[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9] [House] [Pages 12047-12048] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]JOBS AND THE ECONOMY (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, Democrats in Congress will continue to take America in a new direction, creating good American jobs, lowering taxes for the middle class and small businesses, and building a strong new foundation for the economy and for Main Street. We continue to see signs of economic recovery resulting from the economic policies of the Democratic Congress and the Obama administration responding to the Bush recession and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. More must be done to create and save jobs, but the latest signs of recovery include the HIRE Act, a bipartisan bill to create 300 jobs; American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act, tax incentives to spur business innovation and tax cuts; the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act extends aid to States to provide subsidies to employers, including small businesses; and the Home Star bill, which creates much-needed jobs in the manufacturing sector by providing tax rebates to homeowners who install energy-saving products. Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $29 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to develop and expand weatherization training centers across the country. These projects will provide green job training for local workers in energy efficiency retrofitting and weatherization services. Congress and the President have worked together to enact an array of broad-based tax cuts for working and middle-class families and small business owners--ending an era of Republican tax breaks focused only on the wealthy. These tax cuts are injecting consumer demand into the economy and spurring job creation. All totaled, Congress has enacted more than $800 billion in tax cuts, with another $285 [[Page 12048]] billion making their way through Congress, such as permanent estate tax relief and the R&D tax credit to spur business innovation. Republican Record of Failure Congressional Republicans threaten to take us back to the failed policies that created the economic crisis--siding with the special interests: Wall Street banks, credit card companies, Big Oil, and insurance companies. These economic and fiscal policies created the Bush recession--the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression--with job losses of nearly 800,000 a month--and nearly doubled our national debt. Republicans have voted against every major piece of economic legislation--from the Recovery Act to Wall Street reform--choosing the special interests over American workers, their families and small businesses. Democrats in Congress will continue to take America in a New Direction, working to create American jobs and a strong new foundation for the economy, protecting Main Street and the middle class. We're getting results. During the last 3 months of the Bush administration, we lost on average 726,000 jobs. In the last 3 months, we have created an average of 186,000 jobs. The current unemployment rate is 9.9 percent. ____________________