Morning Again in America

MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA -- (House of Representatives - June 14, 2004)

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Mr. HENSARLING. […]At this time, I yield to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), one of the great pro-growth leaders in the Congress, somebody who has made a real difference for West Virginia.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Texas for yielding to me and for working with us on this hour to talk to the Nation about the good news that we have on our economic front.

I have been here almost 4 years now, and for some reason good news seems to get buried a lot, and it is deeply concerning to me when we are talking about something as critically important as our Nation's economy, people working, families. So I think it is extremely important for all of us to give a good viewpoint to our Nation on how our Nation is moving in the right direction.

I would like to talk about my home State of West Virginia. Many times in terms of economics, West Virginia has had difficulty with our State economy. We have not moved with the rest of the Nation when the rest of the Nation is surging economically. We have sort of puttered along a little bit, and so in my home State people will say to me, Shelley, I hear that national indicators are good and that we are creating 1.4 million new job with President Bush's programs, but what is happening in West Virginia? Is that really occurring in West Virginia? The great news is, yes, it is.

The indications today were just brought out by the State Department of Employment Programs. It announced today that in the month of May we saw the largest period of job growth this year, 4,400 new jobs created in the State of West Virginia in May. Our unemployment rate, which has been steadily below the Nation's unemployment, dropped another 3/10ths of a point to 5.2 percent. These are not happenstance. This is not just a blip in the radar screen. This is a constant indication that the economics of West Virginia are improving, just as the economics of the Nation are growing and thriving.

Being home last weekend, I talked to many folks, miners, realtors, bankers, schoolteachers, truck drivers: How is business? How is it going? Every single one of them has a positive, uplifting message to give. They are either hiring more people, ordering new parts, or increasing their equipment, all the things that are the great indicators of economic growth. The tax savings in West Virginia is being reinvested, just as the President's Jobs and Growth Act had planned, and new workers are being hired.

There are also other good signs. Not only is West Virginia being included in the upturn of the Nation's economy and settling into new jobs, but other things are occurring, and I think it is important to be pointed out.

We have heard about outsourcing and we are all concerned about any job that leaves an American shore and goes across the sea where we want to keep that job on our shores, but in West Virginia interestingly one in five of our manufacturing jobs in West Virginia, they are working for a foreign-based company. Those jobs have been in-sourced to the State of West Virginia, and I think that is over 27,000 workers in the State of West Virginia are in that position.

The pride of Buffalo, West Virginia, which is in my District, is the Toyota manufacturing plant where over 1,000 West Virginians build the engines that are in the Toyota Camrys that are parked in our driveways, and can my colleagues imagine the impact that 1,000 of those manufacturing jobs in a small area such as Buffalo, West Virginia, has on the total economy of that location and that area and region of our State?

We also saw personal income rise in the latter part of 2003 to a total of $44.7 billion, and that is one of the highest numbers ever reported in the State of West Virginia. Our exports have increased by over $100 million. Personal tax collections are forecast to increase by 3.1 percent this coming year. That is an indication that more people are working. They are working at higher salary levels, and they are enjoying the prosperity a boom economy can provide, and the prosperity the Jobs and Growth Act of 2003 that President Bush put forth is working.

We also have many in West Virginia who are enjoying the tax benefits that were a part of that on an individual basis. We have several hundreds of thousands who are enjoying the marriage tax penalty: 400,000 individuals paying fewer taxes; and over 100,000 small businesses enjoying the tax relief that was so vitally important to jump-starting this economy and moving it in the right direction.

So, while we always seem to want to have the gloom and doom news take the headlines, I think it is time that the Americans see the headlines that are the reality of our economy here in the United States, and that is we are moving in the right direction. There is more work to be done, and States like West Virginia are feeling the impact, are being able to take hold of the movement and the surge in the economy. More jobs are being created, more families are feeling that, and for me to be able to say that this Congress, with this President, put these policies into place makes me proud to go home every weekend to West Virginia and say we are moving in the right direction. We are going to keep up the momentum, and things are on the rise.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for granting me the time.

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