Ed Whitfield: “as the 108th Congress begins, all of us recognize that we face many serious issues, both on the domestic front and on…”

“as the 108th Congress begins, all of us recognize that we face many serious issues, both on the domestic front and on the international front. On the domestic front, obviously health care will be a key issue that we must work with, as well as others. But in order to do that, we must, first, focus on strengthening the economy of our country. Nothing is more important than that at this time. Recently, I had the opportunity to read a speech given by Mr. Fred Smith, the chairman and chief executive officer of Federal Express. I would remind everyone that he started a company, and, with his associates, from scratch built a Fortune 500 company, operating today in 211 countries. It employs over 200,000 people and produced revenues in excess of $21 billion last year. In this speech, he sets out what he believes are necessary steps to be taken to jump-start a stalled economy. I just want to touch on a few of the things that he points out. First of all, he refers on page 6 to how he agrees with the legendary economist of the early 19th century, Jean-Baptiste Say, who said essentially that supply creates demand.”