[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23656]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S ECONOMIC POLICIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Miller of Michigan). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Madam Speaker, last February the President's Council of 
Economic Advisors forecast that, as a result of the economic policies 
of the Bush Administration, there would be 510,000 new jobs generated 
this year. Here we are on the advent of October; and in order for that 
prediction of last February to succeed, 947,000 jobs would have to be 
created between now and December 31, in other words, within the next 14 
weeks. I wish the President's Council of Economic Advisors luck because 
this administration, aided and abetted by this Congress, has lost 
437,000 jobs so far this year. We have had record job losses under this 
administration and that includes the 93,000 jobs that were lost in 
August alone. We do not yet have the figures of course for September, 
but it is likely that we will be seeing some similar amount of job 
loss.
  This administration and this Congress have given us the worst 
economic performance in more than 70 years; 2.7 seven million jobs have 
been lost since the neoconservative Republicans have controlled both 
the White House and the Congress. They have also done other things 
which are huge in their consequences. They have given us the largest 
budget deficit in history, and they have also provided the Nation with 
a record national debt.
  Just recently we learned from the Census Bureau that America is now 
poorer than it was last year, just as it was poorer last year than it 
was the year before. Median income of the average American family has 
dropped by more than $1,000 within the last year. America and its 
families are poorer today than they were this time last year. Poverty 
is up.
  These are the statistics, bare statistics. They only begin to tell 
the difficult story that has fallen on American families all across 
this country. We need a reversal in these policies, and we need it 
quickly.

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