On the recordMarch 23, 2015
Thank you, Madam President. Let me begin by commenting on a few of the thoughts raised by my good friend Senator Enzi. Senator Enzi says the economy today is not where it should be, and he is right. I don't think anybody thinks the economy is where it should be in terms of low unemployment and high wages--no debate about that. But I ask the American people to think back 6\1/2\ years ago, at the end of President Bush's term, to what the economy was like. At that point, we were not gaining the 200,000 jobs a month we are gaining now; we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. At that point, the deficit was not at $480 billion, where it is today; it was at $1.4 trillion. At that point, the stock market was not soaring, as it is today; the American and world financial system was on the verge of collapse. So let's begin by putting issues into perspective. No, nobody I know thinks we are where we should be economically in America today, but anybody who does not understand that despite enormous Republican obstructionism, we have made significant gains over the last 6\1/2\ years would, I believe, be very mistaken. As we all know, the Federal budget we are working on now is not an appropriations bill. It does not provide explicit funding for this or that agency. What it does do is lay the foundation for that process, the total amount of money the appropriations committees have to spend. In other words, this budget is more than just a very long list of numbers.…
