you imagine?
This is not a partisan commitment to America. Wherever you are and
you need a job, our stimulus dollars have been there.
And so I hope that we can end our criticism of the Recovery Act,
because we know we can point out infrastructure projects and jobs
created in all of our home districts, and we can point to the
Democratic leadership where their message is jobs, jobs, jobs.
We have nothing to be ashamed of, but we must stay steady. We must
stay consistent. We must make sure that the unemployment insurance goes
out to our constituents. We're going to fight to the end to make sure
that that goes where it needs to go, and that is to the people who need
it.
And finally, I'm excited about the manufacturing spurt, surge that
we're going to continue when we take the message of buy America and
make it in America, we are creating jobs. And this Democratic
leadership believes that America is standing tall, and we will be a
country that recovers in a very, very special way.
And I'm delighted to be able to join with my friends who understand
that there is an American economic recovery. We know it, we see it, and
we're working on it.
I yield back.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Jackson Lee.
Thank you for joining us and for your leadership. You have really been
a stalwart fighter for the middle class and working families that
Democrats have always stood for and stood by, and it's just absolutely
critical that you've come down here tonight to help us get that message
out. So thank you so much.
And it's a really wonderful transition, the item that Ms. Jackson Lee
closed on, making sure that we can make things again. And focusing on
manufacturing and the resurgence of manufacturing in this country is a
perfect segue to the priorities and the message that I know my good
friend from Michigan, whose district I was just in this morning and had
the privilege of joining him in his district in Ann Arbor and had an
opportunity to meet with his constituents who are very supportive of
his efforts to create jobs here and to focus the needs on Michigan's
economy right here in Washington. So my good friend, Mark Schauer from
the great State of Michigan.
Mr. SCHAUER. Thank you, Congresswoman. I'm proud to be here tonight
to talk about our recovery, our economic recovery, about jobs, about a
manufacturing agenda, and a ``made it in America'' agenda.
The people that I represent in Michigan understand that we have a
fundamental problem with our economic recovery, and that is unfair
trade policies that have cost us in Michigan hundreds of thousands of
jobs.
I've cosponsored a bill to repeal NAFTA. I know there are different
views on that. My views are very clear, that we need to support trade
policies that put American jobs and American workers first.
The people at home that I represent have heard me say it, and I'm
proud to say it on the floor of the House of Representatives here
today. The time is now to fight for American jobs. The time is now to
fight for American jobs.
There's an issue that I'm working on that I think I've gotten some
attention of certainly Democratic leadership that wants to fight for
American jobs and manufacturing and American workers, and I think this
is an issue where my friends on the other side of the aisle will
embrace as well. I've already got one Republican cosponsor on H.R.
5312. And it's a very simple issue. It's about fairness. It's about
fair trade rather than trade policies that, again, have cost us
millions of jobs in this country.
What I learned as I've been fighting for fair trade and giving our
businesses, small businesses and large, an opportunity to make things
again in my State and in this country, is that we have been using our
tax dollars to support and create jobs in China rather than jobs here
in the United States of America. As I dug into this issue, quite
innocently, I was looking through some census promotional materials,
and I was shocked to find that some of those materials to promote
something that I support 110 percent, the United States Census, each of
our communities needs to get its fair share of dollars to support
education and housing and public safety, and so forth, but some of
these promotional materials, you guessed it, were made in China.
This is a key ring that--I carry this everywhere I go. And I show
small businesses, tool and die shops, small manufacturers, they tell me
that they could tool this little key chain, and it says, United States
Census 2010. They could have the tooling done, they could have their
manufacturing process ready in 1 week to make this little metal key
chain.
Now, what you may not be able to see at home, you may not be able to
read where it says United States Census. And again, I want to remind
you that your tax dollars are paying for this. There's a little
sticker, and you guessed it, it says ``made in China.''
Now, we can and we should make this with our tax dollars here. Now,
China, when they joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, did not
sign the government----
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Would the gentleman yield for a question on
the key chain?
Mr. SCHAUER. I will yield.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Have you had an opportunity to talk with the
Census Bureau about why it is that they are getting promotional
material that they're using to get Americans to complete the census
form from China?
Mr. SCHAUER. I have. Thank you for asking me that. I've heard a
couple of interesting answers.
{time} 2040
And I also have a hat. The people that I represent at home see me
with this hat. It's white, a very poor quality hat that says ``United
States Census 2010,'' you guessed it, made in China. And the United
States Census says, well, if products are substantially altered,
substantially altered--this sounds like bureaucratic speak--can qualify
as made in America.
So I guess what they consider substantially altered is this little
metal key chain that was made in China, apparently had the ``United
States Census 2010'' printing done in the U.S., and that's
substantially altered. The hat that I usually have with me--I don't
have it tonight--same thing: the hat is made in China.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. If the gentleman would yield for another
question. So essentially the screen printing that was done onto the
item, they define that as substantially altering the actual piece.
Mr. SCHAUER. Correct.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. So it's exempted?
Mr. SCHAUER. It satisfies the Buy American provision. I actually met
with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
[[Page H5531]]
about this--and by the way, I have been appointed to the President's
Export Council, and I plan to work on these American jobs issues--is if
there are certain orders that have to be done quickly, that there is a
loophole.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Okay, but can I ask you another question?
Mr. SCHAUER. Yes.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Because it's not like we don't know that we do
the census every 10 years and that we are going to need promotional
materials to promote the census.
Mr. SCHAUER. Exactly.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. So what would be the urgent nature or last-
minute ordering that would be done for key chains or hats? We know in
2020 we are going to need that. We know in 2030 we are going to need
that.
Mr. SCHAUER. Exactly right. Exactly right.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Stock up.
Mr. SCHAUER. The point is there is no good answer. And so we as
Democrats have to look at--we have to scour the law, all of our laws,
and look at Buy American provisions and make sure there are no
loopholes like these that allow our tax dollars to create jobs in other
countries. It's not just China. There are T-shirts, I think it was,
made in Honduras and so forth.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Would the gentleman yield just for a quick
comment? That very product, T-shirts, hats, and there may be many
others, just fits right in with small- and medium-sized businesses, the
very businesses that make jobs. I would yield to the gentleman for a
response on that. Isn't this the kind of products that fit right into
that?
Mr. SCHAUER. I was in Reading, Michigan, at a small business
appreciation dinner. And I took the hat, took the key chain, and I
said, Can anyone here make these? Hands went up. I mean, we can make
these things. We do. And, in fact, when I testified before the House
Ways and Means Committee on this issue, Congressman Sandy Levin held a
hearing on our trading relationship with China. And the other thing
that the Census Bureau says is, well, we don't make these things here,
or we don't put them out--you know, we can't find folks here in the
United States that make these.
I took seven or eight hats from my office representing different
groups in my district. One was from Grand Ledge High School, their
baseball team cap. They were all made in America. And of course those
items were of a much better quality than the hat that was made in
China.
My ultimate point is that China has been playing us for fools. China
has been playing us for fools. They are eating our lunch. We are
letting them do it. And so it's time for us collectively as Democrats,
and I hope our Republican colleagues join us in this fight, it's time
to fight for our jobs. This is a simple matter of fairness.
I will sum up this issue that what my bill does, it's a straight
issue of reciprocity, a true fair trade issue. And the way it works is
that we will allow Chinese companies the same access to our government
contracts as China's government is allowing our companies to have
access to their government contracts. So if that number in China is
zero, then you guessed it, no Chinese company will have access to our
government contracts. If the number is a million, then there will be
straight reciprocity. So it's time for us to decide which jobs we are
going to use our tax dollars to support. And I think the answer for us
as Democrats is those jobs are American jobs.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. And thank you so much for your
leadership on this, Congressman Schauer. Really, this is something that
you have been spearheading for a long time. And it's finally cracking
through. I know that it's a priority that we're going to be taking up
in the very near future. And I have a hunch that legislation is going
to definitely be sent over to the Senate. And they would be hard
pressed not to take it up.
With that, I want to turn it over to the very eloquent and
hardworking stalwart for creating jobs and helping us turn the economy
around in his home State of New York, Mr. Paul Tonko.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Wasserman Schultz, and thank you
for bringing us together to discuss an important aspect of the work we
do, creating jobs, providing the dignity of work for individuals and
families across this great country. And it's great to join with you and
Representative Jackson Lee, Representative Schauer. I know we are going
to be hearing from Representative Murphy.
But to be with everyone here and put our thoughts into a context that
allows people to understand where we are headed with this recovery
program, I think this chart expresses it in a very straightforward,
simplistic way, a simple straightforward decline for many months, where
we lost $17.5 trillion of household income, where 8.2 million jobs were
lost. We were headed for a deep, deep depression. And then this sharp
straight line upward, which now expresses a recovery.
And I should point out that many of us believe, all of us here on
this floor tonight believe, that we're not only recovering the economy,
but we're restructuring the economy. That's an important aspect of the
work we're doing. To create those jobs that will bring strength to the
American worker, provide economic vitality for the American family. And
so we see this clustering here of 6 months of recovery in the private
sector area of job creation and job retention.
This is an important aspect to the investment that has been made, the
policy reforms that have been initiated and responded to by this
administration and the leadership of this House. But there is more to
come. We're not satisfied with this.
But when we hear the critics from the other side of the aisle say
where's that great number of jobs, where are those new jobs, well, we
can point to these new jobs. They're there. They're a statistic.
They're historic now. Where were you to decry the loss of those jobs?
There was silence about the jobs being lost. There's huge contrast in
their approach to the jobs. We heard nothing with job loss. Now we're
hearing complaints, diminishing, of the efforts to create jobs,
especially in the private sector, which is happening.
I think rather than dwell on statistics, and all of my colleagues
have done this very well tonight about statistically showing that we're
making progress and that we've turned the corner and that there's been
a sharp U-turn in the response as a Nation for job creation, but I
think we need to put it in the big-picture framework of trust, of
competence.
This party, the Democrats, have come forward with a plan of action,
one that has saved a lot of effort of further loss, economic
consequences for American families. And we know who brought us that
steep red line of decline: it was a party that continues to espouse
privatization of Social Security, vouchering of Medicare, supporting
tax breaks to ship jobs offshore, to call the response to Wall Street
reform akin to attacking an ant with an atom bomb.
What a gross misrepresentation. What a gross unawareness of the
issues that brought this country's economy to its knees. And so I bring
forth that sort of contrast because I think it's what's governing the
response today. The positives, the optimism that we share, the reforms
we're promoting are swinging us upward. The contrast is that continued
effort to further push hard on the middle class, to not allow for
Medicare--a system that has worked well for our Nation's seniors--to
raise the age limit, the threshold for Social Security. All of these
efforts coming, all of this denouncement of Social Security, of
Medicare, that has stabilized people in their retirement years, are
what they advance and what they promote.
{time} 2050
Are you going to trust that thinking, that party, to continually pull
us into the red, or are you going to look at Democratic action where
we've resisted this sort of behavior, where we are believing we can
grow the economy, where we are embracing the theme that we are going to
make it in America again? Let American workers know that we're standing
for that turnaround.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
Mr. TONKO. I most certainly will.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you. Because I wanted to ask you, the
[[Page H5532]]
way you're characterizing our colleagues' view--and I want to bring our
good friend, Mr. Murphy, into this discussion because he and I, in the
2006 to 2008, in the 110th Congress, we spent quite a bit of time on
the House floor talking about the Republicans' efforts to privatize
Social Security. And I'm wondering if your characterization of their
agenda is one that you--is this something that you think is--is it your
opinion?
From what I understand, we have a number of different third party
validators that can document that they have consistently supported
privatization of Social Security and vouchering of the Medicare system
as we know it.
Mr. TONKO. Oh, absolutely. As stated on the floor, we know what
people want. We know where they want to take us. And I just think the
contrast needs to be shared, because that same thinking is prevalent in
terms of economic recovery, of economic development policies, of the
sort of stopping of the bleeding that we promoted here in the House by
inserting a new order of thinking.
You know, even with the energy crisis, with the devastation--
Representative Jackson Lee, you see it from where you sit, and
Representative Wasserman Schultz, you see it from the Florida
perspective, Texas perspective--the gulf has been impacted. And for
people from the cheap energy voice in this House, coming from the
Energy and Commerce Committee, required an apology, demanded an apology
from the President for coming down hard on BP. And all of the
devastation to the economy, to the people, 11 lives lost, the ecosystem
being devastated. That's another sign of difference where there isn't
trust, in my opinion, or confidence.
So people, I think, are going to take a look at this and say, Let's
continue this. The path out of the damaged zone may not be as quick as
we would have liked, but it is happening. It is happening in a positive
measurement and its growth in the private sector of job creation for 6
continuous months.
So I just think that contrast is important in the discussion that we
have here tonight on the floor of the House.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. Really, you have
hammered home, you're here night after night, week after week, to make
sure that we can talk to the American people, illuminate not just our
efforts on turning the economy around and creating jobs but our
successes.
And someone who has been really focused on creating jobs, making
sure, as a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, making
sure that we do that through our innovation agenda, through our passage
of the global warming and climate change legislation and also through
health care reform, is the leader from the great State of Connecticut,
Congressman Chris Murphy.
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you very much, Representative
Wasserman Schultz, Representative Tonko, Representative Jackson Lee.
Listen, everybody should take a look at that chart that was next to
Representative Tonko. It's not a coincidence that from month to month
to month in the last year of the Bush administration we lost more and
more and more jobs, and then immediately upon the new President,
President Obama, taking office, we started to lose less and less and
less jobs to the point now where we are adding jobs to the economy.
It's because the stimulus has worked. It is because it is infusing new
money into the economy. It is because tax rates are the lowest in this
country since 1950. People have more money to spend than ever before.
It's because we put money in the hands of teachers and firefighters and
police officers and renewable energy companies and solar companies and
advanced battery technology companies. The leading edge of our economy
is creating jobs. It's because manufacturing is coming back.
To Mr. Schauer's point in June, 9,000 new manufacturing jobs in this
economy. Since December, 136,000 new manufacturing jobs. The economy is
heading in the right direction because we're putting new policies into
place that are investing in small manufacturers, in small businesses,
in Main Street.
And that's the dichotomy here. I mean, that's why I ran for Congress
4 years ago, because I watched Washington, I watched the Bush
administration put all of its focus on the haves, on the big
multinational companies, on the big oil companies, the big
pharmaceutical companies, the big defense contractors, and very little
emphasis on the small manufacturer with 10 employees around the corner
from me; very little emphasis on the small mom-and-pop business that
was struggling to get by paying for the energy costs and the health
care costs that were padding the pockets of the big guys. That's the
fundamental shift that's happened here, and you see it on issue after
issue.
You see it in our approach to energy as, Mr. Tonko, you said we're
investing in small renewable energy companies while the Republican
leadership, on issues of energy, are asking for apologies to BP. You
see it on health care reform, where we're putting power in the hands of
consumers; whereas, the Republicans, when they tried their stab at
health care reform with the Medicare Prescription Drug Act, put all the
power in the hands of insurance companies and drug companies. And you
see it with respect to manufacturing.
What we're talking about as Democrats is reinvigorating American
manufacturing, to stop this defeatist notion that we can't make things
here in America anymore. That's what sort of drove the House of
Representatives when the Republicans were in charge was manufacturing
is dead. They can't do it here any longer; we're just going to sign
free trade agreements with any country that comes to us without any
regard to fair trade, that we're going to allow jobs to flow out to
China, to India, to Mexico.
Democrats and the Obama administration refuse to give in to that
notion. And I think you are going to see, over the course of the next
several weeks and several months on this House floor, Democrats in the
House of Representatives standing up for American manufacturing and
saying we can make it here in the United States.
Mr. Schauer's initiative is right on, right on. If we can start
standing up to countries like China and say, Listen, if you're going
to--if you want free trade with the United States, then you have to
allow us to sell to you just like you sell to us. I think it starts
with the way that we buy things for the American Government.
A number of us are working on legislation that we hope will come
before the floor very shortly that will say simply this: When the
American Government buys things, whether it be for the census or
whether it be for the Defense Department, let's buy it here in the
United States.
Sure, you might be able to find that part for the jet engine 10
percent cheaper in China, but that job being created in China rather
than in a machine shop in New York or Connecticut is costing our
government, is costing our economy way more than the 10 percent you
saved in lost wages, in lost taxes, and in increased social safety net
costs like unemployment compensation.
So I'm looking forward to this summer and this fall as we build on
the work that we've done here, when Democrats do what we're good at
doing, which is standing up for small guys, for little guys, for
American manufacturing, and that we put an end to what has been a
decade-long defeatist attitude in this country and in this government
to just allow for manufacturing to go to the folks that can do it for
the cheapest and who can do it with the lowest and the worst
environmental and labor regulations around.
I think we're going to stand up for American manufacturing. I think
we're going to continue this trend of growing manufacturing jobs. I
think it's going to be part, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, of the story of the
recovery and the resurgence of the American economy.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you very much for helping us share that
story with the American people and with our constituents, because it's
absolutely critical, as we turn the corner and go through the summer,
that we make sure that we talk about our efforts to continue to focus
on job creation, and particularly on tax cuts for working families and
the middle class because it's such a dramatic shift from where we were.
And as we get closer and closer to the choice that Americans will be
making in November, it's
[[Page H5533]]
going to be critical that people understand the choice that they're
going to be making. They can backslide toward the Bush era, where the
focus was exclusively on the wealthiest few in America, exclusively on
the largest corporations and the trickle-down theory of economics that
was disproven time and again, or we can continue to go in the
direction, the new direction that we have been pursuing, which is
focusing on job creation, focusing on making sure that the middle class
can thrive.
And there is no one that knows that effort better than my good friend
Tom Perriello from the great State of Virginia.
Mr. PERRIELLO. Thank you so much for bringing this group together to
talk about jobs.
As the gentleman from Connecticut mentioned, we can build things,
make things, and grow things better than anyone else in the world if we
give the American people a chance. For too many years, the other side
has had a strategy of saying if we just nickel-and-dime the middle
class enough, maybe we can win a race to the bottom with China. If we
just cut into our environment enough, maybe we can win a race to the
bottom with China. That's been the Republican strategy. We will not win
a race to the bottom with China.
Our side wants to win a race to the top with China. We can outcompete
China and India as well as Europe and Japan if we unleash the
innovation, entrepreneurship of the American people that comes from our
small businesses, if we understand that instead of bailing out the
biggest companies for their failures we start to give just a little bit
of support to our small business owners, our entrepreneurs, our
scientists, our innovators.
{time} 2100
We made a down payment last year on rebuilding America's competitive
advantage. We made a down payment to unleash the research and
development, the technology and the innovation in our small businesses.
And we also understand that to win that race to the top against China,
we have to have a 21st century workforce, so we have made college a
little more affordable.
But it is not just kids headed to college. We also want to invest in
those who want to learn a trade or career in technical training. That
can be the difference between making minimum wage and 20 bucks an hour.
Sometimes in this city or on Wall Street the difference between minimum
wage and 20 bucks an hour doesn't seem like a whole lot, but to people
back home it is the difference between being able to support your
family or not, being able to pay those bills or not.
And we have tried to go after those who are nickle and diming the
working class and the middle class in this country, the utilities, the
credit card companies, the health insurance companies and others that
have been bankrupting our small business owners and our working class
and middle-class folks.
We can still build it here. We are already seeing this in the energy
sector. As many of the people here tonight have talked about, our
farmers can be on the front line of that struggle for America's energy
independence. Our manufacturing in our district is actually exporting
to Asia on high quality efficiency technologies.
But it is not going to happen by pulling in our shell. It is not
going to happen by thinking small. It is not going to happen by
doubting the resolve of the American spirit, the American individual,
the American entrepreneur. It is going to be doing it by giving that
support.
Right now we can be doing more to rebuild this Nation's
infrastructure; the infrastructure of yesterday, our sewage, our water,
our roads; and of tomorrow, our broadband technology, our electric grid
technology, so that we have the most efficient system. That is how we
outcompete the world. We can still do this better than anyone else. We
must call all of us to that best self right now to outcompete, and we
are not going to do it by taking our foot off the pedal right now.
We are in tough economic times. Our American families feel it. Just
this last week I did a tour of over a dozen Main Streets in my district
in central and southern Virginia, talking to small business owners who
spent a lifetime building up their business, their clientele, their
reputation, to one day sell that business in order to be able to retire
securely.
Times are tough. That is not where we live right now in terms of Main
Street. But we have to start putting Main Street ahead of Wall Street,
and I mean the kind of values we have on Main Street, of basic decency
and accountability. That is what we need in terms of real Wall Street
reform. That is what we mean in terms of transparency, like the
DISCLOSE Act.
Where I come from, if you want to say something, you stand by it. You
put your name by it. That is the simple rule of the DISCLOSE Act. To
Wall Street, we are just saying if you don't have the money, you
shouldn't be able to lend out the money. I think we need to do more to
put a hard cap on these leverage restrictions. And I mean Main Street
jobs, and thinking we still need those jobs for people that they can
support a family with.
The people here tonight are dedicated to that working and middle-
class American who has been struggling in these tough economic times,
to make it a little easier to get that business started, a little
easier to get through the tough times, a little easier to get that
child off to college or to trade school, and a little easier to make
sure that you are going to have a secure retirement.
I look forward to this month, because we are in an urgent time. This
is not a time for political games by either side. This is a time where
we shouldn't leave until we have launched a manufacturing strategy and
an agricultural strategy for the 21st century, where we have helped to
put our construction crews back to work making this country more
efficient.
We can do these things, I have no doubt that we can, and I believe
that we will continue to fight the people here to make sure that that
happens and that we will see that economic growth and recovery back on
Main Street.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much, Mr. Perriello, and thank
you for your leadership in your district and the optimism and hope that
you fight for every single day.
You know, it really always boggles my mind how the Republicans wake
up every morning, come to work and decide, I am going to be an
obstructionist today. I think today I am going to figure out yet
another way to say no. And rather than come to the table and work with
us, because they need jobs in their districts too, instead, they vote
no here, and then they do like the minority whip did just in the last
week when he was home in his district. After voting no on the Recovery
Act and being critical of the Recovery Act, he didn't have any problem
showing up and taking credit for one of the projects funded by the
Recovery Act in his district. I think Americans really see through that
transparent attempt at hypocrisy.
We are a party of genuine articles. We are Members who work hard
every day to make sure that we can get it done for the American people
and get this economy turned around.
There is no one that works harder at that in rural America than my
good friend Lincoln Davis from the great State of Tennessee.
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Debbie, it is certainly good to be here. And
as I have listened to the debate, the discussions that we have had
about creating jobs in America, I think personally to go back and check
a little bit of history, I represent a unique congressional district,
but so do 434 other Members of the U.S. House. The district I represent
is the fourth most rural residential congressional district in this
country. It has the third highest number of blue collar workers.
We are hurting in the Fourth Congressional District, as we are
throughout America. And what we have been seeing in the last several
years is an administration and those who truly do not understand, not
only rural America, but those who live in urban and inner-city as well.
As an example, starting on January 1st, 2008, through October 31st,
2009, we lost eight million jobs in this country, eight million moms
and dads, eight million working sons and daughters who lost their jobs
starting in January. I am not talking about 2007, I am talking about
just in that 22-month period alone, eight million jobs. During the
[[Page H5534]]
Bush administration, around one million jobs were created, new jobs in
the time January 1st of 2001 through the time that George Bush left
office on January 20th of 2009.
If you take that growth number during that period of 8 years and look
how long it would take us to find the jobs to replace the eight million
that were lost, it would take 64 years at the same growth rate during
the Bush administration.
So for the folks on the other side of the aisle, start using math.
When you use the math, be sure it adds up to what you are saying.
When we look at eight million jobs that we have lost starting in
January, the last 13 months of the Bush administration, through October
31st of 2009, if we were to create 200,000 jobs a month--during the
Clinton administration that is what happened, about 250,000 on the
average jobs per month during the 8 years that Clinton was President.
But if we take those numbers, it will take over 3 years to just replace
the eight million jobs we lost as a result of the trade policies and
the policies of the Bush administration.
So if we want to start analyzing and blaming folks, let's get the
facts straight. Let's get the figures right. People in my district
don't care who it is, whether it is Bush or whether it is the Obama
administration, whether it is the Clinton administration. They want
jobs.
How will we create those? Through the eighties, in the area I
represent, the apparel industry and the textile industry was a great
part of the low wages, quite frankly, and some of the low-skilled jobs
that we had.
My brother worked at a garment factory that worked almost 1,500
people in 1983. As a result of the trade deals that we cut with the
Caribbean steel initiative and the Andean region, as the result of the
tax policy that we had, we reduced taxes on the richest people in
America from 70 percent, as it was on January 1, 1981, to 28 percent
was the max.
I am not complaining because we had a tax cut, but here is what I do
disagree with. We also during that period of time told small business
folks, I am sorry, the depreciation schedules you had, 10 to 15 years,
are no longer in place. It is going to take you 30-plus years now. So
in essence what we told small business folks, you no longer have the
tax breaks that you had at one time. You no longer have the tax
incentives to create jobs for folks who live in rural America and
inner-city or urban areas, because what we are doing is giving the tax
breaks to the wealthiest individual wage earners, not small business
folks.
When the other side talks about helping small business engage, let's
really get serious about a tax policy through depreciation schedules
that will encourage small business folks, the creator of 70 percent of
the jobs in our country, an opportunity to start revitalizing America
again.
In 1970, one out of four people worked in manufacturing in this
country. Today it is one in 10. Let me repeat that. One out of four
people worked in manufacturing. One in 10 does today. Where are those
jobs?
In 1998, we signed an agreement, this country did, and I have to
blame the Clinton administration and perhaps Mr. Rubin, who was the
Treasurer at that time, we signed trade deals called GATT, General
Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, and we brought two large countries,
India and China, which has a third of the world's population, into the
WTO.
{time} 2110
In 1998, you could not find an American label in China. It's hard to
find an American label in America today. They're all over there. And
when you purchase an item today that has always had an American label
on it, whether it's toys, whether it's clothing, or whatever it may be,
that American label is still stamped on it to look where it's made. It
was made here at one time in this country. So from my standpoint, we've
got to revisit many things that have caused us to lose 8 million jobs
in 22 months. And if we don't do something about it, we'll never be
able to regain those. We'll continue to see our economy and America
slide backward when it comes to industrial development and economic
growth.
I propose--and I hope that we can possibly take a serious look at a
bipartisan effort to revisit the trade deals--the free trade deals--and
make them reciprocal trade deals. Reciprocity means each of us shares
equally. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. From this
standpoint, when we also gave fast track to the former President to
actually make the deals and send them to Congress, where we can't
change those deals, it hamstrung the advocates for America, the direct
representatives for America. The U.S. House of Representatives was
denied an opportunity to amend any trade agreement.
So as we engage in trade in the future--and my time is running
short--we need to realize 8 million jobs, 200,000 jobs created a month
more than what we had starting the first of the month. It will take us
almost 3 years to recover the jobs we lost in the last budget year with
the Bush administration. I don't really like to be partisan, but I hear
so much rhetoric from the other side. No one is pointing out the facts.
It's time for the facts, and it's time the American people start
listening to the facts rather than listening to bumper sticker slogans.
It's America, folks. It's our country, folks. It's not about
Democratic or Republic politics. It's not about ideologues. An
ideologue looks for the future. It's reality today. And the future will
be reality when it appears. The ideologues will never have it where
they want it--on the left or the right. It's time we start worrying
about America again and creating jobs for all of us in this Nation.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much, Mr. Davis. Really, I think
it's so incredible. We had nine Members join us tonight for this hour.
And we had the full philosophical spectrum--from the most conservative
member of our caucus to the moderates to progressive members of our
caucus. And that shows not only the big tent that we are in the
Democratic Caucus but that we really are a reflection of America and
American values, whether it's making sure that we can create jobs in
rural America or the most urban core. It's absolutely critical.
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Would you yield?
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Yes.
Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. I notice there's a chart up showing the huge
deficits. When Barack Obama was elected President, the first 30 days of
his term he had to renew a trillion dollars and pay the interest on it.
If John McCain had been elected, he would have had to renew a trillion
dollars that he didn't bring to the table. Whoever was elected
President and sworn in on January 20 in 2009, the next 30 days we had
$12 trillion in total national debt. You look at that on a monthly
basis, that's a trillion a month we have to renew and pay the interest
on it. It didn't matter who it was. So as we look at the national debt,
please, America, yeah, we need to reduce the deficit. And we're working
on that. We call that pay-as-you-go. We need performance-based
programming in our budget.
And so I would just want to remind you: 8 million jobs lost, starting
on January 1, 2008, America, and the current President, regardless of
who it is--Barack Obama or if it had been John McCain--had $1 trillion
every month since they'd been President to renew and pay the interest
on.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. You're absolutely right. Thank you so much for
your leadership and for joining us this evening.
To close us out in the hour, we have a duo from the great State of
Pennsylvania. Both of them are freshmen. The gentlelady from
Pennsylvania was particularly pleased, I know, when her colleague from
Pennsylvania was elected recently in a special election because that
made her not one of the most junior Members in the Chamber. Now he
holds that title. But the gentlelady from Pennsylvania, Mrs. Kathy
Dahlkemper.
Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Thank you so much. I appreciate the gentlewoman from
Florida's leadership here. I want to reiterate my good friend from
Tennessee brought up some of the important numbers that need be brought
up. I'm from western Pennsylvania, as is my fellow colleague who has
now made me not the junior Member. We have a manufacturing-based
economy. And the numbers that my friend from Tennessee talked about are
the numbers
[[Page H5535]]
that I have seen not in the past 2 years but over the last 12 or 15
years in terms of good manufacturing jobs lost in our region.
And what I find most exciting about this recovery that we are in is
that we are making things again. And it's already been talked about
tonight. But we are making things in America again. For the 11th
consecutive month, the manufacturing sector has expanded in this
country. We have got to depend on making things for our economic
growth, not on the paper industry of Wall Street. And we have seen the
problems with that, starting in 2007 and beyond.
I want to bring up a few highlights from an article from the Erie
Daily Times today, an article that talked about Erie County, where my
home is from: manufacturing employment rose in May for the third month
in a row. Viking Plastic in Erie County had increased employment from a
low of 65 workers to nearly 100. GE Transportation, which reduced
payroll by 1,500 workers in 2009, has called back 200 permanent and
temporary workers.
Economic growth is being seen throughout my district in the
manufacturing sector. I visited a small electronics manufacturer, AMS
Electronics, in Butler, Pennsylvania. They're performing well, despite
the downturn, having increased their client base with the help of their
local manufacturing extension partnership, a program that we fund
through an act called the America COMPETES Act, which has recently been
passed through the House.
So there is good news coming out of western Pennsylvania. Just even
yesterday, I was at Donjon Shipping, a new manufacturer. We're building
currently a tug boat; working on a barge next. Making things, permanent
products that are going to be helping to improve the wealth of our
Nation and bring great jobs here.
So I want to just reiterate what so many of my colleagues have said
tonight, that there is good news. America is recovering. Not as fast as
those out there need us to. Obviously, too many people still
unemployed. But when you've lost 8 million jobs, 8 million jobs. We're
on track this year to create more jobs than were created under 8 years
of the Bush administration. I think that's important to remember.
So we are moving forward. We are creating jobs in this country. I
just wanted to tell a little bit about the good news from western
Pennsylvania. I want to thank everyone for their help tonight here with
bringing this message to the American people--the message that we are
continuing to recover. This summer we're going to see what we call the
``summer of stimulus,'' where we're going to see, I think, great
numbers with highway projects that will increase by more than 600
percent from July of 2009 to this July.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentlelady yield?
Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Yes.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Given that you're from a State that is in the
heart of the Manufacturing Belt, can you talk a little bit about what
is going on in your district and the efforts that we're making here to
create jobs and what kind of progress the recent surge in manufacturing
has brought to communities in Pennsylvania?
Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. One of the great things about my part of
Pennsylvania, and I really think Pennsylvania in general--I have to be
a bit biased here--but we have a great ethic and we have people with
great skills. We have been a manufacturing-based economy for a long
time. So when businesses come there and they see the work ethic of the
people, they want to stay, expand, and grow. And what we're doing is
trying to provide that climate that will allow our businesses to grow
and to provide those opportunities maybe for those new entrepreneurs
that they have an opportunity to actually take that product that really
could do great things in our country and do great things actually
throughout the world. Because I see more and more of our businesses
actually exporting also, and work that was going to Mexico and to China
actually coming back, because we can make anything as well, if not
better, than anybody else in the world. And we know that.
So we're working hard. As I mentioned, great numbers coming out of
our district because there's new products, there's new clientele,
there's expansion and creation going on throughout many different
sectors of our manufacturing-based economy. And so whether we're
talking about some of the tax credits and incentives we've been trying
to do either through the recovery package or with other pieces of
legislation, we are working hard to get back to that manufacturing
base. At least from my part of the world, my part of the country, it's
important. I know not so much in Florida, but in Pennsylvania it
certainly is the backbone of our economy, along with agriculture.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mrs. Dahlkemper, it's okay. You're right. In
Florida, we don't have a strong manufacturing base, but we want to make
sure that folks in Pennsylvania are able to thrive economically so they
can come down and vacation and they can afford to take a vacation and
come down to south Florida and across my beautiful home State and spend
their hard-earned dollars that they have been able to use and invest in
their small business and come down and make sure that they can help our
economy thrive.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We yield back the balance of our time and
thank the Speaker for the opportunity and look forward to hearing from
our colleagues.
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