[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1638-S1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
The Economy
Mr. THUNE. Madam President, last week, we learned that the economy
grew at a rate of 3.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the
fourth quarter of 2018. That is the strongest economic growth in over
10 years. Economic growth for the fourth quarter of 2018 smashed market
expectations.
In January, the economy created more than 300,000 jobs. More than 5.3
million jobs have been created since President Trump was elected. Job
openings hit a record high of 7.3 million in December, substantially
exceeding the number of those looking for work. The Department of Labor
reports that the number of job openings has exceeded the number of job
seekers for 10 straight months. Unemployment is low. January marked the
11th straight month that unemployment has been at or below 4 percent.
That is the longest streak in nearly five decades.
Wage growth has accelerated. Wages have now been growing at a rate of
3 percent or greater for 6 straight months. The last time wage growth
reached this level was in 2009. Median household income is at an
alltime high.
U.S. manufacturing has rebounded. The Wall Street Journal reported on
Friday:
[[Page S1639]]
America's factories are hiring again.
After years of job losses, U.S. manufacturing employment
has risen for 18 straight months among those holding
production or nonsupervisory jobs, the longest stretch of
gains since the mid-1990s.
That is from the Wall Street Journal.
The list goes on.
The economic growth we are experiencing is the direct result of
Republican policies. Economic growth has accelerated over the past 2
years, thanks to the lifting of the burdensome regulations and a
historic reform of our Tax Code.
Before we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, our Tax Code was acting
as a drag on economic growth. Small businesses faced heavy tax burdens
that frequently made it difficult for them to expand and create jobs or
even to get their businesses off the ground in the first place.
America's global businesses faced the highest corporate tax rate in the
developed world, which put them at a competitive disadvantage on the
international stage.
Of course, all of that had real consequences for American workers. A
small business owner facing a huge tax bill was highly unlikely to be
able to expand her business or to hire a new employee. A larger
business was going to find it hard to create jobs or improve benefits
for employees while struggling to stay competitive against foreign
businesses paying much less in taxes. So we reformed our Tax Code to
make it easier for businesses to grow, create jobs, and expand
opportunities for American workers. Now we are seeing the results--
economic growth, low unemployment, higher wages, a record-high number
of job openings, and more.
Importantly, the benefits of this growth are being experienced
widely. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Racial minorities, those with less education and people
working in the lowest-paying jobs are getting bigger pay
raises and, in many cases, experiencing the lowest
unemployment rate ever recorded for their groups. They are
joining manufacturing workers, women in their prime working
years, Americans with disabilities and those with criminal
records, among others, in finding improved job prospects
after years of disappointment.
Again, that is from the Wall Street Journal.
The Obama administration was characterized by a weak recovery and
years of economic stagnation. There were predictions that 2 percent
growth would be the new normal. But Republican economic policies have
turned the economy around. Now we need to focus on ways to extend the
benefits of tax reform even further and to secure the gains we have
made for the long term.
Unfortunately, our colleagues across the aisle are more focused on
dismantling the policies that created the growth we are experiencing
today. Apparently, it doesn't matter to them that workers are doing
better after years of economic stagnation or that jobs and
opportunities are increasing. They are set on dismantling tax reform
and raising rates to fund their socialist fantasies. They want to spend
$93 trillion--more money than the GDP of the entire world--to put the
government in charge of Americans' healthcare, energy usage, and more.
I wish I were joking, but Democrats' turn toward socialist insanity
is all too real. The kinds of tax hikes that would be required to pay
for Democrats' proposals would cripple our economy and severely
downgrade America's standard of living--not to mention robbing
Americans of their freedom to make their own decisions about all the
various aspects of their lives.
It is mind-boggling that more and more Democrats are embracing
socialism and the less free and less prosperous future it would bring.
Let's hope their socialist fantasies stay just that--fantasies--because
our economy might never recover from the reality of Democrats'
proposals.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, when I hear my friend from South Dakota
describe the state of the economy, it is amazing how political amnesia
can take over on the floor of the Senate Chamber.
Do you remember the election of 2008 when Barack Obama was elected
President of the United States? Was there anything going on with the
economy when he took office? Oh, something that the Senator failed to
mention--our country was facing the one of the worst recessions in the
history of the United States.
You had to go back to the Great Depression to see the impact of this
recession on the American economy, and it happened under a Republican
President--George W. Bush. President Obama inherited that, and most
people will never forget it because in 2008 and 2009, many people saw
their savings devastated by the drop in value in the stock market. They
saw this economy teetering on the edge and financial institutions
failing. This all happened on President George W. Bush's watch.
President Obama inherited it and had to turn it around--without the
cooperation of the Republican Party, I might add. A handful of them
stepped up to join him in a bipartisan effort, but most of them opposed
him. He did everything he needed to do to save this economy and then
started turning it around with job creation--unprecedented job
creation--throughout the 8 years of his term.
Now, of course, along comes a new President who wants to take credit
for all of it and, as the Senator from South Dakota suggested, blame
President Obama for the state of the economy he inherited. History
tells us a different story.
After this tax cut that the Senate Republicans are so proud of, I
think you ought to ask the American families paying their taxes now to
take a look at their taxes and tell you how the Trump tax cut helped
them as working families. For some, there is some value to it, but for
most, there is none. You see, over a long period of time, the vast
majority of the benefits of this Republican tax cut go to people in the
highest income categories. If there were ever a group who didn't need a
break, it is people who are already making millions of dollars each
year. Yet this Republican tax cut gave them the break. It added
trillions of dollars to our deficit, it helped the richest people in
America, and it forgot working families and left them behind. Yet
Republican Senators still come to the floor and boast about it with
regularity.
There is a better way to approach this. Yes, I want to give tax
incentives and tax relief to working families because we know they are
not getting the paychecks they need to meet their obligations, to save
for the future, and to make sure their kids have a better life. We
should be focused on them, not the wealthiest among us--they are doing
quite well, thank you. Let's focus on working families instead. The
Trump tax cut forgot that.
(Mr. SCOTT of Florida assumed the Chair.)