Date: 2010-02-23
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

I would like to thank my friend. the gentleman from Colorado for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Last week. the Department of Labor. Madam Speaker. reported that Americans filed 473.000 jobless claims in the week ending February 13. That is an increase of 31.000 more claims than the previous week. It is truly unfortunate that the number of jobless claims continues to rise 1 year after the passage of the massive socalled "stimulus bill." Take. for example. the district that I am honored to represent. According to Recovery.gov. the administrations stimulus Web site. the stimulus bill spent $185 million to create 310 jobs. That was at a cost of $600.000 per job. Now. Madam Speaker. what worries me even more than the $1 trillion socalled "stimulus bill" is the fact that it continues the process of adding to our national debt at a time when we can least afford it. It is expected that the deficit. in large part due to the waste of money in the stimulus bill. is set to hit a record $1.6 trillion. The U.S. economy is dangerously close to the catastrophic precipice of uncontrollable debt. We must urgently alter Washingtons fiscal course before the American middle class. as we know it. is relegated to the history books. Why do I mention the stimulus and the state of our economy? To point out that. while our economy continues to stumble and to stutter and as jobless claims rise. the majority has decided to pass legislation that would recognize Native Hawaiians as a sovereign governing entity. Now. just 2 months ago. the distinguished Speaker declared that her party should be judged on the issue of "jobs. jobs. jobs." How does the bill before us today have anything to do with job creation? I understand that this is the last week in Congress for my good friend. one of the most respected Members of this House. Representative ABERCROMBIE. I know I join all Members of the House in thanking him for his great work as a Member of this House and also for his friendship. As I say. I have great respect for him. Last night. he testified before the Rules Committee about his work on the underlying legislation. He told us that he first began working on this issue when he was in the Hawaii legislature in 1974. It was very clear from his testimony that this is a very important issue for him. and I congratulate him for his hard work. Yet there is an undeniable issue here that I have made reference to that was pointed out in terms of its importance to the American people by a recent opinion research poll which found that 84 percent of Americans think that Congress has not done enough for the creation of jobs. I think what the majority is doing today will simply reinforce that belief by the American people. Madam Speaker. I thank the majority for their uncharacteristic generosity in allowing the House to debate both of the Republican amendments submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration. Unfortunately. over a year into this Congress. the purportedly most open and bipartisan Congress in history. the majority has yet to allow even one open rule. Thats quite unfortunate. but yet it is business as usual for the majority to continue to claim bipartisanship while working to block full and open debate. I reserve the balance of my time.