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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (137736)	6/24/2004 7:24:05 AM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

ARLINGTON, VA:June 23,2004-- Today, U.S. Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) made the following remarks during a Bush-Cheney '04 conference call: "America's economy is strong and getting stronger. President Bush's leadership has enabled us to overcome historic challenges, and just for a few minutes this afternoon, I'd like to take a little time to put our economy in perspective. "Back during the 1996 election, about six months out like we are today, Bill Clinton used to say, 'When you find a turtle on a fencepost, the chances are it didn't get there by accident.' He was referring at the time to an economy – an economy that bears a striking resemblance to the one we see today. "Back then, the average monthly number of new jobs in 1996 was 233,000. Today it is 238,000. Back then, six months out before the election, the unemployment rate in 1996 was 5.6 percent. Today it is the same, 5.6 percent. During the first six months of 1996, 60 percent of new jobs paid higher than the average. Today, again, 60 percent of new jobs pay higher than the national average. "Now there are other parallels, but there are also some figures today that are even better. In 1996, six months out before the election, 65.1% of Americans owned their own home. Today an historic 68.8% of Americans own their own home, including, by the way, for the first time ever a majority of minorities. "The one striking difference between these years, 1996 and 2004, are the challenges that this President has had to overcome. Most economists agree that in 1992, Bill Clinton inherited a growing economy. In 2001, President Bush took on an economy that was headed into recession, a high tech bubble that burst, and terrorist attacks that struck at the heart of our economy. "In the face of these challenges, the President's strong and steady leadership has helped our economy grow for ten straight quarters, and today our economy is growing at the fastest rate it's grown in 20 years. "Now we hear a lot of pessimism from John Kerry about the economy when he's out on the campaign trail. While he praises the Clinton economy, he also compares our current economy to the Great Depression. Folks, I lived during the Great Depression, and this ain't it. This kind of rhetoric from Senator Kerry is disconnected with the reality of where we are. It is disconnected on what we have been through, and it also does a great disservice to the American people. "I do not believe that the Democratic Party is going to win the hearts of Americans by appealing to their worst fears and offering up a vision of an America in decline. It's striking, for me, because I was involved in it, to recall that as President Clinton travels this country how much the message of our Democratic party has changed in just the last few years. There was a time, back then in 1996 when he was running for re-election, he was still talking about a place called 'Hope' optimistically, instead of talking pessimistically about a place called 'Nope.'