Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago we received the initial report on economic growth in the first quarter of 2016. The news was not good. As my colleague, the Senator from Alaska, Mr. Sullivan, has pointed out many times on the floor and in many forums, our economy grew at a dismal rate of one-half of 1 percent during the first 3 months of 2016--one-half of 1 percent economic growth. In other words, the economy barely grew at all.

While this report was particularly terrible, the truth is, weak economic growth has become the norm under the Obama administration. Since the recession ended in June of 2009, the economy has grown at an average rate of just 2.1 percent. In the typical post-1960 recovery, by contrast, economic growth averaged 3.7 percent. That is a huge difference. It is the difference between a stagnant economy and a flourishing economy--and, for millions of American families, it is the difference between surviving and thriving.

Middle-class families are making 6.5 percent less than they were making in 2007, before the start of the great recession. A large part of the reason for that is the sluggish economic growth we have experienced in the Obama recovery. For too many families, this slow recovery has meant the end of cherished dreams--the dream of owning their own home, the dream of sending their kids to college, the dream of a secure retirement--and the kind of growth we need to escape from these economic doldrums is nowhere in sight.

In fact, the Obama economy has led some economists to wonder if 2 percent growth is the new normal. Right now, the Federal Reserve is projecting the economy will grow at a median rate of just 2.2 percent in 2016 and 2.1 percent in 2017. I would argue, based upon the 0.5 percent economic growth the first quarter of this year, they may be dramatically overshooting the rate of economic growth if the current trend continues, and the St. Louis Fed expects that weak growth to continue for the next decade. That is very bad news for American families who are facing a less prosperous future with less economic opportunity and mobility.

During the entire postwar period from 1947 to 2013, our Nation averaged 3.3 percent economic growth. At that pace, Americans' standard of living almost doubles every 30 years, incomes rise, financial security increases, and more people are able to afford homes, take vacations, and save for higher education. On the other hand, at the pace of growth we have seen since 2007, it will take far longer for the standard of living to double.

Fortunately, we are not condemned to weak economic growth. If we look at the President's record, it is easy to see why our economy is still sputtering along: We had a failed $1 trillion stimulus program; $1.7 trillion in new taxes; the President's health care law, which raised premiums for families and increased costs for small businesses; more than 2,700 new Federal regulations--and counting, we are not done yet-- get added to by the day; and a Federal debt that has nearly doubled on the President's watch and more.

The President's policies don't have to be permanent. We can repeal ObamaCare and the incredible burdens it is placing on so many families and small businesses. We can replace it with something that makes more sense, creates competition, gives consumers more choices, and drives down prices.

We can replace the President's tax hikes with comprehensive tax reform that focuses on lowering taxes for families and making America the best place in the world to do business, we can take serious action to address the spending that is fueling our national debt, and we can repeal some of the thousands of burdensome regulations the President has imposed during his tenure.

It is easy to forget that every regulation the government imposes, no matter how small, has a cost--and those costs are paid by American families and American businesses. Take the national energy tax the President imposed on coal-fired powerplants. This rule will potentially drive up electricity bills for families by hundreds of dollars each year, and it will be especially harmful to low-income families and seniors who are living on fixed incomes.

Take the President's decision to allow the EPA to regulate ponds and ditches on private land. This regulation will have significant economic impacts for farmers and property owners who will likely be hit with new Federal permits, compliance costs, and the threat of significant fines. Over the past 7-plus years, the Obama administration has imposed more than 2,700 regulations, including hundreds of major regulations. When I say ``major,'' those are regulations that cost American families and businesses more than $100 million each year. Out-of-touch Washington bureaucrats reaching into our States and imposing regulatory burdens from afar has become all too common in the Obama administration. Repealing some of the worst of these regulations would drastically reduce the burdens facing American families and businesses, and that would put more money in American families' pockets and free American businesses to do what they do best; that is, to innovate and create new, good-paying jobs.

If we continue on the path we are on right now, we might be the first generation of Americans to leave the next generation of Americans worse off, but we don't have to be. We can reverse the course the President has set during his administration and put in place the kind of policies that will create conditions that are favorable to economic growth, to grow our economy and lift the burdens on American families.

Republicans in the Senate have already been working to undo the worst policies of the Obama administration. We are going to continue to fight until our Nation's economy is thriving and all families have the opportunity to achieve the American dream.

If we can just achieve 1 percentage point additional growth in the economy each year, we are told by leading economists that would add 1.3 million jobs to our economy, raise wages by $9,000 a year, and generate an additional $300 billion of Federal revenue that would make our fiscal picture look a lot smaller by comparison.

We have to get spending under control. We have to reform entitlement programs that are unsustainable, that are going to bankrupt future generations of Americans, to get our fiscal house in order, but we also have to grow the economy at a faster rate. One-half of 1 percent is not adequate--nor is 1 percent, nor is 2 percent. We need to get back to a normal growth period in our economy. As I said, since the end of World War II, 3.3 percent has been the average, 3.7 percent has been the norm in a recovery coming out of a recession. If we get to that level of growth, we will see millions of new jobs in our economy, we will see American families getting their wages back to where they are growing with the economy, better paying jobs for American workers, and a fiscal picture that looks a lot more manageable than the one we face today.

Economic growth is key to so many things that affect Americans' lives on a daily basis. We in the Senate ought to be focused like a laser on what we can do to put the right policies in place that would encourage and promote economic growth, rather than coming up with new ways to make it more difficult and more expensive in this economy to create jobs. Far too often, everything that happens in Washington, DC, today leads to more expenses, more mandates, more requirements, more regulations, and higher taxes, making it more difficult for our economy to get to that faster growth that is so important if we are going to make Americans' standard of living and quality of life better and hand off to the next generation a standard of living they deserve and that will improve on the one we enjoy today. That is what this is all about, and that is what we ought to be focused on.

I am pleased the Senator from Alaska is here. I am told the Senator from Indiana will be joining him in just a minute to discuss the subject. The Senator from Alaska, Mr. Sullivan, has been a great advocate of growth in our economy and has been down on the floor talking about the implications of a half percent of growth and what that means; that if we don't change that trajectory and change it soon, we are going to continue down a path that makes it more and more difficult for American families to get ahead. That needs to change-- faster growth, higher growth, the right kind of policies--to make that possible.

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