Thomas Daschle: “I know the Senator from New Jersey remembers this. But I recall the House passed their economic stimulus package, and…”

“I know the Senator from New Jersey remembers this. But I recall the House passed their economic stimulus package, and part of that package included a $254 million retroactive tax cut for Enron. The administration saw no problem with that. Our Republican friends were anxious to vote for it. In fact, when we stopped it, we were called obstructionists. But that was the kind of obstructionism that stopped Enron from getting $254 million from their taxes. To summarize, what ought to be going up is coming down and what ought to be going down is coming up. What ought to go down is the raid on the Social Security trust fund. It is going up. What ought to go down are interest costs, but they are going up. What ought to go down is the national debt, but it is going up. What ought to go down are foreclosures, health care costs, and job losses, but they are going up. What ought to go up--economic growth--is going down. What ought to go up is business investment, the market, retirement accounts, consumer confidence, and the minimum wage. They ought to go up. But in these last 18 months, every single one of these factors has gone down. This will be the subject of a lot more discussion, debate, and hopefully illumination over the course of the next several weeks and months. But we have to change these arrows. We have to ensure that economic growth goes up. We have to ensure that the stock market, retirement accounts, pension funds, consumer confidence, and the minimum wage go up.”