Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, before I begin, I want to take a moment to say how sorry I am that the Senate will be losing Senator Mike Enzi at the end of next year.
During his 20-plus years in the Senate, Mike has been a leader on so many issues, including healthcare and the budget. As the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he oversaw major pension reform. As the chairman of the Budget Committee, he was an indispensable part of the effort to comprehensibly reform our Nation's outdated Tax Code and put more money in the American people's pockets. As always, he has been a powerful voice for small businesses during that process, not to mention a powerful voice for the West throughout his entire career.
The Senate will be a lesser place without Mike Enzi, but he has earned some more time with his wife Diana, their three children, and his four grandchildren.
I am grateful to have served with Mike and grateful that Senators will have a little time before his well-deserved retirement to continue to draw on his wisdom and expertise over the course of the next year and a half.
Economic Growth
Mr. President, good news about the economy keeps pouring in. On Friday we learned that the economy created an impressive 263,000 new jobs in April. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in half a century. The last time unemployment was this low was 1969.
Wages are growing at the fastest pace in a decade. April marked the ninth straight month that wage growth was at or above 3 percent. Economic growth for the first quarter of 2019 was a robust 3.2 percent, which completely smashed expectations. Personal income is up, business investment is up, and the list goes on.
Importantly, the benefits of this economic growth are being spread far and wide. In fact, blue-collar workers are seeing some of the biggest benefits. The Wall Street Journal noted on Friday: ``Believe it or not--and liberals won't want to admit it--the evidence is that the faster economic growth of the last two years is reducing income inequality.''
Where did all of this growth come from?
Well, a little over 2 years ago, at the end of the Obama administration, the outlook wasn't too rosy. American families were struggling. The economy was sputtering. The historically slow recovery had left experts predicting that weak economic growth would be the new normal. Republicans, however, did not think that we needed to resign ourselves to a future of weak growth. We knew that American workers and American businesses were as dynamic and creative as ever. We also knew that burdensome regulations and an outdated tax code were holding our economy back and reducing the opportunities available to workers.
So when we took office in 2017, we got right to work on improving our economy in order to improve life for the American people. We knew that our economy needed to thrive if American families were going to thrive. We were determined to give Americans access to the jobs, opportunities, and wages that they needed for a secure future. So we eliminated burdensome regulations that were acting as a drag on economic growth. We passed historic reform of our Tax Code to put more money in Americans' pockets and make it easier for businesses to grow and to create jobs.
Now we are seeing the results: strong job creation, low unemployment, robust economic growth, higher wages, and more. American families are feeling the effects.
Last week, Gallup reported:
At the start of 2019, Americans' optimism about their personal finances reached levels not seen in more than 16 years, as 69% expected that they would be financially better off in a year. . . . A majority of Americans, 56%, rate their current financial situation as ``excellent'' or ``good''. . . . This overall positive rating has increased 10 percentage points since 2015 and is currently the highest since 2002. Likewise, the 57% of Americans who now say their overall financial situation is getting better has risen 10 points since 2016 and is at its highest numerical point since 2002.
That is from Gallup last week.
Republicans had one goal with tax reform: Make life better for Americans. That is exactly what tax reform is doing. Thanks to tax reform, workers have more money in their paychecks; they have better access to good jobs with good wages and good benefits; and they have better opportunities for advancement.
I am proud that Republican policies are making life better for Americans. We are not stopping here. Republicans will continue to make American workers and American families our priority. We are committed to making sure that every American has access to a secure, prosperous, and hopeful future, which is why I am hopeful that the President will soon be able to close the ongoing trade negotiations and create greater market access for U.S. exports, especially agricultural exports, which will correct trade abuses and kick our economy into an even higher gear.
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