Date: 2006-02-08
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

There is something else I want to bring up. if you do not mind. I think it is important to compare words and deeds. And we both sat in this Chamber during the State of the Union and listened to the President lay out his vision for America. I want to read but from one of the paragraphs from the State of the Union and compare it to a couple of weekslater when he introduced his budget.. He. said in the State of the Union that "our economy.is healthy and vigorous and growing faster than other major industrialized . nations. In the last 21/2 years America has created 4.6 million new jobs. more than Japan and the European Union combined. Even in the face of high energy prices and natural disasters. -the American people have turned in an economic performance that is the envy of the world." Now. during. my time in the legislature. and I. spent a little bit of time in leadership in the statehouse in Florida. one of the things that the party leadership generally engages in is choosing words carefully. Youchoose the words as carefully as you can so that what comes out actually reflects the reality on the ground. Now. I can see why the President would have. chosen to say that our economy is growing faster than other major industrialized nations. because he probably could come as close to the accuracy as possible when it comes to the economy. But just take this AP story. again. a thirdparty validator that we like to use. just fromJanuary 27. which talked about the economy grows at slowest pace in 3 years. The economy grows by just a 1.1 percent pace in fourth quarter. slowest in 3 years. The annual rate in the fourth quarter of last year was 1.1 percent amid belttightening by consumers facing spiraling energy costs. The 1.1 percent growth rate in the rourth quarter marked a considerable loss of momentum from the third quarters brisk 4.1 percent pace. The fourth quarters performance was even weaker than many analysts were forecastifig.. Before the release of the report. they were predicting the GDP to clock in at a 2.8 percent pace. The weakness in the final quarter of last year reflected consumers pulling back. cuts in government spending. and busi-. nesses being more restrained in their capital spending. This is not a columnist that wrote this. This is an actualstory that is reporting facts on the ground. I just feel -resentful when I sit in this Chamber and I listen to the President respectfully. and I expect on behalf of .my constituents to hear accurate statements. to hear a true reflection of the state of our Nationi. And instead what I felt like we got was a lot of partisan rhetoric. a lot of rhetoric that was not matched up with action as I would have liked to have seen it reflected in the budget. He turned in a budget that actually gives us $36 billion in Medicare cuts. I mean. in a State like mine. I represent the State of Florida. as you know. that is going to significantly disproportionately impact a vulnerable senior citizen population when they are already reeling in the midst of this disastrous Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that was handed to them by this Republican leadership. So it is just kind of one insult after another. When is it going to stop? When are we going to actually have some true commitment to back up the words?