when america speakout. and we hope l americans ll join usthis unpcent ngment. foronclusnary rmas i eld backothe gentleman fromhi mr. latta: well, i'd just like toonclude on a statement that's been madeas you tk abouamicans gettg reinvolv and, again, i speak to the students on ste here at the itedtates capiol, i can't thk of beaterlace to tell ks wh they have to . but, you knowone the interting thingis, when spk to seniors in high schoo i y, howy of you are registered to v i remember oneay whad about 10 students out ere and maybe 20% of the kid sheepishly try to start raisg eir hands. said, wait minute, leave your hands up. i want everyone to lk atho got their hands up because they're makinghe decisions for you. i said, if you want to paicate inhis great riment, you have goto be gisted, you've got to get involved

anit kind of goes backat benjamin franklin id in his -- sa, it warepoed when left theonstitutional conventionaot of pele thnk sometimes, oh, as fin p in nd theshed u philalphia, ty wrot this great documt, but it was -preedhard word they got it ne. franklin left, pardone, woman asked him aheeft,he said, mrfranklin, what he you giv us? ande said, a rubc, you can keeit. i yild bk. mrs. lummisi thank the enan from oh for jning this ening. and iook forward toearing the remarks of the next group. they are our democratic colleagues from across the aisle. this group will be led by representative wasserman schultz who i have the privilege of visiting israel with earlier this year. she led a congressional

delegation to israel and for this in international policy, it was a fabulous experience. we had the opportunity to meet israeli president, we visited with benjamin netanyahu with the minority leader -- netanyahu, with the minority leader, also with palestinian authority leaders. we visited jerusalem, the golan heights and some of the fabulous farming communities near the sea of gally. for someone who had never visited israel, in fact, i had never seen the mediterranean sea in my entire life. to get to visit it with people who are steeped in the history, the politics and the worldwide consequences of our relationship with israel, it was a tremendous experience. so i want to thank the

gentlewoman from florida for including me on the congressional delegation that she led to israel and, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from florida, mrs. wasserman shelt, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. was was thank you, mr. speaker. first -- ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, mr. speaker. first before she departs the chamber, let me say what an absolute pleasure it was to travel to the middle east with the gentlelady from wyoming. she was a pleasure to have as a companion. she was inquisitive, the purpose of that trip was particularly to bring members who had not been to israel before so that he --

that we could learn about the importance not just strategically the importance of israel in terms of its relative location to its neighbors, but so that members like mrs. lummis could see and understand just how important it is that we continue to be supportive of israel as a jewish and democratic state. and everyone i know that's traveled to israel comes back a stronger supporter and stronger pro-israel advocate and i commender fow -- commend you for doing just that. we began a friendship that i know will continue many years into the future. thank you so much. with that, mr. speaker, i am thrilled to be joined by my colleague, the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko, this evening and we're going to spend some time talking about our economy and talking about the evolution of our economy and that certainly -- there certainly has been some ebb and flow in that regard, but we are here tonight to talk about the

success that we have had in turning the economy around, in beginning to see progress inch by inch, month after month. there is more and more progress as we move forward. this evening, though, i want to highlight, mr. tonko, the fact that if you look back, and i know we have a chart on this which i would love to go get in a minute, but if you look back to just before president obama took office, in january, at that point, for the month leading up to his inauguration, we were bleeding. the united states was bleeding 700,000-plus jobs a month. a month. and we weren't able to staunch those losses. the bush administration handed president obama the largest deficit in history and one in which they created, after being

handed a significant surplus from president clinton, and to have to deal with the amounts of problems that our economy was facing when president obama was inaugurated was astonishing. and astonishing and appalling, mr. tonko, because to have been left a mess and to have the economy driven off a cliff as it was was just absolutely irresponsible and it was avoidable. and it was avoidable because during the bush administration, instead of focusing exclusively on the wealthy and having tax cutting policies that were focused exclusively and irresponsibly on the wealthiest 1% of americans, instead what should have been done is there should have been a focus like there has been every single month since president obama took office, there should have been a focus on broadening those tax cut -- that tax-cutting policy and focusing on targeting tax

cuts for the middle class. that was not done and so the economy essentially was a korean -- careening out of control. now you fast forward to a year and a half after he first took office, you fast forward to a little more than a year after we passed the american recovery and reinvestment act which invested $787 billion in our economy, to jump start the economy, to create jobs, to provide 98% of taxpayers in this country a tax cut, where you had the wealthiest 1% get tax cuts under the previous administration, 98% of americans got a tax cut last year. and we actually have the lowest tax rate now that we've ever had. it's really amazing the way things have been turned around. and we should be very proud of that. today in terms of job creation, from bleeding 700,000-plus jobs, we are now adding an average of

200,000 jobs a month. since the beginning of this year. and that's a really incredible accomplishment and i'm going to toss this to you in a second and get those charts so we can have an illustration of what we're talking about. but we have a lot to be proud of. we have a long way to go. granted we certainly aren't out of the woods yet. but we have turned things around and are beginning to see that in the economic indicators that i know we'll talk about tonight. so the a pleasure to be with you this evening. mr. tonko: thank you, and thank you for bringing us together for this special order which obviously will speak to the wisdom of sound policy. that breaks from the failed policies of the past. what is startling is that we should have learned from decades ago that the trickledown theory simply does not work. it does not work because there wasn't the benefit felt by the working middle class. a large group of people across this country who in many

situations lived paycheck to paycheck, putting aside money for their mortgage payment, putting aside savings for college for their students, for their children, putting aside some reserves for unexpected expenses. that kind of situation must be responded to. and i think fact that you talk about 98% of americans getting what is now recorded to be an historically largest middle income tax cut in this nation's history was a big part of the recovery act. it is what started to circulate the dollars. and when we look at the economic advice that we got, not only as the house of representatives but the united states senate and the white house, with president obama and congress being advised by a team of economists that ranged over the broad spectrum of philosophy in the world of economics, and from the far right thinking to the if a far left thinking, from more conservative view points to the more liberal view points, there

were recommendations made by this panel of economists who spoke to the priorities that needed to be embrace -- embraced by this nation and the time had more than passed in the recovery for america. and the results are astounding. when we look at the recovery act we can witness that the bleeding has stopped, the tell tale indicators suggest in many cases that there is slow and steady progress, that the bleeding has stopped and the recovery act can be credited for that. and the investments that were made were in three categories. tax cuts, as the representative, the gentlewoman from florida, indicated, and historically large impact, an historical large middle income tax cut for this nation. that was shared with the middle income community. the working families of this country. next, a -- an effort made for

issues like maps and education aid that went to states. i know he that my home state of new york did extremely well with the medicaid relief money. did extremely well with the education investment, so that we are able to keep some of the public sector employment situations from educators to public safety alive and well. and to allow for those families who were in need of assistance to receive some of the recovery act's money and the union anymority for which the -- unianymority for which the economists spoke in this situation, simply was driven by the very forceful thinking that these entitlement situations, the need for food and clothing and shelter and tough times, where people were finding themselves without a job through no fault of their own, were allowed then to, with dignity, continue forward in these tough times and they inreinvested in the local regional economy and that got the local economy circulating and began to work the progress of pulling

ourselves out of this recession, which was, again, an historic situation, as was witnessed by the previous speaker. and then finally investments. investments in a way that went to projects that were back burnered. investments in technology, technology and education, in energy situations, in health care, in all sorts of activities, in transportation and infrastructure, utilizing technology in a way that could take those issues that were displaced, put onto the back burner, were now brought forward by the obama administration and by the leadership of this house, with speaker pelosi and others, leading us in the votes for recovery. and what happened was that, for instance, in the area of energy, we're creating jobs. now, the representative from florida told us that we're now seeing hundreds of thousands of jobs this year added to the recovery. 84% of which, i would point out,

are private sector. and so that's the way we want to grow the jobs. but how is it happening? it's happening with investment in technology, investment in smart meters, smart thermostats, smart grid, that enable us to have more control over our destiny as energy consumers. that is not only job growth, private sector job growth, but it's also investing in a way that allows us to be cutting edge competitive and provide for a stronger quality of life and a more competitive edge for our business community. we also invest in health care with technology, making certain that duplication and mistakes and inefficiencies in the health care system are avoided and we can go forward with the stronger outcome. savings again for consumers who would have to pay for this duplication and for these mistakes. and then investment in education so that students are now able to have a stretching of the education resources in the classroom and where they can

have a first class opportunity to think outside their neighborhood in which they live wrrks they can be more worldly in the classroom through technology, to witness some of the great things that are happening out there. but this is a great opportunity for us to, this evening, talk about the differences, the contrasts -- to contrast the differences out there. the failed policies of the past that brought about representative wasserman schultz, brought about eight million jobs lost in a recession. that outdozen the great depression -- outdoes the great depression. many of my constituents will tell me they recall the great depression. eight million jobs surpassed that situation. so we started out in a very difficult situation and i know that with the recovery act we're beginning to make progress, we're going to continue to stay on this slow and steady course that will enable us to come back from what was a very deep hole and i know he that we're joined now by our friend and colleague

from the state of pennsylvania, representative dahlkemper, who, like me, is a member of the freshman class here in this great house of representatives, and one of those great additions to the house that is an enjoyable force with whom to work. so, representative dahlkemper, i know that you wanted to jump in and share your thoughts on our recovery here. mrs. dahlkemper: thank you, a good friend of mine since i came to this house and also want to thank congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz for bringing us together tonight. it's good to talk about the progress we have made, continuing to make. we know we're in a recession but the signs are positive. you know, i, as mr. tonko, am from very much a very manufacturing base economy. and i look at those manufacturing numbers always with great interest to see exactly where we're going from my district.

what i see actually very encouraging is that our american manufacturing base has grown, not just in the last month, not just in the last three months, not just in the last five months but for 10 straight months. the manufacturing base has grown in this country. and that pretty well correlates with the passing of the american recovery and reinvestment act. and we have created more than 125,000 manufacturing jobs over the last five months. now, i know people back home talk to me about how we move our country forward, and they say we got to get back to making things, and i completely agree with that. our economy for so many years have become an economy of paper, and we're more concerned about what happened on wall street than what went on in the factories throughout our great nation. as they say, particularly of those of us in the northeast, we've seen many, many manufacturing jobs go. what i find have i encouraging is we get back to making things, making things in this country. -- what i find encouraging is

we get back to making things, making things in this country. the g.d.p. has rows in june, the highest level in two years. that is from the university of michigan, consumer confidence survey. that does not come from the house. that comes from the outside source, consumer confidence rising for the third straight months, the highest level in more than two years, before mr. tonko and i were in congress. so that's very, very encouraging news. along with retail sales rising for the seventh straight increase and the 12th gain in 13 months. so a lot of very encouraging signs. i know this is still a problem for those who are -- for those who are out of a job, and obviously we're still very, very concerned about that. but we have some signs that this economy is recovering. and it it really has to do with what we've done here in the

house. for so many of the good policies that we passed here that have helped move this economy forward. and here we have -- we'll show you retail sales which are on the rebound. and when people start buying again they have confidence, confidence that we are recovering. so here's what happened in the red during the bush administration. and as you can see we were going along pretty well until the recession began going into 2008 and then, of course, taking a very big dip right before i and mr. tonko took office. that was november, december of 2008. and then you can see what happened after we passed the recovery act back here in march of 2009 and the numbers continue to steadily go up. and here we are in april of 2010 and we're getting almost back up to where we were in the early -- well, about four years ago, actually. so great news in terms of the retail sales on the rebound. great news on the consumer

confidence going up. great news on the manufacturing. of course, we want even better news. we want to continue to work on this economy, help businesses create jobs, and we're providing, as mr. tonko said, so many of the roadblocks -- the road maps -- not the roadblocks -- the road maps we need to create jobs. whether we're talking in clean energy, whether we're talking broadband, we're we're talking health care. we need -- whether we're talking health care. we need to move in this new century and we did many of those investments through the american recovery and reinvestment act which i always like to talk about the recovery and reinvestment side. the reinvestment is what we don't talk enough about. and i know mr. tonko loves to talk about that too. but we are talking about where we are today, and so these are just some of the numbers that i think need to be brought out and the american people are feeling it. that confidence level going up. i now yield back to the gentlelady from florida. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you so much. first of all, let me say that

it has been such a breath of fresh air. i know speaker pelosi likes to say that each new congress breaths in new life from the trenches, new people who have just come from having their finger on the pulse of their communities and both you, mrs. dahlkemper and mr. tonko, reflect that statement really to a tee. i know that you are in your districts constantly working hard to make sure you can come back and fight hard for the people you and your district care about. i know i never tire of hearing you talk about over and over

whether or not we're doing is working, whether a policy decision has the desired outcome, but you can see. i mean, the proof is in the pudding. here's retail sales that mrs. dahlkemper talked about. the consumer confidence numbers comes out every month for i think the last seven months we've had consumer confidence on the rise. we've had another jump in consumer confidence, and 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 wiped out under

president bush. and under president obama we've already recovered $5 trillion of that household wealth. and when people have their wealth restored, when they have resources again, they start spending money. that's why those retail sale numbers are going up. because when you have your wealth restored you gain more confidence in your ability to make some spending decisions that you might not have made and ultimately these -- we are going in the right direction. i mean, every chart that we put up -- i have to laugh at some of our friends on the other side of the aisle who -- i mean, just -- you know, the expression, your glass is half full, your glass is half empty and that's sort of the determining factor of whether someone is an optimist or pessimist. i don't even think it's half. i think

befor slip it to you, mr. nk some exciting and interesti polnumbers came outhis week cause hours d't want peop to have it ke it from us. m a democrat. i'm pportive of my party's agenda, our lead agenda and ming the country in aew rectn, so ry to talk about thirdarty validators o the huse fl poll was released this week an

showed themocrats are favored ov repca to hanled the nation's biggest problems and 6-1whoe pod are ssatfied with congressional republans' deas. were suppoive in tms of thinvidual pls by a -point ma, by a 12-point main americans tru decrats over republicans to hand nation's bigst problems. that's a pretty siicant indicatoth ame are happyh e rectn that we're going. i thi that noatter what istrt we go to, whether it ogressive district like mine or aodera district ke mrs. dahlkemper, and you're pretty halfwain between ourdistricts, mr. tonko, about the philosophical differences. ihink o constuents would tellwe'r cautiousl optimisc, tngs armoving in the ridirection but wee not t of the woo yet

you nd toeep noting, hing, you ed to kp pain legislatn th's going t contin tjump-start spark this onomand be an engine of jocreati. t'what we're keepingur nosethe grindstone on. mrs. dahlkemper: wihe gelewoman yield? . wasserman schuz: i b happy to yield. mrsdahlkemper: i just wted to mention a few things that

these a independent gro out there, media outlets who are seng wt 're seei in thesebers herendhis is the true story of at's going on in the econom i yield back. mr. tonko: if eentlewomen will yield. you talk aboutse observations that are ed in puicatiout as earlas april 16, i believe, "fortune" gazine edbout the recorycted wog, that the presidt's policies we having tir psence felt hey ed about it as a sha turn and if we see the retail

les, the household weth recove chart andhis g.d.p. scale, they all have tt sa graphic. t'this sharp b formation, tt precipitous di, stight line diveroearly 2008 into e begiing of 200 here'snotherne on the pst ecomicovery and thent ow and steady straight line of recovery tme it's blatantlobvious hat as this continuation of declinand you can't help but wonder, what would have happend if we let the iled policiesf the past continue or if this president andh congress did not -- mswasserman schultz: will th gentleman eld? mr. too: absutely. ms. wasrm schtz: beca since you asked the qution rhetorically i'll actually jump in andnswer with an answer from the moody's economist tat

s. hlkeer refred to whahe said wod have happed without the recovery t, without the tarp legisltion, witht mang sure that we grabol the ller ofhiecony, what he says would he happened is we uld have absolutely sunk into depressn. that we ld have literal the picies of president bama and thedership the congress and sate stred oush ay. mr. tonko: swean see these v formations that downrd, straight line impact that could hae kept gng but and direion and now we're aske by our colleagues in the house onhe other side it not quick enough. how co taking -- we've made wonderful recovery here. we've spp the bleeding and we'r climbing upward. yoknow, t analogy used by the presidenwhere, younow, ey e the caintohe dch and then it took a tough bi eort to pull that car out of the ditch and they're

sayi, give us back the key. we, you kn, i think the public is nownderstanding that very faile polici were governing our economy. ibrout downit broht amera to her knees, and we saw thlack of regulation with big business, big bans,all steet, credit rd compies, big oil. gosh, we see wt's happening in t gulf. all sortsf bpecial interests that had a regat nwahdog in the equation let us run, eathe, let us be in a situation of laissez fae, no resiction. let it runfree. wel capitalism wks but you alsoeed idance. u edome sort of msurementme sort of discipline that errs o the de of the consumer, the xpaywhver, theall business, and the rovery