Donald M. Payne: “Today I rise not to debate the economic crisis. Our national debt recently reached $14 trillion and our deficit…”

“Today I rise not to debate the economic crisis. Our national debt recently reached $14 trillion and our deficit continues to rise annually. So we know that we have a crisis, and that is really not the debate here today. However, I want to remind my colleagues that our economic deficit is dependent on our job deficit and our ever-growing education deficit. While we must work to rein in spending, we must not indiscriminately cut funding in areas like education, health, and employment that will hamper our immediate and future economic growth. As we remain vigilant in cutting the debt and reducing deficits, we must remember that the most powerful driver of both is a growing economy, which includes an increase in revenue. During this recession, unemployment has impeded economic growth. One of the challenges in addressing unemployment has been the rapid decline in certain occupations and industries and our labor market's inability to meet the demand of new occupations and industries. More than two-thirds of workers in occupations and industries that are growing have at least some postsecondary education compared to one- third of the workers in occupations and industries that are declining. The demand for a post-secondary education, as well as the increase in baby boomer retirement, is predicted to result in a shortage of more than 14 million college-educated workers by the year 2020.…”