Paul Tonko: “Well, I don't get to watch TV too much. All of us know we're out in the districts working all the time. But I do…”

“Well, I don't get to watch TV too much. All of us know we're out in the districts working all the time. But I do understand the concept of a show called, ``Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?'' So we will put it out to the fifth-graders and say, Would you prefer 8 million jobs lost, or would you prefer over a half million, over perhaps three-quarters of a million jobs returned, 84 percent in the private sector category? I think the fifth-grader would say, Give me the job growth, not the job loss. And you go down that list, and I think the fifth-grader is going to tell us that this is pretty clear. It's a contrast that I understand. And it's important. I think it's about choices. Is it fast enough? We would all love instant response. We would love millions of jobs in one quarter. But after we witnessed $18.5 trillion lost to household incomes over an 18-month span during the Bush recession--that's about a trillion dollars per month lost to household income--to now recover $6 trillion, a 30 percent recovery of that loss, is a move in the right direction. Again, a fifth-grader would say, I'd rather take a $6 trillion gain than an $18.5 trillion loss for households.…”