[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 150 (Thursday, October 23, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13070-S13071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  JOBS

  Mr. COLEMAN. Madam President, I wish to talk about jobs. I am a 
former mayor. As mayor, I learned a long time ago that the best welfare 
program is a job; the best housing program is a job; access to health 
care comes through a job. With jobs and with work, there is a sense of 
dignity and a sense of worth.
  People would often ask me as a mayor, What are you doing for kids? My 
response would be, One of the best things I could do for kids was to 
make sure that mom and dad had a job. Jobs are fundamentally important.
  The reality is that the American economy over the last few years has 
taken some very big hits. A lot of people have found themselves out of 
work. When you are out of work, the anxiety level rises, the sense of 
security in your family is challenged. It hurts, and it hurts a lot. 
Certainly the recession that began before President Bush was elected--
the recession began just as he took office--had an impact on jobs. 
America took that terrible blow of terrorism on September 11, which 
shook the foundations of the economy. You can't have economic security 
without national security; People are in fear. There was a great loss 
to the economic activity, certainly in New York and Washington and 
throughout this country. The impact of 9/11 cannot be underestimated.
  On top of that, we faced corporate America acting in a way that upset 
a lot of us, as it should have. Scandals within Enron and WorldCom 
undermined the trust, undermined the confidence that the average 
American had in our economic system, in the market. The stock market, 
by the way, I don't think is a valuer of the economy; it is an 
indicator of confidence in the economy or lack thereof.
  The fact is, Americans were not very confident when they looked at 
the corporate greed and the excess and the manipulation and a few folks 
at the top making money and folks at the bottom being hurt. That is a 
bad thing.
  In this Congress, before I got here, we acted on that. I praise the 
folks who stepped forward. But the reality was a great undermining of 
confidence in the economy and the economy suffered and Americans 
suffered.
  Then this President stepped forward and said the way to change what 
has happened in the economy is to cut taxes. Goodness gracious, there 
were a lot of folks--my colleagues on the other side, they were just 
outraged. Cutting taxes, how can you do that? How can you cut taxes at 
a time of economic need? How can you cut taxes at a time the economy is 
suffering? It will just plunge us further into debt.
  The President's commonsense perspective, and one that I share, is 
that the things we do should put money in the pockets of moms and dads. 
Then they spend that money. If they spend that money on a good or on a 
service, the person who is producing that good or providing that 
service has a job. So by cutting taxes, having moms and dads spend 
money, is better than the Government spending money. It is better than 
creating another program.
  This President thought we had to do those things to incur business 
investment. The last tax cut we passed--Madam President, I was sitting 
in that chair when the budget was passed, when we first got in office 
this year. We passed it by a 50-to-50 vote, and the Vice President had 
to come and step

[[Page S13071]]

forward. We passed that tax cut and in that we provided things such as 
bonus depreciation, providing incentives for business to make 
expenditures. When they make expenditures and capital expenditures, 
they are going to grow jobs.

  There were many who said, How can you cut taxes at a time when we are 
in economic distress? The reality is, we do it because that is the way 
you grow jobs, and we are seeing that. We are seeing it in the data 
that is coming out. I will talk a little bit about that. But I want to 
step back and say the reason I am so passionate about this is not 
because it is part of a political party's platform, not because it is 
an ideological statement; it is because I have seen it work.
  I was mayor of a capital city. I got elected in 1993. When I was 
elected, the city was economically dying. It was not doing well. One of 
the ways to value that is the value of taxable property. In downtown 
St. Paul, it was over $700 million. When I got elected to office in 
1993, took office in 1994, the value of taxable property was $300 
million. It had lost half the value of property. I realized we had to 
do those things to grow jobs, so what did we do?
  We kept the lid on taxes. I made a commitment, saying we were not 
going to raise taxes in the city of St. Paul. You know, we didn't raise 
taxes in the 8 years I was in office--zero increase in the tax levee. 
We also cut three-quarters of the licenses to do business.
  There were those who were saying, You are giving these benefits to 
business. Why are you doing that? I did it because I believed if you 
did those things that keep a lid on taxes, you would encourage 
investment. I believed if you kept a lid on those things that were 
increasing the cost of doing business, you would grow investment.
  By the time I left office there were 18,000 more jobs in my city. The 
fact is, by cutting taxes, by stimulating those things that generate 
investment, you grow jobs.
  There may be folks who argue about that, but it is like the economist 
I described. Economists, sometimes, are those folks who see something 
working in reality and they tell you why it can't work in theory.
  Cutting taxes works in reality. You cut taxes, it works. My 
colleague, the Senator from Idaho, quietly mouths: ``You know, it works 
in theory, too.'' And it does. I have seen it work in reality. This is 
not about theory or ideology for me. This is not imagining what could 
be or should be or might be. This is about what is.
  The reality is we are seeing it today. We are seeing us coming out of 
that long slide--not fast enough for me; We have to grow jobs at a 
faster rate. But we see us coming out of the slide. We see it in the 
data coming out. Consumption in the third quarter topped 12 percent at 
an annual rate, translating to 6 percent growth in gross domestic 
product in the last quarter. You have to contrast that with the first 
quarter of 2003. The growth was 1.4 percent. Tax cuts are making a 
difference. Tax cuts are taking hold. Jobs are growing. Jobless claims 
continue to fall to their lowest level since last February. Production 
in our plants and factories grew in the third quarter at a 3.5 percent 
annual rate. Contrast that to the negative growth in industrial 
production in the second quarter at 3.2 percent.

  Homebuilders started building over 1.9 million new homes on an annual 
basis, according to the last report. Inflation is well under control at 
an annual rate of 2.3 percent. I believe that is about a 37-year low.
  Finally, we are getting consumer confidence. That is what it is 
about. No one jumps a sinking ship. No one invests in something they 
think will fail. On the other hand, if they have a sense there is hope 
and optimism, people invest. It is about hope and optimism.
  That is what tax cuts have done. They have generated a sense of hope 
and a sense of optimism. More importantly, they have put money in 
people's pockets. They have encouraged investment. Sixty-four percent 
of Americans, according to most recent surveys, predict the economy 
will be stronger a year from now. That is up from 55 percent last 
February. Sixty-nine percent of Americans say the economy is stronger 
than it was 3 years ago.
  We have a way to go in order to move this economy forward. But the 
way you change the economy is not doing it like a racetrack and racing 
around the bends in fast turns. You grow an economy in many ways. But 
you see the results. It is kind of like turning an ocean liner around 
in the middle of the ocean; you have to get it moving in the right 
direction.
  The President's tax cuts have the economy moving in the right 
direction. The economy is moving in the right direction. Americans know 
that. Americans understand that. Let us stay that course. Let us 
continue to do that which generates investment, generates hope, and 
that grows jobs. It is the path we are on. It is the path the President 
set forth, which I support. It is the right path not just in theory but 
in reality.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, the Senator from Texas is controlling the 
time on the majority side and has asked that the time be extended 10 
minutes, equally divided. We have no objection on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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