Rich Neal: “This is an opportunity to call attention to some of the suggestions that have been made by this President and this White…”

“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.…”