STRAIGHT TALK
Pearce: The Economy is Strong and Getting Stronger.
Washington,
Apr 30, 2004 -
Recession has turned into recovery. The economy is strong and getting stronger, I am proud to say.
What people tend to forget is the U.S. economy suffered three serious blows over the past few years: the dot com and stock market bubble burst in 1999; the corporate accounting scandals of the 1990s came to a head; and the U.S. was attacked on 9/11 in deadly fashion. We suffered a devastating loss of life as well as 1,016,000 jobs as a direct result of the attacks. These three shocks kept us in a prolonged shallow recession.
All of this took literally trillions of dollars out of the economy and hundreds of billions out of the U.S. treasury. The administration and this Congress met that challenge and have moved the economy forward in a robust way. It is a record to be proud of. We have encouraged growth, more jobs, greater income, record levels of housing ownership and have expanded the stock market and helped create greater opportunities for all Americans.
America's economy is strong and getting stronger, and the President's jobs and growth plan is working. 308,000 new jobs were created in March—the largest monthly increase since April 2000—and 759,000 jobs have been added over the last 7 months and 978,000 jobs since August 2003. The national unemployment rate was 5.7% in March—far below its peak of 6.3% in June 2003, and below the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Over the past year, the unemployment rate has fallen in 45 of the 50 states, including New Mexico.
These economic indicators show a strong rebound from the recession the administration inherited. It is now obvious the tax relief passed by this Congress resulted in the U.S. economy growing rapidly out of recession.
We cannot disrupt this growth. We must encourage families and businesses to plan for the future with confidence by resisting the temptation to raise taxes; reducing the burden of frivolous lawsuits on our economy; and ensuring an affordable, reliable energy supply.
Making the tax cuts permanent is critical to our recovering economy, and big government bureaucrats in Washington should not take them away. The tax cut legislation we passed last year is projected to create almost ONE MILLION more jobs this year and help Americans save and invest by: Cutting taxes for all taxpayers in all tax rates; Doubling the child tax credit to $1,000 to help parents with the high costs of raising children; Expanding the earned income credit and making the child credit refundable to put money in the hands of millions of low-income families with children; Helping families save for their children's education tax free; Repealing the death tax; and accelerating depreciation so businesses can invest more and hire more.
Right now the Energy Bill is stalled in the Senate and that is costing the economy jobs and forcing you to pay higher energy prices. I voted this Energy package out of the House because it is projected to create at least 800,000 good new jobs. America loses 12,389 jobs for every $1 billion we spend on imports. At today’s oil prices, that means America is sending more than 1.7 million jobs overseas for oil every year – to make matters worse, American families are paying for it at the pump. Senate inaction is costing us jobs.
Americans are also bearing the costly burden of frivolous lawsuits. Currently, the cost of lawsuits on the U.S. is equivalent to a 5% tax on wages. Frivolous lawsuits cost $233 Billion in 2002 – which comes to $807 per U.S. citizen. It penalizes companies by taking their profits they could use to expand infrastructure or for research and development purposes.
Increased litigation costs have burdened American families and businesses with higher insurance premiums and contributed to higher medical costs. Individuals suffer directly by having less disposable income than they would otherwise due to higher insurance premiums. Businesses have to charge higher prices, they do less business than they would otherwise, which slows down job expansion and economic growth.
America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the current polices are doing; or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation. A pro-growth economic agenda, a strong education system, and help for American workers to gain the skills to secure good jobs are the right ways to respond to the challenges of our growing and changing economy.
It is safe to say that I am pleased with the direction the economy is headed. My office is still going to be concerned about jobs and the economy, but we are starting to see that the economy is strong and getting stronger. I am reminded daily of how very resilient the workers and the economies of New Mexico and the U.S. really are, and I believe that even better days lie ahead.
