Date: 2010-06-15
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Thank you very much. First of all. let me just say that it has been such a breath of fresh air. I know Speaker PELOSI likes to say that each new Congress breathes in new life from the trenches. new people who have just come from having their fingers on the pulses of their communities. Both of you. Mrs. DAHLKEMPER and Mr. TONKO. reflect that statement really to a T. I know that youre in your districts. constantly working hard to make sure you can come up here and can fight for the things that the people in your districts care about. Particularly. I know I never tire of hearing you talk over and over about how important it is that we restore that manufacturing base and that we be supportive of an economy that makes sure that we can make things again. I have heard that refrain from you and from your industrial. you know. rust belt colleagues for many months now. and now we are seeing the fruits of that effort with the increase in manufacturing. Also. it is really exciting that you can actually point back. Mr. TONKO. to a point in time and to a policy decision that we made. to a vote that we cast. which made a difference. I mean its hard. you know. to gauge sometimes whether or not what we are doing is working. you know. whether a policy decision has had the desired outcome. but you can see. I mean the proof is in the pudding. I mean here are retail sales that Mrs. DAHLKEMPER just talked about. Now lets just look at consumer confidence in general. because the consumer confidence numbers did just come out. as you talked about. Every month for. I think. the last 7 months. we have had consumer confidence on the rise. We have had another jump in consumer confidence. This is a chart that talks about the increase in household wealth and how American household wealth is beginning to recover. $17.5 trillion of household wealth was wiped out under President Bush. Under President Obama. we have already recovered $5 trillion of that household wealth. When people have their wealth restored. when they have resources again. they start spending money. Thats why those retail sale numbers are going up. When you have your wealth restored. you gain more confidence in your ability to make some spending decisions that you might not have made. So. ultimately. we are going in the right direction. Really. I have to laugh at some of our friends on the other side of the aisle. You know. with the expression "your glass is half full or your glass is half empty." thats sort of the determining factor of whether someone is an optimist or a pessimist. I dont even think its half. I think their glass is just empty. I think they broke the glass. because. to be honest with you. its really shocking how they can see only gloom and doom with positive economic numbers like this. I mean what is so sad is sometimes I think they wish that this were not the direction that our economy was moving in because. sadly. for so many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. its about regaining power rather than about seeing the American people regain some power. some power in the purse. So I just thought I would point that out. Before I flip it to you. Mr. TONKO. some really exciting and interesting poll numbers came out this week. In these hours. we like to make sure that we dont just have people taking it from us. I mean. you know. obviously. Im a Democrat. Im. you know. supportive of my partys agenda. of our leaderships agenda and of moving the country in a new direction. so we try to talk about third party validators on the House floor. The ABC News/Washington Post poll was released just this past week. and it showed that Democrats are favored over Republicans to handle the Nations biggest problems. Six in 10 who were polled are dissatisfied with congressional Republicans ideas. In terms of the individuals polled. we were supported by a 12point margin. By a 12point margin. Americans trust Democrats over Republicans to handle our Nations biggest problems 44 to 32 percent. That is a pretty significant indicator that Americans are happy with the direction that we are going. I think no matter what district you go to. whether its to a progressive district like mine or to a moderate district like Mrs. DAHLKEMPERSand youre probably halfway in between