[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 21 (Tuesday, March 1, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H824-H830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, we are going to talk about economic 
competitiveness in the economy tonight, but before we start on that 
topic, I just want to draw attention to a couple of things that have 
appeared in the newspaper and talk about Iraq and the Middle East.
  There is an article that I pulled from the wires today, 2,000 
demonstrate at an Iraqi bombing site, and this is really quite an 
amazing story, Mr. Speaker. This is from Baghdad: More than 2,000 
people demonstrated Tuesday at the site of a car bombing south of 
Baghdad that killed 125 people chanting no to terrorism.
  Mr. Speaker, our hearts go out to those individuals and their 
families, those that have lost their lives, and certainly our hearts 
continue to go out to the families of each and every man and woman in 
our military service. I think we join with every one of them, all of 
our military families and with all of these Iraqis who love freedom and 
are loving having the opportunity to grasp on to freedom, and we join 
them in saying no to terrorism and standing strong for freedom.
  Another article that I saw today from Newsday, Mr. Speaker, some

[[Page H825]]

Arabs see beginning of a new era, and I think this is very important 
that we pay attention to this. One of my colleagues was talking about 
the headlines that we do not see on some of the national media, some of 
the leftist media, and I think this one is worthy of a mention.
  It was a scene the Arab world's autocratic regimes have dreaded, and 
through the power of satellite TV, it could catch on as fast as the 
latest music video. Peaceful, enormous crowds carrying flags and 
flowers, bringing down a government. What happened in Lebanon this 
week, analysts say, is the beginning of a new era in the Middle East, 
one in which popular demand pushes the momentum for democracy and 
people's will can no longer be disregarded.
  Mr. Speaker, our President has said that would happen. Repeatedly, he 
talks about how in the heart of every man and woman is the desire to be 
free and to seek that freedom and to have hope and to have opportunity. 
We have all heard our President say freedom is not our gift to the 
world; freedom is God's gift to all people.
  It is so appropriate that we acknowledge that freedom, that we 
appreciate the sacrifice that is there for that freedom because it is 
through the expansion of that freedom that we enjoy the fruits and the 
benefits of a free society.
  One of those is the opportunity to dream big dreams and have great 
adventure, have great successes and to see that lived out in our lives.

                              {time}  2015

  For many Americans, that is the opportunity to reach economic goals; 
to build businesses, to have a better life for their family. And 
tonight we are going to spend an hour discussing the Republican 
policies about encouraging entrepreneurship and economic growth in this 
great Nation.
  We are going to highlight the Republican agenda for creating jobs in 
America. And it is clear that after battling the recession of 2001, 
weathering a terrorist attack cost us billions. There are even 
estimates that the cost to the American economy of September 11 and the 
travesty that took place there was $2 trillion, a full quarter of our 
Nation's productivity for a year.
  After fighting an expensive global war on terrorism, being in the 
middle of that fight, we have faced significant challenges and we have 
made some very wise decisions. Over the past couple of years, despite 
very heavy criticism from some of our colleagues and from the tax-and-
spend liberals, we, as a Congress, have made tax cuts, have reduced the 
tax burden that the American people are paying.
  Mr. Speaker, it is certainly something that I know, as millions of 
Americans tonight are sitting down at their kitchen tables with pencil 
and paper and beginning to look at those forms, filling out their 
Federal income tax filings, that they are noticing the difference that 
the tax cuts we have passed are making in their lives. Certainly in 
Tennessee, I know there are Tennesseeans noticing for the first time in 
20 years that they have the opportunity to deduct the sales tax they 
are paying from their Federal income tax filing.
  It is amazing to me, and should be troubling to many Americans, that 
many across the aisle had the audacity to oppose this tax relief we 
have passed. They have opposed making some of these cuts and 
reductions. We are trying to be certain that the American public has 
more money in their pocketbook; that they have the opportunity to 
decide how to spend that money; and that they have the opportunity to 
grow those businesses.
  We have known that small businesses and working families need tax 
relief, and we have fought hard to make that happen so that we see the 
opportunity right there for our economy, for the growth in our economy, 
for the opportunity for competitiveness not on just a local scale, not 
just on a local scale, but on a global scale.
  Mr. Speaker, our support for tax relief has been vindicated, and we 
see that in the economic figures that are out there. This past week we 
found the economy grew faster than expected in the last few months of 
2004. They revised the growth estimate up from 3.1 to 3.8. And for a 
lot of folks who are economic news junkies, they know that 3.8 is a 
pretty good rate. For those that are casual listeners, that is 
something we can be proud of, and we can talk about that. A 3.8 percent 
growth is very substantial.
  In February, we had the twenty-first consecutive month, that is 
twenty-first consecutive months, of increased economic activity in the 
manufacturing sector. I want to be certain everybody hears and 
understands that: Twenty-first months of consecutive increases in 
economic activity in the manufacturing sector. That is nearly 2 years 
of growth. I think that is absolutely outstanding.
  For some of the tool and die manufacturers that are in my district, 
from some of the manufacturers that we see of various component parts, 
of items that are being created, how exciting that they are seeing 
growth; that they are seeing growth in their jobs that they have right 
there in these local communities.
  And that is not all of it. The overall economy grew for the fortieth, 
that is 4-0, the fortieth consecutive month in February. That is more 
than 3 years of solid economic expansion.
  Mr. Speaker, these are figures that are hard to argue with. That 3.8 
percent was our economic growth. That got revised up for the last 
quarter of 2004. We have had twenty-first consecutive months of 
increases in productivity in the manufacturing sector. We have had 40 
consecutive months of overall economic growth. That means something is 
working right. Something is working right. Tax relief was needed, and 
we see that that tax relief is beginning to pay off.
  I have another article here. I had the opportunity to do a little 
reading over the break, Mr. Speaker. This one is from the Financial 
Times. Look at this headline: ``U.S. Chiefs' Confidence Highest in 3 
Years.'' Well, that is a pretty good thing. The people that are running 
the companies, the people that are deciding whether to expand, whether 
to make capital investments, whether to create new jobs, they have a 
great deal of confidence.
  It says here: ``Confidence in the economy at the U.S. biggest 
companies has soared to the highest level in 3 years as increasing 
numbers plan to spend more on capital investment.'' Well, who would 
have thunk? You never would have thought that was happening if you were 
listening to some of our friends across the aisle. Because they do not 
want to talk about the good news. They do not want to talk about 21 
straight months of manufacturing gains, 4-0, 40 consecutive months of 
overall economic growth.
  Here is one that describes the results as ``extremely positive''; 
another one, talking about capital investments by business, ``are the 
best indicators of growth at this stage of recovery,'' and that this 
bodes well for the economy. Now, mind you, these are not small 
businesses. These are big companies. So we are seeing it with our small 
businesses, and we are seeing it with some of our new companies.
  Republicans believe that government must remove the obstacles to 
growth. And it does not matter if you are a big or small company, it 
does not matter if you are an entrepreneur, it does not matter if you 
are new or some of our wonderful companies that have been there for 100 
years. We have to get rid of some of the obstacles. And though some of 
our folks do not like to talk about rolling back taxes, rolling back 
those taxes is removing an obstacle. Another obstacle is the high cost 
of compliance with those taxes. Another obstacle is onerous regulation 
that comes from some of our Federal agencies.
  Well, what do you know. When you start rolling that back, making the 
system easier to comply with, American entrepreneurs expand and they 
create jobs. That is something, is it not? Get the government out of 
the way, and you are going to see free enterprise go do what they are 
geared up to do, do what they are best at doing, do what they dream 
about doing, what they spend their lives trying to figure out how to 
do: how to create jobs, how to build a better mousetrap, how to get out 
there and sell that better mousetrap to people that are ready to buy 
improved products.
  It is a great system. The way this economy works is something to get 
excited about, and I am thrilled that we have had the opportunity to 
see this kind of economic growth.

[[Page H826]]

  Mr. Speaker, I am joined here on the floor tonight by one of my 
colleagues, a gentleman from the freshman class I served in in the 
108th Congress, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King). He knows a lot 
about how the economy works. He is a small businessman, a farmer, and 
he does a lot of thinking when he gets out there on that tractor, and 
he brings a lot of wisdom to this Chamber.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I yield to him at this time.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding 
to me and leading us in this important subject matter. I appreciate the 
opportunity to say a few words.
  Before getting to the economy, I want to add some remarks to those of 
the gentlewoman from Tennessee's discussion with regard to the Middle 
East. I would like to paint this image in the mind of the people in the 
country. And that is that as we see people demonstrating in the streets 
of Lebanon, when they have made the pledge that they are not leaving 
the public arena until they are a government governed by themselves and 
that they are a free people, that magnificent display that is going on 
in Lebanon today, as I watched that, I looked back through my mind's 
eye and I asked myself where I have experienced anything like that 
before; where I have seen anything like that in history.
  It takes me back to the square in Prague, back in the early 1990s, 
after the Berlin Wall came down. That was about November 9 when the 
wall came down, and it echoed into about 1990, right before the Czechs 
went to the square and stood there with their keys and rattled their 
keys in the air. They stood for freedom, until today they are a free 
people.
  That miracle of freedom that echoed across Eastern Europe in that 
time was not something anyone predicted. Yet our President stood just 
outside this Capitol building on January 20 and gave his second 
inaugural address, and even the liberal news media understood there was 
a Bush doctrine, and that was the doctrine of freedom. He said in that 
address: ``If you stand for freedom, we stand with you.''
  Today, we stand with the Lebanese people, we stand with the Syrians, 
we stand with the Iranians, and we stand with the Saudis. We stand with 
all people on this planet that yearn for freedom.
  Another thing that has happened there is that the fear factor has 
disappeared in Lebanon. When the fear factor disappeared, the people 
could freely stand in the streets. When that fear factor can disappear 
in Iran, in Syria, in Saudi Arabia, and around the Middle East, they 
can also come to the streets. Maybe before then.
  When that day comes, we will no longer see the habitat that breeds 
terror, and we will be able to actually stand here today and define a 
victory in the war on terror, and that is the absence of the habitat 
that breeds terrorists. And that is freedom.
  But to our economy, which is the discussion tonight. I characterize 
it a couple of ways and add to the gentlewoman's discussion, and that 
is that our jobs growth in this country has been going on at such a 
torrid pace that we will soon, within the next 3 months, reach the 
level of over the last 2 years having had job growth of 1.5 million 
jobs a year. That is 1\1/2\ million jobs a year.
  That is an amazingly fast growth, 3.8 percent growth as the 
gentlewoman said, but that in the face of the trial lawyers skimming 3 
percent off the top. And that study tells us that they take the first 
money. They are standing there taking the first money off our economy. 
If we want to grow at 3\1/2\ percent, just to sustain the growth we 
need in our infrastructure and to meet the needs of a growing 
population, then we have to make up for that 3 percent that goes off 
the top because of the litigation in this country that is rampant.
  We took steps in this Congress to rein some of that in. We sent it 
over to the Senate, where this year they heard us and sent it to the 
President, and he signed the litigation reform legislation, which will 
make a difference and make it easier to sustain that kind of growth.
  Homeownership is at an all-time high. I think it would compete with 
anywhere in the world, at 69.2 percent. That is 69.2 percent. Seven out 
of ten people you meet on the street live in a home they own or are 
making payments on. Not a rented home, but an owned home. What pride in 
ownership. And what that does for sending the roots down into our 
economy and society and keeping our children at home, all of those 
things are a plus that show up in the bottom line.
  Inflation is in check. Personal income is up 8.6 percent. That is so 
much in the last year that it scares me a little bit, being a 28-year 
employer; thinking that if personal income is up 8.6 percent, then I 
would have to be giving my employees a raise of 8.6 percent every year, 
which is a pretty torrid pace as well to keep up with employment.
  Earlier we heard on the floor some remarks that we have a lot of 
problems with the trade imbalance, and I will not deny we have a trade 
imbalance. In fact, a year ago it was minus $503 billion a year. The 
last announcement came out, the annual report came out February 10, and 
that was a minus $617.7 billion in imbalance in trade. So that is about 
a 20 percent increase in the negative balance of trade that we have.
  Some of those things work out good for our consumers. You can afford 
to buy a winter coat for your little girl cheaper than you could 
before. But we cannot go on forever letting foreign interests own U.S. 
assets and holding them for collateral. So we need to work this thing 
back to correct the balance of trade, but it is not something that will 
be done with a policy that says, well, we are concerned about sweat 
shop labor in El Salvador or those kinds of issues that are essentially 
out of control.
  What is in our control in this Congress are our tax policy, 
regulatory policy, and that is what we need to focus on. That is why I, 
years ago, in fact 25 years ago, came to the position and the 
conclusion that we needed to do some real tax reform.
  Now, we have done good things with the Jobs and Growth Act, and they 
were the right decisions to bring us back from the bursting of the dot-
com bubble that happened about 7 or 8 months before the President was 
inaugurated the first time; and then, of course, the September 11 
attacks. I will argue that those two blows to our economy, coupled 
together, were the greatest blows, the most severe blows ever to the 
economy of this country; yet we have recovered. The stock market is 
back and all these statistics are up. But we can do more, and we can do 
better.

                              {time}  2030

  Mr. Speaker, we can do better because there is another level, another 
destiny for the United States of America. We are reaching for that 
destiny to inspire all people in the world to reach for freedom and 
liberty and being able to make their own investments and control their 
own destiny economically, but we can also set a tax policy that ceases 
to punish the productivity in America.
  Today, today every day when people go to work and punch the time 
clock or make the sales calls or throw that bale of hay, Uncle Sam 
stands there with his hand out with the first lien on everyone's labor, 
on the productivity of America, on your investment interest and on your 
labor.
  Ronald Reagan once said what you tax you get less of. So us, in our 
wisdom, we tax productivity in America instead of consumption. I 
suggest we eliminate the IRS, the Tax Code that goes with it, and 
transfer all of this over to a national sales tax, a consumption tax, a 
fair tax, H.R. 5 and tax consumption, take all tax off of production 
and get Uncle Sam out of the way, standing there at the time clock 
getting his first and the worker getting his later, and change this 
whole attitude. Productivity will go up in America.
  The IRS right now is a trillion dollar drag on an $11 trillion 
economy when we add the cost of funding them, enforcing them, and the 
disincentives that are in place that people decide I am not going to 
make that sales call, I am not going to do that extra overtime, I am 
not going to make that investment in that farm or industrial factory 
because the tax burden is too high.
  If we take the tax off all productivity, everybody gets the money 
they

[[Page H827]]

earned in their paycheck. Take-home pay goes up 56 percent under a 
national sales tax, and items on the shelf, their price goes down by an 
average of 22 percent because there is an imputed cost in everything 
that is sold. Businesses that provide goods for sales have to impute 
the cost of the Federal tax in that item. That is an average of 22 
percent.
  So, for example, if there is a Japanese-made Mazda that is imported 
from Japan sitting on the dealer's lot at $30,000, and pick your 
American brand sitting on the other side of the street with a $30,000 
sticker price, we remove the Federal tax that is imputed into the 
American made because it is imputed in the Japanese made overseas. We 
will see that $30,000 American-made car go down to $23,600, and the 
Japanese car is still at $30,000. By the time we add the sales tax back 
in, the American car is at $30,400 or so, but the Japanese car is 
around $39,000. We have approximately a $9,000 advantage on those two 
vehicles of equivalent value that were selling competitively at $30,000 
each. We change the tax policy, and competition drives the price out of 
the American made and now we have an advantage to market American 
goods.
  Mr. Speaker, that is one of the ways that we can address this 
imbalance of trade because we will build more products here. If we sell 
more of our products here, that means the jobs that produce them are 
here. If we import less from foreign countries, that means the jobs 
that produce those imports are going to have to be producing exports to 
go to other countries.
  We can repair this balance of trade with a national sales tax, a fair 
tax. We can change this $617.7 billion of red ink to a plus number, and 
while we are doing that, we remove the penalty for savings and 
investment. So the capital investment the gentlewoman talked about that 
really is a great indicator of where our economy is going, capital 
investment will not be punished. Form the capital, and we will see 
capital go into technology, research and development, higher ed, all of 
the things that improve the productivity of the American worker.
  By the way, we must improve the productivity of the American worker. 
We are seeing industrial equipment go overseas as well. And as we see 
that punch press or lathe going to a developing country and they train 
their workers how to use that equipment, we will never get those jobs 
back again. We do not want to compete for the wages that are being paid 
there either, but we can move our people to the top side with 
education, research and development and technology capital investment. 
They have got to produce more. We can do that with technology and a 
national sales tax, and fix this balance of trade.
  We are on the right track, but we can do more. If we go to a national 
sales tax, we will take America to another destiny yet with our 
economy.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the President's commission and this Congress to 
take a good look at real tax reform, not tweak it around the edges. We 
have done that. We have positioned ourselves well to take America to 
its next level of destiny, and I am looking forward to the 109th 
Congress for being a part of that.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, as we talk about the economy and talk 
about the need to have an economic Renaissance, to see this continue. 
As I said earlier, we have had 40 consecutive months of economic 
growth. A lot of times women do not look forward to that 40th birthday, 
but when we talk about the 40th month of economic growth, that is 
certainly a date that we want to celebrate.
  The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) mentioned tax reform and the cost 
of 22 cents of every dollar of manufactured good in this Nation being 
eaten up by compliance, and the importance of us having a wonderful 
debate about how we lower that cost so that every sector of our economy 
is going to see greater productivity and is going to see growth.
  We know that working on our tax reform issues, working on tort reform 
issues to eliminate frivolous lawsuits, are going to be a way that we 
can begin to benefit, that we can see the products that are 
manufactured here be more competitive in a global marketplace.
  As we look at the opportunities for trade in Tennessee, for example, 
where our exports have increased every year for the past 5 years, and 
we know that does equal jobs. Over the past 2 years, as the gentleman 
from Iowa (Mr. King) said, we created about 2.7 million new jobs, and 
that will soon in a couple of months be 1.5 million new jobs per year.
  There are a couple of industries that have seen good growth in the 
past couple of months: Apparel, textiles, transportation and equipment, 
electronic components and equipment, chemicals, industrial and 
commercial equipment and computers, instruments, photographic 
equipment, metals, food, wood and wood products. Virtually every State 
in the Union can claim at least one of these industrial sectors. In 
fact, one of the things that we have seen about job creation is that in 
48 of our 50 States we have seen jobs growth. That is impressive. Over 
the past year, 48 of our 50 States have seen jobs growth. That is why 
we are beginning to see this 40 months of overall economic growth, 21 
straight months where we are seeing increases in the manufacturing 
sector, and we know all of this means jobs. It all means jobs that are 
being created. We know that there is a lot of work ahead that we need 
to do to be certain that this economy keeps growing.

  Mr. Speaker, much of our focus this session is going to be on 
economic growth, economic competitiveness, doing the things that 
encourage, that create the right environment. Our government does not 
create jobs, it is this free enterprise system that creates jobs, and 
doing things so we help create the right investment, focusing on tax 
reform and trade issues, on regulatory reform and on energy 
independence. These are the areas that are going to have a tremendous 
impact on our economy as it expands. We will continue to see growth in 
those sectors.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. 
Foxx) who is new to us this Congress. The gentlewoman from North 
Carolina (Ms. Foxx) has come to our Congress this year and is serving 
on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. And much of her focus, 
even though her Ph.D. is in education, she understands the importance 
of an educated workforce and lifelong learning and developing the 
skills that are so necessary to be productive in your job, to be 
satisfied in your job. The gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) 
has some thoughts she would like to share with us tonight on economic 
competitiveness.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. 
Blackburn) is so eloquent in her words about freedom and the economy 
and what makes this country great. We have the healthiest economy in 
the world, and I want to build on the things that my colleagues have 
said. The reason we have the healthiest economy in the world is because 
we are the freest people in the world.
  I agree with what the President has been saying. If we want to see a 
good world, we want to see people have all of the rights and 
privileges, we are going to see freedom throughout the world and we are 
going to see growing economies. As again the gentlewoman from Tennessee 
(Mrs. Blackburn) said, job creation was up in 48 of the 50 States last 
year, and unemployment was down in all regions.
  I want to talk a little bit about the Job Training Improvement Act 
which is going to be voted on here tomorrow. The Committee on Education 
and the Workforce has passed it out of our committee after a great deal 
of debate. H.R. 27 is called Strengthening America's Job Training 
System. It builds on the significant reforms made in the bipartisan 
Workforce Investment Act improvements that were enacted in 1998. While 
those reforms have provided workers with resources and tools necessary 
to rejoin the workforce or retrain for better jobs, there were still 
areas of inefficiency and duplication that were remaining. What H.R. 27 
is going to do, among other things, is eliminate duplication and waste. 
It consolidates three adult job training programs into one consolidated 
adult funding stream to streamline program administration and reduce 
inefficiency at the State and local level. This change will enable more 
job seekers to be served with no reduction in services.
  Last week we talked a lot about inefficiency and waste, and this is 
another

[[Page H828]]

one of the ways that we are going to do that. We are going to ensure 
our one-stop delivery system is demand driven. We are going to remove 
barriers to job training. The bill eliminates arbitrary provisions of 
current law that prevent someone from accessing training immediately if 
appropriate to meet his or her employment goals. State and local areas 
will have the flexibility to tailor services to meet individual needs, 
and that is so important to us as we drive down the decisionmaking to 
the local level.
  The bill is also going to protect the rights of faith-based groups to 
help train and retrain workers. The bill protects the rights of faith-
based groups willing to participate in the Nation's job training 
system. The landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act makes clear that faith-based 
groups have the right to hire workers on a religious basis, and that 
such hiring practices do not constitute discrimination.
  Former President Clinton signed a number of major laws upholding this 
right. We are going to strengthen partnerships between businesses and 
job-training service providers. We are going to improve adult education 
and enhance vocational rehabilitation. The bill includes a number of 
provisions designed to strengthen the 1973 Rehabilitation Act in a 
continuing effort to help individuals with disabilities become 
employable and achieve full integration.
  I want to make a comment about a wonderfully significant thing that 
happened in the Fifth Congressional District last week related to 
increasing jobs, and that was that Dell manufacturing broke ground for 
a $100 million plant in Forsythe County. That plant is Dell's largest 
anywhere, 527,000 square feet. They are going to hire 700 people in the 
first year. Workers are going to assemble two of Dell's desktop models, 
the Dimension and the OptiPlex, in the new plant. The jobs there are 
going to pay an average of $27,000. We are about 2 weeks away from the 
start of a process where people can express interest in being hired for 
the first 200-250 jobs, then Dell will hire another 500 people. Most of 
these will be people from the Fifth Congressional District.
  We are so excited to have Dell manufacturing in Forsythe County. 
Again, I think this is an indication that the policies of this 
President and the policies of this Congress are working in terms of 
reducing taxes and making our South a very good place to bring new 
jobs.

                              {time}  2045

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentlewoman for bringing her perspective 
to the debate and for celebrating, allowing us to celebrate with the 
good people of Forsythe County, North Carolina, as they welcome 700 new 
jobs to their area. How exciting that is, and how exciting for us that 
we have a program like the workforce development programs that are very 
successful, that assist in retraining folks.
  I know in my 7th Congressional District in Tennessee, we have seen 
tremendous success with the workforce development program. As a matter 
of fact, we have a program in Montgomery County, Tennessee, that is 
really attuned to the needs of our veterans and to our military spouses 
and our military retirees. And they are going to be honored later this 
week for their excellent work that they are doing for jobs retraining, 
helping people focus on the importance of developing and having that 
career.
  Jobs and education, they go hand in hand. They are very important 
components of our economic competitiveness, just as tax reform, just as 
tort reform and the other things that we have discussed this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to recognize a member of the 
freshman class, new to us, but with a tremendous amount of experience 
in his home State of Texas where he has been a part of the business 
community, has served as a judge, and is a skilled legislator. The 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is going to speak with us for a few 
moments about some of the things that are happening in Texas as in the 
process with our economic competitiveness issues.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee. Talking about being well spoken, she certainly is, and I 
appreciate the way that she is addressing the great things that are 
beginning to or continuing to happen in the economy.
  The economy is growing. One of the things that is not, of course, is 
Social Security. It continues, as we have been told, to limp along 
about 1.5 percent, 1.6 percent. But the rest of the economy, where a 
free market is being allowed to thrive and grow, is helping to create 
jobs.
  Now, there are problems. We have not conquered them all. But what a 
great time of hope. And I have seen it, and you have expressed it, and 
you feel it in east Texas. There is an industry that is looking at 
reopening a plant in Lufkin, Texas. That is exciting, maybe bringing 4 
or 500 jobs, plus maybe several hundred more potentially once that 
occurs.
  There is excitement as people think about the potential for helping 
with tort reform. We were having hearings a couple of weeks ago and 
finding that one of the drains on the medical economy is the fact that 
70 percent of all the massive number of physicians who are sued are 
dropped without any finding of fault and without paying anything in 
settlement. Well, that is an area we are working on to help reform, to 
help eliminate; 70 percent of the physicians that are sued having to be 
sued and providing a carrot and a stick to correct that form where 
abuse has occurred.
  You know, 9/11 should have sent this economy into depression. 
Students of history, and I was talking with some students and teachers 
from Grace High School in Tyler, Texas, and they have been studying a 
number of aspects of this.
  But we should have gone into a full scale depression. But we had a 
President with courage and with vision. And despite what the naysayers 
were coming out with, he stood firm. We had tax cuts. And as we found, 
as President Kennedy knew, as President Reagan established, every time 
there has been a tax cut, it has helped the economy. Thank God for 
President Bush and his standing there firm for tax cuts. And we have 
seen the economy continue to grow.
  As the students I talked with earlier from Grace High School had 
studied, the free market system works. You know the Pilgrims, as you 
probably know, Congresswoman, they tried a communist form of 
government. And what they found was that it did not work. They nearly 
starved to death. So they had to institute free market forces and just, 
if you do not work you do not eat. And the next thing you know, they 
are thriving, crops are growing, things are going well again.
  And I tell you, we have put way too much trust in government. And I 
am excited about the potential this government has and to be a part of 
this Congress with you because I think we have more potential to get 
this country on the right road than any Congress since the 1930 New 
Deal Congress.
  We can establish free market. We can fix Social Security so young 
people today can have the benefits of the free market economy instead 
of struggling in poverty with what little bit Social Security pays. 
This President, this House, this Senate have such potential and I 
consider it an honor to be part of it.
  As it says above the Speaker's head, ``In God We Trust.'' And we need 
to make use of the trust that God has given us. And I thank you for the 
trust with some of your time.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Texas. And I would like to commend him for meeting with the students 
and working with the students from Grace High School in Tyler, Texas, 
and for their study, their caring about the free enterprise system and 
seeking greater information on that. How exciting that they are doing 
that.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, one of the things we are hearing from business 
schools all across the country, one of the things we are hearing from 
high schools, from tech schools is that more and more people are 
saying, I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own business. 
I want to see if I can grab on to that American Dream of owning my own 
company, starting a company, having an idea, watching that idea come to 
fruition in the form of a company that creates jobs.
  And it is so encouraging to me that the Republican leadership and our 
majority in this House is committed to

[[Page H829]]

doing the things that are going to be necessary to continue economic 
growth, long-term sustained economic growth like we have seen over the 
past 40 months.
  I have got another article from washingtonpost.com that I had pulled 
today. This one is really interesting. Construction spending rose a 
strong seven-tenths of a percent in January, a month when generally 
they are not going to see that kind of increase. This pushed total 
construction activity to a record high of just over $1 trillion at a 
seasonally adjusted annual rate and followed an even larger 1.2 percent 
rise in December. What we are seeing is confidence and belief and the 
fact that people believe in the strength of this economy.
  We have a freshman Member from Kentucky (Mr. Davis) who has joined 
this Congress this year. He is with us for just a few moments to talk 
about some of the good things that are happening in his State. I yield 
to the gentleman from Kentucky.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I am impressed with the fact that 
America is a land of vision and opportunity. My wife's grandparents 
came through Ellis Island and began literally with nothing. By the 
second generation, both had become professionals and had made a great 
impact on their local economies, passed that on to the third generation 
with their children, adding value, working to create jobs in the long 
term. I think the exciting thing of the values of this Nation is the 
people who have come here from every ethnic background, from every 
nation on this Earth. The great diversity has one thing in common, that 
is, a unity of vision, of opportunity, of purpose that can be 
accomplished when we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
  When I look at the numbers right now in this Nation from an 
unemployment standpoint, we stand at 5.2 percent, which is one of the 
lowest unemployments in the industrialized world, particularly in light 
of the fact that we are involved in a war that was forced upon us by 
global terrorists. When I look at the challenges that this Nation has 
faced, there has been a great turnaround during the last 4 years. More 
than that, when I look to my own district, to the Fourth District of 
Kentucky, and the tremendous steps forward that have been made in the 
manufacturing economy, that have been made in technology and in the 
creation of jobs and in the development of industry and health 
sciences, I am excited about our future. I am excited about the 
potential for our young people to move forward and have the opportunity 
to create their own future, to create jobs, to start small businesses, 
to follow in the opportunity that I had when I finished my military 
service.
  After a time in industry, I chose to pursue that vision to start my 
own company and then end up helping other companies create jobs. I 
think one of the great things that we see a need for right now is to 
continue to remove the burden of regulations, to remove the burdensome 
Tax Code, to remove the impediments to individuals at every level of 
our economy, from starting their own businesses, from creating jobs in 
our communities, that will stay in our communities, to keep capital 
investment in those communities.
  I think there are several steps that are important. First, we need to 
bring about meaningful tax reform. I believe that the tax cuts that 
were enacted in the last Congress need to be made permanent so that 
people can keep more of what they earn. I think it is important that 
the so-called death tax be completely eliminated. The reason why is it 
has nothing to do with the super-rich. It has to do with jobs in our 
communities, local farmers, small family farmers, people that own 
family businesses that have gone on for generations, to make sure that 
they have the opportunity to keep those jobs in the community. That is 
a tax that is pernicious.
  Indeed, what it does is it hurts the very people it is intended to 
help because it removes the capital from our local economy. Another 
thing that is necessary for us to do is to make sure that small 
business owners have the flexibility to overcome a burdensome Tax Code. 
If they see the opportunity in a good year to take advantage of capital 
investment to improve their competitiveness, to increase jobs in the 
local community or protect the jobs that they have, they should have 
that flexibility; and I would like to see the ability to expense 
capital investment made permanent rather than renewing it as we have 
been doing over the past 18 years.
  Education is an important area as well. We need to open up the 
tremendous opportunities to entrepreneurship that we have in our 
economy. I met recently with a new division of Northern Kentucky 
University, a pioneer in the University of Kentucky system. They have 
their own school of entrepreneurship now to encourage this creation of 
jobs in the local economy, to show people how they can start a 
business, how they can add value, how they can help people create a 
nest egg and a job that will last for the long term and create other 
jobs that will strengthen our community.
  It is also important that we continue to invest in our university 
systems and vocational and technical education. The reason for this, 
working with public-private partnerships, working closely with our 
local communities from the Federal Government is to assure that we are 
staying on the cutting edge of technology innovation, looking for 
opportunity for the long term.
  In addition, it is also important that we look at reforms that will 
allow small businesses to function. We need to bring about meaningful 
health care reform. What does that mean? Small businesses need to have 
the ability to band together and form associations to reduce the cost 
of health care. I found in my own business that my premiums, if I had 
not been elected to Congress, were going to increase 50 percent, from 
$1,200 to $1,800 a month, just for my family and my business. That is 
unconscionable. We need to encourage these small businesses and enact 
regulations that will allow them to cover more of their employees, more 
of our employees in the long term.
  In addition to that, we need to bring about meaningful medical 
liability reform as part of this health care reform. The reason for 
that is, first of all, to stop driving our doctors out of practice in 
many States. For example, in Kentucky we have lost one-third of our OB-
GYN doctors in the last 5 years due to medical liability costs. But at 
a small business and job creation level, it will be a job creator if we 
have some meaningful liability reforms, not only to keep our doctors 
but to keep the cost of health care provision low so that we could 
cover more of our employees and also be more competitive in the long 
term.
  In the end, there are a variety of steps that we can take. I am very 
excited about the potential of the American people. We have shown in a 
time of national adversity now that we can compete, that we can have a 
strong economy, that we can create jobs; and when I look at one of the 
largest employers in northeastern Kentucky, a very prominent steel mill 
that is creating jobs, that is hiring, that is competing effectively in 
the world economy now, I know that we are going to be successful.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for talking with 
us a few moments about what he is seeing happening and his desire to 
see some changes take place here in the policies that we will make, the 
things that we will implement in this Congress, in the 109th Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I do a lot and that I had the 
opportunity to do over the break is to visit with small business 
owners. I heard repeatedly from them that what they do not want and 
what they do not need is more taxes, more regulation, and more 
government. We hear them. The Republicans hear them. This majority 
hears them. We understand what they are saying. Unfortunately, I have a 
lot of colleagues who are not listening to these small business owners. 
I think it is important to note, small businesses in America represent 
over 90 percent of all employers and employ half of all private sector 
employees. They pay 44.3 percent of the total U.S. private payroll.
  That is our small businesses and entrepreneurs that we have talked 
about today, the people that are starting businesses, that are creating 
so many of these jobs. Small businesses generate 60 to 80 percent of 
the net new jobs growth annually.

[[Page H830]]

                              {time}  2100

  That is why it is so important that we carry forth on this commitment 
to be certain that we have the right environment for an economic 
renaissance in this country. Small businesses are the Nation's economic 
engine, and Republicans have worked to reduce their tax burden so that 
they have the ability to create more jobs. We have passed legislation 
that will give them more affordable health care options for their 
employees, Association Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts.
  Republicans have passed legislation to stem the tide of frivolous 
lawsuits, and we are continuing to do more on the tort reform issues.
  We are planning and continue to work daily on trade and opening 
foreign markets for American-made goods so that our employers in our 
local communities have access to markets around the globe, ways that 
they can place their products before a world that is ready to buy them. 
And we are trying to make certain that manufacturers are not being 
treated unfairly and that they have the opportunity to be competitive 
in a global marketplace.
  Republicans want to pass a comprehensive energy policy so that 
America's economic growth is not held hostage to foreign energy 
production. We want to harness more of our domestic energy. We believe 
excessive government growth in spending crowds businesses out of the 
marketplace. We know that when there is a need, if government fills 
that need, then the private or not-for-profit sector does not move in 
and fill that need. We know that the growth of government needs to be 
curtailed so that less of the taxpayers' money is being required to pay 
for the government, so that taxpayers keep that money in their pocket. 
Reducing the size of government is what we have talked about over the 
past couple of weeks as we have talked about rooting out waste, fraud, 
and abuse and reducing the size of the Federal Government.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a plan that will drive economic growth, that 
will continue to drive economic growth. We have had 40 months of 
overall economic growth. We would like to see another 40 months of 
economic growth and job creation for Americans. We have had 2.7 million 
jobs created in just under the past couple of years. We have 21 months 
where we have seen manufacturing increases. We had our last quarter of 
2004 with 3.8 percent economic growth.
  The fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats is that 
we have a plan to continue to drive economic growth. And all of our 
small business owners, myself included, we know the cost that 
regulation imposes and the importance of rolling back regulation.
  Among the top complaints that we receive from small business owners 
has to do with the Federal Tax Code, the cost of compliance. The 
gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) spoke to that earlier. Twenty-two cents 
of every single dollar of manufactured goods in this Nation is spent in 
compliance. That is an obstacle that we need to get rid of, and we are 
committed to working on that. We know this Tax Code is overly 
complicated, it is time-consuming, and it is incredibly frustrating for 
millions of small business owners in this Nation. That is why 
Republicans are committed to a code that is flatter, that is fairer, 
and absolutely is simpler not only for individuals but for our Nation's 
small businesses.
  Mr. Speaker, all over we have got a plan. It is the better plan. And 
we know the problems that are facing our Nation's economy. We know the 
problems that are facing this Nation's employers, whether they be small 
or whether they be large, whether they are small businesses or whether 
they are big business. And, Mr. Speaker, one thing that we know for 
sure in this 109th Congress, we are committed to moving forward on 
commonsense reforms that will continue to work toward greater 
effectiveness and greater competitiveness for our Nation's economy.

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