State of the Economy

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, this is an opportunity to call attention to some of the suggestions that have been made by this President and this White House as to the economic growth that he claims credit for.

On the day that Barack Obama became President, America was losing 800,000 jobs a month. When Barack Obama left the White House, there were 14.3 million new jobs that had been created. That is a real turnabout. This notion that there was this dismal economy that President Trump inherited is simply not true.

So let's even go back to the end of the Clinton years, which, despite what President Trump says, the greatest economic growth spurt in American history took place during Bill Clinton's Presidency--plus four balanced budgets. So, when Bill Clinton said good-bye to the country, we were staring at a $15 trillion projected surplus over the next 10 years.

Let's do the math. A $1.3 trillion tax cut in 2001, a $1 trillion tax cut in 2003, and, borrowing, $2.3 trillion tax cuts in 2017.

So let's take a look at this with some precision for a moment. That means, when you add the borrowing cost, meaning principal and interest, to what actually was embraced by two Republican Presidents, that means we have cut taxes, over about a 15-year period, by $5 trillion, added a trillion dollars to the debt this year, and now a national debt of $20 trillion, all based upon the theological notion--that is what it is, theology--that tax cuts pay for themselves.

You cannot find a mainstream economist in America who will say that tax cuts pay for themselves.

When we look back at what was done with the tax bill in December of 2017, it goes like this:

A major piece of legislation was written in 51 days, without one hearing, without one professional witness, without one economic forecast, but again, this fundamental belief that, as the President said in a meeting at the White House with some of us, he didn't see why we couldn't have ``6 percent growth.''

He completely suggested that Obama's economic growth spurt would be far surpassed by his, yet that has not happened. We have had, during the Clinton years, 2.3 to 5 percent quarters of economic growth, averaging, in the end, the highest of any President in the last century--really remarkable.

And then this suggestion, even though mainstream economists kept saying, no, the economy, even with the sugar high of the tax cut, will settle back down to less than 2 percent, so we are at 1.8 percent with $20 trillion worth of debt.

The Obama years, even climbing out of the recession, averaged north of 2.3 to 2.4 percent of economic growth, given the worst recession, as the majority leader said, since the Great Depression.

The argument was that we were going to have this unparalleled economic growth because of the Republican tax bill. That has not happened.

The issues have settled back, and it has flat-lined, but here are a couple of things that I want to mention here that I think really bear noting.

Productivity, which is probably the most important part of raising quality-of-life measures for the American people, a growth spurt of productivity, that has really not happened.

Here is another key element of economic discernment: worker participation rates. If you really want to know what is happening, that is what you focus on.

The postwar norm is about 66 percent, meaning two-thirds of the American people got up and went to work every day. Where are we now? At about 63.8 percent.

The tax cut did not issue one response to one of the most fundamental challenges facing the American people, the American family, and the American economy. Madam Speaker, 2 million people have left the workforce because of opioid addiction. Two million people have left the workforce because of addiction.

We wondered why Social Security disability climbed during those years. It was because of opioid addiction.

Back to that issue about labor participation rates and productivity, there has been no change. Poverty rates remain stubborn.

Here is something we should all be concerned about: There are still 40 million Americans who receive food stamps. If you give those people a choice between good jobs and food stamps, they will always take the good jobs, always take the good jobs.

The number of people who are working in this gig economy with uncertain hours, no benefits, two jobs, three jobs, where they would all like to have one that gave them some decent benefits and a good retirement, those are the challenges we face.

Think about this number--again, numbers are stubborn--40 percent of the American workforce every day gets up, goes to work, and is not in a qualified retirement plan. Their retirement is going to be Social Security.

All of these numbers that we have depicted here portray a very different story about the President's suggestions when compared to the reality of where we find ourselves. The uncertainty every day, largely based upon some of the bombast, the unpredictability of where we head, all are part of the challenge that we face.

But this idea that this economic growth period has all been because of President Trump, it is simply not true. He inherited a very good economy from Barack Obama.

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