On the recordFebruary 3, 2021
As I walked onto the House floor today, I heard the talk from the other side, talking about wanting to share in good ideas. But what is interesting is, as this budget resolution has come forth, there has been no sharing of ideas. We have seen a general framework coming from the Biden administration calling for $1.9 trillion, but that completely flies in the face of the fact that there is $1 trillion that this very body, the last Congress, appropriated last year that is still unspent. That money has not gone out the door. Yet, we are talking about solutions to help our country through COVID-19. Now, my career before politics was actually in finance and economics. I spent 17 years in that field. If you are going to talk about stimulating an economy, the first thing you want to do is actually study the current state of your economy. One of the metrics we always like to use in financial services is the unemployment rate. It is a pretty popular statistic. Let's take a look at the unemployment rates going on around the country. In my State of Florida, it is 6.1 percent. In Alabama, it is 3.9 percent. In South Carolina, it is 4.6 percent. In Texas, it is 7.2 percent. {time} 1400 Compare that to blue States in our country, New York and California, where they soar over 8 percent. Why is that happening? Because their governors and their mayors have refused to reopen their economies. If you want to stimulate something, actually let the American people get back to work.…
