Dan Coats: “I thank my colleague from Alaska, Senator Sullivan, for what he just presented to us here. He hit the nail right on the…”

“I thank my colleague from Alaska, Senator Sullivan, for what he just presented to us here. He hit the nail right on the head. Along with our colleague from South Dakota, I want to add my voice to what has been said here. As chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, we pay a lot of attention to the state of the economy. We are presented with numbers and facts about where we are as a nation. The refrain that is becoming all too familiar; that is, we really are in a stagnant position, not going anywhere. Of all the statistics that come to us, two stand out here just recently. One is the fact that the April jobs report was significantly lower than it needs to be in order to provide meaningful jobs for Americans who are searching for jobs, and for Americans trying to move from part-time jobs to full-time permanent jobs, to put some certainty into their lives. With just 160,000 jobs created in April, basically that covers those who are retiring--maybe fewer than that--but certainly not the number of new jobs that give an indication of growth in the economy. That was a disappointing number, and obviously Wall Street paid attention to it. Hopefully it won't be repeated, but it is a worrying signal that we are not creating the kind of dynamic growth in the economy that will put our out-of-work individuals across this country back to work, that will provide opportunities for our young people who are graduating from college and high school this month and next month.…”