Connie Mack: “I believe that, with the reassessment of the economic growth in the last quarter from 2.8 percent to 2.3 percent, the…”

“I believe that, with the reassessment of the economic growth in the last quarter from 2.8 percent to 2.3 percent, the growth rate during the Clinton years is somewhere around 2.3, 2.4 percent. But what is interesting about the debate is the fact that President Clinton, during his State of the Union Address before a joint session of the Congress, said that this is the strongest economy that we have experienced in three decades. So, I am not real sure where the President is heading with this. If he is satisfied with 2.5 percent real growth, I find that shocking, and I think that the workers in America, the families of America who are telling me that they are extremely anxious about their future, about whether jobs are going to be available to them, would reject the notion that somehow or another we should be satisfied with 2.3 or 2.4 percent real growth. Again, I agree with the Senator from Iowa that the whole purpose of economic policy is to increase the growth rate, to provide jobs, provide opportunity and increase the standard of living for all Americans.”