Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. During the annual debate on the budget resolution, the House assigns 1 hour to the Joint Economic Committee to assess current economic conditions and evaluate how the budget resolution, if implemented, would improve the outlook for America's economy. As chairman of the Joint Economic Committee during the 113th Congress, I'm pleased to lead this discussion. For more than 2 years, the Joint Economic Committee has demonstrated that the current recovery we're in is the weakest of all recoveries lasting at least 1 year since World War II in terms of economic growth, in terms of jobs, and in personal income for families. Let's examine the following three charts. In each, the red lines depict the current recovery where we're headed right now; the navy blue lines depict the average of all the other recoveries since World War II, and the sky-blue line depicts the average of these recoveries. Since the recession ended 3\1/2\ years ago, our real economy, the real GDP, has grown by a mere 7.5 percent. That's this one. But during the comparable period, real economic growth averaged more than double that, 17.5 percent in other postwar recoveries. It is a huge gap between where we are today as a Nation and just the average, C-student, middle-of-the-road recovery of the past. We are lagging far behind. There is a serious growth gap.…”