[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 59 (Thursday, April 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2085]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Pro-Growth Agenda

  Mr. President, on another matter, I have been speaking all week about 
the stark difference between the Obama administration's economic legacy 
and the pro-growth agenda this Republican Congress and Republican 
President have been putting in place.
  For 8 years, our Democratic friends' so-called economic recovery 
hardly made it past our Nation's biggest and richest cities. Democratic 
policies largely failed the millions of working Americans who live in 
our small towns and suburbs, smaller cities and rural areas--not so 
with this Republican Congress and this Republican President. Already, 
our inclusive opportunity agenda is bringing new energy, new optimism, 
and new growth to all of those forgotten parts of our country.
  On my recent trip back to Kentucky, I heard what I have been hearing 
for months now. I heard how tax reform is helping bourbon producers 
compete, create jobs, and reinvigorate their local economies. I heard 
how employers in the State are reinvesting in their workers by offering 
bonuses or looking to increase hiring. I heard how farm families are 
breathing easier after regulatory reforms that will keep the government 
from invading every puddle, ditch, and pothole in America.
  These signs of progress just confirm what Republicans have said all 
along: that middle-class families flourish when the IRS takes less of 
what they earn; that American entrepreneurs thrive when we scrub the 
regulatory rust off our economy and give farmers, ranchers local 
communities, community banks, and small businesses more say over their 
own affairs; that good things happen when we just get Washington out of 
the way.
  Our policies are delivering real prosperity for Americans in all 
kinds of communities, so it is no surprise that a recent study found 
that last year, rural areas outpaced the rest of the country in 
relative job creation.
  These are promising signs and long over due, but, of course, there is 
a lot more work to do.