[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15499]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 FALSE POSITIVES ON THE ECONOMIC FRONT

  (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot recently about the so-
called improving economy, but I want to bring my colleagues' attention 
on both sides of the aisle to the fact that 90 percent of the new jobs 
created since August of 2003 are in industries that pay an average 
hourly wage that is less than the national average, or that many of 
these new jobs are part-time or temporary.
  So the President says, look, I have only lost, with this upturn in 
the last 3 months, I have only lost 1.5 million jobs. If Clinton ever 
came before us and said that, we would all have booed him out of here, 
and my Republican colleagues know it.
  They have never mentioned that since the tax cut took effect there 
are actually 2.3 million fewer jobs than the administration projected 
that would be created by the enactment of its tax cuts.
  Merrill Lynch put it more aptly: The number of millionaires jumped 14 
percent last year. There is a middle-class squeeze. The Bush tax cuts, 
which included a reduction in the top tax rate as well as reductions in 
taxes on estates, led the Wall Street Journal to report: This helped 
bolster the fortunes of the fortunate.

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