John Kerry: “I would like to compliment the Senator from South Carolina on what he is trying to accomplish with this bill. We have…”

“I would like to compliment the Senator from South Carolina on what he is trying to accomplish with this bill. We have had an extraordinary amount of debate in the U.S. Senate about jobs and the economy. Raytheon Corp. in Massachusetts just announced that it will have to lay off some 4,400 more people over the course of the next couple of years--over 1,000 of them in Massachusetts itself. Most of the companies in the country are downsizing in one way or the other. There are enormous numbers of jobs that are moving to low-skill, low-wage countries. There have been a series of articles in the newspapers recently commenting on the fact that--notwithstanding the improvements in the economy--there has not been an improvement in wages in America. Americans are working longer, they are working harder, and they are taking home less. In the 1950's, most Americans could look forward to a major increase in income in the course of just a couple of years. Well, in the 1980's, it took the average American 10 years to achieve in income growth what it took only 2 years to achieve back then.”