[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4481]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1515
            THE ECONOMY IS NOT AS ROSY AS REPUBLICANS CLAIM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. 
Maloney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, if you look at the headline economic 
numbers and listen to the Bush Administration's talking points, you 
could get the impression that the economy is in pretty good shape.
  But when we talk to our constituents, we get a very different 
picture. We hear anxiety about the economy, and a feeling that things 
are not going very well for the typical American family. The White 
House seems puzzled by this discrepancy, but it is very simple.
  The benefits of the economic recovery from the 2001 recession have 
not been going to ordinary Americans. President Bush likes to cite 
statistics on how fast the economy is growing and how much productivity 
has increased.
  But what he does not mention is that, on his watch, the economy went 
through the most protracted job slump in decades. There is still 
considerable evidence of hidden unemployment and that the benefits of 
productivity growth have been showing up in the profits of companies 
rather than in the paychecks of ordinary American workers.
  Yes, workers have become more productive. They produce more and more 
in each hour that they work, but they have not been getting this reward 
in their own paycheck for their productivity. Average hourly earnings 
have not keep up with inflation for the past 2 years, and they barely 
kept even the year before that.
  Median family income has failed to keep up with inflation every year 
under President Bush. Mr. Speaker, even more disturbing than the 
general stagnation in wages and incomes is the growing gap between the 
``haves'' and the ``have-nots'' in this country, as income earnings 
disparities have widened.
  This is an extremely troubling trend for everyone in our country. 
Those who are already well-to-do are indeed doing very well in the Bush 
economy. But the typical American family is struggling to make ends 
meet in the face of high costs for energy, health care and college 
education for their children.
  This chart illustrates the problem very clearly. The red bars show 
the growth in the inflation adjusted usual weekly earnings of full-time 
wage and salary workers under President Bush at different points in the 
earnings distribution.
  You have to be in the upper half of the distribution to have seen any 
gain. Earnings at the top have grown fastest relative to inflation, and 
earnings at the bottom have fallen farthest behind inflation.
  I would note the contrast with the last 5 years of the Clinton 
Administration, which is illustrated with the blue bars when earnings 
and gains were strong and spread throughout the earnings distribution.
  Mr. Speaker, the economic policies of the Bush Administration are not 
benefitting ordinary American families. The Bush economy and Bush 
economic policies have produced a widening gap between the ``haves'' 
and the ``have-nots,'' and they have produced a legacy of deficits and 
debt that leaves us unprepared to deal with the budget challenges posed 
by the retirement of the baby-boom generation.
  And that weakens the future standard of living of our children and 
grandchildren. We need to do better. We can do better if we focus on 
policies that address the economic challenges facing the ordinary 
American worker.

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