Bill Bennett: “When the bill comes to the floor of the Senate, I will be happy to give it consideration, and I see no reason at the…”

“When the bill comes to the floor of the Senate, I will be happy to give it consideration, and I see no reason at the moment why I should oppose it. The Senator commented on unemployment rising. The fact is the unemployment rate is falling. The unemployment rate hit its high in the circumstance of 6 percent and starting to come down in August. It was 5.7 percent. We do not have the September numbers yet. I remember being taught in economics if we were at 6 percent unemployment, we were at full employment. The assumption was the economy could not absorb more jobs than that without going into inflation. We have proven that is not the case. But to panic because unemployment hits 6 percent and is now falling and to say we are not in recovery is, frankly, not accurate. We are in a recovery. However slow it may be, however sluggish it may be, it is a genuine recovery, and we should not panic everybody into believing we are on the verge of a double dip or a major recurrence of recession. Personal income was unchanged in July and rose in August. The Senator said personal income was falling. Again, that is not sustained by the actual numbers. Personal income is rising, and the recovery is stronger than the Senator from New York would have us believe. I spoke on this issue yesterday, and pointed out we were in a recovery which began in the fourth quarter of 2001 when the gross domestic product rose at 2.7 percent.”