[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21275]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THE TROUBLED BUSH ECONOMY

  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, this week we celebrated Labor Day. But for 
9 million jobless Americans, there was no celebration at all, and 
sadly, their ranks are growing.
  Today's Wall Street Journal notes that employers cut jobs for the 
seventh consecutive month in August, raising the total of job losses 
since the start of the year to over 431,000. Since George Bush took 
office, the number of unemployed Americans has grown by 3.2 million. 
This is the most dismal record since Herbert Hoover. Worse yet, the 
number of Americans experiencing long-term unemployment, which is 
defined as over 27 months, has nearly doubled since George Bush took 
office.
  These are staggering numbers. A famous Republican once asked ``Are 
you better off than you were 4 years ago?'' It seems very fitting to 
ask now, are we better off than we were 3 years ago? The answer is a 
resounding no.

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