[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S422]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Economic Growth

  Mr. President, on economics and economic wins, at the beginning of 
last year, the CBO projected that the U.S. economy would reach a growth 
rate of about 3.5 percent by the end of 2021. The International 
Monetary Fund had a rosier outlook. They said economic growth could be 
closer to 4 percent. The Federal Open Market Committee was perhaps the 
most optimistic, forecasting a growth rate of about 4.3 percent.
  They were all wrong. The U.S. economy shattered most expectations and 
grew at the amazing rate of 5.7 percent, the strongest rate since the 
time of Ronald Reagan. This was no accident, far from it. Last year's 
historic turnaround is a reminder that the right leadership in 
government matters. Democrats promised in 2020 to fix Donald Trump's 
utter mismanagement of the COVID crisis and get our country back on 
track. And, a year later, after securing the strongest growth rate in 
decades, Democrats are delivering on that promise.

  After Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, I said: ``Help is on 
the way.'' And that help is getting America back on a path to normal. 
Though we are still learning to live with the virus, our economy, our 
communities, and our schools are better off because of vaccines, 
because of testing, and because of targeted legislation we passed last 
year, like the RESTAURANTS Act and Save Our Stages.
  I want to stress an important point that is forgotten too often. We 
are finally seeing wages go up at a significant rate. That is dollars 
in the working people's pockets.
  For decades, economists have decried the lack of wage growth in 
America. It has been reported that from 2000 to 2020, if you were in 
the bottom 75 percent of Americans--the majority--your wage growth was 
not real at all. In other words, costs ate up all of the wage growth, 
and the wage growth was paltry, in many years: 0 percent, 1 percent, 
declining in some. Lack of wage growth has been the scourge of our 
economy for so long, as it affects average working folks, closing off 
opportunities for millions of hard-working people who have worked 
harder and harder only to see their lives deteriorate.
  Now we are finally seeing signs that wages are going up, and that is 
going to stay for years to come. This is real progress for working 
families. As we keep fighting to lower costs, we Democrats are going to 
do everything we can to see that this large wage growth remains and 
continues, and that will mean better lives for the American people.
  We know the work is not done. We know we must keep working to help 
Americans lower costs so they can better afford the basics, from 
healthcare and prescription drugs to daily essentials like groceries, 
to the costs of higher education. Addressing these issues remains our 
focus.
  We also must address strained and broken supply chains. Later this 
week, the House will take up the long-awaited USICA bill by passing a 
companion, the America COMPETES Act. I have been working very hard to 
make sure that this happens. Once conferenced, this legislation would 
bring manufacturing back to America instead of sending jobs overseas. 
This bill will say: ``Buy America''; keep the jobs here.
  We saw what just happened in Ohio in the advent: thousands and 
thousands of new jobs in manufacturing. So this legislation is going to 
bring manufacturing back to America, bring jobs over here, good-paying 
jobs back here.
  It would strengthen domestic supply chains and, thus, reduce our 
costs and, in particular, help our country address its semiconductor 
shortage, a driver of rising costs in so many different things, from 
cars to cell phones to everything.
  Finally, all this is a reminder of what Democrats at our core stand 
for: building ladders of opportunity for working Americans to get to 
the middle class and provide stability to those already in the middle 
class so they can stay there and thrive. And wages going up is a large 
part of that. And this administration's record on wage increases, we 
haven't seen in decades.
  We still have more work to do to bring our country out of the rubble 
of COVID so that we can look confidently into the future. But the 
growth of last year showed we are well on our way, and Democrats will 
keep working to help working people--working families, middle-class 
families, poorer families trying to get to the middle class--have the 
kind of prosperity and help they need and deserve.