[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6547]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          A LOOK IN THE MIRROR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cooper) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, the job of a Congressman is, simply put, to 
keep America number one. This Congress is failing at that job.
  Today, the Financial Times reports that, for the first time since 
1872, America will soon no longer have the largest economy in the 
world.
  This is the headline: ``China To Overtake the U.S. As Top Economic 
Power This Year.''
  We are losing our position to China, which is overtaking us some 3 
years earlier than expected.
  Even more importantly, last week, The New York Times reported that 
our middle class, which used to be the world's richest, no longer is.
  This Congress simply must take responsibility for this. We must pass 
job-creating, pro-growth legislation. But this Congress has failed to 
do that.
  This Congress has failed to take up and pass major infrastructure 
legislation, immigration reform, and tax reform.
  We know how to solve many of these pro-growth problems, but this 
Congress is refusing to do so.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues should not blame anyone else for this 
mess. We are the largest body of elected leaders in this country. All 
we need to do to solve these problems is look in the mirror.

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