[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 176 (Tuesday, December 18, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H10177-H10178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PASS ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, while Congress fiddles with the details of an 
economic stimulus package, the dreams of many American families burn. I 
rise today to urge my colleagues to move an economic stimulus package 
through the Congress this week.
  I believe serving an agricultural and industrial district of eastern 
Indiana, that Americans and Hoosiers are hurting at this especially 
poignant time of the year. Since arriving in Congress in March, I have 
maintained that for my district and citizens we have been in a 
recession since the first of the year. Before summer of this year, 
nearly 3,000 Hoosiers lost their jobs in my district alone, and the 
events of September 11 have only exacerbated the problem.
  I submit today, as someone who has in fact lost a job over the 
Christmas holidays myself, that it is especially burdensome on families 
to do so, and it is an especially grevious state of affairs. Jim and 
Eileen Decker of Goehring's Mens Shop in Anderson, Indiana, are closing 
the door of their Main Street store after 55 years of business due to 
downturns in the local Anderson economy. Delco Remy America, which is 
located in Anderson, has announced over 200 layoffs. J.J and Jodi 
Leever and their sons, Noah and Hunter, are part of the many families 
who will be gathered around the tree one week from today, not just 
filled with the joy of the moment, but filled with the uncertainty 
these economic times bring.
  Yet we in Congress today continue to languish, continue to debate one 
with another, sometimes in demagogic tones and sometimes in legitimate 
ways, about whether or not we can pass an economic stimulus package 
this week. On behalf of J.J. and Jodi Leever, and the many families of 
eastern Indiana, I urge my colleagues to act, but not as the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Brown) just spoke moments ago, not simply in a way that 
is focused on the wage earner who finds themselves in dire 
circumstances.
  Mr. Speaker, we must have, if it is to be an economic stimulus 
package, it must benefit not just the wage earner but the wage payer; 
and we must no longer tolerate the anti-capitalistic rhetoric that says 
that it is appropriate for leaders in this institution only to assist 
the wage earner once he finds himself out of gainful employment, and 
never to come alongside the wage payer, never to provide assistance to 
businesses small and large, and permit them to bring those families 
back to work.
  Mr. Speaker, it is accurate to say the best welfare program in the 
world is a good job. The Republican leadership

[[Page H10178]]

here in the Congress passed an economic stimulus package that, yes, 
reinforces the safety net to assist Americans through rebates and low-
income benefits, assist Americans who are struggling. But we also 
passed tax relief to working families, small businesses, and even large 
corporations to say we want to reinvigorate Americans in these 
difficult and uncertain economic times, to bring those Hoosiers and 
bring those Americans back to work and back to gainful employment.
  There is talk on the editorial pages and in the hallways of this 
institution that we are about to give birth to an economic stimulus 
package that has very little stimulus to it at all. It seems to be 
developing into a potpourri of giveaways to moderate- and low-income 
and unemployed Americans while turning a deaf ear and a stiff arm to 
the wage payer in America.
  I submit today that thanks to President Bush's foresight in arguing 
through this institution a tax relief this summer, this economy is 
already improving. We will find our way out with or without an economic 
stimulus package from our present malaise. But the reality is that this 
institution should heed the advice of many who have gone before, pro-
growth conservatives like Jack Kemp and others; and we should go big or 
go home. We should either pass an economic stimulus package that truly 
speeds relief and invigorates the American economy at every level, for 
the wage earner and the wage payer, or we should just go home and enjoy 
our families over Christmas and be confident that this economic ship 
will right itself. I urge my colleagues to move on a real bill with 
real substance and real stimulative effect. Let us go big, Mr. Speaker, 
or let us go home.

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