[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9229-9230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, over the past few weeks, Americans have 
gotten what seems like a daily dose of bad news about the state of the 
economy. Whether it is more joblessness, threats from ratings agencies, 
the price of gasoline, goods and housing, or a slowdown in 
manufacturing, people are finding very little reason for optimism, and 
they are getting little comfort from an administration that seems more 
interested in deflecting the bad news than facing up to it. Amidst the 
onslaught of bad news last week, President Obama's message was that we 
had hit some bumps in the road--we had hit some bumps in the road--and 
that people need to be patient in the face of what he called economic 
``headwinds.'' He even joked about the wildly mistaken predictions he 
and others at the White House had made a few years back about the job-
creating potential of the stimulus.
  Well, I don't think the 14 million Americans who are looking for jobs 
right now find any of this very funny. I don't think the 23 percent of 
Americans who now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are 
worth are laughing about their predicament. I don't think recent 
college graduates, who are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars 
in student loan debt and who can't find a job, are amused that the 
stimulus turned out to be a failure.
  In fact, I think Americans are deeply troubled by the fact that an 
administration which claims to be concerned about creating jobs has 
spent the better part of the past 2\1/2\ years--the better part of the 
last 2\1/2\ years--pushing policies that seem as though they were 
designed to destroy jobs instead. Indeed, I think there is a growing 
consensus out there that, far from improving the economy, the President 
has made it worse.
  The facts speak for themselves. The day the President took office, 12 
million Americans were out of work. Today, nearly 14 million Americans 
are out of work. That is a 17-percent increase in the unemployment rate 
under

[[Page 9230]]

President Obama. So employment is clearly worse.
  Gas prices have nearly doubled. When the President came into office, 
the average price of a gallon of gas in the country was $1.85. Today, 
it is $3.69. So gas prices have gotten worse.
  The national debt has reached crisis levels. In the last 2 years, the 
debt has gone from $10.6 trillion to $14.3 trillion--a 35-percent 
increase from when the President was sworn into office. And his own 
budget projects it will only continue to grow. So the debt is far 
worse.
  Health insurance premiums have gone up. For more than a year, the 
President devoted what seemed like every waking moment to a health care 
proposal that he said would lower health insurance premiums by as much 
as $2,500. Instead, health premiums for working families continue to 
rise, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says they will 
continue to grow by as much as $2,100 per year. So health insurance 
costs have gotten worse.
  Home values continue to plummet too. In my State of Kentucky, home 
prices have fallen about 7 percent in the last year, while new home 
construction is down almost 15 percent. I have constituents with 
excellent credit telling me they can't get a mortgage because of new 
lending rules that have made it hard even for people who have worked 
for years and built a stellar credit rating to even get a loan. 
Nationally, home values have gone down 12 percent since Inauguration 
Day. So home values have gotten worse too, driving down the equity 
people have built over many years.
  When it comes to policy, the President is fond of dividing the world 
into two camps. In his view, those who disagree with him are on the 
wrong side of history. Those who agree are on the right side. Well, at 
this point, I think most Americans agree if this is the right side of 
history, they are not interested; they would rather have their jobs 
back.
  At this point, I think it is safe to say the patience of the American 
people has run out. Administration officials made a lot of promises of 
a brighter future. They have had their chance to deliver. Americans 
don't have infinite patience. They do not want to be told to wait a 
little longer when all the evidence shows that their circumstances and 
their prospects are only getting worse. They want a change in 
direction.
  One of the liberal think tanks in town recently issued a press 
release that I think embodies the disconnect between Democrats in 
Washington and the experience of most people outside of Washington. In 
the face of all the bad economic news we have been getting, this 
particular think tank announced it had 10 charts which purported to 
show that, contrary to the claims of some, the United States is 
actually a low-tax country.
  Never mind the fact that we have the second highest corporate tax 
rate in the world; never mind the fact that nearly 14 million Americans 
are out of work; never mind the fact that the time it takes out-of-work 
Americans to find a new job is now longer than it was during the Great 
Depression--and that since the housing crisis began, average home 
values have fallen more dramatically than they did even during the 
Great Depression. Never mind all that. These guys have 10 charts they 
want to show you that prove government should take more money out of 
the hands of taxpayers so they can spend it themselves.
  I think this is all you need to know about the Democratic approach to 
the economy. It never seems to change. Take almost any major economic 
indicator you want, Americans are worse off than they were in 2009. It 
is time Democrats wake up to this fact. It is time they do something to 
solve these problems and help the people right in front of them.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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