David Obey: “I am more than fully prepared. It seems to me there is not much benefit that accrues to the country when that happens.…”

“I am more than fully prepared. It seems to me there is not much benefit that accrues to the country when that happens. Mr. Chairman, I would simply observe that we can debate whether this is a slower recovery than past recoveries or whether it is not. Of course, it is, because the country was so crippled by the huge debt overhang left to us by the policies of previous Congresses and previous administrations that we have not had the ability available to the Government to stimulate the economy the way the administrations were able to stimulate the economy in past recessions. We also were not in a world economy which was collapsing around us in past recessions, because America did not trade very much 10 and 20 years ago. We do today, so we are very much affected by what happens around us. Our economy will not really begin to grow as fast as it ought to grow until the economies of Japan and Germany recovery, so we can begin again selling to them many more American goods that we would like to send. Mr. Chairman, I would simply make the point that if we want to debate Bush versus Clinton, I think the record is pretty clear. Most of the job growth by far that has occurred since the end of the recession occurred under President Clinton's watch.”