[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13603-13604]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                      AMERICANS LIVING IN POVERTY

  (Mr. MORAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. MORAN. Madam Speaker, today we learned that 46 million Americans 
are living in poverty. More people are suffering economically than at 
any time since the Great Depression. But we learned from an excellent 
article by Scott Lilly of the Center for American Progress that history 
may be repeating itself.
  In 1937, conservative Republicans succeeded in virtually eliminating 
the Federal jobs programs of the New Deal,

[[Page 13604]]

so as to eliminate the Federal deficit. But the results were 
catastrophic to America's economy and society. Half of the 8 million 
jobs that had been created by the New Deal were lost, and unemployment 
went over 19 percent.
  Economists generally classified the economic reversal in 1937 and 
1938 as a second depression. Not until military spending began to 
revive activity in 1940 did unemployment again drop to less than 15 
percent.
  That was a long and painful experience. It would be tragic if we 
permitted the new conservative crowd in Washington to repeat it by 
killing President Obama's jobs act and sending us back into a double-
dip recession.
  Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

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