[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 7, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3740-H3747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES AFFECTING AMERICA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am certainly proud to be here this
afternoon, and wanted to talk some about the issues that we are facing
here in Washington.
I am proud to say that while the national news has really focused,
and rightfully so, on the war in Iraq, the House has not only supported
our military efforts, but we have been working on a very good, pro-
growth, pro-jobs domestic agenda. We have a good jobs package that will
be voted on this week, we have passed a good energy bill, we have
passed a good education bill, and we will be working on a Medicare
reform bill very soon. So I am optimistic about the things that the
House has been doing.
We hear a lot of partisan politics and a lot of bashing. I guess one
of the things that is frustrating to me is that while we hear people,
as one of the previous speakers was talking about tax breaks for the
wealthy, and that just seems to be the Democrat buzz phrase for hatred
and division in society, what I have been curious about is tear down
somebody else's policy or plan, if you want to, but offer your own.
It is always curious, we do not hear too many alternatives from the
other party. I say, look, hey, this floor is the great hall of debate.
Whether you are liberal or conservative, urban or rural, bring your
ideas to the floor. Offer your ideas in the form of amendments. Offer
your ideas in the form of legislation, and let us see what we can do.
Bring the best of the Democrats, the best of the Republicans, together
to do what is best for America.
It is always disappointing when you hear people just attack
legislation when it is clear they have not even read the bill. Yet on
the other hand, Mr. Speaker, you cannot take the politics out of
politics, so what the heck, let us just move on with it.
Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a little bit about the war in Iraq. I
have to continuously brag about the 3rd Infantry Division in
Hinesville, Georgia, Fort Stewart. I am wearing their patch on my
lapel, which was given to me by the wives organizations down there. I
am very proud of what they did. We followed them up the Euphrates River
as they marched on to Baghdad.
{time} 1615
Also, Mr. Speaker, I am glad to say that I have had more constituents
in the last month sleep in Saddam Hussein's palace than I have who have
eaten in French restaurants. That is probably going to continue to be
the case as the months and weeks pass by.
But in terms of the mission in Iraq, liberating Iraq, one of the
things that we have had in Congress is many former Iraqi citizens who
have come to seek refuge in the United States of America, many women.
And these are women whose fathers or brothers were abducted, sisters
and cousins, and for very small offenses, such as starting peace
movements or protesting this or that. And they lived under the
oppression of Saddam Hussein's regime. And it was a common practice
that if he had a critic he would take their wife or their daughter and
videotape sexual abuses of them and show it back to the male members of
the family and say, get in line, get behind our program, or we will
continue it. What a harsh way to deal with enemies.
We are, of course, finding mass graves. Amnesty International, which
is not exactly a pro-American organization, estimated that there are
anywhere between 70,000 and 150,000 Iraqis who have disappeared,
unaccounted for, the highest number of any nation in the world. And now
we are seeing these mass graves and trying to identify the loved ones
of the Iraqi people.
But all of these folks have told us over and over again, we need an
outside
[[Page H3741]]
force to liberate us; we cannot do it from within. That liberation has
come. From the left we heard all kinds of criticism during the war:
well, the war is just going to be a blood bath, thousands and thousands
of people on both sides will be killed. Yet, this was one of the first,
probably the first war in history where the regime was removed with as
little damage as possible to the citizens. And that is very important,
because ordinarily we go in and we wipe out a country as a way of
removing the regime. In this case, historically, we were able to remove
the regime with almost a surgical removal rather than just blowing up
everything and everybody.
Now, there was collateral damage, but very minimal compared to other
wars in the past. The people there, again, have responded very, very
positively; and the liberation has begun. But unfortunately, Mr.
Speaker, we cannot just add water and have a democracy overnight. Many
people now on the left are saying, well, it is going to be a long time.
Well, there are nations in this world who do not want us to succeed.
Unfortunately, many of them are democratic nations themselves who seem
to be a constant thorn, a constant critic. But we want democracy,
frankly, in all of the Middle Eastern countries, personally speaking.
But I think it is very important to try to achieve that right now in
Iraq, and we are moving in that direction. Who should rebuild it? Well,
the U.N. again, not exactly a good catalyst for peace in Iraq, an
organization that has spent a lot of time criticizing America.
Incidentally, Mr. Speaker, I do not know if my colleagues have heard,
but last Friday at the U.N., the food workers union went on strike; and
they went on strike and closed down the cafeteria during Friday at
lunch, and so some supervisor at the U.N. said, well, we are going to
open up the cafeteria. Guess what happened? All of these high and
mighty U.N. people decided to have a run on the cafeteria. They looted
the food, they looted the wine, they even stole the silverware, and the
damages and the food loss is anywhere from $7,000 to $9,000. These are
supposed to be the people who have been criticizing America. That was
reported by the Washington Times. So much for U.N. foolishness. It is
probably in line with everything else.
But if we would look at what the U.N. has done for Kosovo, we have
been out of it; and officially there has been peace there since March
23, 4 years ago. Well, pre-war Kosovo used to export electricity. Now
they have to have every 4 hours a mandatory blackout, rolling blackouts
where they have to turn off all of their electricity for 2 hours. That
is Kosovo under U.N. rebuilding. Elections, supposed to be free
elections; and yet under the U.N. mandate, one has to have 30 percent
of the candidates be women. Now, maybe it should be 100 percent. Maybe
it is some other formula. But in a free country, you let the people,
the electorate decide; you do not have some U.N. bureaucrat sitting in
New York mandating the quota for Kosovo.
Also in Kosovo under the U.N., interpreters are paid $300 and $400
and $500 a week, whereas former business people are paid $100 a week.
The economy has not turned around at all. One of the reasons is the
U.N. is not supporting the concept of private property and private
investment and insurance and things that are fundamental to investment
in an economy. The U.N. has not done a good job of that. So I think the
U.N.'s role in terms of Iraq, they should be there for humanitarian
assistance, should be there to complement the U.S. efforts; but I do
not think they are any kind of organization that can lead.
I frankly believe, Mr. Speaker, that it is time that the U.S.
Congress has some hearings on the U.N. We pick up 25 percent of their
tab. And yet, if you ask the people of America should we still be
involved in it, I do not think they would pass muster, if we threw it
out to the American electorate. I do not want to throw the U.N. out,
and I do not want to give up on them yet; but I do think they are in
dire, dire need of some reforms.
We are going to be talking about our jobs bill and we have been
joined by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart), and he
has been a very hardworking freshman Member of this body who has worked
to help create jobs in south Florida as well as the rest of the
country. I would certainly be honored to yield any time to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart), if he wants to talk
about Iraq or the jobs bill or whatever else is on his mind.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman
from Georgia. Before I say anything else, I think it is important to
once again commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston). I recall
his words before the war talking about the importance of liberating the
people of Iraq and how frustrated I think many in this country and the
gentleman was by the reaction of some of the extreme left that was
really just denigrating really the Iraqi people, saying that they could
not be free, saying that they did not want to be free, saying that they
were not going to welcome the liberating troops. And the gentleman was
very clear then, and he continues to be very clear; and I want to thank
him for that. It is amazing how common sense does prevail.
The gentleman was just mentioning that now that the left has to admit
that the people of Iraq deserve to be free, wanted to be free, deserve
to be free, now they are saying, well, democracy is going to be very
difficult. I can tell my colleagues one thing: it is not going to be as
difficult as it would have been if Saddam Hussein were still there. So
I think it is once again the brave men and women of the United States
Armed Forces, who put their lives on the line, once again, to protect
our freedoms, to protect our liberties, and to liberate a people who
have been suffering for a generation, who deserve our thanks and our
praise.
I think our President deserves our thanks and our praise for his
leadership, for the way that he has shown steadfast leadership. I think
we all must admire his convictions and his love for freedom. And I
think the Iraqi people as well as the American people are so much
better off, because we have gotten rid of, through our armed services,
those brave young men and women and the leadership of our President
have gotten rid of a dictator who was a threat not only to the Iraqi
people and to the region, but clearly a grave threat to the American
people.
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the interesting thing is we hear from some
people, well, we should not interfere in Iraq. It is like oh, yes,
these people deserve to be oppressed and put down, and they do not
deserve freedom; and now that they have been liberated, we are hearing
the same people saying, well, democracy will not work, as if they are
intellectually challenged, that they cannot handle it. I wish these
people would just for one time turn their wrath on France, just for the
day, just for the day and say, maybe France should not have issued a
passport to Saddam Hussein and his family. Gee whiz, boys, that was
bad. Or, gee whiz, garcon, I guess I should say. But it is amazing.
They are not going to quit and they cannot stand the fact that the
Commander in Chief, the President of the United States, was right. They
cannot stand that.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will
yield, not only can they not stand that, but they also want to blame
the United States for all of the ills. I keep hearing that the United
States is to blame for everything. The bad people in Iraq were the
brave men and women who were there to liberate the Iraqi people. Now,
it is pretty obvious when we see the Iraqi people's reaction, tearing
down the statues, crying when they see these unmarked graves where
their relatives were thrown in, probably taken in the middle of the
night by the Iraqi regime, it is pretty obvious who the bad people
were. It is pretty obvious who the good guy is and has always been, and
that is the American people, the American GIs and men and women who
liberated France once, twice; and yet the French seem to believe that
it is okay for the U.S. to sacrifice blood to liberate France twice,
but it is not okay for anybody else to be liberated. It seems that only
they have the God-given right to be free.
Well, I say to my colleagues, that is an attitude that I do not
share, it is an attitude that the American people do not share, it is
clearly not an attitude and thank God that the American President, our
President does not
[[Page H3742]]
share. Freedom is not something that we can just throw away so easily;
it is something that is given by God. And every once in a while,
because of the sacrifice, the patriotism, the love of freedom of our
men and women in uniform who are all volunteers, sometimes some tough
sacrifices are made to make sure that our interests, our people's
interests, our freedoms are protected and also at the same time that we
can liberate people who have suffered so much.
The gentleman was just mentioning the atrocities committed on women
by Saddam Hussein's regime, the atrocities committed on children, on
everybody. And thank God and thank our Armed Forces and our President
that that nightmare is over. There are some grave challenges ahead,
because democracy is not easy.
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, last week I went to a memorial service for
the 34 soldiers from the third I.D. at Fort Stewart basically for their
loved ones, but the 34 soldiers who died. It was interesting as I
talked to the wives and the mothers and the children of these soldiers
that none of them were saying, well, he died in vain. It was not that.
It was, now we have to continue working for Iraqi freedom and for
Iraq's future and do everything we can. Otherwise, he would have died
in vain. It was a very touching ceremony, because the patriotism of the
families of these fallen soldiers did not flinch one bit. It was
unwavering. Very, very courageous statement, just being there and
sitting in the stands during the service; and there are 34 sets of
boots with the rifle and the helmet and the dog tags jangling in the
wind and yet, at the same time, sadness and a great promise of tomorrow
juxtaposed. I believe that we have an obligation for those soldiers to
continue and do these things.
The audacity of countries like France. Now there is a French company
that actually serves the United States Marines. It is a multimillion
dollar contract that they have, I think $81 million, just a tremendous
amount of money, a French company serving the United States Marines. We
are going to continue to work on the Department of Defense to give
favoritism to American companies, or allied companies, or coalition
companies, and not countries like the French. I mean, can we imagine
that while these soldiers were dying and the Marine Corps was counting
their casualties, the French companies, on the backs of the American
Marines, were counting their profits? It is sickening for me to think
about in terms of the French dealing with Iraq behind the scenes, the
French issuing passports. Unfortunately, we have a lot of Democrat
Members of Congress who are real proud of this and look to France for
leadership. I just think it is absolutely inexcusable.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Well, if the gentleman will yield,
I have a hard time understanding in particular how a country like
France who has twice had to first suffer the humiliation of being taken
over and then had to wait for the American GIs to liberate them. How,
out of anybody in the world, how France, how France could have taken up
the attitude that they did. Look, they have the right to do what they
want, they are free, they are a democratic government; but I think it
is important that we recognize and we realize what that attitude was.
Americans, bright, vibrant, with a lifetime to live, Americans gave
their lives, gave their lives to liberate the people of Iraq.
{time} 1630
And the French know it is not that they were praising them, which is
what they should have been doing, they were criticizing them. They were
again doing everything in their power to make it not succeed to the
point of giving passports to the leaders of that regime. I have a hard
time believing that. Out of everybody in this entire world, if there is
one group of people that should have understood the beauty of freedom,
how frail it is and how sometimes you need some help from outside, it
is the French, it is the French. And I will never forget the writing,
the graffiti on that grave of British soldiers on French soil, British
soldiers that died also liberating France in World War II. The writing
of graffiti on this grave that basically said take this trash, trash,
these are people who died to liberate a different country, off our soil
because it is polluting our soil.
It is a very sad, sad, sad day for the entire world when people just
disregard the truth, disregard reality, have no semblance of gratitude,
of respect, and who, I guess, believe that they are the only ones that
deserve others to die for their freedom and then they criticize those
that died for their freedom. That is frankly for me very hard to
stomach. I am optimistic, I am hopeful that they will realize how wrong
they were. But still those that painted that graffiti, those have no
forgiveness in my heart.
Mr. KINGSTON. It is sad when you think France was the country home to
the great Lafayette who fought so hard for American freedom and whose
portrait hangs on the floor of this Chamber. And yet look at the modern
Frenchmen. Boy, have they strayed from the love of freedom. To them
security and safety is paramount among anything. And, unfortunately,
you do not see France really being a world leader anymore. You see
France being a world critic. But there are a lot of French companies
that are doing business in America who are suffering, and there are a
lot more who are going to hear a lot more in the future, because I
think before the Department of Defense issues any more contracts to
French companies it will have to go through a lot of congressional
scrutiny.
Let me ask you this: In terms of the economy right now, one of the
things we want to do is create a lot of jobs as possible. And I am glad
that in the House we have been working on a good domestic agenda and we
have got a good jobs package that is coming up. And I am going to be
supporting that. It has a lot of different elements in it to give
growth to our economy, but there is a child tax credit, increasing the
child tax credit to a thousand dollars.
Now, the gentleman is single, but I have four children and I can tell
you that really means a lot to the families of this country. Children
are very, very expensive. You have to buy washers and dryers. You buy
tennis shoes. They lose tennis shoes. You buy a book bag. They wear it
out. You cannot buy a sedan any more. You have to buy a station wagon
or a Suburban. You have to have the extra seatbelts to drive carpool
with. If the kid wants to take tuba lessons and, God bless him, tubas
are very expensive, you have to pay for the tuba rental and somebody to
teach them. You have to buy the school band uniforms and the
cheerleading uniforms. A thousand dollar tax credit is actually very,
very modest. And if it had been indexed to inflation, it would be worth
probably 2 or $3,000 very easily from the time we put in the $500 tax
credit. But a thousand, making it immediate this year, I think is a
step in the right direction.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The gentleman just mentioned part
of this plan is to create jobs, which is what we are talking about
here. The gentleman just mentioned a big part of it and that is the
thing that our friends on the Democratic side say is reckless. It is
reckless to give that tax credit. It is reckless to cut the marriage
tax.
You are taxing people because they are married. What is that all
about? It is hard to believe. And yet when we here in the House are
focused on trying to create jobs and we are focused on trying to get
some tax relief to families, get rid of some of those just incredible
taxes, they say that we are reckless. Reckless because you want to give
a tax break for the children that a family has? Is that reckless? By
the way, what is a tax break? It is not a gift. All we are saying is we
are going to allow those families to keep a little bit more of their
money and not bring it up here. That is reckless?
Mr. KINGSTON. I am glad you mentioned that. We had a speaker
previously today who was talking about a Democrat proposal. He kept
saying, We give this, we give this. Well, you do not give anything. You
take it away and then you redistribute it. That is all it is,
redistribution of wealth. It is not our money to give. We just want to
take less of it. And I think the folks back home, the families raising
children, know how to spend this thousand dollars a heck of a lot
better than any brilliance we have on any committee in Washington.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I think that is a big part of the
[[Page H3743]]
problem here, a big part of the philosophical difference between the
two sides. The other side, and they have the belief that every dollar
the government has is government's money, that it is government's right
to have that money, that that is where it belongs.
We believe, which what I think is pretty obvious, that is not
government's money. Government takes it from the people, by the way,
forcefully takes it from the people. The people do not have a choice.
They have to send it up here; otherwise the IRS will be knocking on
their door soon. So, no, it is not government's money. It is the
people's money.
So they claim we are reckless because we want government to take a
little bit less of their money so they can reinvest it in their
children? So they do not get taxed, we take less money, and the
government takes more when they get married? No. No. It is not
government's money. If the issue is, well, the government does not have
enough money, hey, we all understand that we have to do what we have to
do. But when you look at the fraud and the waste that exists within our
government, and I have been doing a little bit of work on that and
doing some research, it does not take long, you do not have to scratch
real deep to see where some of the money is just thrown away, bucket
loads of money is thrown away.
If you ask the American people is the government, is their
government, the U.S. Federal Government, is it totally efficient? Do we
not waste any money? Of course we waste money. The American people know
that and they do not have the ability to see what we get to see on a
daily basis where the money is wasted.
So for anybody to say that, no, we cannot let the people keep a
little bit more of their money and we are going to take it because they
got married, we are going to take it and not allow them to spend it on
their kids because it is the government's money, I think that is what
is reckless. That is what is irresponsible, particularly in a time like
this, and that is why I have to commend one more time our President.
Our President has had a lot on his mind, a lot on his plate, and yet
he has maintained a strong focus on the war on terrorism. He said what
he was going to do, and I know a lot of people are not used to this, he
said what he was going to do and he has done what he said. But he has
also maintained his focus on making sure we can provide jobs for the
American people.
Some I guess are happy with the status quo. The President and this
House, the majority in this House are not content with the status quo.
People need to be able to find jobs, high paying jobs, productive jobs.
The plan this House has passed and we continue to work on provides
jobs. And those that want to criticize his plan are basically saying we
think the situation is fine. Everybody is okay. What we need to do is
just take more money. No, we need to take less money, provide more
jobs, and leave more money in their pockets.
Mr. KINGSTON. It is amazing. One of the other common sense solutions
we are doing to create jobs is ending the marriage tax penalty.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It does not affect me.
Mr. KINGSTON. One day you will be lucky enough to join the ranks of
all of us who are married. And when that happens, you and your wife
will start, well, let us say right now you are in the 20 percent tax
bracket and she is in the 20 percent tax bracket, but when you get
married and your income becomes one, suddenly you will be in the 25
percent tax bracket. And the only thing that happened is you walked
down the aisle together and made an oath, and that is not right. It
penalizes people from getting married. It encourages people to live
together. It does not make sense. We are trying to end the marriage tax
penalty.
Another thing we are proposing to do in order to create jobs is to
reduce the tax rates. Rates going from 28 to 25 percent, from 31 to 28
percent, from 36 to 33 percent and 39.6 to 35 percent. Again, it is
common sense. And the interesting thing is that Democrats have already
voted this on a bipartisan basis. All we are saying is let us
accelerate this because the economy needs help now. And, unfortunately,
sometimes you wonder in this town because everything else under the sun
seems to happen, you wonder if people would rather have the economy
stay in the tank so that their political party is benefited. And I
think that is a sick thing to do if you are playing with people's jobs
and people's future just so your party can do well.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. One of the things that strikes me
is what you just said. They have already voted for a lot of these
proposals. They were in favor of these proposals. And now all of the
sudden they say that those same proposals that they voted for are
reckless. Again, we have to repeat what they are, the marriage tax.
They say that is reckless, again, even though many of them already
voted for it. That is why you have to ask the question or pose the
question that you just posed to us. Why all the sudden? And they will
give you different excuses at different times.
Well, when the economy is not doing well this is not the time to
lower taxes. Excuse me? When the economy is not doing well is not the
time to incentivize the economy? If this is not the time, when is the
time? Clearly we need to incentivize the economy. I think that what
happens also is up here in D.C. we sometimes forget reality. We are
okay up here. We are able to discuss these things on a theoretical
level. But for those hard working American families who are paying
those taxes, some of them may have lost a job or fear that they are
losing their job. This is not theory. This is not something you can
just talk about. They are desperately looking at ways we can get this
economy going. They need this economy to do better. They need their
taxes to be cut so they can keep a little bit more of their money. This
is not theory. This is practice. This is practice.
I think a lot of times up here though, you are right, maybe it is
because they want their party to do better and they want the economy to
be in the tank for the elections. Maybe they have forgotten or lost
touch with reality. But when you go home and talk to these people who
lost their jobs and are fearing about losing their jobs, and you ask
them, should we now do something or not do something to get this
economy going, I think the answer is pretty clear that they want this
economy moving despite what the politicians may say.
Mr. KINGSTON. The other things we are doing in order to help small
businesses and we think it is very important to help small businesses
because that is still 70 percent of the employment in this country,
and, unfortunately, large businesses come and go. And it is a
tremendous loss. We just lost a paper mill in St. Mary's, Georgia that
I represent, 903 jobs. Those jobs are probably gone permanently. We
hope something will happen to make that statement not the case, but
unfortunately that is what it is looking like right now.
Small businesses, you can lose one or two of them and the economy
still moves along. But depreciation, faster depreciation, increasing
the bonus depreciation from 30 to 50 percent and extending it another
few years, again so small businesses can make investments and write
them off faster, and we believe that is going to be very healthy for
small businesses. Also allowing them to have a 5-year net operating
loss carry-back for 3 years, and that will help small businesses
recover from some of the losses they have suffered under in this post-
9/11 economy. And then, finally, increasing the expensing from 25 to
$100,000.
All of this is going to help your bicycle shop, your pet store, your
clothes store, your tire store, all the small Main Street businesses
back home. And we believe if you can help them you will do a lot for
that NASCAR race fan.
I always say what we need to do is build tax policy around the NASCAR
race fan. The mom and dad have a household income, one of them makes
$50,000 and the other makes about $60,000, the household income
anywhere from 75 to $120,000. They have two and a half kids. They are
the first in country, first in church, first in patriotism, first in
paying their taxes, first in rolling up their sleeves, doing a fair
job, and also do not ask for the government for this or that. They do
not come to see you and me in Washington, D.C. They do not have an
agenda. They do not come here to lobby for this loophole or for that
expenditure. They are
[[Page H3744]]
just good folks in America. You can find them all around the country,
from Miami to Savannah, from Maine to San Francisco.
{time} 1645
They might not truly be a Nascar race fan, but if you go up there and
stick and use that as your guide, you are going to take care of
America; if you take care of that family, and by taking care of small
business I believe we are taking a major step in that direction.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The gentleman knows that in the
State of Florida, I think it is probably similar to your State, small
business is the economy of Florida. It is an incredible percentage, and
yet when we try to help small business again by allowing those
businesses to keep a little bit more of the money that they generate of
their money, we are told that we are helping the rich. We are not
helping the rich. We are helping the small business people in this
country in the State of Florida that create the economy, that hire the
people, that pay the wages, that provide the health care, that pay the
taxes.
I wish that the opposition would do a couple things. First, that they
would bring up a plan of their own, which they have not done. Number
two is that they would talk and discuss the ideas as opposed to just
throw out labels to see if they will stick that are just not based on
fact because somebody should tell them that small business people in
this country are not rich. They are struggling to earn a living. They
are struggling to pay the rent. They are struggling to keep their
employees and pay their employees and pay their insurance.
You better believe it that I am proud that this plan helps those
businesses. It provides relief for those small businesses, but they do
not want to talk about the issues and the specifics because they lose
on that. So, therefore, they have to say it is irresponsible and
reckless to provide tax relief to small businesses. It is not reckless,
but they cannot talk about the specifics; therefore, they have to throw
out words hoping that, like a big PR campaign, people will buy it and
people will not look at the facts.
The problem is the American people are very wise.
Mr. KINGSTON. The Chair is an intelligent man and he has seen the
Pelosi-Gephardt plan. There is not one. Has the gentleman seen one from
the other body? There is not one. What do we have? Nine Democrats, I
had not read the paper in a week, might be up to 10 or 12, nine
Democrats are running for President of the United States; and I have
not seen one of them introduce a plan, and I believe at least two of
those candidates are Members of this body.
It is good that they are running for President because it gives more
competition, and more competition is good for the political process,
like anything else; but while you are a Member of this body, should you
not be introducing your own jobs tax relief plan, growth plan? We do
not see it and you would think if there are any Democrats who are going
to offer a plan, it would certainly be the ones who are running for
President; but we have not seen it.
Another thing that is in this plan that I think will help the economy
is what the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) calls a 515 plan and
that is reducing the tax rate and the capital gains rate on dividends
and capital gains: if you are in the 10 percent bracket, down to five;
if you are in the 20 percent bracket, down to 15.
Again, I think it is real common sense that why would you reduce the
capital gains tax. The idea is if I can sell something and keep more of
the profit in my pocket, then I am more likely to sell it, and when I
sell it and that dollar turns over, it stimulates the economy, and it
is great for small business, great for the American middle-class
taxpayer.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Also, we have to remember it is
their money. It is not a gift. That is the thing that I keep hearing. I
keep hearing it over and over again how government is going to give
these people this capital gains reduction money. No, no, no.
All we are talking about is we are going to allow the people who own
that money to be able to keep it, as opposed to send it to Washington
so Washington can spend it on all sorts of things. No, we are going to
allow the people to keep a little bit more of their money. It is not a
gift. It is not government's money. It is their money.
We should not be apologetic to want to take less of the people's
money, in particular when we see some of the waste and the fraud that
goes on in Washington where we spend money on things that are frankly,
for example, the debit cards that we have seen recently where people
have used them to buy and to use them for personal issues, including
some rather offensive things. We are talking about millions of dollars.
And so we need to take more money from the people to do more of that?
No, no. We need to make sure the people keep their money, as much of it
as possible.
I for one think we should do a lot more of that and allow people to
keep even more of their money because that stays in the economy. They
use it to buy things, to save and provide more jobs. That is the way
this country was built. That is the greatness of this country, and for
anybody to say that that is reckless is hard for me to believe.
Mr. KINGSTON. It does get ridiculous. We are also doing something I
think that is real important, and that is, we have passed H.R. 6, our
energy bill. One of the things that small business people need and
middle-class American tax payers need are lower energy prices, in the
gasoline for their car and the heat and oil for their house and the
electric bill for their air conditioner, whatever it is.
If we could get an abundant, inexpensive, clean energy supply, it
will really help the economy, really help create jobs; and our energy
package does lower our dependency on foreign Middle East gasoline and
fossil fuel, which, of course, gets into national security and all
other kinds of issues; but it also searches for alternatives like
hydrogen fuel, fuel cell vehicles, and puts in lots of money for
research so that we can get off fossil fuel and improve technology for
smart buildings and energy-efficient houses and structures of all
nature. That is going to help create jobs, and I am glad that we were
able to pass that out of the House.
We need it passed by the other body, and we need to get it to the
President for signature. The faster we do that, the less dependent we
will be on fossil fuel, the more energy alternatives there will be.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. That is one of those issues that
the other side continually criticizes and yet has no answers for. They
always talk about how dependent we are on foreign oil, and there I
think we all agree that we need to look at ways to be less dependent,
which is why this bill is the right legislation at the right time. It
has some provisions there that I think make so much sense.
It would allow us to be less dependent on foreign sources of oil and
also of other energies. It is done in a responsible fashion, to protect
the environment, which I think is something that is very, very
important; and once again, it shows what you can do. You can come up
with answers, reasonable answers that are good for the country that
will also provide jobs, and that is again a big focus of this
Republican majority is to provide jobs. Not only now, but particularly
now; and if you look at the legislation that has come out of this body
so far, including that one, there is a real strong common denominator.
Along with the other things that it does, that legislation would also
provide jobs for the American people, high-paying jobs, by the way, for
the American people; and, again, I just think we need to continue to
emphasize that. I for one am not content at how the economy is going. I
for one think that we need to do more, that we need to incentivize the
economy. I think the American people agree with that, and clearly, the
leadership in this House has said that, the President has said that;
and there are a number of pieces of legislation that go way beyond
talk.
These are results. These are things that we have passed that the
committees have debated, that have been worked on for a long, long
time; and so talk is cheap as they say, but in this case, in the energy
bill, in the budget, in the jobs creation bill and so many others, it
is not talk. It is results.
[[Page H3745]]
Mr. KINGSTON. Another way we are working in the House to help create
jobs is with a good roads program, good infrastructure. Not everybody
wants to live in the city, and yet we all have to kind of go to the
city eventually. Maybe it is for a particular hospital operation, maybe
just to buy something, maybe for entertainment, maybe for a job; but if
you can have good roads that connect small towns to the large city, it
is good for the economy in both places.
I represent the Port of Savannah and actually all of coastal Georgia,
but I also have rural areas. I have 29 different counties in the first
district that I have the honor of representing. One of the things I
want to do and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns) wants to do is
get a way so that the producer of Vidalia onions can get it overseas
faster. Agriculture right now, so much of our market is a matter of
overseas. I think this roads transportation program incentive for
alternative uses like bicycles and electric cars, I think all that is
going to help creates jobs, too.
In Atlanta right now there is a project called Atlantic Station. It
is right here where I-85 and I-75 split in downtown Atlanta, and it was
a brownfield. Then they went in there and reclaimed the land and
cleaned up the polluted areas; and now they are building a regular
community that will have some high-rise office buildings, some
condominiums. It will have some retail places, a movie theater, parking
underground; and the bridge that goes over I-75 and I-85 linking that
to the traditional downtown part of Atlanta, more of the road is used
for pedestrians and bicycles than it is actually for trucks and cars.
That is an example of something under our transportation bill that
can happen all over the country. I hope that when you are visiting
Georgia sometime you will have the time to see it because it is
actually tomorrow's road for tomorrow's economy and tomorrow's
community, and it is something exciting; but our TEA-21, which is our
roads bill, again jobs, and it is going to be passed out of the House.
So we are going to continue to do everything we can for small
businesses.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Transportation is key for all of
it, key for all of it. Matter of fact, you look at Florida and the rest
of the country, but if you look at Florida, if you look at the three
biggest industries, among them are agriculture, like it is in your
State, commerce, and tourism. You cannot do any of those without a good
infrastructure, and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) is working
awfully hard coming up with a package that I know we will all feel very
proud of to make sure we have the infrastructure and, again, that also
provides jobs. The building of those roads provides jobs and then
everything that goes along with that.
Mr. KINGSTON. I know I can leave my house in Savannah, Georgia,
basically take maybe two or three roads to get to I-95 and 10 hours
later I am going to be in Miami, Florida; and if I go north on it, 10
hours later or depends on how fast you drive, of course, but I can be
north of Washington, D.C., almost in New York City, can go up to Maine.
Interstate highways started as national defense, moving our military
for safety, lots of ideas, but behind the interstate highway system for
national security, under President Eisenhower; but today, they have
also been a huge boon to rural economies. Anywhere that there was an
exit ramp, there is now a truck stop, a gas station, a convenience
store, a fast food store, a retail outlet; and interstates have created
tons of jobs in the United States of America.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It is amazing how almost every job
out there, whether we know it or not, is dependent on that
transportation infrastructure. Without that we would not be able to get
products in and out, people in and out, nothing. It is totally
dependent.
Mr. KINGSTON. I want to say this: on I-95 in coastal Georgia, we have
something like 55,000 cars a day that go down, and all that we are
asking them is to stop and leave a little bit of their money in Georgia
before they go to Florida and spend all of it.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. We thought it was the other way
around, but there are obviously major infrastructure problems, and we
clearly need to emphasize the roads; and I know that this Congress will
be doing that, and the gentleman from Alaska's (Mr. Young) committee,
that I have the privilege to serve on, is going to be working on that.
There are areas, whether it is Miami or Collier County where you have
I-75 as well, that needs a lot of help; and I am optimistic that we
will be able to do that for the economy's sake, for jobs' sake, and
also to be able to get goods and people in and out.
I have an unrelated question, and I do not know if this is the right
time to ask it. One of the things that has struck me in all the debates
out there, and I frankly admit it caught me a little bit by surprise is
when you see the increases that our budget has put for Medicare, for
example, and Medicaid and also Medicare would drop, and on top of that
we are doing the drug prescription plan, and yet I keep hearing the
other side saying that we are actually cutting those programs, which is
just factually incorrect.
I have to admit to you that I have never seen a place where
everywhere except for government where huge increases, certain people
say are cuts, and I just want to make it very clear that we have not
cut. Not only have we not cut all those things that we keep hearing
about, we have increased funding for all those things; and yet I keep
hearing the Democrats saying that we are cutting.
{time} 1700
The Democrats keep saying we are going to do all of these horrible
things; we are cutting these funds. That is not what we passed. That is
not what has been on the table.
Is that something that is usual here? Do the Democrats always just
make up the facts? Is their attitude do not let the facts confuse the
issue?
Mr. KINGSTON. Absolutely. I have been here 10 years; and according to
the liberal, big-government types in Washington, anything they are not
happy with they call a cut. There are, frankly, excesses in the Federal
Government system that should be cut. But it does not matter what it
is; everybody who is against something, that is a cut. That is a cut.
Yet veteran spending has increased. Education spending has increased.
Medicare has increased. Our prescription drug plan, which will help
seniors get affordable prescription drugs, and it should not be
partisan, Americans should not have to choose between food and
medicine, and we all have parents and grandparents who need these
drugs, and we all hopefully will be seniors ourselves, we do not need
partisan rhetoric. We need responsible legislation.
To answer the gentleman's question, it is the standard around here.
Every time somebody does not like something, it is a cut. It is a tax
break for the wealthy, or it is going to kill the environment. Or that
the seniors and the children are going to go starving. One gets used to
it and kind of moves on.
I wanted to mention to the gentleman that one of the other things
that we are doing, not just Medicare, we are trying to come up with an
affordable and accessible health care. That is very, very important for
small businesses in America. Small businesses in America now have a
huge burden when they try to provide health care for their employees.
Yet when you are in the job market, you have to look not just at the
salary but at the benefit packages. By making health care more
affordable and more accessible, that is another way we in Congress are
going to help create jobs.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I worry if we do not
do that a lot of people depend on their jobs to provide health care. If
it gets to where it is not affordable to employers, they are not going
to provide that benefit.
Just like it took this leadership to finally forget about all of the
rhetoric, it took the Republican leadership to finally pass a Medicare
prescription drug plan. And with all due respect, the Democrats were
here for 40 years. They always talked about it and never did it. I can
understand it falling through the cracks 1 or 2 years, but they never
did it. It took the Republicans to do the prescription drug plan under
Medicare. I was hoping that those that legitimately wanted to do it for
40 years, would have said, wow, it is about time, as opposed to
criticizing it.
[[Page H3746]]
I am confident it will have to be, once again, the Republican
leadership, the Republican Congress that is going to have to lead to
make sure we have health care that is accessible, affordable, that is
quality health care for Americans. I do not know of a more important
issue for American families and American small businesses, and,
frankly, for even some of the larger businesses as well than to provide
good quality, affordable health care. But there again, the Republican
Party is going to show the leadership that it has shown on every single
issue from welfare reform to Medicare prescription drug benefits, and
health care is one of the issues that the Republican Party is showing
that it can tackle with results.
Mr. KINGSTON. It is too bad that there needs to be popularity in the
polls to get elected. But this is not about popularity, and leadership
is not a popularity contest. Sometimes you have to make difficult
decisions, and there is not going to be 100 percent approval ratings on
every package. Part of leadership is to move the agenda forward.
I know that the gentleman has spent a lot of time in support of the
judicial nomination of Mr. Estrada, and the gentleman has expressed a
lot of disappointment that the other body has not moved. We create and
protect jobs by law and order. If people know that there is lower crime
because there is justice when you are brought in front of a judge and
there are good judges, we will reduce crime in communities back home.
Here we have Washington, D.C., a very high crime rate area, they have a
judicial opening, a vacancy; and yet we have liberals in Washington,
D.C. who will not let Mr. Estrada get on the bench, and yet he is
highly qualified. He went to Columbia and Harvard. He actually had the
same qualifications of a judge who has been supported by the Democrat
Party, the only difference he is Hispanic. For some reason that is a
big issue. Some liberals in Washington cannot stand the fact that
President Bush would have a great Hispanic nomination. What is
happening with that right now?
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It is even worse than the gentleman
states. It is not only that they do not want to vote for him, they do
not want a vote to take place; and they are doing all of these
parliamentary procedures to avoid taking a vote on Mr. Estrada. It has
been a very interesting ride we have been watching. Every excuse in the
book has been used against this gentleman, and they are just excuses
because they are not based on facts.
As we are speaking, there is kind of a pattern emerging. For some
reason, they do not want to discuss the facts; and, therefore, they
throw out other things. One of the reasons that they said Mr. Estrada
should not be a judge on this court in D.C. is he is not qualified
enough because he had never been a judge before. I would not have a
problem if that is the standard. It just happens to be on that same
court those same people that are saying that about Mr. Estrada
supported other judges that were never judges before that now sit on
that court. If it is okay for them not to have had previous judicial
experience to sit on that bench, why is it not all right for Mr.
Estrada? What is the real reason?
They say there are certain memoranda that he has. That is the
criteria. If the Department of Justice does not show us certain
memoranda that were internal memoranda that were written, that would
disqualify him. If that is the standard, I do not have a problem;
except there are seven judges currently that have come out of that same
office where Mr. Estrada was and those documents were never requested.
That is clearly not the reason. If that was the reason, the other
judges would not have been able to move forward.
There is a real weird double standard with Mr. Estrada, and it is so
much so they do not even want it to come up for a vote on the floor. I
do not have a problem with objecting to somebody. I do not have a
problem with disagreeing with somebody. Thank God we can do that here
in a free Democratic society. But they do not want to discuss it or
debate it. They do not want to vote on it. I do not know what their
agenda is.
I know that the reasons that they give are not the real reasons, and
that is a sad statement. It is also particularly sad because Mr.
Estrada is a man who got here at age 17. He studied and worked. He did
very well for himself. He went to Columbia and then Harvard Law School
and graduated magna cum laude. He worked as a clerk for a U.S. Supreme
Court Justice. He worked as a prosecutor in the State of New York. He
worked in the Department of Justice under two Presidents, one
Republican and one Democrat; and all of those people that he worked for
him said this man is a man of integrity and would be a great judge. Yet
the Democratic leadership does not want him to even have a vote. That
is difficult to believe.
Mr. KINGSTON. Here we are, we have just come through a war, we have
jobs that we need to create. We have an economy that we need to
turnaround, and yet there are Members apparently of the other body who
are content to make one of the most highly qualified judicial nominees
a big issue. It is such a double standard. If he had not been Hispanic,
in your opinion, would he have been approved by now?
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I can tell the gentleman without
any doubt that the reasons that they are going to block even the
possibility of him having a vote on the floor of the other body to the
point of using parliamentary procedures that have not been used for a
candidate of that court before, I can tell the gentleman the reasons
they are giving are not the real reasons because we have gone through
them and analyzed them. We have talked about them here on the floor of
this Chamber, and the bottom line is those are not the real reasons. If
those are not the real reasons, then what is the real reason?
It is very sad that a person like Mr. Estrada, who has worked so hard
and studied so hard and who has lived his little part of the American
dream, has done what this society has asked him to do and much more,
has been an example to so many, that his case is not even being allowed
to be debated on the floor and is not allowed to have a vote. The
reasons given are not the real reasons.
It is a sad day for the country. He is 41 years old. He had argued 15
cases in front of the Supreme Court of the United States before he was
40. Think about that. It is a shame not to have somebody of that
quality on the court. It is also a shame for those of us who believe in
diversity, who believe that one should be judged by your qualifications
and not by your race.
I say that because people have used race publicly. They have said
that one of the reasons that he should not be on there is because of
his race, and that to me is highly offensive. You should not get a
position because of your race, and you should not be denied a position
that you are qualified for because of your race. Yet those are the
reasons that they have given. They have given others, by the way as
well, but those have proven to be false. The only one that still
remains out there is when they have said that Mr. Estrada should not be
on that court because of his race.
Mr. KINGSTON. It is very disappointing, but I hope that the President
can work with them and see if he can get something done. The other
thing is the President was elected, and let him get his team in place.
It should be that simple.
I just wanted to cover these topics and wanted to ask the gentleman
if he had some other topics that he wanted to conclude with.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to
state one more time that every day that goes by, we have to remember
there are thousands of men and women in uniform that heroically defend
our freedoms, and they do so without asking for anything. They do not
get paid a lot of money. They are not there for the publicity.
Every day our freedoms are being protected by men and women in
uniform who are heroes every single day. Sometimes they are asked to
put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and to even
sometimes within that scope of protecting us, to protect and liberate
other people. They have been doing it for generations. They continue
doing it today.
Right now as the Iraqi theater is looking good and the Iraqi people
are free and they are celebrating their
[[Page H3747]]
freedom, we have to remember today there are men and women who are in
harm's way. We cannot forget that for one single moment, and we have to
be grateful and thankful that there are people like them who are
willing to do one of the greatest sacrifices one can ever do to protect
our freedoms, and we can never thank them enough.
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I know for the 34 constituents that I lost
in Iraq, and I believe the six to 12 in Afghanistan, I am certainly not
going to forget them; and I am going to do everything I can to help
promote Iraqi democracy and also jobs in America. We have got a good
bill on jobs this week. I am looking forward to voting on it and
supporting it.
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