[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12867-12874]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2020
                     THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMIC FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, it's a privilege to join my 
colleagues on the floor this evening to talk about the future of our 
economy and the new direction that we, the Democrats, are moving this 
country since taking over the Congress. We will plan to spend the next 
45 minutes to an hour talking about where we've been and where we are 
at this point and the opportunities that we have to continue to go. My 
colleagues and I will talk about the progress that we've made and the 
efforts that we've employed to try to create jobs and turn the economy 
around.
  We feel really excited about the accomplishments that we've made thus 
far. We have only to look back to the month before President Obama took 
office in January of 2009 to see at that point the economy having bled 
700,000-plus jobs. Fast-forward to June, now July of 2010, and we are 
now adding, on average, between 125,000 and 200,000 jobs per month. And 
those are private sector jobs. We also have the addition of public-
sector jobs through the census. But consistently month after month, 
particularly starting at the beginning of this year, the economy has 
consistently added private sector jobs, and that is incredibly 
important. We know that the way we're going to continue to turn our 
economy around, the key to our economic revival, is through job 
creation.
  We can attribute much of the success and much of the turnaround that 
has occurred thus far to our passage of the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act last February. We know that the $787 billion stimulus 
package that we passed injected badly needed resources into the 
economy. But, Madam Speaker, it also injected badly needed capital in 
the form of tax cuts for the middle class and for working families, and 
that's something that doesn't get talked about enough.
  We do talk a whole lot about job creation, but one of the keys to job 
creation, we know, is stimulating the economy through tax cuts targeted 
towards the middle class, working families, and small businesses. We 
have really endeavored to make sure that we've struck a careful balance 
and the right balance between stimulating the economy by injecting the 
badly needed resources and also generating the tax cuts that we know 
are the lifeblood of so many small businesses, for them to have the 
capital available to be able to make the investments that they need in 
the infrastructure of their businesses so that they can have the 
wherewithal to add new hires and create more jobs.
  And that's something that, if you compare and contrast the priorities 
of the previous administration to the priorities of the Obama 
administration and our leadership under Speaker Pelosi and the 
Democratic leadership here in the House of Representatives, the 
priorities back in the Bush era were, again, a return to the trickle-
down theory of economics; that if you focus tax cuts and if you focus 
all of your attention on the wealthiest Americans, on the largest 
corporations, then somehow that largess will flow downward through the 
economy and, you know, ``rising tides lift all boats.'' Except in this 
case, we know that that policy sunk the boats and, instead, we capsized 
a whole lot of small businesses in the water; and now we have been 
engaged in a really significant effort to try to right those ships and 
get the economy back on track. We're excited about the progress that 
we've made, but we also recognize that we have a long way to go.
  There are a number of things that we are going to want to focus on 
tonight. Let's just look at the weekly economic update just in the last 
week and in the last month. If you look at employment, the private 
sector in the month of June

[[Page 12868]]

created an additional 83,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate continues 
to fall. It fell to 9.5 percent. That's the sixth straight month of job 
growth in the private sector, and the fall in total unemployment 
reflected a decrease in our temporary census jobs. We added 9,000 
manufacturing jobs in June, and that is the 11th month in a row that we 
have added manufacturing jobs.
  So the progress that we're making is evident. We need to be able to 
continue that progress and not get too timid or gun-shy while we 
balance our priorities and make sure that we can focus on getting the 
jobs done.
  The June jobs report was another reminder of just how far we've come 
since last year and how much work remains to be done to stop the free 
fall. The President and Congress took strong and immediate steps in the 
Recovery Act and put those people back to work after 22 straight months 
of job loss before President Obama took office. We now have seen our 
economy create private sector jobs for the last 6 months in a row, and 
we need to make sure that we can continue that recovery.
  We're moving in the right direction. We know it's not fast enough, 
but that's why President Obama is fighting for additional steps to 
speed up the recovery and keep the economy growing. And he and we have 
made clear that creating jobs is our top priority.
  Another priority, for example, in a State like mine, in my home State 
of Florida, particularly in south Florida, is making sure that we can 
get lending kick-started again and make sure that folks who are 
struggling to be able to make their mortgage payments and remain in 
their homes still have the ability to do that. We have been very 
focused, and the administration has been very focused on creating 
programs that will help keep people in their homes, that will give 
banks and banking institutions the opportunity to work with homeowners 
so that we don't see masses of individuals out on the street and 
continue the flood of housing that has become available on the market 
as a result. So we have a lot of things to think about.
  I am joined tonight by several of my colleagues, the first of which 
is my colleague from Houston, Texas, who has been a long-time Member, 
focuses on the needs of her district like a laser beam, and has talked 
quite a bit about the need for job growth. She is struggling in her 
community, as a fellow Gulf Coast Stater, dealing with the aftermath of 
the BP oil spill, my good friend, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I am very glad to join multiple friends 
from a number of our great States in America. But more importantly, I 
am glad to be part of the team, working with the Congresswoman, our 
leadership, of course, and the President that focuses on creating jobs 
for Americans. That's an exciting message for all of us.
  And I am very delighted to sort of dash the misstatements that have 
been going on about what we have accomplished here, and if I might just 
be redundant and cite the fact that the private sector has created 
83,000 jobs in June.
  But I would like to add something else, Congresswoman. I think you 
have seen this number as well, that this has been one of the best 
quarters for corporations in terms of profits. It is well known, and of 
course many of us encourage individuals to save money and to invest. 
But I think it's particularly important for the American public to know 
that our corporations have money. We've created the right economic 
atmosphere for them to grow, but they've decided to not create all of 
the jobs they could. And I would just like this evening to congratulate 
them for the profits that they've made, but I want them to be inspired 
to create jobs for the American people because the government has 
worked very hard to create a banking system for them to feel 
comfortable with as we pass the Wall Street reform so that they can 
create jobs, hire people.
  There were 9,000 manufacturing jobs created in June, and I think that 
is extremely important, but 136,000 jobs since December. We have good 
news for the American public. We have heard you, and we believe in 
buying America and making it in America. Therefore, we're going to be 
looking, over the next couple of months, to craft an agenda where you 
will see jobs being created by the message of this Democratic 
leadership.
  We can tell you that we mean business because we can show you the 
facts. For the 11th consecutive month, the manufacturing sector has 
expanded. They have heard our call. They have heard our creed.
  The Purchasing Managers Index registered at 56.2 in June. Of the 18 
industries surveyed, 13 reported growth.
  Look at, if you will, the gigantic change that we have seen in the 
automobile manufacturing sector where our companies are coming back. 
Many people complain about the approach we utilize, but we can look at 
the bottom line. Ford never took the money. GM has paid the money back. 
But what we want them to do is to manufacture smartly, hire people and 
create jobs. We have created--this Democratic leadership, this 
President has created the atmosphere for these companies to grow, and 
we want them to grow more.
  Let me just add these one or two points. Consumers who have been 
feeling the pinch--we know there's unemployment, and right now, today, 
we're fighting to extend unemployment for those hardworking Americans 
who have seen their jobs go but need to support their families.

                              {time}  2030

  And let me make it very clear. Unemployment insurance is not a 
handout. It is a gift coming back, or it is an acknowledgment of your 
hard work, and we want to keep you over a bridge. We want to give you a 
bridge until you get another job.
  But disposable personal income grew by 0.5 percent in May. It grew by 
.6 percent in April, and it grew by .4 percent in May. So you can see 
that it's steadily going up. It's steadily going up, and this is making 
a difference.
  As I cite these last points, Congresswoman, to emphasize how we, on 
this side of the aisle, the Democrats, have a positive attitude about 
knowing that America's going to make it as we make products and as 
manufacturing grows, I'm disappointed that some of my friends who are 
on the other side of the aisle are thinking differently.
  One of the things that they don't like to say is that when President 
Obama first came into office he inherited an economy that was losing an 
average of 750,000 jobs in 1 month. Now, I'm not the kind of 
personality that wants to look back and blame the last administration. 
But we know for a fact that there were no jobs created in the last 8 
years.
  And so let me conclude on remarks that have been made by a good 
friend. The minority whip asked the question, stimulus dollars have not 
produced jobs. This is what the minority whip said while hosting a job 
fair in Virginia. And I would only like to say that to help the 
American people, it would be grand for us to work and march in step, in 
a bipartisan step, and that is the only thing we're concerned about, no 
matter what region we come from, is creating jobs.
  Many of you know that we are being hit in the Gulf in many different 
ways by the BP oil spill. My good friend is being hit for tourism. I 
just had one of her mayors before my committee, and they said they're 
not being listened to about tourism.
  I'm being hit because of fishermen and shrimpers and oysters, but 
also I'm being hit by the hardworking people who work in the energy 
industry who are innocent who may be losing jobs who cannot work 
offshore.
  But our good friend, Mr. Cantor, rather than working together to 
produce jobs, has said this: He hasn't seen any evidence of jobs being 
created.
  Well, according to the Council of Economic Advisers, the Recovery Act 
created or saved more than 48,000 jobs in Virginia in 2009. In May, the 
Congressional Budget Office reported that in the first quarter of 2010 
the Recovery Act was responsible for an increase in the number of 
people employed by 1.2 million, and 2.8 million. This is stunning.
  And the job fair that Mr. Cantor had, and I congratulate him for 
having

[[Page 12869]]

a job fair. I congratulate the companies for coming, and I'm very glad 
that the companies that were in the room had gotten $52 million in 
Recovery Act funds to create jobs.
  Can you imagine?
  This is not a partisan commitment to America. Wherever you are and 
you need a job, our stimulus dollars have been there.
  And so I hope that we can end our criticism of the Recovery Act, 
because we know we can point out infrastructure projects and jobs 
created in all of our home districts, and we can point to the 
Democratic leadership where their message is jobs, jobs, jobs.
  We have nothing to be ashamed of, but we must stay steady. We must 
stay consistent. We must make sure that the unemployment insurance goes 
out to our constituents. We're going to fight to the end to make sure 
that that goes where it needs to go, and that is to the people who need 
it.
  And finally, I'm excited about the manufacturing spurt, surge that 
we're going to continue when we take the message of buy America and 
make it in America, we are creating jobs. And this Democratic 
leadership believes that America is standing tall, and we will be a 
country that recovers in a very, very special way.
  And I'm delighted to be able to join with my friends who understand 
that there is an American economic recovery. We know it, we see it, and 
we're working on it.
  I yield back.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Jackson Lee. 
Thank you for joining us and for your leadership. You have really been 
a stalwart fighter for the middle class and working families that 
Democrats have always stood for and stood by, and it's just absolutely 
critical that you've come down here tonight to help us get that message 
out. So thank you so much.
  And it's a really wonderful transition, the item that Ms. Jackson Lee 
closed on, making sure that we can make things again. And focusing on 
manufacturing and the resurgence of manufacturing in this country is a 
perfect segue to the priorities and the message that I know my good 
friend from Michigan, whose district I was just in this morning and had 
the privilege of joining him in his district in Ann Arbor and had an 
opportunity to meet with his constituents who are very supportive of 
his efforts to create jobs here and to focus the needs on Michigan's 
economy right here in Washington. So my good friend, Mark Schauer from 
the great State of Michigan.
  Mr. SCHAUER. Thank you, Congresswoman. I'm proud to be here tonight 
to talk about our recovery, our economic recovery, about jobs, about a 
manufacturing agenda, and a ``made it in America'' agenda.
  The people that I represent in Michigan understand that we have a 
fundamental problem with our economic recovery, and that is unfair 
trade policies that have cost us in Michigan hundreds of thousands of 
jobs.
  I've cosponsored a bill to repeal NAFTA. I know there are different 
views on that. My views are very clear, that we need to support trade 
policies that put American jobs and American workers first.
  The people at home that I represent have heard me say it, and I'm 
proud to say it on the floor of the House of Representatives here 
today. The time is now to fight for American jobs. The time is now to 
fight for American jobs.
  There's an issue that I'm working on that I think I've gotten some 
attention of certainly Democratic leadership that wants to fight for 
American jobs and manufacturing and American workers, and I think this 
is an issue where my friends on the other side of the aisle will 
embrace as well. I've already got one Republican cosponsor on H.R. 
5312. And it's a very simple issue. It's about fairness. It's about 
fair trade rather than trade policies that, again, have cost us 
millions of jobs in this country.
  What I learned as I've been fighting for fair trade and giving our 
businesses, small businesses and large, an opportunity to make things 
again in my State and in this country, is that we have been using our 
tax dollars to support and create jobs in China rather than jobs here 
in the United States of America. As I dug into this issue, quite 
innocently, I was looking through some census promotional materials, 
and I was shocked to find that some of those materials to promote 
something that I support 110 percent, the United States Census, each of 
our communities needs to get its fair share of dollars to support 
education and housing and public safety, and so forth, but some of 
these promotional materials, you guessed it, were made in China.
  This is a key ring that--I carry this everywhere I go. And I show 
small businesses, tool and die shops, small manufacturers, they tell me 
that they could tool this little key chain, and it says, United States 
Census 2010. They could have the tooling done, they could have their 
manufacturing process ready in 1 week to make this little metal key 
chain.
  Now, what you may not be able to see at home, you may not be able to 
read where it says United States Census. And again, I want to remind 
you that your tax dollars are paying for this. There's a little 
sticker, and you guessed it, it says ``made in China.''
  Now, we can and we should make this with our tax dollars here. Now, 
China, when they joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, did not 
sign the government----
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Would the gentleman yield for a question on 
the key chain?
  Mr. SCHAUER. I will yield.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Have you had an opportunity to talk with the 
Census Bureau about why it is that they are getting promotional 
material that they're using to get Americans to complete the census 
form from China?
  Mr. SCHAUER. I have. Thank you for asking me that. I've heard a 
couple of interesting answers.

                              {time}  2040

  And I also have a hat. The people that I represent at home see me 
with this hat. It's white, a very poor quality hat that says ``United 
States Census 2010,'' you guessed it, made in China. And the United 
States Census says, well, if products are substantially altered, 
substantially altered--this sounds like bureaucratic speak--can qualify 
as made in America.
  So I guess what they consider substantially altered is this little 
metal key chain that was made in China, apparently had the ``United 
States Census 2010'' printing done in the U.S., and that's 
substantially altered. The hat that I usually have with me--I don't 
have it tonight--same thing: the hat is made in China.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. If the gentleman would yield for another 
question. So essentially the screen printing that was done onto the 
item, they define that as substantially altering the actual piece.
  Mr. SCHAUER. Correct.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. So it's exempted?
  Mr. SCHAUER. It satisfies the Buy American provision. I actually met 
with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke about this--and by the way, I have 
been appointed to the President's Export Council, and I plan to work on 
these American jobs issues--is if there are certain orders that have to 
be done quickly, that there is a loophole.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Okay, but can I ask you another question?
  Mr. SCHAUER. Yes.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Because it's not like we don't know that we do 
the census every 10 years and that we are going to need promotional 
materials to promote the census.
  Mr. SCHAUER. Exactly.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. So what would be the urgent nature or last-
minute ordering that would be done for key chains or hats? We know in 
2020 we are going to need that. We know in 2030 we are going to need 
that.
  Mr. SCHAUER. Exactly right. Exactly right.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Stock up.
  Mr. SCHAUER. The point is there is no good answer. And so we as 
Democrats have to look at--we have to scour the law, all of our laws, 
and look at

[[Page 12870]]

Buy American provisions and make sure there are no loopholes like these 
that allow our tax dollars to create jobs in other countries. It's not 
just China. There are T-shirts, I think it was, made in Honduras and so 
forth.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Would the gentleman yield just for a quick 
comment? That very product, T-shirts, hats, and there may be many 
others, just fits right in with small- and medium-sized businesses, the 
very businesses that make jobs. I would yield to the gentleman for a 
response on that. Isn't this the kind of products that fit right into 
that?
  Mr. SCHAUER. I was in Reading, Michigan, at a small business 
appreciation dinner. And I took the hat, took the key chain, and I 
said, Can anyone here make these? Hands went up. I mean, we can make 
these things. We do. And, in fact, when I testified before the House 
Ways and Means Committee on this issue, Congressman Sandy Levin held a 
hearing on our trading relationship with China. And the other thing 
that the Census Bureau says is, well, we don't make these things here, 
or we don't put them out--you know, we can't find folks here in the 
United States that make these.
  I took seven or eight hats from my office representing different 
groups in my district. One was from Grand Ledge High School, their 
baseball team cap. They were all made in America. And of course those 
items were of a much better quality than the hat that was made in 
China.
  My ultimate point is that China has been playing us for fools. China 
has been playing us for fools. They are eating our lunch. We are 
letting them do it. And so it's time for us collectively as Democrats, 
and I hope our Republican colleagues join us in this fight, it's time 
to fight for our jobs. This is a simple matter of fairness.
  I will sum up this issue that what my bill does, it's a straight 
issue of reciprocity, a true fair trade issue. And the way it works is 
that we will allow Chinese companies the same access to our government 
contracts as China's government is allowing our companies to have 
access to their government contracts. So if that number in China is 
zero, then you guessed it, no Chinese company will have access to our 
government contracts. If the number is a million, then there will be 
straight reciprocity. So it's time for us to decide which jobs we are 
going to use our tax dollars to support. And I think the answer for us 
as Democrats is those jobs are American jobs.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. And thank you so much for your 
leadership on this, Congressman Schauer. Really, this is something that 
you have been spearheading for a long time. And it's finally cracking 
through. I know that it's a priority that we're going to be taking up 
in the very near future. And I have a hunch that legislation is going 
to definitely be sent over to the Senate. And they would be hard 
pressed not to take it up.
  With that, I want to turn it over to the very eloquent and 
hardworking stalwart for creating jobs and helping us turn the economy 
around in his home State of New York, Mr. Paul Tonko.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Wasserman Schultz, and thank you 
for bringing us together to discuss an important aspect of the work we 
do, creating jobs, providing the dignity of work for individuals and 
families across this great country. And it's great to join with you and 
Representative Jackson Lee, Representative Schauer. I know we are going 
to be hearing from Representative Murphy.
  But to be with everyone here and put our thoughts into a context that 
allows people to understand where we are headed with this recovery 
program, I think this chart expresses it in a very straightforward, 
simplistic way, a simple straightforward decline for many months, where 
we lost $17.5 trillion of household income, where 8.2 million jobs were 
lost. We were headed for a deep, deep depression. And then this sharp 
straight line upward, which now expresses a recovery.
  And I should point out that many of us believe, all of us here on 
this floor tonight believe, that we're not only recovering the economy, 
but we're restructuring the economy. That's an important aspect of the 
work we're doing. To create those jobs that will bring strength to the 
American worker, provide economic vitality for the American family. And 
so we see this clustering here of 6 months of recovery in the private 
sector area of job creation and job retention.
  This is an important aspect to the investment that has been made, the 
policy reforms that have been initiated and responded to by this 
administration and the leadership of this House. But there is more to 
come. We're not satisfied with this.
  But when we hear the critics from the other side of the aisle say 
where's that great number of jobs, where are those new jobs, well, we 
can point to these new jobs. They're there. They're a statistic. 
They're historic now. Where were you to decry the loss of those jobs? 
There was silence about the jobs being lost. There's huge contrast in 
their approach to the jobs. We heard nothing with job loss. Now we're 
hearing complaints, diminishing, of the efforts to create jobs, 
especially in the private sector, which is happening.
  I think rather than dwell on statistics, and all of my colleagues 
have done this very well tonight about statistically showing that we're 
making progress and that we've turned the corner and that there's been 
a sharp U-turn in the response as a Nation for job creation, but I 
think we need to put it in the big-picture framework of trust, of 
competence.
  This party, the Democrats, have come forward with a plan of action, 
one that has saved a lot of effort of further loss, economic 
consequences for American families. And we know who brought us that 
steep red line of decline: it was a party that continues to espouse 
privatization of Social Security, vouchering of Medicare, supporting 
tax breaks to ship jobs offshore, to call the response to Wall Street 
reform akin to attacking an ant with an atom bomb.
  What a gross misrepresentation. What a gross unawareness of the 
issues that brought this country's economy to its knees. And so I bring 
forth that sort of contrast because I think it's what's governing the 
response today. The positives, the optimism that we share, the reforms 
we're promoting are swinging us upward. The contrast is that continued 
effort to further push hard on the middle class, to not allow for 
Medicare--a system that has worked well for our Nation's seniors--to 
raise the age limit, the threshold for Social Security. All of these 
efforts coming, all of this denouncement of Social Security, of 
Medicare, that has stabilized people in their retirement years, are 
what they advance and what they promote.

                              {time}  2050

  Are you going to trust that thinking, that party, to continually pull 
us into the red, or are you going to look at Democratic action where 
we've resisted this sort of behavior, where we are believing we can 
grow the economy, where we are embracing the theme that we are going to 
make it in America again? Let American workers know that we're standing 
for that turnaround.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
  Mr. TONKO. I most certainly will.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you. Because I wanted to ask you, the 
way you're characterizing our colleagues' view--and I want to bring our 
good friend, Mr. Murphy, into this discussion because he and I, in the 
2006 to 2008, in the 110th Congress, we spent quite a bit of time on 
the House floor talking about the Republicans' efforts to privatize 
Social Security. And I'm wondering if your characterization of their 
agenda is one that you--is this something that you think is--is it your 
opinion?
  From what I understand, we have a number of different third party 
validators that can document that they have consistently supported 
privatization of Social Security and vouchering of the Medicare system 
as we know it.
  Mr. TONKO. Oh, absolutely. As stated on the floor, we know what 
people

[[Page 12871]]

want. We know where they want to take us. And I just think the contrast 
needs to be shared, because that same thinking is prevalent in terms of 
economic recovery, of economic development policies, of the sort of 
stopping of the bleeding that we promoted here in the House by 
inserting a new order of thinking.
  You know, even with the energy crisis, with the devastation--
Representative Jackson Lee, you see it from where you sit, and 
Representative Wasserman Schultz, you see it from the Florida 
perspective, Texas perspective--the gulf has been impacted. And for 
people from the cheap energy voice in this House, coming from the 
Energy and Commerce Committee, required an apology, demanded an apology 
from the President for coming down hard on BP. And all of the 
devastation to the economy, to the people, 11 lives lost, the ecosystem 
being devastated. That's another sign of difference where there isn't 
trust, in my opinion, or confidence.
  So people, I think, are going to take a look at this and say, Let's 
continue this. The path out of the damaged zone may not be as quick as 
we would have liked, but it is happening. It is happening in a positive 
measurement and its growth in the private sector of job creation for 6 
continuous months.
  So I just think that contrast is important in the discussion that we 
have here tonight on the floor of the House.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. Really, you have 
hammered home, you're here night after night, week after week, to make 
sure that we can talk to the American people, illuminate not just our 
efforts on turning the economy around and creating jobs but our 
successes.
  And someone who has been really focused on creating jobs, making 
sure, as a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, making 
sure that we do that through our innovation agenda, through our passage 
of the global warming and climate change legislation and also through 
health care reform, is the leader from the great State of Connecticut, 
Congressman Chris Murphy.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you very much, Representative 
Wasserman Schultz, Representative Tonko, Representative Jackson Lee.
  Listen, everybody should take a look at that chart that was next to 
Representative Tonko. It's not a coincidence that from month to month 
to month in the last year of the Bush administration we lost more and 
more and more jobs, and then immediately upon the new President, 
President Obama, taking office, we started to lose less and less and 
less jobs to the point now where we are adding jobs to the economy. 
It's because the stimulus has worked. It is because it is infusing new 
money into the economy. It is because tax rates are the lowest in this 
country since 1950. People have more money to spend than ever before. 
It's because we put money in the hands of teachers and firefighters and 
police officers and renewable energy companies and solar companies and 
advanced battery technology companies. The leading edge of our economy 
is creating jobs. It's because manufacturing is coming back.
  To Mr. Schauer's point in June, 9,000 new manufacturing jobs in this 
economy. Since December, 136,000 new manufacturing jobs. The economy is 
heading in the right direction because we're putting new policies into 
place that are investing in small manufacturers, in small businesses, 
in Main Street.
  And that's the dichotomy here. I mean, that's why I ran for Congress 
4 years ago, because I watched Washington, I watched the Bush 
administration put all of its focus on the haves, on the big 
multinational companies, on the big oil companies, the big 
pharmaceutical companies, the big defense contractors, and very little 
emphasis on the small manufacturer with 10 employees around the corner 
from me; very little emphasis on the small mom-and-pop business that 
was struggling to get by paying for the energy costs and the health 
care costs that were padding the pockets of the big guys. That's the 
fundamental shift that's happened here, and you see it on issue after 
issue.
  You see it in our approach to energy as, Mr. Tonko, you said we're 
investing in small renewable energy companies while the Republican 
leadership, on issues of energy, are asking for apologies to BP. You 
see it on health care reform, where we're putting power in the hands of 
consumers; whereas, the Republicans, when they tried their stab at 
health care reform with the Medicare Prescription Drug Act, put all the 
power in the hands of insurance companies and drug companies. And you 
see it with respect to manufacturing.
  What we're talking about as Democrats is reinvigorating American 
manufacturing, to stop this defeatist notion that we can't make things 
here in America anymore. That's what sort of drove the House of 
Representatives when the Republicans were in charge was manufacturing 
is dead. They can't do it here any longer; we're just going to sign 
free trade agreements with any country that comes to us without any 
regard to fair trade, that we're going to allow jobs to flow out to 
China, to India, to Mexico.
  Democrats and the Obama administration refuse to give in to that 
notion. And I think you are going to see, over the course of the next 
several weeks and several months on this House floor, Democrats in the 
House of Representatives standing up for American manufacturing and 
saying we can make it here in the United States.
  Mr. Schauer's initiative is right on, right on. If we can start 
standing up to countries like China and say, Listen, if you're going 
to--if you want free trade with the United States, then you have to 
allow us to sell to you just like you sell to us. I think it starts 
with the way that we buy things for the American Government.
  A number of us are working on legislation that we hope will come 
before the floor very shortly that will say simply this: When the 
American Government buys things, whether it be for the census or 
whether it be for the Defense Department, let's buy it here in the 
United States.
  Sure, you might be able to find that part for the jet engine 10 
percent cheaper in China, but that job being created in China rather 
than in a machine shop in New York or Connecticut is costing our 
government, is costing our economy way more than the 10 percent you 
saved in lost wages, in lost taxes, and in increased social safety net 
costs like unemployment compensation.
  So I'm looking forward to this summer and this fall as we build on 
the work that we've done here, when Democrats do what we're good at 
doing, which is standing up for small guys, for little guys, for 
American manufacturing, and that we put an end to what has been a 
decade-long defeatist attitude in this country and in this government 
to just allow for manufacturing to go to the folks that can do it for 
the cheapest and who can do it with the lowest and the worst 
environmental and labor regulations around.
  I think we're going to stand up for American manufacturing. I think 
we're going to continue this trend of growing manufacturing jobs. I 
think it's going to be part, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, of the story of the 
recovery and the resurgence of the American economy.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you very much for helping us share that 
story with the American people and with our constituents, because it's 
absolutely critical, as we turn the corner and go through the summer, 
that we make sure that we talk about our efforts to continue to focus 
on job creation, and particularly on tax cuts for working families and 
the middle class because it's such a dramatic shift from where we were. 
And as we get closer and closer to the choice that Americans will be 
making in November, it's going to be critical that people understand 
the choice that they're going to be making. They can backslide toward 
the Bush era, where the focus was exclusively on the wealthiest few in 
America, exclusively on the largest corporations and the trickle-down 
theory of economics that was disproven time and again, or we can 
continue to go in the direction, the new direction that we have been 
pursuing, which is focusing on job creation, focusing on

[[Page 12872]]

making sure that the middle class can thrive.
  And there is no one that knows that effort better than my good friend 
Tom Perriello from the great State of Virginia.
  Mr. PERRIELLO. Thank you so much for bringing this group together to 
talk about jobs.
  As the gentleman from Connecticut mentioned, we can build things, 
make things, and grow things better than anyone else in the world if we 
give the American people a chance. For too many years, the other side 
has had a strategy of saying if we just nickel-and-dime the middle 
class enough, maybe we can win a race to the bottom with China. If we 
just cut into our environment enough, maybe we can win a race to the 
bottom with China. That's been the Republican strategy. We will not win 
a race to the bottom with China.
  Our side wants to win a race to the top with China. We can outcompete 
China and India as well as Europe and Japan if we unleash the 
innovation, entrepreneurship of the American people that comes from our 
small businesses, if we understand that instead of bailing out the 
biggest companies for their failures we start to give just a little bit 
of support to our small business owners, our entrepreneurs, our 
scientists, our innovators.

                              {time}  2100

  We made a down payment last year on rebuilding America's competitive 
advantage. We made a down payment to unleash the research and 
development, the technology and the innovation in our small businesses. 
And we also understand that to win that race to the top against China, 
we have to have a 21st century workforce, so we have made college a 
little more affordable.
  But it is not just kids headed to college. We also want to invest in 
those who want to learn a trade or career in technical training. That 
can be the difference between making minimum wage and 20 bucks an hour. 
Sometimes in this city or on Wall Street the difference between minimum 
wage and 20 bucks an hour doesn't seem like a whole lot, but to people 
back home it is the difference between being able to support your 
family or not, being able to pay those bills or not.
  And we have tried to go after those who are nickle and diming the 
working class and the middle class in this country, the utilities, the 
credit card companies, the health insurance companies and others that 
have been bankrupting our small business owners and our working class 
and middle-class folks.
  We can still build it here. We are already seeing this in the energy 
sector. As many of the people here tonight have talked about, our 
farmers can be on the front line of that struggle for America's energy 
independence. Our manufacturing in our district is actually exporting 
to Asia on high quality efficiency technologies.
  But it is not going to happen by pulling in our shell. It is not 
going to happen by thinking small. It is not going to happen by 
doubting the resolve of the American spirit, the American individual, 
the American entrepreneur. It is going to be doing it by giving that 
support.
  Right now we can be doing more to rebuild this Nation's 
infrastructure; the infrastructure of yesterday, our sewage, our water, 
our roads; and of tomorrow, our broadband technology, our electric grid 
technology, so that we have the most efficient system. That is how we 
outcompete the world. We can still do this better than anyone else. We 
must call all of us to that best self right now to outcompete, and we 
are not going to do it by taking our foot off the pedal right now.
  We are in tough economic times. Our American families feel it. Just 
this last week I did a tour of over a dozen Main Streets in my district 
in central and southern Virginia, talking to small business owners who 
spent a lifetime building up their business, their clientele, their 
reputation, to one day sell that business in order to be able to retire 
securely.
  Times are tough. That is not where we live right now in terms of Main 
Street. But we have to start putting Main Street ahead of Wall Street, 
and I mean the kind of values we have on Main Street, of basic decency 
and accountability. That is what we need in terms of real Wall Street 
reform. That is what we mean in terms of transparency, like the 
DISCLOSE Act.
  Where I come from, if you want to say something, you stand by it. You 
put your name by it. That is the simple rule of the DISCLOSE Act. To 
Wall Street, we are just saying if you don't have the money, you 
shouldn't be able to lend out the money. I think we need to do more to 
put a hard cap on these leverage restrictions. And I mean Main Street 
jobs, and thinking we still need those jobs for people that they can 
support a family with.
  The people here tonight are dedicated to that working and middle-
class American who has been struggling in these tough economic times, 
to make it a little easier to get that business started, a little 
easier to get through the tough times, a little easier to get that 
child off to college or to trade school, and a little easier to make 
sure that you are going to have a secure retirement.
  I look forward to this month, because we are in an urgent time. This 
is not a time for political games by either side. This is a time where 
we shouldn't leave until we have launched a manufacturing strategy and 
an agricultural strategy for the 21st century, where we have helped to 
put our construction crews back to work making this country more 
efficient.
  We can do these things, I have no doubt that we can, and I believe 
that we will continue to fight the people here to make sure that that 
happens and that we will see that economic growth and recovery back on 
Main Street.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much, Mr. Perriello, and thank 
you for your leadership in your district and the optimism and hope that 
you fight for every single day.
  You know, it really always boggles my mind how the Republicans wake 
up every morning, come to work and decide, I am going to be an 
obstructionist today. I think today I am going to figure out yet 
another way to say no. And rather than come to the table and work with 
us, because they need jobs in their districts too, instead, they vote 
no here, and then they do like the minority whip did just in the last 
week when he was home in his district. After voting no on the Recovery 
Act and being critical of the Recovery Act, he didn't have any problem 
showing up and taking credit for one of the projects funded by the 
Recovery Act in his district. I think Americans really see through that 
transparent attempt at hypocrisy.
  We are a party of genuine articles. We are Members who work hard 
every day to make sure that we can get it done for the American people 
and get this economy turned around.
  There is no one that works harder at that in rural America than my 
good friend Lincoln Davis from the great State of Tennessee.
  Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Debbie, it is certainly good to be here. And 
as I have listened to the debate, the discussions that we have had 
about creating jobs in America, I think personally to go back and check 
a little bit of history, I represent a unique congressional district, 
but so do 434 other Members of the U.S. House. The district I represent 
is the fourth most rural residential congressional district in this 
country. It has the third highest number of blue collar workers.
  We are hurting in the Fourth Congressional District, as we are 
throughout America. And what we have been seeing in the last several 
years is an administration and those who truly do not understand, not 
only rural America, but those who live in urban and inner-city as well.
  As an example, starting on January 1st, 2008, through October 31st, 
2009, we lost eight million jobs in this country, eight million moms 
and dads, eight million working sons and daughters who lost their jobs 
starting in January. I am not talking about 2007, I am talking about 
just in that 22-month period alone, eight million jobs. During the Bush 
administration, around one million jobs were created, new jobs in the

[[Page 12873]]

time January 1st of 2001 through the time that George Bush left office 
on January 20th of 2009.
  If you take that growth number during that period of 8 years and look 
how long it would take us to find the jobs to replace the eight million 
that were lost, it would take 64 years at the same growth rate during 
the Bush administration.
  So for the folks on the other side of the aisle, start using math. 
When you use the math, be sure it adds up to what you are saying.
  When we look at eight million jobs that we have lost starting in 
January, the last 13 months of the Bush administration, through October 
31st of 2009, if we were to create 200,000 jobs a month--during the 
Clinton administration that is what happened, about 250,000 on the 
average jobs per month during the 8 years that Clinton was President. 
But if we take those numbers, it will take over 3 years to just replace 
the eight million jobs we lost as a result of the trade policies and 
the policies of the Bush administration.
  So if we want to start analyzing and blaming folks, let's get the 
facts straight. Let's get the figures right. People in my district 
don't care who it is, whether it is Bush or whether it is the Obama 
administration, whether it is the Clinton administration. They want 
jobs.
  How will we create those? Through the eighties, in the area I 
represent, the apparel industry and the textile industry was a great 
part of the low wages, quite frankly, and some of the low-skilled jobs 
that we had.
  My brother worked at a garment factory that worked almost 1,500 
people in 1983. As a result of the trade deals that we cut with the 
Caribbean steel initiative and the Andean region, as the result of the 
tax policy that we had, we reduced taxes on the richest people in 
America from 70 percent, as it was on January 1, 1981, to 28 percent 
was the max.
  I am not complaining because we had a tax cut, but here is what I do 
disagree with. We also during that period of time told small business 
folks, I am sorry, the depreciation schedules you had, 10 to 15 years, 
are no longer in place. It is going to take you 30-plus years now. So 
in essence what we told small business folks, you no longer have the 
tax breaks that you had at one time. You no longer have the tax 
incentives to create jobs for folks who live in rural America and 
inner-city or urban areas, because what we are doing is giving the tax 
breaks to the wealthiest individual wage earners, not small business 
folks.
  When the other side talks about helping small business engage, let's 
really get serious about a tax policy through depreciation schedules 
that will encourage small business folks, the creator of 70 percent of 
the jobs in our country, an opportunity to start revitalizing America 
again.
  In 1970, one out of four people worked in manufacturing in this 
country. Today it is one in 10. Let me repeat that. One out of four 
people worked in manufacturing. One in 10 does today. Where are those 
jobs?
  In 1998, we signed an agreement, this country did, and I have to 
blame the Clinton administration and perhaps Mr. Rubin, who was the 
Treasurer at that time, we signed trade deals called GATT, General 
Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, and we brought two large countries, 
India and China, which has a third of the world's population, into the 
WTO.

                              {time}  2110

  In 1998, you could not find an American label in China. It's hard to 
find an American label in America today. They're all over there. And 
when you purchase an item today that has always had an American label 
on it, whether it's toys, whether it's clothing, or whatever it may be, 
that American label is still stamped on it to look where it's made. It 
was made here at one time in this country. So from my standpoint, we've 
got to revisit many things that have caused us to lose 8 million jobs 
in 22 months. And if we don't do something about it, we'll never be 
able to regain those. We'll continue to see our economy and America 
slide backward when it comes to industrial development and economic 
growth.
  I propose--and I hope that we can possibly take a serious look at a 
bipartisan effort to revisit the trade deals--the free trade deals--and 
make them reciprocal trade deals. Reciprocity means each of us shares 
equally. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. From this 
standpoint, when we also gave fast track to the former President to 
actually make the deals and send them to Congress, where we can't 
change those deals, it hamstrung the advocates for America, the direct 
representatives for America. The U.S. House of Representatives was 
denied an opportunity to amend any trade agreement.
  So as we engage in trade in the future--and my time is running 
short--we need to realize 8 million jobs, 200,000 jobs created a month 
more than what we had starting the first of the month. It will take us 
almost 3 years to recover the jobs we lost in the last budget year with 
the Bush administration. I don't really like to be partisan, but I hear 
so much rhetoric from the other side. No one is pointing out the facts. 
It's time for the facts, and it's time the American people start 
listening to the facts rather than listening to bumper sticker slogans.
  It's America, folks. It's our country, folks. It's not about 
Democratic or Republic politics. It's not about ideologues. An 
ideologue looks for the future. It's reality today. And the future will 
be reality when it appears. The ideologues will never have it where 
they want it--on the left or the right. It's time we start worrying 
about America again and creating jobs for all of us in this Nation.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much, Mr. Davis. Really, I think 
it's so incredible. We had nine Members join us tonight for this hour. 
And we had the full philosophical spectrum--from the most conservative 
member of our caucus to the moderates to progressive members of our 
caucus. And that shows not only the big tent that we are in the 
Democratic Caucus but that we really are a reflection of America and 
American values, whether it's making sure that we can create jobs in 
rural America or the most urban core. It's absolutely critical.
  Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Would you yield?
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Yes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. I notice there's a chart up showing the huge 
deficits. When Barack Obama was elected President, the first 30 days of 
his term he had to renew a trillion dollars and pay the interest on it. 
If John McCain had been elected, he would have had to renew a trillion 
dollars that he didn't bring to the table. Whoever was elected 
President and sworn in on January 20 in 2009, the next 30 days we had 
$12 trillion in total national debt. You look at that on a monthly 
basis, that's a trillion a month we have to renew and pay the interest 
on it. It didn't matter who it was. So as we look at the national debt, 
please, America, yeah, we need to reduce the deficit. And we're working 
on that. We call that pay-as-you-go. We need performance-based 
programming in our budget.
  And so I would just want to remind you: 8 million jobs lost, starting 
on January 1, 2008, America, and the current President, regardless of 
who it is--Barack Obama or if it had been John McCain--had $1 trillion 
every month since they'd been President to renew and pay the interest 
on.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. You're absolutely right. Thank you so much for 
your leadership and for joining us this evening.
  To close us out in the hour, we have a duo from the great State of 
Pennsylvania. Both of them are freshmen. The gentlelady from 
Pennsylvania was particularly pleased, I know, when her colleague from 
Pennsylvania was elected recently in a special election because that 
made her not one of the most junior Members in the Chamber. Now he 
holds that title. But the gentlelady from Pennsylvania, Mrs. Kathy 
Dahlkemper.
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Thank you so much. I appreciate the gentlewoman from 
Florida's leadership here. I want

[[Page 12874]]

to reiterate my good friend from Tennessee brought up some of the 
important numbers that need be brought up. I'm from western 
Pennsylvania, as is my fellow colleague who has now made me not the 
junior Member. We have a manufacturing-based economy. And the numbers 
that my friend from Tennessee talked about are the numbers that I have 
seen not in the past 2 years but over the last 12 or 15 years in terms 
of good manufacturing jobs lost in our region.
  And what I find most exciting about this recovery that we are in is 
that we are making things again. And it's already been talked about 
tonight. But we are making things in America again. For the 11th 
consecutive month, the manufacturing sector has expanded in this 
country. We have got to depend on making things for our economic 
growth, not on the paper industry of Wall Street. And we have seen the 
problems with that, starting in 2007 and beyond.
  I want to bring up a few highlights from an article from the Erie 
Daily Times today, an article that talked about Erie County, where my 
home is from: manufacturing employment rose in May for the third month 
in a row. Viking Plastic in Erie County had increased employment from a 
low of 65 workers to nearly 100. GE Transportation, which reduced 
payroll by 1,500 workers in 2009, has called back 200 permanent and 
temporary workers.
  Economic growth is being seen throughout my district in the 
manufacturing sector. I visited a small electronics manufacturer, AMS 
Electronics, in Butler, Pennsylvania. They're performing well, despite 
the downturn, having increased their client base with the help of their 
local manufacturing extension partnership, a program that we fund 
through an act called the America COMPETES Act, which has recently been 
passed through the House.
  So there is good news coming out of western Pennsylvania. Just even 
yesterday, I was at Donjon Shipping, a new manufacturer. We're building 
currently a tug boat; working on a barge next. Making things, permanent 
products that are going to be helping to improve the wealth of our 
Nation and bring great jobs here.
  So I want to just reiterate what so many of my colleagues have said 
tonight, that there is good news. America is recovering. Not as fast as 
those out there need us to. Obviously, too many people still 
unemployed. But when you've lost 8 million jobs, 8 million jobs. We're 
on track this year to create more jobs than were created under 8 years 
of the Bush administration. I think that's important to remember.
  So we are moving forward. We are creating jobs in this country. I 
just wanted to tell a little bit about the good news from western 
Pennsylvania. I want to thank everyone for their help tonight here with 
bringing this message to the American people--the message that we are 
continuing to recover. This summer we're going to see what we call the 
``summer of stimulus,'' where we're going to see, I think, great 
numbers with highway projects that will increase by more than 600 
percent from July of 2009 to this July.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentlelady yield?
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. Yes.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Given that you're from a State that is in the 
heart of the Manufacturing Belt, can you talk a little bit about what 
is going on in your district and the efforts that we're making here to 
create jobs and what kind of progress the recent surge in manufacturing 
has brought to communities in Pennsylvania?
  Mrs. DAHLKEMPER. One of the great things about my part of 
Pennsylvania, and I really think Pennsylvania in general--I have to be 
a bit biased here--but we have a great ethic and we have people with 
great skills. We have been a manufacturing-based economy for a long 
time. So when businesses come there and they see the work ethic of the 
people, they want to stay, expand, and grow. And what we're doing is 
trying to provide that climate that will allow our businesses to grow 
and to provide those opportunities maybe for those new entrepreneurs 
that they have an opportunity to actually take that product that really 
could do great things in our country and do great things actually 
throughout the world. Because I see more and more of our businesses 
actually exporting also, and work that was going to Mexico and to China 
actually coming back, because we can make anything as well, if not 
better, than anybody else in the world. And we know that.
  So we're working hard. As I mentioned, great numbers coming out of 
our district because there's new products, there's new clientele, 
there's expansion and creation going on throughout many different 
sectors of our manufacturing-based economy. And so whether we're 
talking about some of the tax credits and incentives we've been trying 
to do either through the recovery package or with other pieces of 
legislation, we are working hard to get back to that manufacturing 
base. At least from my part of the world, my part of the country, it's 
important. I know not so much in Florida, but in Pennsylvania it 
certainly is the backbone of our economy, along with agriculture.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mrs. Dahlkemper, it's okay. You're right. In 
Florida, we don't have a strong manufacturing base, but we want to make 
sure that folks in Pennsylvania are able to thrive economically so they 
can come down and vacation and they can afford to take a vacation and 
come down to south Florida and across my beautiful home State and spend 
their hard-earned dollars that they have been able to use and invest in 
their small business and come down and make sure that they can help our 
economy thrive.
  Thank you, Madam Speaker. We yield back the balance of our time and 
thank the Speaker for the opportunity and look forward to hearing from 
our colleagues.

                          ____________________