[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18495]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

  (Mr. FRANKS of Arizona asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, America is facing an unemployment 
and mortgage crisis unlike anything we have seen since the Great 
Depression.
  Only months ago, President Obama pledged that he would create 3\1/2\ 
millions jobs by the end of 2010 and told us that the unemployment rate 
would stay below 8 percent if we passed the allegedly urgent trillion-
dollar ``economic stimulus'' bill.
  But, Mr. Speaker, since the President has assumed office, employment 
has dropped by over 2\1/2\ million jobs. We've lost 8 million jobs 
since the beginning of the Democrat-led 110th Congress, and half a 
million of those were in June alone.
  The jobless rate stands at 9.5 percent, and the President himself 
admits that it's likely to climb over 10 percent.
  This Congress and this administration must be reminded by the 
American people that what comprises true economic growth are jobs and 
economic productivity by the people. Higher taxes, increased 
regulation, reckless spending, bureaucratic selection of economic 
winners and losers and out-of-control deficit spending, these are the 
Democrat policies of the last five months, and they diminish 
productivity instead of encouraging it. They will kill jobs. And unless 
we change course, Mr. Speaker, this country faces an unprecedented 
economic failure.

                          ____________________