On the recordJuly 19, 2011
As I talk to residents of the 23rd Congressional District of Texas that I have the privilege to represent, the top concern about which I hear is the need to create jobs. For 2 years, President Obama and Washington liberals attempted to spend and borrow our way to a better economy. It simply didn't work. Trillions of dollars later, all we have is a national debt that every American household has over $120,000 of its share, and 29 straight months of unemployment at 8 percent or higher, the longest streak since the Great Depression. There's another way to create jobs: Pass the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. According to the Business Roundtable, these three agreements alone will create more than 250,000 jobs. At a time when over 14 million Americans are unemployed, it's time to put the politics aside and pass these three job-creating agreements. The time has come to pass the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements. ____________________
