[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5726]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is interesting to hear my friend 
fictionalize what is going on in the world economy and in our American 
economy especially.
  We all know that when President Obama took office--the month after he 
was elected in November, 8 years ago--the economy lost 800,000 jobs. It 
was not 1 month. That continued. When President Bush took over the 
economy, we had a surplus of $10 trillion over 10 years--a surplus.
  My friend the Presiding Officer and, frankly, his good father have 
talked about money that was spent by this country that shouldn't have 
been.
  However, when Bush took office, we had a surplus. We had a balanced 
budget under Bill Clinton--a balanced budget. We didn't need to 
legislate it. It happened. Of course, with his leadership and the 
Deficit Reduction Act that we passed, it worked out very well.
  But that was all wiped out by the spending of the Bush 
administration. It was 8 years of 2 wars unpaid for and trillions of 
dollars--not hundreds of billions but trillions of dollars--paid for 
with a credit card. Tax cuts were paid for with a credit card.
  What did that bring to us? The collapse of Wall Street.
  President Obama went to work. It was difficult, but we passed the 
American Recovery Act, or the stimulus, as it was known. But for that, 
who knows how difficult our situation would be.
  In Nevada, we had the experience of what happened when Wall Street 
collapsed. We weren't the only State. It happened all over this Nation. 
For my friend to talk about how great the economy was during the Bush 
years is simply fictional.
  Are things perfect now? Of course not. We have had no help in the 
Senate. We had very little help in the House. For 7\1/2\ years, all 
Republicans have done is try to oppose--they didn't try; they opposed--
everything President Obama has attempted to do. We have been able to 
overcome some of that.
  Since Obama took office, the U.S. economy saw the longest stretch of 
private sector growth in its history, and it is still ongoing.
  There were some complaints last month that only 160,000 jobs were 
created. That was 160,000 compared to 800,000 being lost during the 
Bush administration. We need to do more. There is no question about 
that, but we need some help.
  Republicans are doing everything they can--and they have proven that 
in the last 7\1/2\ years--to make it tough for President Obama.
  We have a lot of people who aren't being paid enough. How about those 
people working on minimum wage and trying to survive? Yet Republicans 
refuse to help us raise that.
  How about paycheck fairness so that my daughter and my granddaughters 
are paid the same amount of money for the same work they do that a man 
does?
  Student debt is unbearable. I am seeing it now with my grandchildren. 
It is incredible. You are going to have to go borrow money.
  It is Republicans who stood in the way of recovery in so many 
different ways. So let's talk about the real world--not a fictional 
world.

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