[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 25296]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I want to make a couple of comments 
expanding on some I made the other day on the economy and what is 
happening. The reason I want to do that is there is a lot of discussion 
these days about what is happening in this country. Some say, well, 
what has been done in 8 years?
  That is a legitimate question. There is this old saying that bad news 
travels halfway around the world before good news gets its shoes on. 
Let's talk about good news for a moment. Maybe we can get that fully 
addressed about this economy and what is happening in this country.
  I want to talk about what has happened in the past 8 years. In 1992, 
we had a $290 billion Federal deficit that was growing by leaps and 
bounds. On this chart, these are the red ink numbers from 1985 forward. 
As you can see, there are massive quantities of deficits year by year. 
In 1992, it was $290 billion alone. At this point, Congress developed a 
new economic program. President Clinton proposed to change the 
direction with a new program, and Congress adopted it by one vote in 
the House and one vote in the Senate. You can see what has happened to 
deficits since then. The deficits have been reduced and finally 
eliminated. We have turned it around and we now have budget surpluses. 
That is good news.
  Mr. President, 22 million jobs have been created in the economy that 
has been growing during the past 8 years. That is an extraordinary 
number of jobs compared to what had been created in the previous 12 
years.
  This chart reflects what happened to the inflation rate. It has gone 
down, down, and stayed down, which is wonderful news for our country. 
We have the lowest poverty rate in two decades. What has happened in 
recent years? You can see what happened here from 1993 on down. On this 
chart, the Federal spending related to the gross domestic product is 
down to the lowest level since 1966--related to the GDP of this 
country. So we have a lot of good news.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. DORGAN. Yes, I am happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. Looking at where the chart is peaked up, who was President 
during that time?
  Mr. DORGAN. The highest levels of spending relative to GDP occurred 
during the Reagan and Bush administrations. That had a lot to do with 
the size of the economy. As the economy has grown rather substantially, 
especially in the recent 8 years, what has happened is that Federal 
spending as a percentage of GDP actually decreased.
  I think it is important to talk about what has happened in recent 
years because people raise the question of the tax burden for middle-
income taxpayers. As the chart shows, $39,000 is the average income. 
Federal income taxes, as a percentage, have actually decreased; the 
Federal income tax burden has decreased.
  There are a couple of other things I want to mention about our 
economy. In the last 8 years, the $290 billion deficit has gone, and 
now we have the biggest surplus in history. Eight years ago, economic 
growth averaged 2.8 percent for the previous decade. All of the leading 
economists in this country at that point said they expected we would 
have in the entire 1990s anemic, slow economic growth.
  In fact, they were all wrong. We have had economic growth averaging 
3.9 percent annually since 1993. Job growth: 22 million new jobs since 
January 1993.
  The unemployment rate from 1981 to 1992 averaged 7.1 percent 
annually. Now it is at 4.1 percent--the lowest level in 30 years.
  Home ownership fell from 1981 to 1992, but the growth was the highest 
in history in the last 9 years.
  The Dow Jones was 3,300 in 1993, and it is now over 10,000.
  The point is this: A lot of good things have happened in this 
country. Some say: Well, it is the rooster taking credit for the Sun 
coming up.
  I don't know who is to share the credit here. It seems to me the 
country was headed in the wrong direction, and then President Clinton 
came to office and said: Let's change direction and plans. The planning 
proposed was not very popular. It passed by only one vote in the House 
and one vote in the Senate, and it gave the American people confidence 
that Congress would make some tough decisions. It increased some 
taxes--not many but some.
  It cut some spending, and we had a new plan--a new direction. The 
country moved in the new direction.
  The American people had confidence that things were going to change. 
Our economy rests on a mattress of confidence. If people are confident 
about the future, they do things that manifest that confidence. They 
buy a house and they buy a car. They do the things that represent their 
confidence in the future. If they are not confident, they decide not to 
do those things, and the economy then contracts.
  The point is that we have an economic plan in this country that has 
worked very well. The results are self-evident.
  The question is: What is the plan for the future?
  That is why we have this Congress. We have debates in Congress about 
what to do about the future.
  Some say: Well, we expect 10 years of budget surpluses for the next 
10 years. I don't know of a group of economists in this country that 
has been right for 5 years, let alone 10 years.
  We would be very wise in this country, in my judgment, to take the 
conservative course on the question of what we do in fiscal policy. 
Economists don't know what is going to happen in the next year or in 3, 
5, or 10 years from now.
  We ought to establish as a priority paying down the Federal debt 
first. If during tough times you run the Federal debt up, it seems to 
me that during good times you ought to pay down the Federal debt.
  I inquire whether that is a continuing resolution. If it is, I will 
suspend.




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