State of the Economy

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I thank the majority leader for the opportunity to speak on this Special Order.

Americans are struggling under President Trump. They are desperately waiting for their incomes to rise and their costs to slow. Yet, the President has failed to fully deliver on his promises to them. That is according to the Joint Economic Committee's excellent new report.

In fact, according to this report, growth in median annual household income was three times greater during the last 2 years of the Obama administration than the first 2 years of the Trump administration.

And mostly, job growth has slowed. According to the report, in the first 35 months of President Trump's term, there were 36,000 fewer nonfarm jobs created per month than the final 35 months of President Obama's term.

This is despite the Republicans' 2017 tax law. It will cost $1.9 trillion, but 83 percent of its benefits go to the top 1 percent. Working people, middle-class families cannot afford more of the President's giveaways to the wealthy and the well-connected.

The single biggest economic challenge of our time is that people's pay is not keeping rise with skyrocketing costs, healthcare, childcare, housing. They struggle, including in my State of Connecticut.

The United Way put out a report, it is Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, the ALICE report. And what essentially it says is that people who are working one or two jobs just can't make a standard of living. They are above the poverty line, but they can't make it.

Out of the 20 most common jobs or occupations, registered nurses, cashiers, laborers, et cetera, only one pays enough to reasonably support a household; that is operations managers.

Under this President, many Americans are suffering something akin to a personal economic crisis. To claim otherwise is to ignore the reality of their circumstances.

We see their suffering. That is why the House has passed the Paycheck Fairness Act for equal pay, lower drug costs to reduce prescription drug costs, raise the wage by raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025.

We need to work hard to make opportunity real for people. We urge the President to join us because, as this new report from the Joint Economic Committee indicates, Americans need a break, not more broken promises.

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