[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 24, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3052-S3053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE JOBS BILL

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, today we are talking on a series of 
issues where credibility is at stake. Frankly, I think the credibility 
of the Senate is at stake with regard to this jobs initiative we are 
debating on the floor of the Senate today.
  I understand it is very possible we will not be able to move this 
most important legislation that is about creating jobs in an economy 
where Americans are not getting access to available opportunities to 
protect their families, help their families, or improve their quality 
of life.
  We have seen far too little job creation. For us to back away from 
this initiative today would be extremely disappointing and, in fact, 
lead to a roughly $4 billion tax hike for American business and for job 
creation.
  I think it fits a pattern of failure and unfortunate emphasis with 
regard to the state of our economic affairs in this country. 
Apparently, we do not want to take a vote on providing overtime for 8 
million Americans. That is what is keeping us from dealing with a 
fundamental jobs program.
  We already overwhelmingly voted in this body to pull back from 
regulations that would strip overtime pay for 8 million working 
Americans. Because we do not want to go on record about that, we are 
going to allow a $4 billion tax hike that is going to end up 
undermining jobs. It is just the latest in steps of failed economic 
policy.
  I think the administration, the President, ought to be demanding that 
we get this JOBS bill passed so we have the capacity to keep pushing 
forward on economic growth and, most importantly, job growth for 
individuals. This failure, in my view, comes against a backdrop that is 
remarkable for its, frankly, inanity and distorted perspectives with 
regard to economic policies that Senator John Kerry has proposed in his 
current campaign for the Presidency.
  I say ``remarkable'' because it is incredible to me that anyone with 
the economic record that this administration has, which has basically 
failed, would have the temerity to try to attack the policies that are 
very consistent with ones that produced 22.5 million jobs and created 
the greatest economic boon in the 20th century that this country had. 
There was growth in productivity, growth in real wealth, and growth in 
average median income for all Americans. It is hard for me to 
understand how, when we have gone from that kind of success to the 
failed policies we have today, that we are trying to attack some return 
to that effort.
  I will review the record in specific. Since President Bush came to 
office, we have lost about 3 million private sector jobs--I think it is 
about 2.2 million overall jobs because the Government was actually 
increased. So, literally, it is the worst jobs record since the Great 
Depression. Currently, the situation is not exactly getting better. In 
the month of February we created 21,000 new jobs in this economy. That 
is against a projection that was in the President's economic report to 
the country of presuming that we would produce 368,000 jobs per month. 
It was 21,000 in reality against a projection of 368,000; none in the 
private sector, by the way.
  What 21,000 were created were created in the governmental sector. I 
again contrast that with the fact that under the policies of the 
previous administration, we created 236,000 jobs a month on average. 
Right now, on average, we have negative creation under the current 
economic policies, and before we have done any kind of analysis, we 
want to attack the kinds of proposals that actually lead us back to 
fiscal sanity and responsible funding of our Government. We would get 
on with job creation.
  If we had the right leadership, we would pass this jobs bill that is 
on the Senate floor right now and get forward momentum building in our 
economy.
  By the way, if we were to continue that pace of 21,000 jobs, just to 
replace the jobs we have already lost under this administration, it 
would take us to 2013, a remarkably slow pace. This is not what 
President Bush promised

[[Page S3053]]

when we saw these large tax breaks, particularly for those affluent in 
this society. We were told this was going to be a job creator. It has 
not worked. I think it is time for people to focus on the realities as 
opposed to trying to hyperventilate about what they would like to think 
is going to happen. The differences between projections and reality 
just continue over and over. So when it comes to jobs, this 
administration's record, in my view, is a complete failure.

  Sadly, though, that is just the beginning on economic policy. The 
President has not only produced the worst jobs record in several 
generations, in fact, he has created the worst fiscal situation we have 
seen in the history of the country. Frankly, it is shifting the tax 
burdens and the financial burdens of paying for Government from one 
generation to the next. The reality is that we are putting on the backs 
of our kids and their kids the responsibility to pay for the actions of 
the Government both today and obviously future responsibilities as we 
go forward, but particularly creating debt. There is $530 billion worth 
of debt being created this year. Actually, it is about $630 billion 
because we are using the Social Security trust fund which is going to 
have to get paid back to be able to fund Social Security as we go 
forward.
  Over the long term, in my view, this failure on fiscal policy is a 
more serious problem than even the job creation issue because it is 
going to undermine the capacity of our economy to be able to grow and 
be strong in future years, and we are going to get even greater 
resistance to job growth over a long period of time because the Federal 
Government is going to be out there competing for every dime in the 
private capital markets. That competition is going to end up dampening 
growth and creating a situation where we have very little opportunity 
to see job creation as we go forward.
  To put it in perspective, when this administration came into office 
there were projections that we would have $5.6 trillion worth of budget 
surpluses over the succeeding 10 years. Today, the budget projections 
are $5 trillion worth of deficits. That is a negative cash flow swing--
that is an old term I remember from business--of over $10 trillion. It 
is mind-boggling that we could see a flip of the switch in policies 
that would take us from $5.6 trillion surpluses that would allow us to 
pay down the debt.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Graham of South Carolina). The Senator has 
1 minute remaining.
  Mr. CORZINE. It is absolutely essential that we get focused on 
reality. I hear people suggest that Senator Kerry, because he wants to 
propose a health care plan that over 10 years will cost $900 billion, 
is going to impose a tax increase on the American people just to fund 
that. That is flat out wrong. It would be like saying the Bush 
administration is proposing a $10 trillion tax increase because they 
have run up budget deficits of these kinds.
  There is a lot more to say about the economy--failure on jobs, 
failure on the deficit, and we ought to be passing this JOBS bill in 
this Senate today so that we put America back to work. I will come back 
at a later point and finish up with some of the other remarks.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  The Senator from Washington is recognized for 10 minutes.

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