30-Something Working Group
30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP -- (House of Representatives - April 04, 2006)
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much. But, all lightheartedness aside, I am struck, in following what the gentleman from Florida touched on, I am struck by a collection of facts that really are staring us in the face that are the direct result of Republican policies; today, this moment, not 5 years ago, not 4 years from now, but the direct result of Republican leadership or, I should say, lack of Republican leadership, because they are obviously in charge.
Let me just go through with you some of the things that we have pulled together and that are the economic facts facing this country and that clearly show why, when I go home and talk to my constituents and have done so recently, I did kind of a run through my district and spoke to many different kinds of organizations, many different kinds of groups, Mr. Delahunt, and I am sure that you are hearing the same kinds of things that I am.
Americans' confidence in their government has been so badly shaken. And it is not just that the culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence that hangs over this building is there by itself. It is that, as a result of that corruption and cronyism, the policy that results from the corruption that is so deeply disturbing.
Let me just go through with you some of the things that we have been able to pull together just related to the economy. This is as of March 2006, just last month. 7.2 million Americans remained unemployed. We have an additional 4.2 million who want a job but are not counted among the unemployed.
Since this President took office, the economy has posted only 15 months of job gains of 150,000 or more. That is the number of jobs that is just needed to keep up with population growth. So all this talk about an explosion in job growth and how we are really on the rise in terms of job growth is just baloney.
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. What I hear from most people today is it is very nice, you can give a whole lot, it is nice to hear the speeches. They want the action to back up the words.
And let us just go a little bit deeper into this whole issue of job growth. So go beyond the 7.2 million Americans that remain unemployed. Since the President took office, only 15 months of job growth, just keeping up with population growth. The Bush administration has the slowest job growth of any administration in over 70 years. Since January of 2001, 2.9 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. There are now more than 1.3 million more unemployed private sector workers than in January of 2001.
And who has been in charge this whole time, Mr. Meek? Have Democrats been in charge during these years that talk about the lackluster job performance?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. No, ma'am.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Who has been in charge?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. The Republican majority.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Oh, the Republicans. Okay. That is what I thought. Congressional Republicans.
They talk about how they want to grow jobs, that making sure people can go to work and earn a decent living is what is important. Then why is it that congressional Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment to increase the minimum wage, which has not been increased since 1997, the longest period of time we have gone without increasing the minimum wage? From $5.15, which is what it is now, we proposed to increase it to $7.25.
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I know. We have 6 more months, and I am not through my list yet.
The minimum wage being $5.15 and the Members that you are talking about that were so fresh faced and exuberant the morning after the election and they were going to come to Washington and do the right thing and not be the rubber stamp Republicans, all of them voted against increasing that minimum wage. And if the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, today it would be $8.88.
I am certain that none of our Republican colleagues have done this recently because, otherwise, they would have voted for the amendment, but have you driven through a McDonald's recently and ordered a number one, which is a Big Mac meal?
Mr. DELAHUNT. I am on a diet myself.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I am kind of a McDonald's fanatic. And since it is quick and easy and when you have got your kids in the back of the minivan, believe me, the quickest thing sometimes is to go through the drive-through. The number one is just about $5.15 at this point. By the time you get the meal and whatever else you need, to make sure that you have got your soda and your drink and your fries, can you imagine that the minimum wage just barely pays for one Big Mac meal? I mean are the American people not worth more than a Big Mac meal? That is really what it boils down to.
I think they are. I want to make sure that my constituents can afford to feed more than just themselves or more than just one kid. Which kid are they going to pick? Which kid do they pick? Okay, who wants to eat today?
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I feel privileged to hold it, although I don't want to hold it too long, lest it rub off.
But we got today more than 100 of these ``Rubber Stamp Republican Congress'' stamps from bloggers and people in the communities all over the country who are fed up and frustrated and who want us to continue to talk about what is going on here. Because it appears as though, and I mean this respectfully, that when people on the other side of the aisle come in this room, that they are checking, and I don't know whether they are checking their brains at the door or their opinions at the door or their convictions at the door, but we have watched, all of us, the board light up here with yesses and noes, and I know I have had conversations with Republican Members on the other side who say, ``I know I am going in there and I am voting this way.'' Then you watch it, the board, the light next to their name goes from red to green or green to red, and you watch their arm being wrenched behind their back, and out comes the rubber stamp.
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. What we have been asking, what Democrats have been asking, is where is the outrage? What is their limit? Where do they reach the breaking point, individual Republican Members? When do they say ``that is it? There is a point at which I cannot support the direction that my leadership is taking this country anymore,'' meaning theirs. When do they say, ``I have got to stand up and do the right thing?''
It appears that their tolerance level for being pushed to do exactly as they are instructed is unbelievably high, far higher than my constituents, and I know your constituents, are comfortable with. We have got to make sure that we start moving the country back in the right direction and change some of these facts on the ground here.
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. No question about it. I want to follow up on something that the gentlewoman from Texas focused on, because a lot of people in America, even I have a hard time getting my mind around what a billion and a trillion is. It is hard to think about it in everyday terms. So we had it boiled down in very convenient chart form to help illustrate what a billion is.
For example, a billion hours ago, humans were making their first tools in the Stone Age. A billion minutes ago, it was 104 AD, and the Chinese first invented paper. A billion seconds ago, it was 1975, and the last American troops had just pulled out of Vietnam. All of those things, a very long time ago. A billion is a big, big number, clearly, measured in terms of time.
But a billion dollars ago, under this administration and this Republican Congressional leadership, was only 3 hours and 32 minutes ago at the rate that our government currently spends money. That is astonishing. That is what it means when you think about what a billion means under this Republican leadership.
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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. There is no oversight. There is no outrage. There is no conscience. There is no heart. There is no ability of the leadership on the other side to recognize that the country has to move in a new direction and that we have to do something to restore the American people's confidence in their government. When will that happen?
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