Albert Russell Wynn: “now that we have achieved victory in Iraq, the country will refocus its attention on matters close to home, specifically…”

“now that we have achieved victory in Iraq, the country will refocus its attention on matters close to home, specifically our sinking economy. Unfortunately, victory in war does not necessarily translate into success in domestic economy. In terms of the economy, we have been treated to a cycle of failure by this administration and my Republican colleagues. Consider that unemployment is now up to 6 percent. There has been a decline in the length of the workweek, meaning more people are working fewer hours. Manufacturing workers were hurt particularly hard last month. Factory payrolls fell by 95,000, the 33rd consecutive monthly decline. According to Jerry Jasinowski, President of the National Association of Manufacturers, 'Since July 2000 manufacturing has lost 2.2 million jobs, among the highest-skilled, best-paying jobs in our economy.' My colleague, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), goes on to point out that 'Republican claimed that both the 2001 and the 2002 tax cuts would create jobs but they were wrong. Instead, 2.7 million private sector jobs have vanished since this administration took office a little over 2 years ago.' The fact is tax cuts have yielded 400 to $500 billion deficits. They did not revive a sluggish economy, and what you are hearing now is, well, this is because of the war. Not true. Forty-three percent of our current deficits are directly attributable to these tax cuts. A small percentage is attributable to the war.”