[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6316]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  JOBS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, for 38 months, the Bush administration has 
had job loss. We join in the celebration that we have had jobs created, 
and the President during the next 7 months until the election will have 
to create another 2.5 million jobs to not be known as the only 
President since Herbert Hoover who created no private sector jobs. So 
he has 2.5 million more jobs to go, and we hope that he beats Herbert 
Hoover's record.
  Let me also say, the numbers that came out today indicate the 
unemployment rate went up this month. It was not stable. It went up. It 
went up from 5.6 percent to 5.7 percent. This number is not an 
irrelevant number.
  I will also say that when Senator Kerry spoke, of course, he was 
dealing with what took place in the Clinton years. When President 
Clinton took office from President Bush 1, the unemployment rate was 
7.4 percent. During President Clinton's administration, as a result of 
the very difficult deficit reduction vote that took place in 1993 where 
not a single Republican voted in the House or the Senate for the 
deficit reduction plan, the deficits disappeared and unemployment 
dropped downward significantly, from 7.4 percent to 4 percent. That is 
where we were when this man, the President of the United States George 
Bush, took office. Senator Kerry was talking about how good things were 
when it was 5.4 percent because it had dropped 2 percent from Bush 1 to 
Clinton 1.
  The number of people unemployed in America today--5.7 percent--is not 
irrelevant. It is not irrelevant to the millions of Americans who are 
out of work. So many are out of work. The unemployment rolls are around 
9 million or 10 million, but there are millions no longer listed on the 
unemployment rolls because they are taken off after they are unemployed 
for such a long period of time. The average time a person is unemployed 
in America today is almost 1 year. I do not think we should be doing 
high-fives out here.
  I join with my friend, the senior Senator from Kentucky, in talking 
about it is good we have had for the first time in a long time a 
significant rise in the number of employed. But we have to go forward 
because during this President's term of office, we will have to gain 
about 2.5 million more jobs for him not to be considered a President in 
the same category as Herbert Hoover.
  Speaking of ignoring past claims, the administration, as we know, 
claimed there would be millions of jobs created with these tax cuts, 
and we have lost jobs. Let me also say this: Of course, there are more 
jobs now than there were because we have millions more people in this 
country today. That is the reason.
  As happy as we are with the creation of new jobs last month, let's 
understand we have a long way to go. We have gas prices that are high. 
Nevada has the second highest gas prices in America. We have to focus 
on the fact that we had nine Americans killed in Iraq yesterday. We 
have to focus on the fact that the number of dead in Iraq is now over 
600. We have to focus on the fact now that casualties in Iraq are more 
than 3,500, with people missing arms, legs, and being paralyzed.
  So we still have lots of problems. I have no doubt, and I join with 
my friend from Kentucky, about the greatness of America. We believe in 
the greatness of America, but as legislators we also believe we have an 
obligation to make our country even greater. That is why we think it is 
wrong that 8 million Americans are not going to be able to have 
overtime under the Bush rule that has been promulgated. We also think 
it is wrong that people who are on minimum wage are not going to get an 
increase as other people in America are getting. We think that is 
important. We also believe those people who are going off the 
unemployment rolls every week deserve extended unemployment benefits, 
as was done during the Reagan administration and during the first Bush 
administration.
  So there is a lot of work we have to do. I hope next month we can 
again be talking about the increased jobs. Certainly it is something we 
should be happy about.

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