[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 23]
[Senate]
[Page 31838]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          GREAT ECONOMIC NEWS

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, economic growth is the lifeblood of this 
country. Economic growth is what gets rid of deficits. Economic growth 
is what provides jobs. Economic growth is what causes investments. 
Economic growth is what gives our people hope.
  Today, the Government just released news that our economy grew by an 
amazing 8.2 percent last quarter, up from an earlier estimate in the 
same quarter of 7.2 percent. I recall when it went up 7.2 percent. We 
were all saying: Isn't that fantastic? The economy is really booming.
  Well, it turns out there is always an adjustment, and they made the 
adjustment. Frequently, the adjustment is downward. In this case, the 
adjustment is upward, an astronomical 8.2 percent growth in the 
domestic product last quarter. This means solid growth this quarter and 
into next year. This is a tribute to the resilient American economy and 
to the fiscal policy pursued by the President and the Republican-led 
Congress.
  The naysayers, principally on the other side of the aisle, have been 
the ones saying we should not have cut taxes. Taxes create deficits. On 
everything the President chose to ask us to do about the economy, the 
naysayers said no. Now they have been proven wrong and we have the 
second basket on the floor in the nature of great big positive news for 
the American people. Even more important to the future, confidence 
among the American consumers soared. They know when things are going 
well. It soared to almost 92 percent, a full 10 percent gain from last 
month. We remember when we were all worried because it was extremely 
low, into 60 percent, and the naysayers were saying: It is all 
President Bush's fault. Well, if that is the case--it is 92 percent 
now--is that not his fault? Or is that not to his credit? I would think 
so.
  The kind of extraordinary growth I am talking about obviously cannot 
continue for years and years, perhaps not even for very many quarters, 
but it does mean that most estimates of growth for the year 2004 will 
prove to be pessimistic. They will prove to be too low. If we get a 
solid 3 and 3\1/2\ percent growth rate each of the next quarters for an 
entire fiscal year, then we will see Federal deficits also decline. 
Employment will increase and investments will improve.
  The naysayers will be stuck. How will they answer all of these items 
of good news when employment starts coming down, which it already has 
but will come down more; when Federal deficits, instead of going up, 
which they run around talking about President Bush created, when 
everybody knows we have a huge expenditure for our military men and 
equipment because we have been in a series of war-like efforts from 
Somalia, Afghanistan, and now this one. Nothing can be done without 
spending a lot of money. But we are going to see the deficit come down 
if these growth numbers continue up.
  Yes, we have all been worried about American business: Where is it 
going? First, we have to give American business some credit. I used the 
words ``resilient economy'' awhile ago. When there is a recession, 
American business takes action. They are not like us. They do not have 
all of the money to spend. They have to stop spending. They have to 
make changes.
  They made changes. Guess what happened. Productivity went through the 
roof, and enormous productivity growth normally is accompanied by great 
GDP growth, and that has happened.
  Now, it seems as if productivity growth is probably going to stop. 
They have taken about as much as they can out of their businesses, and 
now we are going to have the growth that will follow it, the job 
increases that will follow it, and the deficits that will diminish.
  I close where I started, by saying it seems as if good news comes in 
bushels. Good news comes not one thing at a time but two things and 
maybe three at a time, and the two pieces of great news are before us 
today. Let us hope there is more to come because, clearly, we are on 
the path upward.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________