[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1585]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING THE 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND 
                            REINVESTMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, as we have said many times recently, we are 
acknowledging and recognizing the 1-year anniversary of the American 
Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is interesting on these anniversaries 
that we have considerable discussions about whether the act, or any 
other act, was successful or not.
  Just watching Sunday morning's national talk shows was a very 
interesting experience, because we had on one show Governor Granholm 
from Michigan and Governor Barbour from Mississippi, and you would have 
believed that the two of them came from different planets or at least 
that they were talking about two very different pieces of legislation.
  Jennifer Granholm talked about tens of thousands of jobs being 
created in Michigan, beginning the foundation, setting the foundation 
for a new explosion of battery technologies and energy technologies. 
Governor Barbour on the other hand said, ``Well, we got a few jobs, 
we've paved a few roads, but it really wasn't that good of a program.''
  My own Senator and my constituent, Senator McConnell, was on another 
talk show saying, ``Yeah, the governors like it. It funds a lot of 
government jobs.'' Well, I am going to get to that in a minute, because 
those government jobs are not just government jobs. Those are not 
bureaucrats. Those are teachers, those are firefighters, those are 
police officers. Those are people who are providing critical public 
services to our constituents. But let's talk about where we were a year 
ago.
  My colleague from Virginia just talked about a lot of the data 
reflecting what the situation was in the economy several years ago and 
last year when the Recovery Act went into effect. But let's talk about 
what we were trying to do then, because this wasn't just about creating 
jobs. As all the economists have said, we faced a considerable gap in 
demand in the economy, as much as $1 trillion a year. That is the 
capacity of the economy versus the demand for goods and services. And 
when you have that kind of gap, if you have too many people working and 
too little demand, people get laid off. That is what has happened in 
our economy. Nobody else was filling that gap, so economists across the 
spectrum said government has to be the spender of last resort. We have 
to fill that gap because consumers aren't spending.
  So what did we do? We not only put in programs that would create jobs 
through infrastructure spending and investment, but we also said we 
need to make sure that people have their unemployment benefits, because 
unemployment benefits are spent; they go directly into the economy as 
quickly as possible.
  We wanted to give tax cuts. Many of our Republican colleagues asked 
us to do that, so 95 percent of the American people have received a tax 
cut. Now, a lot of them don't know it. As a matter of fact, I 
understand there is a poll now of Tea Party supporters in which only 2 
percent say they actually think the taxes have decreased in the last 
year; 95 percent don't. But, in fact, virtually 95 percent of those 
people have received a tax cut.
  But let's talk about just the experience in my own congressional 
district in my own State. As Senator McConnell said, it is only helping 
support a few government jobs. Well, in fact, in my district, because 
of the first-time homebuyers credit, sales of homes in Louisville have 
had four successive months of gains, substantial gains. Because of 
stimulus fund investment, GE's Appliance Park is bringing 400 jobs back 
from China to help build a new energy-efficient water heater in 
Louisville, Kentucky. Those aren't government jobs, but private sector 
jobs.

                              {time}  1045

  The stimulus moneys helped retain 600 teachers in Jefferson County 
Public Schools. We have a new maintenance facility being built at our 
public transit company; 80 new construction jobs building this energy-
efficient facility. Stimulus funds provided a billion dollars to shore 
up our KCHIP program. That is health insurance for children. We had 
funding for career training for 500 at-risk young people. We had $26 
million for remodeling and renovating schools.
  Now, Senator McConnell may think those aren't jobs, but I don't think 
those schools are renovating themselves. There are people working to 
renovate those schools, as well as building a new Beechmont Fire 
Station, $2.2 million. Those are human beings working because of the 
Recovery Act.
  In all just in my district we have served more than 4,000 people. 
According to local government, which is tracking the funds very 
carefully, we have created 1,800 jobs just in Louisville, Kentucky, and 
we have, again, provided numerous public services both in Louisville 
and throughout the State.
  Now, we have a long way to go. The Recovery Act was not a cure-all. 
We can have our doubts and our differences about whether it has 
succeeded as well as it might have, but the fact is there has been true 
progress made, and we expect more progress to be made.

                          ____________________