Paul Tonko: “Thank you, Representative Wasserman Schultz, and thank you for bringing us together to discuss an important aspect of…”

“Thank you, Representative Wasserman Schultz, and thank you for bringing us together to discuss an important aspect of the work we do, creating jobs, providing the dignity of work for individuals and families across this great country. And it's great to join with you and Representative Jackson Lee, Representative Schauer. I know we are going to be hearing from Representative Murphy. But to be with everyone here and put our thoughts into a context that allows people to understand where we are headed with this recovery program, I think this chart expresses it in a very straightforward, simplistic way, a simple straightforward decline for many months, where we lost $17.5 trillion of household income, where 8.2 million jobs were lost. We were headed for a deep, deep depression. And then this sharp straight line upward, which now expresses a recovery. And I should point out that many of us believe, all of us here on this floor tonight believe, that we're not only recovering the economy, but we're restructuring the economy.”