Todd Tiahrt: “I wanted to first remind the Members here that there is some convenient memory loss for the Democrats when they want to…”

“I wanted to first remind the Members here that there is some convenient memory loss for the Democrats when they want to blame President Bush on the current economy, especially when they want to target the tax relief. So let us just go back to 1999 and remember how our economy got into this current situation. In 1999, we had the tech bubble burst and we saw tremendous loss of jobs in the tech industry, especially in northern Virginia. It caused the NASDAQ to drop by over half, almost by two-thirds. Then, in 2000, November 2000, the recession technically started while President Clinton was still in office, even before President Bush was sworn in. And then, of course, who can forget September 11, 2001, when terrorists brought the war on terror to America and attacked us in our homeland and tore down the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon and put our economy into a tailspin. It was those events that caused our economy to drop dramatically. In my hometown of Wichita, Kansas, we had a greater percentage loss of jobs than any other community in America following September 11.”