[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8440]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                       LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION

  (Mr. GRAVES of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Madam Speaker, in 2009, the Obama 
administration said that unemployment would never reach 8 percent if 
the stimulus was approved. Well, it was. And 3 years later and $1.2 
trillion in spending, unemployment has remained above 8 percent for 40 
consecutive months, the longest span since the Great Depression. Even 
more alarming is that the 8 percent doesn't illustrate how grim the 
situation really is.
  More than 500,000 more Americans are out of work today than they were 
when President Obama took office in 2009, and the percentage of 
Americans working is at a 30-year low. Unemployment would be even 
higher if it were not for the grit and the resolve of the American 
people themselves. With these numbers, it's clear that President 
Obama's agenda has failed, and it's making the economy worse.
  House Republicans have a plan. They have a plan for America's job 
creators to help turn this economy around. It's time for the President 
and it's time for the Senate Democrats to stop blocking jobs for 
Americans and to join us in helping get Americans back to work.

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