[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16287]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE ECONOMY/CARL ROVE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, our Democrat colleagues 
said Republicans should not lower taxes because we needed those tax 
dollars for more programs and more spending. Republicans knew that more 
new programs and additional spending was the last thing we needed to be 
doing. We fought to reduce taxes, and we said that lower taxes would 
bring this economy out of a recession.
  Today, our policies have been proven to be correct. Our tax relief 
has spurred economic growth and created jobs. We have a near 
historically low unemployment rate of about 5 percent. Home ownership 
is at historic highs. We have helped millions of Americans achieve the 
dream of home ownership. We have a 69 percent home ownership rate.
  Mr. Speaker, 146,000 new jobs were created in June, adding to the 
millions of jobs created in the past 3 years, giving us 25 months of 
sustained consecutive economic growth. We lowered taxes and this year 
we are seeing unexpectedly high tax revenues. Our deficit is going to 
be $100 billion less because of tremendous economic growth.
  And what about this is confusing to Democrats? Well, they say, okay, 
that is good economic news, but we have a deficit. And to that we say, 
well, why not join us and cut spending. Let us reduce and eliminate 
unneeded programs. Let us not raise taxes.
  When we lowered taxes, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), 
the minority leader, led the Democrats in predicting that this relief 
would do nothing at all for our Nation's economy. I think it is fair to 
say that she and her party are pretty much out of touch on that issue. 
And I know that the newspapers, many of which opposed our tax relief, 
are hesitant to admit that they were wrong, but they should be out 
there reporting this data, showing the American people that this 
economy is growing and that jobs are being created.
  Mr. Speaker, our philosophy on this side of the aisle is that when 
you get government out of the way and let the American people in this 
wonderful free enterprise system go to work, they do it quite well. 
This great economic news shows that Republicans are on the right side 
of this argument.
  Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of other things I want to say this 
evening. Last year, former Clinton Security Adviser Sandy Berger stole, 
that is right, stole classified materials from the National Archives. 
This is not an accusation. It is fact. He pled guilty. He stole 
classified material. In the ``Sloppy Socks Scandal,'' Berger stuffed 
classified materials in his clothing in order to sneak them out of the 
National Archives building. Democrats, however, never considered this a 
big deal. In fact, most barely seemed to notice or say anything at all 
about what had happened.
  Today, those same Democrats, who did not blink at Berger's actions, 
are calling for Karl Rove's head. Now, let us put this in perspective. 
Sandy Berger devised a plan, got into the archives to view the 
documents, then he stuffed classified documents in his pants to smuggle 
them out of the National Archives so that he could destroy the 
material, and Democrats did not so much as call for an inquiry. Today, 
the minority leader is calling for President Bush to fire Karl Rove for 
telling a reporter that they were ``barking up the wrong tree.''
  I hope Americans see this for what it is, a partisan attack launched 
by a minority leader who cannot get her party to unite around a policy.

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