[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TROUBLING ECONOMIC NEWS

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, as we returned for this lame duck session, 
we are confronted with a slew of troubling economic news. Just 
yesterday we learned that inflation is up by 1.7 percent, the sharpest 
monthly increase in over 15 years. The value of the dollar is dropping 
to all-time new lows. We also learned that the Pension Benefit 
Guarantee Corporation's long-term deficit doubled from $11.2 billion to 
$23.3 billion, a deficit resulting from the PBGC assuming 
responsibilities for pension plans of 192 failed companies, up from 155 
last year alone.
  And while we are confronting these new challenges, the annual budget 
deficit is at $400 billion, an all-time high. On top of the pension 
benefit deficit, the Federal Government has added, in just the last 3 
years, $2 trillion to the Nation's debt, and we are being asked to vote 
on an additional $900 billion just this week alone.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people look to us to solve their problems, 
America's problems, not our own problems or our own challenges. But in 
some ways finishing last year's business this year is a fitting end to 
the 108th Congress.

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