[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22715-22716]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE GROWTH OF THE U.S. ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, I rise this afternoon to talk about a very 
important issue which, frankly, has not gotten a great deal of 
attention and that is the growth of the U.S. economy and what it is we 
have been able to see over the past several weeks and months.
  Virtually everyone has acknowledged the fact that Hurricane Katrina 
was, if not the worst, one of the worst natural disasters to hit the 
United States of America, and we all know that in the wake of that 
disaster where we saw the tragic loss of life and, of course, the 
devastation of property along the gulf coast, we assumed that there 
would be a very, very deleterious effect on the U.S. economy. Today, we 
received what is news that is not what you would call overwhelmingly 
positive, but certainly not news that was anything like what had been 
anticipated.
  Today, we received the news that following the tragedy of Hurricane 
Katrina there has been a net job loss based on the payroll survey, 
which is the old survey structure that has been put into place to 
determine the jobless rate in the country, a payroll jobs rate 
reduction of 35,000 nationwide.
  Madam Speaker, I think it is important to note that many economists 
had predicted that that job loss number was going to be in excess of 
200,000 in the wake of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane 
Rita. I think it is important to also recognize that as we focus 
attention from the United States Congress and the State and local 
officials, the President of the United States, focus on reconstruction, 
dealing with the tragic circumstances in the aftermath of Hurricane 
Katrina, one of the most important things we can do is to make sure 
that the entire U.S. economy continues to grow as boldly and as 
dynamically as possible.
  Let us look at the policies that we have seen put into place that 
have led to tremendous economic growth. We saw throughout the year of 
2004 gross domestic product growth of 4.4 percent, a very positive sign 
of growth. This year, the number has not been quite as high, about 3.3 
percent on average of GDP growth. So we have gone through the 15th 
quarter of positive economic growth, a very, very good indicator of 
what we can do as a Nation to help address the needs of those who have 
been victimized by this natural disaster.
  One of the things that has happened is we have seen many people from 
that region obviously find job opportunities in other parts of the 
Nation. I was in my original hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, just a 
few weeks ago, and I met a man who said he had worked at Brennan's 
Restaurant in New Orleans, and he is now working in a food service 
capacity in Kansas City. Obviously, economic growth in other parts of 
the country played a role in creating opportunities for people who were 
subjected to that horrible natural disaster.
  So, Madam Speaker, one of the things that we have got to do is make 
sure that we continue to keep in place our very positive, pro-growth, 
pro-trade, pro-economic opportunity policies.
  Now, what are those policies? Those policies obviously consist of tax 
reduction. Tax reduction has stimulated the economy and, in fact, as we 
all know, generated a level of revenues to the Federal Treasury that 
exceeded expectations. In fact, it exceeded expectations to the point 
where we have now received $94 billion in unanticipated

[[Page 22716]]

revenues to the Federal Treasury, reducing the deficit projection from 
the February projection by, as I said, $94 billion.
  Madam Speaker, that is a very positive sign. It is not a Republican 
number that I am offering. That is a number that has come from the 
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Again, it is tax cuts that 
have brought about this positive, positive economic growth.
  Unfortunately, many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
during 2001, 2002, 2003, said if we cut taxes we are going to send the 
U.S. economy right into the dumpster and we will send the deficit sky-
high. Time and time again, many of my friends and I would appear on 
different programs, and that was what I heard, over and over and over 
again: Any kind of tax cut is going to exacerbate the deficit and ruin 
the U.S. economy. Madam Speaker, we have found the exact opposite to be 
the case.
  Similarly, as we look at the trade issue, 94 percent of the world's 
consumers are outside of our U.S. borders. We need to do everything 
that we can to continue to open up new markets for U.S. goods and 
services.
  We have put into place positive trade and growth policies, and those 
policies are, I am very happy to say, helping the United States of 
America and creating opportunity for even those victims of the 
tragedies on the gulf coast.

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