[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13922]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ARE WE BETTER OFF?

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration has demonstrated a 
complete failure to plan for our operations in Iraq and a complete 
failure to plan here at home. One has to ask, Are we better off than we 
were 4 years ago?
  When President Bush took office, we had a $236 billion budget surplus 
and the Nation had created 22 million jobs over the previous 8 years.

                              {time}  1015

  The number of uninsured had decreased for the first time in 12 years, 
and the country had the lowest poverty rate in 20 years.
  Today, 8.2 million are Americans looking for work; 1.8 million 
private sector jobs have been lost. The number of uninsured has 
increased by 3.8 million, and gas prices are at a 23-year high. 
Household income has decreased by almost $1,500, and college tuition is 
up by 28 percent. This is absolutely not acceptable, and it is not 
something that just happened.
  President Bush had only one economic policy when he took office and 
he had only one today, tax cuts for those who need them least.

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