Don Nickles: “I take issue with that. Last year we passed an economic stimulus package and it happened to work. The proof is in the…”

“I take issue with that. Last year we passed an economic stimulus package and it happened to work. The proof is in the pudding. We have the results. The last three quarters have been phenomenal growth. The third quarter of last year grew at over 8 percent. That is record growth for the last 20 some years, which is phenomenal growth. A quarter after that, it was 4.4 percent. So if we look at the GDP, we can see real significant growth as a result of the growth package we passed last year. Look at the stock market. The stock market was a precursor for the decline in the economy that happened in the year 2000-2001. NASDAQ, as I mentioned a few times, declined by almost 50 percent in the year 2000, kind of sending a signal there was a recession coming. Subsequently, we saw two or three quarters of negative growth in 2000-2001. We made these changes last year in economic policy by accelerating the rate cuts by saying we should not tax individuals more than corporations. I thank my colleagues for their vote on that last amendment saying we really should not tax individuals, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, or self-employed individuals at a rate higher than Exxon. I think reducing the tax on dividends has helped the economy.”