[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19567-19568]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 UNEMPLOYMENT WOULD BE HIGHER IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY 
                                  BILL

  (Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I know that there is a 
debate about when the world began; and there are some who think it 
began 4,000 years ago and some who think that it began earlier. We have 
a rare specimen today

[[Page 19568]]

of people who think it began on January 20, 2009, who do not think 
anything happened before that, who do not remember the years of 
Republican rule where many things went wrong.
  Now they're talking about the economic recovery bill. Ben Bernanke, 
who was the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, appointed by 
George Bush--that happened before January 20, so you may not have 
remembered it, I would say to my friends on the other side--but he told 
the House Financial Services Committee that unemployment would be 
higher if it was not for the economic recovery bill. That was Ben 
Bernanke. In his report, he twice cited examples of it.
  And as to this argument that the bill was of no use, I debated this 
bill in February with Republican Members of Congress when they scoffed 
at the notion that there was something in it for police and fire. I was 
very pleased today to be notified that 23 police officers will be added 
to two of the communities in my district, Fall River and New Bedford, 
directly as a result of the economic recovery plan. Magnify that 
nationally, it's 10,000.

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