Harry Reid: “My friend, the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, has come to this Chamber on other occasions with his chart and talked…”

“My friend, the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, has come to this Chamber on other occasions with his chart and talked about the Democratic amendments. What he has not talked about is the fact that a year ago, we had a huge surplus. There are estimates that it was as much as $7.2 trillion--some say it was only $6 trillion--over a 10-year period. As a result of what has taken place with this administration, that is gone. We are now spending in the red and using Social Security surpluses to pay for the Bush economic plan. I was on a TV program with Senator Nickles, who was my counterpart. The person doing the interviewing showed Senator Nickles a chart. From the time that Harry Truman was President until today, going through every President, every President of the United States has created jobs, without exception, except the current President Bush. In fact, he has done so poorly in job creation that he has lost over 2 million jobs. I hope the American people understand we are offering these amendments because we believe the American people deserve more than tax cuts for the rich. The present administration's tax cut plan will increase the deficit by almost $1 trillion over 10 years. I hope my friend from Pennsylvania would vote against that if he is concerned about deficits, because that is a huge deficit builder.”