Pete Sessions: “I will just say this: When President Bush took office this economy was in trouble. In the first quarter he inherited…”

“I will just say this: When President Bush took office this economy was in trouble. In the first quarter he inherited there was negative growth; the second quarter was negative growth; the third quarter was 9/11. In the third quarter of former President Clinton's last year in office there was substantial negative growth, and one-half of the value of the NASDAQ stock exchange had been lost by the time President Bush took office. I will just say that he inherited a problem. And in the last 12 to 15 months, 1.9 million jobs have been created in this country. We had growth as high as 8 percent late last year for the third quarter, which is the highest growth in 20 years. Yes. We have challenges. Five and four-tenths percent unemployment is too high for me. It is a lot better than Europe. It is a lot better than most countries in the world. But it is not good enough. But I note this: The 5.4 percent unemployment rate that we have today, which we are working to improve, is better than the average unemployment rate of the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. I hope we will continue to work on it here together in Congress, the President and everyone, to see what we can do to continue to help grow the economy. Certainly, if we don't have a growing economy we will not create jobs.”