Ellington

The economy is growing, and jobs are being created. But don't take my word for it. Just look at the latest numbers by the Department of Commerce. Virtually every economic indicator is up, and the U.S. Senate has moved decisively to keep the momentum going, passing a jobs bill to stimulate even more economic growth, specifically in the manufacturing and energy sectors.

Employment: Mississippi along with 43 other states has seen unemployment drop. More than 288,000 jobs were created nationally in April alone, bringing new jobs created since August to 1.1 million. Eight consecutive months of job growth have resulted in a very low national unemployment rate of 5.6 percent.

Let's put these numbers into historical context. A 5.6 percent unemployment rate is below the average of the 1970s, 1980s and even the bustling 1990s. The next time you hear some hysterical election-year statement claiming we're in the "worst recession since the Great Depression," or something akin to it, remember that unemployment in the 1930s was a staggering, and today unimaginable, 25 percent. When I came to Congress in the early 1970s, six-percent unemployment was considered full employment. A few years later during the Carter Administration, unemployment was in the double digits and so was inflation. Who among us would swap today's unemployment numbers for the 1930s or 1970s? More Americans are working today than at any time in history, with weekly unemployment claims falling to their lowest level since 2000, and we're working to drive them even lower.

Manufacturing: Too often we think that America's manufacturing base is in trouble, hemorrhaging jobs to foreign countries. We have lost jobs to Mexico and China, and I don't like it a bit. Yet, we're replacing those jobs, and the numbers show it. Manufacturing employment in April was at its highest level since 1987. About 21,000 new manufacturing jobs were created in April, topping off three consecutive months of gain.

Productivity grew from 2000 to 2003 at the fastest three-year rate in 50 years. The Senate's jobs bill, the culmination of a three-year effort, will provide tax incentives for American companies to keep jobs here in America, and it will stimulate more domestic energy production - a move expected to create around 650,000 jobs in the manufacturing, construction and technology sectors.

Personal Spending: Look at the numbers relating to individual expenditures, especially on home ownership. With mortgage rates near historic lows, new housing construction is at a 20-year high. In the first quarter of 2004, the national home ownership rate surged to almost 70 percent, beating the record set in the previous quarter. Minority home ownership set a new quarterly record of almost 51 percent. Meanwhile inflation remains restrained, rising at only 1.6 percent according to the Consumer Price Index and only 0.7 percent in the Producer Price Index during the last year.

The numbers relating to retail sales, consumer confidence, household spending and income levels are all up, too. Overall the American economy grew at 4.2 percent during the first quarter of 2004, and expectations are that it will be closer to 4.5 percent, well above our historical average. Most industrialized countries would love to have a growth rate of even half. At this rate, our economy could almost double its size in just over a decade.

Only one major economic indicator is not where we'd like. Fighting terrorism has forced the deficit to $417 billion, but it's much lower than the $500 billion expected. I'm with most Americans who believe fighting terrorists is our top priority right now. Nevertheless, Congress must work harder to cut the deficit even further and eliminate it before it starts affecting interest rates.

Lots of folks will try to falsely downgrade our economy in this election year, but one look at the numbers tells a different story. It may sound cliché, but it's the truth. Numbers don't lie. 5/13/04

Senator Lott welcomes any questions or comments about this column. Write to: U.S. Senator Trent Lott, 497 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 (Attn: Press Office)

Previous Comments

ID

141153

Comment

From a New York Times editorial today re: the alternative minimum tax: The hidden budget hole is enormous. Right now, the administration argues that Congress must permanently extend the Bush tax cuts. According to estimates by the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, the cost of doing so, without reforming the alternative tax, is about $1.2 trillion. If the alternative tax is reformed so it won't apply to middle-class taxpayers, the cost will explode to nearly $2 trillion. The Senate is expected to pass the House's temporary fix, but middle-class taxpayers should not be fooled. They will either get little if any benefit from the Bush tax cuts, or they will get a deficit that has ballooned beyond anyone's worst nightmare.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-05-13T18:19:09-06:00