[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Economic Growth

  Madam President, finally, on the economy, that is one area that 
deserves our attention, although you wouldn't guess it if you were 
listening to President Trump. President Trump repeatedly brags about 
low unemployment numbers and a rising stock market--two trends that 
actually began long before he took office. President Trump should say 
``Thanks, Obama'' for handing him an economy that was well into 
recovery from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. 
But what the President has done since taking office has been to tilt 
the playing field to allow most of the benefits of this recovery to 
flow to those at the very top. He can brag about GDP numbers, but when 
most of the wealth is going more and more to the highest level of 
people, it doesn't benefit enough people.
  President Trump has consistently weakened programs that help middle-
class Americans afford healthcare. He has rolled back critical worker 
and consumer protections and rammed through a tax bill that gave 
egregious giveaways to big corporations. Instead of the wealth 
trickling down, corporations have spent the lion's share of their new 
profits on corporate stock buybacks, which benefit shareholders and the 
CEOs--most of them very wealthy--not average Americans or workers.
  If the economy is so strong, why is it that 4 out of 10 Americans 
can't afford a $400 emergency expense? Why is it that income disparity 
grows, with the middle class left holding the bag? Recent polls 
confirm--and this should be a watch word, Mr. President--Americans 
don't believe the Trump economy is working for them. In a recent ABC 
poll, most Americans see the Trump economy as primarily benefiting 
those who are already in power, those who are already wealthy. 
According to Monmouth, most Americans say the economy hasn't benefited 
them much, if at all.
  To simply brag about large macro numbers but not look at the effect 
on the average person who is making $40-, $50-, $60,000 a year--that is 
wrong. That is not helping them. The group who believes the economy is 
benefitting them the most is making over $100,000 a year. God bless 
them, but we ought to be working to spread economic benefits to the 
middle class.
  Despite the President's trumpeting of self-selected economic data, 
the bottom line is this: The Trump economy is working OK if you are 
already doing quite well, but it is not doing enough--not close to 
enough--for working America and the middle class.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.