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June 6, 2018

Barrasso: America’s Economy is Thriving

“Since President Trump was elected, we’ve actually got more than 3 million more Americans working. Unemployment is now at 3.8 percent. That matches the lowest rate in 50 years. Even the New York Times ran a headline saying: ‘We Ran Out of Words to Describe How Good the Jobs Numbers Are.’”

Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on the recent record jobs numbers and how Americans are benefiting from a growing economy.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Last week I traveled all around my home state of Wyoming, and many senators have done the same in their home states over the last week.

“The people I talked to had a great sense of optimism and confidence in terms of how things are going with their lives.

“People are feeling very positive about the American economy, and about their own lives and about their future.

“We have just seen new numbers on Friday showing that the American economy has created more than 1 million new jobs since we passed the Tax Relief and Jobs Acts in December.

“Since President Trump was elected, we’ve actually got more than 3 million more Americans working.

“Unemployment is now at 3.8 percent.

“That matches the lowest rate in 50 years.

“Even the New York Times ran a headline saying: ‘We Ran Out of Words to Describe How Good the Jobs Numbers Are.’

“Every month we’ve been adding thousands of new jobs in construction, and manufacturing, health care, and mining.

“We’ve had strong and steady growth, and the American people and American families are benefitting in every part of the country.

“It’s not just that people are getting jobs – the jobs are paying better as well.

“According to the most recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, there was a record number of small companies raising their wages last month.

“Average wages are up by 2.7 percent over the last year.

“Employers can pay more because business is booming – and they need more workers.

“On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that there are now 6.7 million job openings across the country. That’s an all-time high.

“The Labor Department says that for the first time ever, there are actually more job openings than there are unemployed people who are looking for work. It’s an incredible situation.

“People look around them at all the hiring that’s going on and all the pay raises –it just makes people confident because they see it at home in their communities.

“Consumer confidence is at an 18-year high.

“People know that things are going well, they know they have more money in their pockets, and they know that the American economy is thriving.

“The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta says that we’re on pace for the economy to grow over four percent in the second quarter of this year.

“Democrats had been saying there’s no way we could get to three percent.

“They say we’re actually heading to close to five.

“That’s all excellent news – and it’s not an accident.

“It’s happening because of policies that Republicans are implementing here in Congress and in the White House.

“President Trump has been in office for 500 days – it has been an incredibly productive time.

“He’s been wiping burdensome and unnecessary regulations off the books.

“He’s been making it easier for people to do their jobs, easier to live their lives.

“He issued an order cutting government red tape – for every significant new rule any agency wanted to write, it had to get rid of two rules.

“The results have been even better than anyone had expected.

“So far in this fiscal year, agencies have cut 38 major regulations of the kind the president has been talking about.

“At the same time, they’ve only written five new major regulations.

“President Trump said he would cut two for every one new regulation – but what we’ve really seen is the proportion is much closer to eight regulations cut for every one new one.

“Republicans in Congress have done the same.

“We’ve been cutting red tape, we’ve been loosening Washington’s stranglehold on the economy and you can see it in the economy every day.

“We’ve been cutting the mandates and the restrictions that hold back growth, and we’ve cut the taxes that people pay.

“The tax relief law that we passed in December was the biggest tax cut in 36 years.

“It gave people an immediate boost in their take-home pay.

“Millions of Americans also got bonuses and raises because of the law.

“It’s been an enormous boost for the overall economy. We have a strong, healthy, growing economy.

“Every Democrat in the Senate voted against the tax cut.

“In fact, Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, said that if she had it her way, Democrats will get rid of the tax relief law and actually raise taxes again.

“The American people know that would be a disaster.

“Democrats’ ideas for higher taxes, and lower take-home pay for families, and more government regulation, which is what the Democrats are proposing, would do incredible damage to our economy and to our country.

“Democrats tried their ideas when they were in charge. They have failed.

“We had slow economic growth, we had stagnant wages.

“Democrats tried to say that was the ‘new normal’ for America.

“The American people knew that that could not be the new normal – that it wasn’t good enough.

“The American people will not tolerate it and they voted to change.

“So people said they wanted Republican ideas and Republican policies.

“Now they’re seeing the results, and they’re living with the benefits.

“People are seeing jobs numbers that are so good they’ve run out of words to describe them.

“It’s been 500 days – and we’re just getting started.

“What we need to do now is to keep looking for ways to create a growing economy, a strong economy, a healthy economy with larger paychecks and more prosperity right here at home for American families.

“One place where we can do that is in the area of infrastructure.

“We can start with water infrastructure.

“These are the systems that deliver drinking water and treat wastewater.

“They provide water for our crops, and cattle, and small businesses.

“They’re used to ship American-made goods from the heartland to the coasts and around the world.

“They keep our homes safe from dangerous floodwaters, they store water for times of drought.

“These systems are vital to our country – they support America’s economic growth and American competitiveness.

“We need to build, maintain, and upgrade them.

“Over the past 50 years, we’ve gone from being a society that spends much on construction to one spending much more on consumption – and as a result our bridges, roads, dams and waterways have suffered.

“That’s why I introduced America’s Water Infrastructure Act.

“It’s a bipartisan bill – it’s something that Republicans and Democrats agree we should do.

“It’s a way to grow the economy, to cut Washington red tape, to keep communities safe.

“So we’re going to have a chance in the coming weeks to pass America’s Water Infrastructure Act.

“Then we’re going to look for more ways and things we can do to keep America growing and strong.

“That’s what Republicans in Congress are committed to doing.

“What this president and this Congress have accomplished together truly has been historic. We need to keep going.

“It’s what the American people expect from us, and it’s actually what they deserve.”

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