Political Quotes

“I want to share some thoughts about the President's tour today and the last couple of days talking about jobs. Well, I have to say, first and foremost, this country is not doing well economically. It is just not. You hear the stock market is up, and people try to translate that into substantial progress in the economy. But it is just not there, particularly with jobs. The fourth quarter of last year, our GDP growth was .4 percent. By the time the first half of this year concludes, we are not going to have 2 percent growth over that period. You are not going to create jobs unless you have economic growth. We are not seeing it. Wages are down. Wages have declined since 1999 for working Americans by virtually any calculation. Wages have been declining. Unemployment is up. The number of people working today is 2.1 million fewer than in 2007. We have 2.1 million fewer people working today than in 2007. This is the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression, there is no doubt about that. But we have done all kinds of extraordinary things. We had the biggest stimulus--all borrowed--spent. They are going to stimulate the economy and create growth. Has it produced real growth or is it just a sugar high, as one of the Wall Street gurus referred to it? It appears quite clear that it is a sugar- type high. We have more and more plans from our leadership here in the Senate. It is basically tax and spend. The American people are hurting.…”