Thomas Mott Osborne: “as many people know, we frequently talk on the floor here about the state of the economy. However, it seems to me that…”

“as many people know, we frequently talk on the floor here about the state of the economy. However, it seems to me that much of this criticism is unfounded. We currently have historically low interest rates. Inflation is at 1.9 percent which, again, is almost at an all-time low. Economic growth is exceptional, 12 percent in the fourth quarter. Productivity increase is the highest in the last 40 years. And recently we have heard that government revenues are increasing, which means that we may have $100 billion less deficit than was originally forecast. The majority of the criticism seems to focus on joblessness which currently stands at 5.6 percent of American workers and is decreasing. This is certainly a figure we would like to see better, like to see it improved. But I would like to point out, Mr. Speaker, that in the decade of the 1970s the average unemployment rate was 6.2 percent; during the 1980s, it was 7.3 percent; during the 1990s it was 5.8 percent. So for that 30-year stretch from 1970 to 2000, we averaged 6.4 percent unemployment. Today it is at 5.6 percent. In April we added 280,000 payroll jobs. We have added 867,000 since January, and 1.1 million since last August. Those who decry the overall strength of the economy would appear to be in error. My thesis is that this is the strongest economy in the world and is generally doing quite well. However, Mr. Speaker, one segment of the economy is currently very troubled.…”