Jon S. Corzine: “I truly appreciate the focus on issues that matter directly to the people who live in our States and who live across the…”

“I truly appreciate the focus on issues that matter directly to the people who live in our States and who live across the country. The Senator spoke about the individual business person who had not sold any farm equipment. We are closing the last two autoplants in New Jersey over the next 2 or 3 years. They have already cut down to one shift. Bell Labs, one of the great research institutions of America, has literally been a part of the reduction of 130,000 jobs at Lucent, a lot of them in New Jersey. A lot of the Bell Labs people are doing basic core research, and the people are very upset. That is what that consumer confidence number is. It is incredible in the history of real measurements of what is going on in the minds of American consumers. By the way, it is going on in business, too. I ask the minority leader whether he saw yesterday's survey from Manpower, Inc. They said only 20 percent of businesses in America think they will add any jobs in the next 6 months, an indication of the kind of depth of concern that actually exists in the business community in conjunction with consumer confidence. I applaud the minority leader for making sure we are being focused to have a debate about something that matters to people's lives, and I hope we can bring forth a real debate about a stimulus program to get our economy going, put people back to work because that is where real concerns seem to be.”