[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13931]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I was not planning on speaking today, but I 
must respond to the distinguished majority leader's comments about what 
is happening to our economy.
  One need only look at a newspaper. It doesn't matter which newspaper 
one picks up. The one I picked up in the cloakroom is the Washington 
Post business section. The headline of the Washington Post business 
section reads:

       Tax Cuts Credited; Long-Term Outlook Still Seen as Bleak.

  And you flip down through the article, it says, among other things:

       But the favorable news about the money rolling into the 
     Treasury stems largely from shifts in the economy, including 
     fatter corporate profits, executive bonuses and stock market 
     gains, that reflect growing inequality, the administration's 
     critics contend. And even the White House acknowledges that 
     in the long run, the nation's fiscal outlook [seems very] 
     bleak.

  We need only look on the next page where the story is carried over:

       The administration's estimate was widely derided at the 
     time; budget experts said aides to President Bush were 
     overestimating the red ink so they could claim credit later 
     when the actual figures came in below forecast.

  This is what they did. Earlier in the year, they talked about how big 
the deficit would be, and they planned that because everyone knew the 
deficit would be smaller than that. Smaller? Mr. President, $300 
billion--is that anything to brag about? I think not.
  The news article further says:

       But revenue often soars or plummets unpredictably with the 
     stock market, and a troubling story emerges from a look at 
     the main sources of the latest revenue bonanza, according to 
     the administration's critics.
       ``This all relates to the widening income disparities 
     between high-income individuals and the rest of the 
     population. . . .''

  Our economy is not in good shape. The distinguished majority leader 
brags about 5.5 million jobs having been created. During the 
administration of President Clinton, 23 million jobs were created. We 
went months during this administration when no new jobs were created. 
During the years of President Clinton, 23 million new jobs were 
created, and they were high-quality jobs.
  During the last 3 years of the Clinton administration, we didn't have 
a $300 billion deficit that people are bragging about today on the 
Senate floor. We paid down the debt. We spent less money than we were 
taking in. We brought down the national debt by about a half trillion 
dollars.
  So, please, let's not boast about a $300 billion deficit. Any 
statistic one looks at recognizes the rich in America are getting 
richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is being 
squeezed. I hope some reality will come to the situation we find now on 
the Senate floor where the majority leader is bragging about how great 
it is that we have a $300 billion deficit. I don't think that is good 
news. I think it is bad news.

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