[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 166 (Thursday, September 24, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4891-H4892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROMISE OF OPERATION WARP SPEED
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, Operation Warp Speed moves
us closer to a cure for COVID-19. Thanks to President Trump, the
administration, and the private sector, a viable vaccine is now within
reach.
Operation Warp Speed has proceeded at an unprecedented pace, and it
reflects a profound level of urgency. It is a direct reflection of
President Trump's commitment to protecting the American people.
Taxpayers at the Federal level have committed over $10 billion to
support the development of a vaccine, and the private sector has
stepped up to meet this challenge head-on.
Keep in mind that many vaccines and their subsequent clinical trials
can take many years to complete. Without a doubt, we are closer to
eradicating COVID-19 thanks to Operation Warp Speed.
Progrowth Policies Benefit Americans
Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, in a recent report released
by the U.S. Census, it was revealed that the median household income in
the United States rose by 6.8 percent in 2019. I want to repeat that.
The median household income in the United States rose by 6.8 percent in
2019.
This was the highest annual increase on record, and it is all thanks
to the commonsense, progrowth policies that are being led by President
Trump and congressional Republicans.
Not surprisingly, household incomes also grew 50 percent faster last
year than the entire 8 years of the Obama administration.
The good news doesn't stop there. New small business applications
increased twice as much in President Trump's first 2 years in office
versus President Obama's last 2.
Mr. Speaker, it is quite evident that progrowth policies are the
difference between inflating government bureaucracy and empowering
American families. It is just that simple.
Mr. Speaker, on September 23, there was an article in The Washington
Times titled ``Trump creates jobs. Biden destroys them. It's not
complicated,'' and I include in the Record the article.
Trump creates jobs. Biden destroys them. It's not complicated.
Trump's record proves that he knows how to create a strong
economy.
Donald Trump has proven that he knows what it takes to
create jobs on a massive scale and ensure that prosperity is
shared by all Americans. Democrat presidential nominee Joe
Biden doesn't even know how many letters are in the word
``jobs.''
President Trump's record proves that he knows how to create
a strong and growing economy that generates enormous
opportunity for all Americans to succeed. Prior to the
artificial contraction caused by the coronavirus pandemic,
the national unemployment rate had been consistently hovering
at a 50-year low, and joblessness had reached the lowest
level ever recorded for both black and Hispanic workers.
The president's pro-growth economic policies played a major
role in creating the strongest economy in history, which was
a particularly impressive feat after eight years of
stagnation under the Obama-Biden administration. The 2017 Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act, for example, cut taxes for every income
bracket, particularly benefitting middle-income Americans.
The tax bill also created Opportunity Zones, driving tens of
billions of dollars in new investment to historically
underdeveloped communities in every state, providing jobs,
housing, and infrastructure necessary to revive those
communities.
Mr. Trump's emphasis on targeted deregulation has also made
it easier and more efficient to create jobs and start new
business ventures in this country.In 2012, halfway through
the Obama-Biden era, federal regulations were placing a
massive burden on the small businesses that account for
almost half of all jobs in this country, costing an average
of $11,724 each year in regulatory compliance costs for each
new employee they hired. The Trump administration slashed
tens of billions of dollars worth of harmful, job-killing
regulations, saving American households over $3,000 per year
on average. Mr. Biden, however, is vowing to undo these
effective policies and replace them with even more crippling
taxes and regulations than before, particularly on middle-
income Americans. His proposals to eliminate entire
industries such as fracking and increase the federal minimum
wage to $15 per hour would be a blow to small- and medium-
sized businesses that are only just getting back on their
feet after months of pandemic-related lockdowns.
We don't have to take him at his word, though. Mr. Biden, a
career politician who has spent nearly half a century in
Washington, has a long history of supporting job-killing
policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), which cost Americans over a million jobs. Mr. Biden
also supported normalizing trade relations
[[Page H4892]]
with China, paving the way for the repressive communist
country to secure membership in the World Trade Organization
(WTO), leading to the loss of over 60,000 American factories
and millions more blue collar jobs.
The former vice president clearly has no idea how to manage
an economy, and his extensive record of bungling the job as
both a senator and vice president proves it. Under the Obama-
Biden administration's job-killing policies, the American
middle class experienced a double-whammy in the aftermath of
the Great Recession, contributing to this country's slowest
economic recovery since World War II.
While Mr. Biden was still struggling to pinpoint just how
many letters are in the word ``jobs,'' former President Obama
entrusted him to manage the administration's economic
recovery agenda--and it turned out to be a miserable failure.
President Trump turned things around in a hurry once he took
office, and he's already working the same magic as he
orchestrates a ``V-shaped'' recovery from the artificial
coronavirus downturn. Results matter, and Donald Trump is the
only candidate with a proven track record of delivering the
sort of results the American people need.
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