[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8715]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              UNEMPLOYMENT

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I would like to talk about two subjects 
briefly this afternoon. The first is the relatively bad news about 
unemployment in the country; the fact that the latest numbers are out 
and the country has not produced as many jobs as had been hoped for.
  In fact, it added only 54,000 payroll jobs in May and thereby fell 
short of the 130,000 to 150,000 which are needed each month just to 
keep pace with population growth. So we lost ground. As a result, the 
unemployment rate has now gone back up to 9.1 percent.
  It is not just the lack of jobs but also other economic news. Factory 
orders were down 1.2 percent in April, so we are not growing there. 
Interestingly, the Home Price Index, which is something very important 
in my State, the S&P Case-Schiller Home Price Index edged down .2 
percent in March and is now 3.5 percent from this time a year ago.
  All of these and other pieces of the news present a very bleak 
picture for economic recovery. One of the interesting commentators on 
this is Michael Barone, who is well known to most of us involved in 
political work. He had an interesting op-ed today in the Washington 
Examiner with the unfortunate title, ``Obama Tunes Out, and Business 
Goes on Hiring Strike.'' The problem is, there is some information to 
back up the title of his piece. He is reflecting on government policies 
the last couple of years such as growing government spending as a 
percent of GDP, which has gone up from 21 percent to 25 percent.
  So we have been expanding government borrowing and spending at the 
same time as the economy is depressed. That included the time in which 
the failed stimulus plan was supposed to have provided economic growth 
and job creation. It also included the time of the health care 
entitlement, the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, and so on. So 
let me quote from the piece. He said:

       It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the threat of tax 
     increases and increased regulatory burdens have produced 
     something in the nature of a hiring strike.

  In relation to the President's speech at George Washington 
University, where the President had sort of repackaged his Federal 
budget, Barone says:

       The message to job creators was clear. Hire at your own 
     risk. Higher taxes, more burdensome regulation, and crony 
     capitalism may be here for some time to come.

  I ask unanimous consent to have the article by Michael Barone dated 
June 6, 2011, printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)

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