David Weldon: “this Nation suffered a great tragedy on September 11. Our economy was slowing down. The statistical analysis tells us we…”

“this Nation suffered a great tragedy on September 11. Our economy was slowing down. The statistical analysis tells us we probably went into a recession some time in the spring, and we have suffered tremendous numbers of layoffs, unemployment is way up. The best way to make sure Social Security is solvent in the future is to get the economy going. I think we all agree the thing that brings prosperity to this country allows us to have programs like Medicare and Social Security. What allows us to have a strong military is the fact that we have a very, very strong and robust economy. But right now the economy is not good. We have got hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their job. The most important thing that we can do to get those people back to work is to make it profitable for the corporations that previously employed them to hire them back. Now, I think the product that the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) and the White House and the leadership have put together is a good product that has, I think, some real potential to help get our economy going again; and, indeed, bring more money into the treasury to allow us to continue to fund all of the important things that we do. Now there are some Members who are fond of calling this corporate welfare and just a big payout to business, but I would assert that we cannot create any prosperity here in this House, that we do not create jobs, that the private sector creates jobs.”