[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 11 (Friday, January 20, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S357-S358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THANKING FORMER PRESIDENT OBAMA
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise to offer my words of gratitude to
President Obama as his service to our Nation comes to a close. I want
to commend him for his 8 years of dedicated public service. From the
first time we met in 2005, I was struck by his integrity, his intellect
and his decency. His achievements as President are too numerous to
list, but 3 are significant. Over 15 million jobs created since the end
of the great recession, 20 million more Americans with health care, and
a $1 trillion reduction in the deficit.
President Obama was a strong fighter for the middle class and the
vulnerable. Our Nation and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are in a
stronger position today than when President Obama took the oath of
office in January 2009. As a nation, we have made progress, but we
still face substantial challenges in order to grow incomes, provide a
quality education for more children, and keep our nation safe. We will
miss President Obama's principled leadership and enduring commitment to
strengthening America.
Mr. President, I ask unaimous consent that a CNN article about
President Obama be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From CNNMoney (New York), Dec. 2, 2016]
Obama's Gift to Trump: A `Pretty Solid' Economy
(by Heather Long)
President Obama is giving President-elect Trump a welcome
gift: A pretty good economy.
Unemployment is at its lowest level since 2007.
Home prices are back at all-time highs.
Growth is picking up. The economy expanded at a 3.2% annual
rate from July through September.
Even the middle class is (finally) getting a raise in pay.
``President Trump really is inheriting an economy that's
pretty solid,'' said Kevin Hassett, an economist at the
conservative American Enterprise Institute, on CNBC Friday.
The ``Obama economy'' deserves a ``B or B+'' grade, says
Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics.
grading the obama economy
That's not an A, but the economy is certainly better off
than it was when Obama walked into the Oval Office in 2009.
Back then, the country was in the midst of a deep financial
crisis and recession. The very month Obama took office,
nearly 800,000 Americans lost their jobs.
Obama believes he hasn't received enough credit for the big
turnaround. ``Anyone claiming that America's economy is in
decline is peddling fiction,'' Obama said earlier this year.
Unemployment has fallen dramatically from 10% to just 4.6%
now. America has gained over 11 million new jobs since Obama
took office.
trump points to those left behind in recovery
Trump has repeatedly called the unemployment rate ``a
joke'' and ``a hoax.'' It's unclear whether he will change
that message when he takes office. Then he would be able to
take credit for keeping unemployment down--or even causing it
to go lower.
For now, Trump continues to hammer the Obama economy as
terrible. ``Companies are not going to leave the United
States anymore without consequences,'' Trump said at a speech
at a Carrier factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. ``We're losing
so much.''
While hiring has picked up rapidly under President Obama--
2014 and 2015 were the best years of job growth since the
late 1990s--the gains have almost all come in the so-called
``service sector,'' not in manufacturing and blue collar
work.
``There are some people doing fabulously well and others on
death's doorstep. And there's a heck of a gulf in between,''
says Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.
The U.S. has 54,000 fewer manufacturing jobs now than a
year ago, according to the Labor Department.
Trump is trying to stem that decline. He and vice
President-elect Mike Pence negotiated a deal with Carrier to
keep about 1,000 jobs in Indiana. Some of those jobs would
have gone to Mexico.
The Obama team counters that 1,000 jobs is small compared
to the 178,000 jobs added in November alone. It was the 74th
consecutive month of job gains under Obama.
can trump do better?
Trump and his new team of economic advisers promise to
hypercharge U.S. growth. They say they can get it to 4%--
stronger than recent years when the economy has grown only
2%.
The question is how.
Trump wants big tax cuts for businesses and individuals.
He's also planning to roll back regulation and spend more on
roads and bridges.
Wall Street has given these plans a big thumbs up. The stock
market rallied to record levels in November after Trump won
the presidency. Business and consumer confidence has also
shot up since the momentous win.
the big problem for trump
There's just one catch: The U.S. economy has less potential
to grow now than in the past, argues economist Ashworth.
Two key factors drive growth: More people entering the
workforce and workers being more productive on the job.
Right now, the U.S. has an aging population and little
appetite for much more immigration, so it's hard to see more
workers flooding into the workforce. Trump likes to claim 94
million Americans are out of work and need jobs, but that's
not correct. That number includes retirees, people in school
and those who have chosen not to work in order to take care
of their family.
In reality, about 2.1 million lost their jobs in recent
years and appear to have simply given up looking. They are
the hidden unemployed. Getting them jobs won't be easy as
many jobs today require specialized skills.
Trump's big hope is to get productivity up by encouraging
businesses to invest more in
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their factories, research and workers. Business investment
has been one of the missing parts of the recovery.
``We're not quite there yet, but we've made a considerable
amount of progress,'' says Ashworth.
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