Paul S. Sarbanes

Two years ago, the National Council on Economic Education, together with the Federal Reserve, put on the first National Summit on Economic and Financial Literacy.

Numerous statistical studies have shown significant numbers--amazing numbers, actually--of men and women of all ages are financially illiterate or have only a limited degree of financial literacy.

I want to commend you and the Ranking Member for holding this important hearing on the government's role in enabling Americans to make informed decisions about financial affairs.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

In fact, it is their number one priority to do further tax cuts by making these tax cuts permanent.

It is difficult for me to understand why you cannot state very simply that one way of addressing the budget deficit is to show restraint on both spending and tax cuts.

Everyone said, oh, it can't be done, and then of course, we did it.

Now, historically, that's a pretty high figure, isn't it?

The Humphrey-Hawkins bill had a 4-percent unemployment rate. So it was premised on the view that we could get down to that rate before we encountered an inflation problem.

4.8 million. And do you have any estimate on how many have dropped out of the labor force?

I want to take just a moment to address the subject you were addressing with Congressman Putnam on the concept of NAIRU, the Nonaccelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment.

I still remain very seriously concerned about the condition of the long-term unemployed.