mr. speaker , i certainly thank the gentlewoman for yielding and certainly appreciate her leadership in this body on helping promote policies that promote economic growth in jobs and being a true leader in trying to help reform government programs that too often take away from family programs because they are wasteful , they are duplicative , they are inefficient , there is no accountability . 
she is one of the true leaders in congress on these issues . 
mr. speaker , there is a lot of good news that americans have tonight . 
clearly , this nation faces a number of challenges and we know about them , and families are still struggling to meet high energy costs . 
yet this republican congress has been bold in enacting new energy legislation to help address that . 
families still have challenges in the high cost of health care , but this republican congress is doing things to help bring down the costs , particularly for small businesses and to make it easier to see a doctor in america as opposed to sue a doctor in america . 
but although we still face a number of challenges , as we have just have come away from our great thanksgiving holiday , we need to remember the things that we need to give thanks for and all the good things that are happening in america . 
one of the things that i do not think a sufficient number of americans appreciate is just how great this economy is today . 
it is absolutely amazing , mr. speaker , that this economy , not this government , not this government but the economy , men and women all over the nation , rolling up their sleeves and risking capital , have gone out and created over 4 million new jobs since president bush 's economic growth program was enacted by this republican congress . 
that is over 4 million new taxpaying jobs , jobs with a future , jobs that allow the american families to create their housing program , their nutritional program , their health care program , and their educational program . 
that is incredibly good news . 
we have now had 2 1/2 , 2 1/2 years where the economy has grown at over 3 percent a quarter . 
that is just unparalleled historic economic growth that is helping elevate and enrich the lives of millions and millions of americans and allowing them to take care of their families and for them to realize their american dream . 
now , another aspect that too many people do not realize , because some people , particularly the democrats , tell us that tax relief is a bad thing for the american people , that tax relief somehow hurts the deficit , well , we know that the deficit is too high . 
but guess what ? 
the deficit has been falling . 
and why ? 
i wish it were because spending was decreasing here . 
we are fighting those battles . 
but tonight we are here to talk about the values of tax relief and how important it is that we prevent a democrat tax increase . 
and if we do not act this week , we will have yet another huge democrat tax increase on the american people . 
the american people do not realize , or perhaps not enough of them realize , that in washington , dc , spending is forever and tax relief is temporary . 
unless we enact legislation this week , there will be an automatic tax increase on the american people . 
and besides what that is going to do to the american family , it will hurt the deficit . 
tax relief has proven to be part of the deficit solution , not part of the deficit problem . 
