[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9723]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     A LOOK BACK AT RECOVERY SUMMER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAULSEN. One year ago last week, the White House proclaimed that 
the summer of 2010 would officially be known as ``The Summer of 
Recovery.'' Now, 52 weeks later, unemployment remains painfully high at 
9.1 percent, the housing crisis has not improved, and nearly 14 million 
Americans are out of work.
  As I travel my district in Minnesota, from Bloomington to Wayzata to 
Coon Rapids, I hear from Minnesotans and small business owners that are 
understandably concerned. My constituents were told that a trillion-
dollar stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8 percent. They 
were clearly sold a bill of goods, as unemployment has now been above 8 
percent for more than 2 years straight.
  House Republicans do have a plan to jump-start our economy and 
actually create jobs. Our plan takes commonsense steps to reducing 
regulatory burdens that actually will help small businesses, that will 
help entrepreneurs. It actually takes commonsense steps to fix an out-
of-date Tax Code so our employers are more competitive around the 
world. We also take steps to pass the three pending free trade 
agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea that would create up 
to 250,000 new jobs through new sales to new customers. Also, we will 
maximize domestic energy production by reducing our dependence on 
foreign oil and also lowering gas prices.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, and most important, by paying down our 
unsustainable debt burden and starting to live within our means, we 
will make the steps necessary to enact commonsense pro-growth 
strategies that can create certainty in the business environment that 
will actually grow our economy and create jobs and put America back to 
work.

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