[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18178-18179]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       U.S. ECONOMY IS IN A MESS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, every time I hear the administration 
announce that the economy is going very well, I wish they could ride 
home on a United Airlines flight with me. On the way back today, four 
out of the six

[[Page 18179]]

flight attendants raised the same question with me: Is there money in 
the pension guarantee fund for our pensions?
  Mr. Speaker, we know that this country is in a mess. USAir declared 
bankruptcy this morning. There go the pension for those folks. And 
Delta Airlines over the weekend, they are talking about it. They are 
saying if the pilots take those pensions, they will bankrupt the 
company; it will be gone. United is in the same position. All those 
people who were out there with Enron, Enron went down; and what did 
they have left? All they had left was Social Security. Nothing, if this 
administration had its way.
  We have an administration that has to be changed. We have lost 1.4 
million people's health insurance, 1.5 million people's jobs, and 
countless numbers of pensions. The regime change ought to come in 49 
days.

                          ____________________