[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19425]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               THE TROUBLED STATE OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

  (Mr. HALL of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, the last few days have clearly 
demonstrated that the troubled state that our economy is in is more 
serious than we thought. The Bush administration's mismanagement of the 
American economy has officially caused a housing crisis to snowball and 
jeopardize the entire economy.
  Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, established companies that 
survived the Great Depression, have declared bankruptcy or have been 
sold off to survive. Both companies employ thousands of people from my 
district, the 19th District of New York, and no one seems to know what 
will happen to these workers or to their families.
  But it's not just Wall Street suffering. Wages have stagnated; 
expenses continue to rise. American families can no longer afford to 
buy necessities, much less to invest in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, when President Bush took office 8 years ago, he 
inherited a flourishing economy and a record budget surplus. Now, as he 
leaves office 8 years later with 8 years of misrule and a lack of 
oversight, those days are clearly gone.
  I hope we make the right choice for our next President and elect 
Barack Obama, who will understand how to deal with the complexities of 
our economic situation.

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