Date: 2015-03-25
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. my friends across the aisle claimed that this recovery is weaker than "average" ones. However. economic research reveals that this is terribly misleading because financial crises like the one that caused the Great Recession have deeper. more damaging. and longer lasting effects. In addition. the Great Recession was caused by a bursting of a housing bubble. limiting housings ability to contribute to recovery as it typically had after previous recessions. The recovery from the Great Recession is also different because monetary policys ability to support the economy was limited by hitting the zero lower boundinterest rates simply could not go any lower. There have been a number of economic downturns since the founding of our Nationsome mild. some deep and strong. Last week. at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee with Chairman Jason Furman of the Council of Economic Advisers. I asked him how would he characterize the 2008 financial meltdown under former President George W. Bush. I asked him: How does the 2008 Bush recession rate? He said that the economic blows in this recession were five times greater than the Great Recession. And he also said. when I asked him to put it into laymens termswas it a common cold? pneumonia? a heart attack? the flu?-he said that the Bush recession was especially deep and damaging. the worst since the Great Depression. And I asked him: Was it a common cold? He said: No. It was a heart attack. The reality is that when you compare our record to other countries that are recovering from the Great Recession. you can see in this chart that the United States economy has expanded at a significantly faster rate than other leading. advanced economies in the world. So when he says we are slow. we are certainly a lot faster than the rest of the world. Look at this. Here is the United States. Here is the European Union. Here is Japan. Here is the United Kingdom. The United States has recovered stronger and faster than the other world economies. So when my colleagues across the aisle say that the Obama recovery pales in comparison to average ones. just remember that the comparison is an absolutely ridiculous one. The recession was an economic heart attack. a financial calamity. and we should thank President Obama that we are now recovering. and recovering faster than like economies in the world. A budget is about planning for the future. That planning must be based on reality and must be grounded in our recent experience. The Republican budget is a misleading. dishonest budget which relies on accounting gimmicks and $1 trillion in unspecified cuts. It rejects lessons we should have already learned. In 2008 and 2009. this country faced the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The shocks that hit the U.S. economy in the fall of 2008 were at least as large as those that caused the Great Depression. The Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Jason Furman. told the Joint Economic Committee last week that during the Great Recession. household wealth fell by at least five times the decline seen in 1929. More than $16 trillion in wealth evaporated in American families. causing great pain and suffering. Today. some 61/2 years later. the economy is a very different place. The U.S. economy has expanded at a faster pace than nearly all other advanced economies. The GDP has grown in 20 of the past 22 quarters. and we have had a recorda record60 straight months of private sector job growth. This didnt just happen. It happened because of the unprecedented response from the Federal Reserve and the bold actions taken by the Democratic Congress and President Obama. The Recovery Act stimulated growth and invested in our future. investing in infrastructure. education. research. and job training. Those are things we dont see in the Republican budget. We dont see those investments. The Recovery Act cut taxes for middle class families. increased tax credits for the working poor. and directed Federal funds to States and cities so that they could keep police officers on the beat. firemen on the job. and teachers in the classroom. It invested $50 billion in transportation infrastructure. We dont see any of that in the Republican budget. We dont even see cutting tax loopholes for special interests. We dont see any of that. We just see cutting tax support for the middle class and the working Americans. Other actions taken by Congress included extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidies. a payroll tax credit for hiring unemployed workers. a payroll tax cut for all workers. and help for small businesses. It stopped an economic disaster and got our economy moving again. Mr. Chairman. this chart shows this. Numbers do not lie. The deep. dark red valley covered Republican policies that are in this budget. When President Obama came to office. we slowly worked our way up and have continued to add millions of jobs for working Americans. Today. the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent. its lowest level in almost 7 years. We have had 12 straight months of private sector job gains exceeding 200.000 jobs. something that has not happened since 1977. The auto industry is thriving. Remember the Republicans wanted to abolish the auto industry? But we invested in restructuring. and 5 years later the industry has added more than 500.000 jobs. and we are exporting American cars at the highest level. The economy is strong and getting stronger. Now is the time to build on this progress. Now is the time to ensure that the economic recovery reaches every American. Now is the time to invest in our future by funding infrastructure. education. workforce training. and scientific research. But that is not what the Republican budget does. The Republican budget slashes spending on things that would help continue our forward blue high rise of creating more jobs. and it uses a slush fund and unspecified cuts to make it appear that it all adds up. Mr. Chairman. the Republican budget offered would get us off the paththis beautiful path of successtaking us back in the direction of the Bush recession. It represents an abrupt Uturn. one that we cannot afford. It would risk the recent economic progress and harm working families struggling to get ahead. So lets support the Democratic budget and the progress that we are making in creating jobs and improving the quality of life of Americans and the security of our country. Lets not turn around to the old. tired Republican policies that gave us that dark. deep recession and that red. dark valley. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.