Jerry Nadler: “it is not often that I have occasion to rise and commend the Federal Reserve Board, but the decision yesterday to hold…”

“it is not often that I have occasion to rise and commend the Federal Reserve Board, but the decision yesterday to hold the line on interest rates certainly merits commendation. We all know the Federal Reserve Board is allergic to good economic news. If too many Americans find jobs, the Fed ominously warns of runaway inflation when there is no evidence of inflation, and cranks up interest rates to slow the economy down. The Fed has seemed determined to maintain an unemployment rate, to guarantee an unemployment rate of at least 5.6 percent or more. To keep this in perspective, every percentage point of unemployment represents 1.3 million Americans. That should be a cause for concern to anyone in this Chamber who has been conscientiously cutting the deficit or scrapping the Nation's social safety net in the belief that their efforts will lower interest rates and put people to work. So my congratulations to the Federal Reserve for enduring the economic good news with restraint. Hopefully this is a sign that in the future we may be able to begin to count on the Fed to help, not hinder, the effort to improve the lives of all Americans. And as a consequence of this, Mr. Speaker, I again ask and I join my colleagues in asking that the Ethics Committee stop covering up and release the Gingrich report.”