[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 27720-27721]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the leadership for 
allowing me to spend some time this evening talking about an issue that 
is of utmost importance to the American people. I am constantly amazed 
at news reports at home, when I go home and I watch television news and 
I read the newspaper and see what is being portrayed as usual for the 
American public.
  If you just followed those stories, you would not believe that there 
was anything that was good or positive going on in our Nation. You 
would not believe that the economy, for example, was doing very, very 
well. So one of the things that I try to do, and I know others try to 
do as well, is to try to assist and bring about some truth in 
reporting. So tonight what we would like to do is spend a little time 
talking about the economy, for the American people know better than 
what they see on the nightly news and what they read in the newspapers.
  In fact, so many of the folks that I talk to at home are really tired 
of the gloom and doom that gets reported on the news and frankly gets 
stated over and over and over here in Congress by some Members. They 
are tired of Congressmen and -women who put politics and partisanship 
over good policy, and I hear so often back home that folks say, Why 
can't you just get something done on behalf of the American people?
  Well, a lot of good things are getting done, and we are going to 
spend a little time tonight talking about our economy and some things 
that Congress is doing and has done to assist the American people, to 
help American families, to help American children, to help American 
communities. It is important that we do that, because there is good 
news to tell. So what we would like to do is spend a little time 
tonight and review so many of the positive things that have been done 
to create really an economy that is on the move. I would like to begin 
by just sharing a number of different charts that demonstrate clearly 
that the economy is growing.
  This is a chart here that I think really crystallizes so many of the 
good stories that we have to tell. This chart begins in the first 
quarter of 2001; and along this axis here is the annual change in GDP, 
or gross domestic product, that is, how well is the economy doing. As 
you see for the first number of quarters of 2001 and 2002, it is kind 
of going along, kind of bumping up and down, and then there is a 
remarkable change that occurs in early 2003. From then on, from the 
second quarter of 2003 on, what we see is a gross domestic product 
growth in every quarter, 10 quarters in a row of a growth of greater 
than 3 percent and oftentimes greater than 4 percent. In fact, the most 
recent quarter grew at a rate of 4.3 percent.
  The individual who wants to know how to continue that kind of growth 
and who is excited about policies that encourage growth would say, 
Well, what happened? What happened at that point to bring that kind of 
growth about? As most people know, what happened was that the tax cuts, 
the tax relief that Congress enacted on behalf of the hard-working 
American taxpayers went into effect, and that has resulted in this 
incredible, incredible growth in the economy that continues, that 
continues unabated. And what Congress has an opportunity to do this 
week is to continue and extend that tax relief, hopefully, to be able 
to continue the lines that we have seen grow in the economy.
  This is another chart that demonstrates the kind of response that the 
American economy has to that kind of activity. This talks about the 
creation of new jobs in our country. In fact, since the spring of 2003, 
there have been 4.46 million new jobs that have come about, and this 
chart shows the percent increase each month from early 2002 through the 
current time. You see, again, there is that remarkable change that 
occurs in the early part and mid-part of 2003, where the growth in the 
number of jobs is remarkable. Again, the inquiring individual would 
want to know, Well, what changed there? What made it so that we did not 
have negative growth in jobs, we had positive growth in jobs? As 
everybody well knows now, that change was the tax relief, the tax 
relief that Congress enacted that took place in early 2003.
  Just to put those numbers all together, this chart, which is a little 
busy, shows two very clearly distinct lines. One is the green line down 
here that is the number of jobs that increase in our Nation each month; 
the red line is the level of unemployment. And as you see, at the 
beginning of 2003, the unemployment rate was taken up here somewhere 
around 6 percent and the number of jobs began to increase at this point 
when the tax relief package went into effect. We see that continued 
increase; and in fact right

[[Page 27721]]

now the unemployment rate is down at 5 percent, which is lower than the 
average for the decades of the 1970s and the 1980s and the 1990s.
  Some economists will tell you that 5 percent unemployment rate is 
full employment, because you have got a number of folks who are between 
jobs or are working to find other places of employment that is their 
design. So 5 percent is basically full employment. The number of new 
jobs that was created last month, 215,000 new jobs. So there is good 
news to tell.
  I have been joined tonight by many of my colleagues, and many of them 
will share some of the same kinds of good-news stories with you. First, 
I would like to yield the time to Congresswoman Blackburn from 
Tennessee. She has been such an incredible leader in this Congress in 
the area of tax relief and in making certain that we enact the kinds of 
policies here that result in smaller government, lower taxes, and more 
opportunity for Americans. With that, let me yield to Congresswoman 
Blackburn.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Georgia, and I thank you 
for your leadership on this issue. One of the things that we are so 
fortunate to have in this body is such a wide variety of experience 
from our Members that bring that experience to bear here as we look at 
how we grow the economy, how we exercise economic opportunity, how we 
make certain that free enterprise stays free. Just as the gentleman 
from Georgia has mentioned, it is no secret, everybody knows that this 
economy, this wonderful U.S. economy, truly is our Nation's, our 
world's economic engine. It is the envy of all of the world. It is, I 
guess, something that is really a little bit uniquely American. There 
is something about us. We strive to do things a little bit better. 
Maybe it is that Yankee ingenuity. Maybe it is that we are out here 
with that good old common-sense know-how, but we are always trying to 
do things faster, better, more efficiently, more effectively; and one 
of the things we certainly want to do is to build a strong economy so 
that our children know that they are going to have hope and opportunity 
and the ability to dream big dreams and create a really exciting life 
for themselves and for their families. I guess that is just kind of the 
American way of doing things. We try to improve it. Give us something, 
and we are going to build a better mousetrap. Then we are going to 
figure out how to get that mousetrap into the marketplace.
  In today's economy, we look at it and we say, How do we get that into 
a global marketplace? We know in order to do that it means you have to 
stay competitive. We know that as you look at policies, creating the 
right environment so that job growth can take place, so that economic 
growth can take place, that when we see that right environment created, 
then free enterprise and the private sector take over and they do what 
they do well. The gentleman has shown us the charts which tell this 
story. You go back and you look at 2003 and look at when those tax 
reforms were implemented, and what we saw was an economy that took off.
  What we are seeing is consistent economic growth every single month. 
We are reaping the benefits from that. We see that our GDP growth 
continues to be very consistent. It was 4.1 percent last quarter. There 
are some really wonderful benefits that come from this. As the 
gentleman mentioned, 4,460,000 new jobs. Those are new jobs. Many of 
those jobs are jobs that are basically in new sectors, technology 
sectors, sectors of the economy that will lead to an economic 
renaissance and lead to an economic renaissance in this country.

                              {time}  1915

  It works out to be 194,000 jobs a month that we have been creating 
over the past several months, and I find it so interesting that the 
unemployment rate is near all-time lows. When we look at the charts on 
that, we see that as these tax reforms have been put in place, and I 
applaud the Senate, I applaud the administration, and I certainly 
applaud the leadership in this House for pushing forward these tax 
reforms in 2003, and as we see those going into place and we see the 
GDP growth and we see the jobs creation and we watch the unemployment 
level fall to near historic lows, there is also another benefit from 
this.
  Our colleagues who are joining us here on the floor this evening 
certainly are watching this one with us, and it is that we are seeing 
the deficit reduced through two ways. We have talked so many times on 
this floor about there being two ways that we work through reducing the 
deficit and reducing the size of government and right-sizing the 
Federal Government, and that is, we reduce spending and continue to 
work to root out waste, fraud and abuse, focusing on that spending 
column, but at the same time, we put the focus on economic growth. That 
is where our focus rightfully should be.
  This is an aggressive economy, and it is, therefore, a reason, and 
tomorrow this House is going to move forward and take some excellent 
steps to pass a bill that is going to continue these tax reforms.
  At this time, I am going to yield back to the gentleman from Georgia 
so that he can yield to another of our colleagues, and we can continue 
with our discussion this evening on the benefits that lie ahead by 
extending these tax reforms and continuing to work toward having a 
Federal income tax system that is flatter, that is fairer, that is 
simpler and having one that is going to work to energize our economy. I 
will yield back at this point for further discussion.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee and thank her for her leadership in so many areas, but 
especially in the area of focusing on right-sizing government, making 
certain that savings are appropriate for the American people and tax 
policies appropriate for the American people.
  You have been such a leader, and I know that you were planning on 
leading this hour this evening but you had another engagement. I look 
forward to sticking around for the vast majority of this hour, but at 
this point, I am going to yield back to the Chair so that the Chair may 
allow you to control the hour that you had planned on earlier and I 
look forward to working with you.

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