[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13471-13476]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               FAILED POLICIES OF PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Schauer) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. SCHAUER. Mr. Speaker, it's an honor to be here to address the 
House of Representatives, to address the people of America, especially 
to address the people of Michigan. No State has suffered more under the 
failed policies of the previous administration than the people of 
Michigan.
  We are very resilient people, and I will say, for my colleagues to 
understand, and for everyone watching, the people of Michigan and 
Michigan's economy, never came out of the last economic recession.
  This, and as a first-term Member of Congress, I remember being sworn 
in just about a year and a half ago, and it was that time, this was 
January of 2009, that we learned that our economy had been in recession 
for a full year, for a full year.
  So my freshman colleagues and I, regardless of what side of the aisle 
they come from, all walked in to a year into the deepest economic 
recession since the Great Depression. The closest thing I can remember 
was when I was in college in the early 1980s, not being able to find a 
job, and it was very, very difficult at that time. But that's the story 
of many in Michigan. It has hit my family just like practically every 
family in America.
  So what I am here to talk about this evening, and I will be joined by 
some of my Democratic colleagues, is really where are we in America 
with our economy? What is the policy direction that we should be going 
in? What is the choice for America?
  This is the body, this is the people's House, where we discuss and 
debate these choices, and the American people hear what my Republican 
colleagues say and there isn't necessarily a complete partisan 
difference, I don't want my constituents to feel that, because I always 
look for that common ground.
  But I think the choice is very clear: Does America and our economy, 
our fragile economy, that is recovering, continue to move forward and 
dig out of this economic hole, this economic mess that we are in, or do 
we go backwards?
  I would like to share a quote, and I am hoping that people can see 
it, and this is a statement that one of my Republican colleagues made, 
one of the Republican leaders. He was on one of the Sunday morning talk 
shows. I don't get to watch these very often. I guess some of my 
constituents and the American people do, but this is one of the 
national shows, ``Meet the Press,'' this Sunday, July 18.
  The host of the show said ``I think what a lot of people want to know 
is if Republicans do get back into power, what are they going to do?'' 
And I think the American people deserve to know that, because we have a 
new President that has helped us move in a new direction, we have a 
Congress that I am a part of, that the Democrats control, that is 
working to move us in a new direction.
  But Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas said, here is his quote, ``We 
need to go back to the exact same agenda.''
  Well, that is the choice. Do we, as the House of Representatives, as 
a Congress, go back to those exact same policies that created this 
economic catastrophe, or do we move in a new direction, do we continue 
in the direction that we are going in?
  Now, I want to be clear that as a Member from Michigan, where our 
unemployment rate is still slightly over 13 percent, in my district in 
south central Michigan it's slightly under the State average, but we 
are gradually digging out of this hole. Or do we want to go back to the 
policies that created this economic catastrophe? These are very, very 
important questions, and what I have been working on, my Democratic 
colleagues and I have been working on, is addressing the problems that 
created this economic catastrophe, and it is a catastrophe.
  I will tell you a personal story. My son-in-law, a journeyman 
electrician, a trade that, you know, should guarantee you employability 
for sure for life, with intermittent unemployment, I understand, that's 
the nature of that business, he was unemployed for the better part of a 
year. He is married to our oldest daughter, who is a nurse. They had a 
baby. She was on maternity leave, and our son-in-law, Paul, living in 
Ypsilanti, just outside of Ann Arbor just east of my district, was laid 
off from the steel mill where he had been employed for some time, for 
the better part of a year. Unfortunately, that's the story that's the 
result of economic policies that this Congress inherited.
  But why did this happen? Unfortunately, there was an ideology under 
the former administration that said, you know, we need to let the 
marketplace regulate itself.
  Well, I remember about a month or so before the last election, even 
Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman, said, I was wrong. 
I thought Wall Street, I thought the markets could regulate themselves. 
We saw the meltdown that resulted from that, a gambling mentality on 
Wall Street that played a cruel game that affected millions of 
families, and it was a game of heads I win, tails you lose, gambling 
irresponsibly with the retirement savings of the American people.
  So this week, this week, the President will sign a landmark Wall 
Street reform bill that will crack down on the big banks, that will 
protect consumers, and this is perhaps the biggest consumer protection 
legislation in decades, and it will bring greater economic security to 
families and small businesses across our country.
  And my wife and I own a small business. She runs a business, it's her 
business, she employs three people. She is thinking about employing 
another person, probably part-time. That's the story of America, and 
it's businesses that went bankrupt during this Wall Street meltdown and 
families that lost their homes, but this Wall Street reform bill puts 
in place the strongest consumer protections in history, with an 
independent watchdog whose sole purpose is to enforce those protections 
and look out for the American consumer.
  So, let's go back to what Alan Greenspan said. He said that I thought 
the markets, I thought Wall Street could regulate itself. I was wrong.

                              {time}  2040

  Now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle somehow are trying 
to convince the American people that this legislation is somehow, to 
use their words, another ``bailout.'' Well, we saw the bailout that 
resulted from the Republican philosophy of deregulation. We saw the 
almost complete meltdown of our economy, and we saw the results of that 
and this mentality. And it's a similar approach to protecting the 
environment that has resulted in this catastrophic oil spill, the BP 
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But the reforms in this Wall Street 
reform bill will protect consumers when they take out a mortgage or 
sign up for a credit card. It will prevent the kind of shadowy deals 
that led to this crisis and will never again put taxpayers on the hook 
for Wall Street's mistakes.
  Now, let's talk about this bailout. And I want to be clear to my 
constituents at home, I said when I was running for office I never 
would have supported that bailout. And when I had to vote, and a number 
of us took this position, voted against the second part of this 
bailout, but the problem with the bailout was that it put more money in 
the hands of the big banks that actually caused the economic collapse 
in the first place. Those big Wall Street banks refused to lend to 
small manufacturers, tool and dye shops, machine shops, auto suppliers, 
those businesses that I work with every day in my district that are 
diversifying into renewable energy technology, life sciences 
technology, defense technology, and so many ways to create jobs. But 
these big banks even that were bailed out wouldn't lend to them.
  So under this Wall Street reform legislation, the American people, 
the taxpayer will never be stuck with a tab again, never under any 
Democratic legislation that finally passed the Senate, and I will 
commend some of my Republican colleagues in the Senate that saw

[[Page 13472]]

that that was the right thing to do for the American people.
  Despite the benefits the American people will enjoy from these 
reforms, the Republican leader in the House is already calling for its 
repeal. So even before the President has signed this bill, which he 
will do this week, the Republican leader in the House of 
Representatives has called for its repeal. But let's be clear, America 
cannot afford to go backwards to the days when our financial laws were 
written by the corporate lobbyists. And the fact of the matter is that 
corporate lobbyists, the Wall Street banks and their lobbyists were 
huddling with Republican leadership as the House was taking up this 
legislation, actually trying to kill this legislation, devising a plan, 
coming up with language trying to fool the American people that this 
historic Wall Street reform legislation was another bailout when it 
couldn't be anything further from the truth. Failure to act would doom 
us to repeat the same kind of economic catastrophe that the failed 
policies of the Bush administration created in the first place.
  So to move forward, we not only need to demand greater accountability 
from Wall Street. We need to help those people who are struggling on 
Main Street, those folks who are facing the loss of their home, the 
loss of their business, looking for capital, for basic loans to expand 
their businesses. That's why the President and Democrats in the House 
of Representatives are fighting to provide emergency relief to American 
workers who have been laid off in this recession due to no fault of 
their own.
  It is tragic that millions of workers--and 23,000 in my district 
alone in south central Michigan--are facing losing their unemployment 
benefits by the end of this year. And talk about a failed ideology, 
even John McCain's own economist told us--us collectively, the American 
people, Members of Congress--that for every dollar of unemployment 
insurance--and it is insurance. It is a form of insurance, unemployment 
insurance. For every dollar of unemployment insurance that is provided 
to a family of a laid off worker, there is $1.61 in economic impact.
  So not only were the Republicans holding hostage families who are 
losing their unemployment benefits in a tough economy, in a recession 
caused by the failed policies of the Bush administration, but they were 
also holding our economy hostage, where these unemployment benefits of 
about--it's less than the wages that people were earning, but those 
dollars were actually being put into local grocery stores, local gas 
stations, local businesses. And for every dollar of unemployment 
benefits, there was $1.61 of economic impact. But those emergency 
benefits for American workers are in jeopardy because those same 
Republicans who didn't have any problem spending hundreds of billions 
of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we 
shouldn't offer relief to middle class families who really need help.
  So we have an economic storm, and the choice is a very clear one: Do 
we rebuild our economic foundation for a stronger future or do we 
return to the failed policies of the previous administration?
  Let's have a little history lesson here. When I came to office a year 
and a half ago, when Barack Obama came to office a year and a half ago, 
our economy was losing an average of 750,000 jobs each month; 750,000 
jobs each month were being lost in this economy. During the last 5 
months of the Bush administration, our economy lost an average of 
almost 640,000 jobs. In the last 5 months, we have added an average of 
174,000 jobs a month. So let's do the comparison.
  Now, I don't want to give anyone in my district or in my State in 
Michigan the idea that we are anywhere where we need to be from an 
economic standpoint. Nationally, the unemployment rate is still 9.5 
percent. We are digging out of this hole. We've got a long way to go. 
But if you look at during the last 5 months of the Bush administration, 
our economy lost an average of almost 640,000 jobs. In the last 5 
months, our Nation's economy has added an average of almost 174,000 
jobs. So if my math is right, that's a swing of almost 800,000 jobs, 
almost 800,000 jobs a month net increase.
  Let's talk about our Nation's economic health as a whole. During the 
last quarter of the Bush administration, the economy shrunk by over 5 
percent, almost 5.5. Almost 5.5 percent our economy was shrinking. 
Hello. I think we really need to take stock--and I heard it earlier 
today in the House of Representatives, my Republican colleagues, their 
mantra is, ``Where are the jobs?'' Well, I don't know if they were 
asking that question in January of 2009, or 1 year prior to that when 
the recession began or when the economy collapsed because of Wall 
Street's behavior. So where was the hue and cry when our economy was 
shrinking by almost 5.5 percent and we were losing, on average, 640,000 
jobs a month?
  Now, during the last three quarters, so the last 9 months, there has 
been economic growth. The most recent economic growth is 2.7 percent. 
It's not enough, it's not nearly enough, but we are seeing the economy 
gradually beginning to rebound.

                              {time}  2050

  But the question is: Which path do we take?
  The choice is very clear to me. What I have seen in my own district 
in south central Michigan--and we have seen it all over the State--is a 
transformation of our economy.
  Now, what I have told the President of the United States personally 
and have told some of his chief economic advisers is that our recovery 
has one hand tied behind our back. One of the biggest reasons is that 
the big Wall Street banks have refused to lend to businesses, to 
manufacturers. A lot of these are small automotive suppliers, suppliers 
in the aviation and aerospace industries and the defense industry.
  I told a story on the House floor about a bank in my district--
Citizens Bank. I'll mention it again--that had had a relationship for 
many years with a company in my district, RTD Manufacturing. This 
company won an Army contract. It won an Army contract to build a 
bracket to go on a mine resistant vehicle, an MRAP, in Afghanistan, to 
protect our warfighters. This bank would not make the loan. Their loan 
officer said that they would be fired if they made a loan to a Michigan 
manufacturer. This was a bank that was bailed out by the taxpayers.
  So our recovery would be much further along if these banks that were 
bailed out by the taxpayer due to failed economic policies would 
actually use that money and invest it in businesses that were hanging 
on and had the potential to grow. Yet what I am seeing in my district 
are businesses just like RTD Manufacturing, which are working hard, 
which are diversifying from--in this case, they were 100 percent 
automotive and had begun doing work for the Department of Defense to 
protect our warfighters.
  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is having an impact in my 
district and all around our State. The American people may know that 
President Obama was in Holland, Michigan, which is about an hour and a 
half from where I live in Battle Creek. He was at the groundbreaking 
for a new battery plant for the automotive industry--400 new jobs in 
addition to all of the construction jobs that are being created for 
this new technology.
  Now, that's not the only battery plant in Michigan that has been 
jump-started by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars. There 
is a company in my district, in Battle Creek, that is called Toda 
America. It received $35 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment 
Act funds to attract the private investment to locate this battery 
facility there. This could have gone anywhere in the world.
  Because of a proactive policy to invest in clean and renewable energy 
technology, in this case for the automobile industry, I think the 
question we have to ask is: Are we going to continue to manufacture 
here in America, or are we going to be buying everything from South 
Korea, from China, from Japan, from all of our global competitors?

[[Page 13473]]

  You know, we have put a stake in the ground in Michigan--and there 
are stories like this all over the country--that we will make things 
here. In this case, as a result of the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act, we are making batteries for vehicles of the future. 
We are making technology for our warfighters.
  I want to tell you another great story about a wind energy cluster 
that didn't just happen by accident. It happened, in part, because of 
policies that the Michigan legislature adopted, some of which were put 
in place when I was still in the legislature there. It happened with 
investment through the Department of Energy to help wind energy 
companies.
  There is a new company in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, called Astraeus, 
which is developing the best technology--the best technology in the 
world--to develop windmill blades and windmill turbine components, and 
they have actually attracted--this is a great story. You know, we often 
don't hear this from colleagues on the other side of the aisle because 
they don't want to acknowledge some of the successes of the American 
Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
  There is a company based in Finland that has a U.S. subsidiary. It is 
called URV USA, which is a foundry. We used to have foundries all over 
my State and all over the country. This company, URV USA, whose parent 
company is in Finland, is locating a foundry in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, 
to manufacture some of the heavy components for windmill turbines.
  So we have a cluster of wind energy companies locating in this town 
of about 2,500 people, south of Lansing, that will be the home for 
thousands of jobs, for thousands of renewable energy jobs; and these 
companies there are positioning themselves to actually export this 
technology. So it is not just about beating the competition from China, 
but it is about being able to build it faster, more cheaply and to be 
able to export that technology.
  So, when my Republican colleagues ask, Where are the jobs? the choice 
is: what policies do we put forward here, and do we continue with 
policies that are creating jobs, that are transforming our economy or 
do we go backwards to what Congressman Sessions says--that we need to 
go back to the exact same agenda? This is the agenda that nearly 
bankrupted the United States of America, that drained the retirement 
funds of millions of senior citizens, that made the dream of retirement 
slip away for many Americans, and that really left us with an economy 
completely on its knees.
  The industrial sector talked about that. It is very much a part of 
Michigan's past, a part of Michigan's present and, I hope, a part of 
Michigan's future. Total industrial production in America has increased 
8.2 percent during the past year. That is the largest 12-month gain 
since 1998. I need to repeat that because, you know, what you hear from 
folks on the other side of the aisle would make you think that the 
economic challenges we face magically began in January of 2009.
  Total industrial production--making things, making things in 
America--has increased 8.2 percent during the past year, which is the 
largest 12-month gain since 1998. In June, industrial production 
increased a tenth of a percent. It grew to a 7 percent annual rate in 
the first quarter to a 6.6 percent rate in the second quarter, and this 
rapid industrial expansion is consistent with solid growth for our 
Nation's economy, and that is according to the Federal Reserve. Don't 
take my word for it. That is according to the Federal Reserve.

                              {time}  2100

  Trade, which is an issue that's very important to me. I was recently 
named to the President's Export Council. So I look forward to fighting 
for American companies to sell their goods abroad and to tear down 
trade barriers, like I am working on with China, to make sure that 
American companies can compete. But nominal exports are up 21 percent 
from a year ago. In May, nominal exports grew rapidly by $3.5 billion, 
or 2.4 percent. Year-to-date, exports are up 18 percent for the first 5 
months of the last year.
  So we've got a big hole to dig out of. Remember, the last 5 months of 
the Bush administration our economy, our country lost an average of 
almost 640,000 jobs. Just in the last 5 months we've added an average 
of 174,000 jobs. There is a swing. We have a long way to go.
  Initial unemployment insurance claims fell by 29,000 in the week that 
ended July 10. Too many people are unemployed. I will not be satisfied 
until everyone who is looking for a job has a job. Spending in core 
retail sales rose by two-tenths of 1 percent in June. Small business 
owner economic confidence increased by 2.6 percent during the second 
quarter. This is the largest 3-month increase since last July. So there 
are signs of progress.
  I think the question, again, is do we move forward or do we go back 
to the exact same agenda? That is the choice. I'm not willing to go 
back. Too many people in my district are hurting. And too many families 
are hurting. And candidly, many people have lost hope. But we must 
continue to move forward and we must put the American people over any 
political agenda. You know, this is not the time to put the next 
election before the American people. The American people must come 
first. Their ability to have opportunities for jobs in new economic 
sectors is what the Democrats stand for and we will continue fighting 
for.
  I also want to talk a little bit more about manufacturing, and 
particularly about Buy American provisions. I am looking forward to 
having a very vigorous debate in the House of Representatives, 
candidly, about whose side we are on. And we must be on the side of the 
American people. I have been pushing in every way possible that we 
expand and strengthen Buy American provisions.
  I just received a letter from the Vice President of the United States 
in response to a very real situation that a company in my district 
faces, a company called Full Spectrum Solutions. They make high-tech, 
energy-efficient lighting. And they have been more and more making 
their light fixtures in America from suppliers all over my State and 
all over the Midwest. And they have been bidding on energy-efficient 
lighting contracts with municipalities. They received American Recovery 
and Reinvestment Act funds.
  Unfortunately, some of their competitors--and there are Buy American 
provisions. I was asked by a reporter today, Why are Buy American 
provisions important? Here's the point. American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act dollars are your tax dollars. So I think the American 
people expect a little common sense out of their government, which 
unfortunately there's not enough of. But they expect that their tax 
dollars be used to create jobs here in America, not jobs in China.
  And so there is a Buy American provision in the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act. What Full Spectrum Solutions found was some of their 
competitors were actually taking light fixtures made in China and 
putting a label on these light fixtures that says ``Made in the USA'' 
to defraud the government, defraud the taxpayers, and hurt American 
companies and cost us American jobs.
  So I worked with Mike Nevins, the CEO of Full Spectrum Solutions, and 
went down every path to find relief for this company. I went to the 
Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, Customs and Border 
Protection, the U.S. Attorney's office. No relief. No mechanism for 
relief for complaints of competitors cheating and mislabeling their 
products as made in America.
  So I wrote the Vice President about 3 weeks ago, and I received a 
very, very specific response that is creating a new hotline within the 
Department of Energy for complaints about companies that are 
mislabeling their products as made in the USA, a means to investigate 
these complaints, and a notice to all grant recipients of these 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to be aware that there are 
some companies, unfortunately some American companies, that are 
defrauding the taxpayers and cheating and using our tax dollars to buy 
goods made in China rather than goods made in America.

[[Page 13474]]

  So I received this very specific response, and it underscored just 
what we should be fighting for. We need to be fighting for American 
workers, American companies, and strengthen these Buy American 
provisions. I look forward to taking up legislation, Democratic-
sponsored, hopefully bipartisan, but I know there are Democratic bills 
that I cosponsored as a part of the House Bipartisan Trade Working 
Group that will strengthen Buy American provisions.
  I talked about a week ago about another fair trade bill with China. 
We are letting China eat the lunches of American workers. We are 
letting them do it. China, when they joined the World Trade 
Organization in 2001, never signed the government procurement 
agreement. This is the agreement that sets the terms for companies in 
one country to bid on and compete for government contracts with other 
countries.
  Well, China, they know what they're doing. Just like they know what 
they're doing when they manipulate their currency. Just like they know 
what they're doing when they steal our patents, our intellectual 
property. Just like they know what they're doing when they subsidize 
their companies, tilting the playing field in their favor. And so what 
they've done for the last 9 years is they have blocked our companies 
from doing business with their government, while for some reason, I 
haven't been able to figure out yet, it's because there's no good 
reason, we're allowing Chinese companies to bid on and win contracts 
with our Federal Government paid for by your tax dollars. I don't think 
the American people have in mind that we use their tax dollars to 
create jobs in China rather than jobs in America.
  So my bill, H.R. 5312, is very simple. It's a reciprocal trade bill. 
It truly is a fair trade bill. It says to China that their companies 
can do the same dollar amount of business with our government as our 
companies can do with their government.
  Now, I flew when I came to Washington from my home in Battle Creek, 
Michigan, yesterday. There was a Ford Motor Company engineer on the 
plane. And we talked about this issue. I talk about this issue 
everywhere I go. And I said, ``Do you manufacture in China?'' He says, 
``Yeah, we manufacture in China.'' And I said, ``You are not able to do 
business with the government in China, right, for any of their vehicle 
purchases or motor pools, whatever it might be?'' And he said, ``No, 
you know, now that you mention it, we're not able to do that.'' So I 
said, ``Well, you know, China can do business with our government even 
though they're blocking our companies from doing business with their 
government?'' Even, here is the point of the Ford conversation, even 
when they're manufacturing in China. So our companies are investing 
there, they're making their products there.

                              {time}  2110

  Include, even with that, China's policy. They know what they're 
doing. They didn't sign this government procurement agreement 9 years 
ago when they joined the World Trade Organization, and they are playing 
us for fools.
  You know, according to the Economic Policy Institute, in Michigan, we 
have lost 68,000 jobs due to China's unfair trade policies since 2001. 
In Michigan, in my district--I represent seven counties in south 
central Michigan--2,700 jobs. That's the size of a medium-sized village 
within my district, wiped out completely, because of China's unfair 
trade.
  So I want to stop in a moment. I want to yield to an outstanding 
leader, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz from Florida, to talk 
about our economy. I have been talking about the choice. I've been 
talking about the choice. Do we move forward and dig out of this 
economic hole that was caused by the failed economic policies of the 
Bush administration? And one of our Republican colleagues on one of the 
national press shows on Sunday says, when asked--they often don't like 
to talk about policy. They don't like to do that. When they were asked 
to talk about Medicare, their solution was to voucherize Medicare. Even 
though they don't like the term that is really true about their 
position on Social Security, they want to privatize Social Security. 
They don't like to talk about policy ideas. But when they were asked if 
Republicans get back into power what are you going to do, Pete Sessions 
says, We need to go back to the exact same agenda.
  We cannot go backwards. We must go forward, and we must continue to 
fight for the American people. We must continue to fight for the 
American workers. We must continue to fight for manufacturing, for 
making things in this country. And I talked earlier about great 
progress that's being made in renewable energy, battery technology, 
wind energy technology, life sciences technology, the Chevy Volt. The 
Chevy Volt will be the first battery electric car, will roll off the 
assembly line in October in Hamtramck, Michigan. We are making things.
  And if we don't have the kind of policy foresight that Democrats in 
this House of Representatives have been putting forward and will 
continue to put forward aggressively, we will go backwards.
  So we've got a long way to go. I am not satisfied. I said I will not 
be satisfied until every unemployed worker in my district that's 
looking for a job has a job, until seniors again feel secure with the 
promise of Social Security. You know, these are the basic values that I 
hold, and this is the fight that I signed up for.
  So it's been a pleasure to talk a little bit about Michigan, a little 
bit about my home, a little bit about what's going on. I even talked a 
little bit about my family and my son-in-law that was unemployed for 
the better part of a year and, unfortunately, I don't think I finished 
that story. The good news is they're still in Michigan. They moved to 
the beautiful Upper Peninsula. It's where my wife, Christine, is from, 
from the Upper Peninsula. They got a job there. They bought a house.
  But too many families can't tell that story. And we are fighting for 
the American people.
  It is my pleasure to yield to my colleague, Debbie Wasserman Schultz 
from south Florida, to talk about this choice.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much. And my colleague from 
Michigan, Mark Schauer, who's been holding down the fort here and who 
cares so passionately and so deeply about his district, about the 
people that he represents in Michigan, you have fought so hard to make 
sure that they have a voice because Americans are struggling, and you 
know that Americans are struggling. You're in the midst of an economic 
crisis in Michigan, as we all have been coming out of, and you're 
absolutely right when you talk about the fact that we have a choice.
  I mean, Americans in November are going to have a choice. We can go 
back to the agenda of the Republicans, which now is right there in blue 
and white, and where they clearly have said, making no bones about it, 
that they would take us back to the exact same agenda that they pursued 
before, which included focusing on tax cuts exclusively for the 
wealthiest Americans, not caring in the least about working families or 
the middle class or having an agenda that did anything for anyone in a 
working family or the middle class, focusing on making sure that we 
could only spend time worrying about the well-being of major 
corporations and leaving working families to twist in the wind. Or we 
can choose to continue to move in the new direction the Democrats have 
taken the country under President Obama's leadership, under the 
leadership of the Democrats here in the House and the Senate when we 
took the majority back in 2006 and ended the culture of corruption that 
literally hung over this capital under Republican leadership. We ended 
the focus exclusively on the wealthy and focused on trying to turn 
things around.
  President Obama on his first day in office inherited an economy where 
we were bleeding 700,000-plus jobs a month. And I'm not sure if Mr. 
Schauer talked about this, but we have now fast-forwarded a year and a 
half later and the

[[Page 13475]]

economy is adding about 100,000 to 125,000 jobs a month.
  And if you look at manufacturing--and I know that's a particularly 
important area for Michigan. American workers are so proud and have 
always been so proud of the fact that we in America make things. We are 
the ones that make sure that machines run, that the manufacturing that 
is the proud tradition of the United States of America should continue. 
We have had 11 straight months of growth in the manufacturing sector 
under President Obama's leadership, under the policies, the economic 
decisionmaking that we've made since he took office, and that's 
incredibly important for Americans to understand. Because even though 
we have a long way to go, we've begun to turn the corner. We've begun 
to turn things around, and we need to continue to push hard to make 
sure that we can invest in infrastructure and balance those investments 
with tax cuts targeted to middle class and working families.
  Last year, in the Recovery Act, the economic stimulus that has been 
talked about so much in the last year, we invested $787 billion to make 
sure that we could create those jobs and invest in shovel-ready 
projects that were ready to go so that we could get people back to work 
who literally were left twisting in the wind after the Bush 
administration drove us into a ditch. And now you have the same people, 
the same people who drove us into the ditch in the first place are 
asking to get the keys back so that they can return to the exact same 
agenda that they pursued during the time that they were in charge. Why 
Americans would give them back the keys when they got us into this mess 
in the first place is beyond me, but that is what they are aggressively 
pursuing, nonetheless.
  This morning, a number of us on the House floor had an opportunity to 
talk about the approach of Social Security's birthday. We're 
approaching the 75th anniversary of Social Security, 75 years of making 
sure that Social Security provides the safety nets to Americans who are 
in their retirement years, making sure that they have something to fall 
back on, and making sure that they have the ability to make ends meet 
each and every day.
  And as Mr. Schauer so rightfully put it, under the exact same agenda 
that the Republicans pursued then, we would return to an effort--and 
they readily admit this, that we would return to their effort, which 
was first proposed by President Bush, to privatize Social Security.

                              {time}  2120

  What privatizing Social Security means is allowing people to invest 
their Social Security in the stock market. Now, if you watched the 
volatility of the stock market over the last number of years, I shudder 
to think about how the seniors in my district, my seniors in south 
Florida, I shudder to think how they would be able to make ends meet 
over the last few years if their Social Security investments evaporated 
into oblivion after the stock market downturn. We had stock market 
downturn, then it went back up, then it went back down again. The stock 
market is not the place for funds that are there and designed to be a 
safety net. In my home State, 53 percent of seniors without Social 
Security would be living in poverty, and that's just simply 
unacceptable. If that's the agenda that the Republicans want to take us 
back to, then Americans need to know that that's the direction that 
they would go.
  I want to focus on some other comments because we should make sure 
that people know exactly what's being said on the other side so that 
when they make a decision on which direction they want to go, when they 
make a decision on which candidate for Congress, which Members they 
choose to have represent them, they should know what some of the 
Republican leadership on the other side has been saying.
  If you recall, we had a lot of commentary on the other side about the 
stimulus, about the economic Recovery Act; and I remember that Mr. 
Cantor, their Republican whip, I remember he actually has consistently 
said that the stimulus has not produced jobs. Now, I'm not sure what 
planet he's been living on, but one thing that has been very clear is 
that the economic Recovery Act, the stimulus bill, created millions of 
jobs. We wouldn't have been able to go from bleeding 700,000-plus jobs 
a month to adding about 100,000 private sector jobs a month without the 
investment that was made under the Democratic leadership.
  Now, in spite of the fact that Mr. Cantor has consistently said that 
the stimulus produced no jobs, that didn't prevent him from hosting a 
job fair with companies that received $52 million in his community to 
create jobs from the stimulus. He actually held a job fair at a 
Virginia high school with a number of private companies that were 
seeking to hire and who benefited from the funds in the American 
Recovery and Reinvestment Act. So he's not the only one that has 
essentially tried to have it both ways, be opposed to the stimulus, 
vote against the stimulus, stated it didn't do anything, but then take 
credit in their community when the checks are being handed out and the 
celebrations were being had for the jobs that are created in the 
district by the economic Recovery Act.
  And, I mean, I don't want to directly call any of our colleagues 
hypocritical, but that type of action seems pretty hypocritical to me 
Mr. Tonko, and I'm really pleased that we're joined this evening by my 
good friend Mr. Tonko from New York who's joined us every week, week 
after week, to make sure that we can help America understand and talk 
to the American people about how this economy has turned around and how 
we have been able to create jobs, balance investments with tax cutting 
policy, and I would be happy to yield to the gentleman for his 
comments.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Wasserman Schultz. It's so 
encouraging to have people see the difference in how we approach reform 
here in Washington. There are those who will suggest that the 8.2 
million jobs lost during the Bush recession were a tremendous blow to 
this Nation's economy, to working families, to households across this 
country. There are those who would suggest that the $17.5 trillion 
worth of household wealth lost in the last 18 months of President 
Bush's final stage of his Presidency, some of that's been recaptured, 
recovered, some $6 trillion.
  But that painful outcome is sometimes lost. People forget that there 
were these trillions of dollars lost to the household incomes, that 
there were 8 million jobs lost in this country. Why would people want 
to go back to those failed policies?
  And, today, we just do a litmus test based on other dynamics. 
Medicare, the Republicans suggest that we should voucher the system, 
allow people to have a voucher to go and invest in a private insurance 
plan.
  There are those in the Republican ranks, the leadership, talking 
about reforming Social Security, raising the age limit, providing 
savings so that they can pay for the war, wanting to adjust a system 
that's very much part of the security for our Nation's retirees. To 
balance a budget on the backs of our hardworking retirees, people who 
have invested in the system, is telling us what their philosophy is all 
about. They're not supporting Wall Street reform. Attacking it, 
demeaning it, that it was an atom bomb used on an ant, totally 
misrepresents the situation; the fact that they wanted our President to 
apologize for coming down hard on BP and the oil spill and the failures 
in the gulf.
  So we see that same thinking that brought about the failure of our 
economy, that brought this Nation's economy to its knees. They want us 
to go back to those standards? I think what we have here are 
improvements. There's a road to recovery. It's painfully slow, but it's 
moving in the right direction. It's a sweep upward after several months 
of a sweep downward. The V formation, that constant dip down south, 
southward with the economy, now transitions upward, has told the story, 
has told the story; and I see it in my district.
  I see the capital region of New York responding to an innovation 
economy,

[[Page 13476]]

investing in opportunity, in innovation. Advanced Battery 
Manufacturing, they're to open a new facility in our district that will 
move to something that now transitions our economy because it will be 
able not only to store intermittent power; it will also be able to 
generate electricity and also be used for heavy fleets. This is the way 
we create jobs. This is the investment of the Recovery Act that 
invested in Advanced Battery Manufacturing, invested in renewable 
technologies for energy generation, invested in smart grid, smart 
thermostats, smart meters.
  These were the opportunities that really transition our economy and 
create a new day for America because we become more self-sufficient in 
our energy policy, with our energy policy. We allow for generation to 
be done here by embracing the American intellect. These are the 
dynamics of reform that were long overdue. They're creating American 
jobs to produce American power. A tour with the veterans of this 
country about American power, about how we can create jobs here and not 
send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign-nation treasuries and 
those nations are unfriendly to the U.S. That's the changed thinking, 
not the failure of the past that drained household incomes by $17 
trillion to $18.5 trillion, that lost 8 million jobs.
  Do we go back to those failed policies, or do we transition over to 
what has been the road to recovery, albeit not as fast as we would 
like, but it's progress, it's movement in the right direction, and it's 
innovation and it's embracing the American intellect.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much, Mr. Tonko, and I just 
wanted to add a couple of things and then I know Mr. Schauer will close 
us out.
  But one of the things that I think is important to note that we also 
have done--because deficits are really an issue and deficit spending is 
an issue--we, when we took the majority back, reestablished the PAYGO 
rules and then enshrined them in statute in this Congress to make sure 
that legislation that we pass is paid for, that we don't, like most 
families have to do, like every family I know, can't spend more than 
they take in.
  The Republicans let those rules which were originally adopted under 
the Clinton administration and resulted in the record surpluses that 
President Bush inherited, they let those rules lapse. Well, we 
reestablished them because when they let those rules lapse, that's when 
we ended up in a huge deficit situation.

                              {time}  2130

  Because of that, we are able to, with the budget that we have 
adopted, cut the deficit in half over the next number of years and 
focus on deficit reduction while also making sure that we balance that 
with investments so that we can get our economy back on track.
  That's the difference between us and them, and I hate to say it like 
that, but, really, there hasn't been a more stark contrast in the 
choice that Americans have to make in this election, and I look forward 
to spending some more time on the floor talking with my colleagues 
about it.
  Mr. SCHAUER. I would like to thank my colleagues, Debbie Wasserman 
Schultz of Florida, Paul Tonko of New York. Our time is about up, but I 
will give you two numbers that summarize the Bush policies: 8 million 
lost jobs, $14 trillion in wealth lost to American households--8 
million, $14 trillion. Trillion.
  Now, Americans can do it. We have been through tough times before, 
but we have always pulled together as a Nation to overcome our 
challenges. After challenges, Americans return stronger, more 
determined and more united.
  Democrats came together and faced the challenges that we were handed 
by mismanagement of the Bush Republicans and, together, we are pulling 
our economy back from the brink of economic ruins.
  As Americans, I know we can do it. That's why we are here tonight. I 
received a couple of texts from folks at home. They are watching. 
Americans know we can do it. We can turn our economy around and get our 
economy back on track.
  I will yield back. Thank you.

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