Mike Honda: “Today 8.6 million Americans are looking for work, but unable to find it. In my district of Santa Clara County alone…”

“Today 8.6 million Americans are looking for work, but unable to find it. In my district of Santa Clara County alone, over 80,000 Americans are unemployed. Since President Bush took office, 1.7 million jobs have been lost. Today too many of our Nation's schools are crumbling and are crowded. The average public school in America is 42 years old. In California alone, 87 percent of schools report a need to upgrade their buildings and other repairs that they need. Today 40 million Americans do not have health insurance; 7.2 million of them are children. While these numbers dropped in 1999 and the year 2000, they rose by 1.4 million in 2001. Today serious crime is up 2.1 percent, the first increase in 10 years. Today 1.3 million more Americans are below the poverty line, the first increase since 1993. Requests for emergency shelter have increased by 19 percent, the largest annual increase in the demand for homeless shelter since 1990. Mr. Speaker, it is thus no surprise that 67 percent of Americans are worried about the economy.”