[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 156 (Thursday, September 28, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6204-S6205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Economic Growth

  Mr. President, an issue I have been coming to the Senate floor to 
speak about for the past couple of years is an issue that I don't think 
we focus on enough here in the Congress, here in the Senate, and that 
is the key issue of America's economic growth.
  With the exception of national security, strong, robust economic 
growth is probably the most important issue we can be focused on in 
this body. We certainly have many challenges in this country, but so 
many of them are made easier when the American economy is strong, when 
job opportunities are plentiful and optimism in the future because of 
that strong economic growth is high.
  So how have we been doing over the past decade? I want everyone to 
take a look at this chart. The answer is, not very well; not very well 
at all. This chart shows the gross domestic product--GDP--decade after 
decade through different administrations, Democratic and Republican, 
over the last several decades. So if we take a look at the chart, we 
see Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush 41 and 
43, and President Obama. We see where levels have been. We see that 
over the years, over the decades, the average economic growth is about 
right here--about 4 percent.
  There has been a lot of talk about what has made America great and 
what makes America great. This is what makes America great: strong, 
robust, economic growth decade after decade. That is the key.
  So what happened over the past decade, right here? If we take a look 
right here at this red line, that is 3 percent. That is not the 
traditional level. Traditional levels over 200-plus years of American 
history are closer to 4 percent. But 3 percent GDP growth is considered 
OK--not bad, not great, but pretty good, and something we should all 
aspire to, something we should hit.
  When we look at this chart, we see that in the last decade we never 
hit it, not even 3 percent GDP growth--more like 1.5, 2 percent. As a 
matter of fact, President Obama is the first President in American 
history where we never hit 3 percent GDP growth for a year.
  I know what some may be thinking. This seems to be a pretty important 
issue, right? Economic growth last decade not even hitting 3 percent. 
Why wasn't the press writing about that? We didn't hear many stories in 
the press about this very important issue--a decade of lost economic 
growth. Many of us come to the floor to talk about this critical issue, 
and there is a yawn in the Press Gallery. There is no interest. It is 
hard to understand why.
  One theory I have is that if you look at our country more broadly, 
these are the numbers--very, very weak growth--but certain places in 
the country over the last 10 years have actually done very well, 
especially this city, Washington, DC. It has been growing very strong, 
with probably 5, 6 percent growth. Some other places, some of the 
coastal big cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Boston, are 
all doing well--way higher than 3 percent. They are growing stronger. 
So the

[[Page S6205]]

press, in my view, is probably not that interested in this number 
because in places like Washington, everything seemed to be going great. 
But it wasn't going great.
  Think about this: If Washington or L.A. or New York or San Francisco 
are growing at 3 or 4 percent growth and yet the country is at about 
1.5 or 2 percent, then there are probably huge parts of America that 
are actually shrinking, not growing at all.
  These charts talk about economic growth, GDP. It can sound a little 
bit wonky. Really, GDP is a marker for the health of our economy. It is 
an indicator of American progress. It is a proxy for the American dream 
and optimism in the future.
  As this chart shows, we have had a sick economy over the last 10 
years, a lost decade of economic growth. The press hasn't written much 
about it, and when they have, they have typically bought the line of 
the previous administration saying: Hey, look, we know that the 
traditional levels of economic growth are close to 4 percent. Look at 
Clinton, look at Reagan--4\1/2\, 5, 6. We know that is the case. We 
know 3 percent is OK. But we haven't hit that in the last 10 years, so 
what is wrong? Well, the press started buying the line from the last 
administration: That is the ``new normal.'' We can't hit 3 percent 
anymore. We certainly can't hit 4 percent anymore. So 1\1/2\, 2 percent 
is America hitting on all cylinders. I believe that is a surrender. I 
believe dumbing down our expectations for economic growth is a retreat 
from the American dream.
  As you know, the American people aren't buying this. They are not 
buying the dumbing down. They are not saying: Oh yeah, we can live with 
this 1\1/2\ percent growth. Sure. No problem. They are wise, and they 
aren't buying the dumbing down.
  We all saw the book recently released by former Senator and Secretary 
of State Hillary Clinton, and her book is entitled ``What Happened.'' 
What happened? This is what happened: Our citizens saw the American 
dream slipping away after a lost decade of economic growth, and they 
weren't ready to surrender to the new normal.
  What do we need to focus on in the Senate? We have to start moving 
beyond this. We have to. We need policies that are going to focus on 
reigniting growth--the growth that Democrats and Republicans have 
supported for decades. What is that? I think there is a lot of 
agreement--infrastructure, less burdensome regulations, energy. America 
has enormous supplies of energy that we can take advantage of. Yet the 
issue we are starting to debate now in the Senate is tax reform.
  As we debate this and work in a bipartisan way--I have heard a lot of 
my colleagues say that we do need to undertake tax reform. We need to 
keep asking ourselves, on all these policies, what they will do to 
reignite growth, to reignite the American dream, to allow hard-working 
American families to keep more of their paychecks, and to return to the 
optimism that comes with a robust economy, not just along the coast of 
America but throughout the entire country, to get back to that optimism 
and growth. That is what I am going to be doing as we undertake this 
debate on tax reform.
  The Trump administration is off to an OK start. The first quarter--
again, kind of a hangover from the Obama years--1.2 percent growth. 
That is not good at all. The last quarter, second quarter, was 3.1. It 
hit above 3 percent, which is what the President says his policies are 
meant to do. As long as they are focused on that, I certainly am going 
to be somebody who wants to support those kinds of pro-growth policies, 
and I think it is imperative, whether it is tax reform, infrastructure, 
regulatory reform, or energy, that we all come together in this body 
and make sure we work together so the next decade of growth in America 
does not look like this last one and gets us over 3 percent, gets us 
back to traditional levels of growth. I don't think there is anything 
more important we can do in the Senate than getting back to those 
important levels of growth for our country and our citizens.