[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 126 (Tuesday, October 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9659-S9660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, my friend from Utah--and he is my friend; I 
think the world of him--has a unique argument: Who lost the surplus? I 
never heard that until he talked about it. I think we all know who lost 
the surplus. He never answered that question.
  And then the unique observation is: It never existed. We never had a 
surplus.
  Talk about Alice in Wonderland. About a month ago--actually it was in 
August--I went on a family vacation. I had not read ``Alice in 
Wonderland'' for a long time. I read ``Alice in Wonderland,'' and there 
are a lot of strange things that go on in that little girl's life when 
she takes this strange odyssey.
  But part of that is, as the Senator from Utah mentioned, Alice in 
Wonderland, because the statements he has just made really are--I say 
this respectfully--illogical and illusionary. They simply do not exist.
  The fact is we have, in the Bush economic record, weak economic 
growth, record job loss, declining business investment, a falling stock 
market, shrinking retirement accounts, eroding consumer confidence, 
rising health care costs, escalating foreclosures, vanishing surpluses, 
higher interest costs, raiding Social Security, record executive pay, 
and stagnating minimum wage.
  In the Bush world, everything that should be up is down, and 
everything that should be down is up. Job losses should be down; they 
are up. Health care costs should be down; they are up. Foreclosures 
should be down; they are up. The national debt should be down; it is 
up. Federal interest costs should be up; they are down. The Social 
Security trust, we should not be raiding it. In fact, we are doing just 
the opposite of what we should be doing.
  Those things that should be going up in the Bush economic plan are 
going down: economic growth, going down; business investment, going 
down; the stock market, going down; retirement accounts, going down; 
consumer confidence, going down; minimum wage, going down. Everything 
you would think should be up economically is down.

[[Page S9660]]

  They have things reversed.
  For someone to come on this floor and tell people we are in the midst 
of a recovery? Come on. We are in the midst of a recovery? I talked to 
Senator John Kerry today. He indicated that a company in Massachusetts 
is laying off, I think he said, 9,000 or 10,000 people today. That is 
economic recovery? Last week we had all these layoffs taking place with 
a phone company where they laid off 14,000 people.
  More than 2 million jobs have been lost in 18 months. That is 
economic recovery? We have the weakest economic growth in 50 years. 
That is economic recovery? Business investment was down each of the 
last six quarters; the weakest trend in 50 years. That is economic 
recovery?

  There has been $4.5 trillion of lost stock market wealth; the 
sharpest decline since President Hoover was President of the United 
States in the early 1930s; $440 billion of lost 401(k) and IRA 
retirement savings in the last year. That is economic recovery?
  The Nasdaq Stock Exchange is down to its lowest level in 6 or 7 
years; the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down drastically and still 
going down; the poverty rate up for the first time since 1992.
  Let's at least talk realism. We are not in an economic recovery. We 
have to address the economy, as Congress should. We are not doing that. 
We are focusing on only Iraq. I have no problem with focusing on Iraq, 
but we can do more than one thing. This is the beginning of the fifth 
week since we came back after the August recess, and we have not done a 
single thing to address the staggering, faltering, stumbling economy.
  Mr. President, was my unanimous consent request granted?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. It was.
  Mr. REID. I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.

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