[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H1398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         RECENT FISCAL HISTORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate the gentleman 
from North Carolina for the remarks he just made. He is a Republican 
and I am a Democrat, but I will tell you this: We are friends, and we 
work together. And he is one of the most conscientious Members of this 
House, who follows his conscience and his moral values in making 
decisions. He gave a very moving and important speech on the floor 
today. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Jones, from North Carolina.
  Mr. Speaker, when I come to the floor to speak about our country's 
recent fiscal history, I am often told there is no point in looking 
back. But Majority Leader Cantor got it entirely right when he wrote 
this: ``The future will not be won by repeating the mistakes of the 
past.'' The future will not be won by repeating the mistakes of the 
past. Unfortunately, however, we are proceeding on a path that shows 
little inclination to live by those words.
  Once again, our Republican colleagues are using the language of 
fiscal responsibility, but pursuing policies of fiscal 
irresponsibility. Our colleagues across the aisle trumpet the $100 
billion in domestic discretionary spending they voted to cut from our 
budget. However, their actions belie those words. Their very first 
action in this new Congress was to approve policies, a rule package, 
that would provide for borrowing an additional $5 trillion, unpaid for. 
Their budget policy would give us the worst of both worlds.
  On the one hand, they failed to take on the real fiscal challenges. 
And, very frankly, there is blame to share across this Chamber, 
Republicans and Democrats, for failing to take on those challenges. But 
the policies they're pursuing would even make our situation worse. On 
the other hand, the cuts they do make are taken out of vital 
investments that would grow our economy and create jobs. As I will 
mention later on, some 700,000 to 800,000 jobs over the next 18 months, 
it is projected, would be cost by the adoption of their policies. This 
combination is not new. It is a repeat of Republican fiscal policy in 
the past.
  Let's look at the evidence. First of all on deficits, what this chart 
shows is everything below this line is a deficit. Everything above this 
line is a surplus. Obviously, what you want is the deficit going down 
into surplus. What you don't want is going from surplus into deficit. 
You will notice that the Reagan administration, Reagan-Bush, are noted 
in this first red quadrant, and the Clinton administration going from 
deep debt to surplus, then the Bush administration going from surplus 
into deep debt. And the Obama administration trying to get out of the 
extraordinarily tanking, receding economic status, invested in bringing 
us out, and now we see us coming out.
  It shows how the fiscally responsible policies adopted under 
President Clinton took us into surplus. It unfortunately shows that 
when we reversed those policies in 2001, we then went back into deep 
deficits. We all know how those predictions that Republicans made when 
we adopted this economic program, for which none of the Republicans in 
the House or the Senate voted for, they said economic catastrophe would 
occur. That was their analysis. That was their economic prediction. In 
fact, exactly the opposite happened, and we created 22 million new jobs 
for Americans. This deficit chart also shows how our record surplus was 
squandered during the Bush administration.
  The second chart I want to show you talks about government spending. 
We have to cut spending. We all know that. We all talk about it. But 
let's look at who actually did cut government spending.
  Again, government spending was up and down, but at a rate higher than 
it was under the Clinton administration where spending, as a percentage 
of our gross domestic product, almost without exception, went down. So 
when we talk about spending, we have a record of restraining and 
cutting spending. In fact, that was a partnership, frankly, because 
Republicans agreed to make compromises with the Democratic President.
  However, when they controlled the Presidency, the House, and the 
Senate, you will see that spending went up sharply once again. Again we 
see government spending as a percentage of the economy rising under 
President Bush, and after the emergency measures needed to respond to 
the recession, starting to come down after the recession was 
ameliorated.
  Real median wages. I want to show this chart as well. Because, after 
all, these are nice statistics, but what does it do for people? What is 
the impact on them? Real median wages sort of stuck. And I will end 
with this and complete the rest of my statement later, Mr. Speaker. But 
you will see that median wages under President Clinton's administration 
went up, and then they were flat. And they are going up again now under 
President Obama. Too slowly to be sure.
  Mr. Speaker, I will continue these remarks, because if we do not 
learn from the past, if we repeat the failed policies of yesterday, our 
people will not be well served.

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