[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 14, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
                      THE PEOPLE'S HOUSE FOR SALE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Conaway). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, the real estate bubble may be bursting in 
some markets around America, but here in Washington, D.C., real estate 
is still a great investment.
  You may have missed the listing, but it appears that the U.S. 
Capitol, the People's House, was bought with a down payment of a mere 
$1.6 billion, $1.16 billion from lobbyists here in town. Or at least 
that is what the special interests spent on lobbying the Republican 
Congress in the first 6 months of 2005.
  And what exactly does about $1 billion from lobbyists get you these 
days in a home like the People's House?
  If you are an oil and gas company, you have done $87 million in 
lobbying expenses. What does it buy you? $14.5 billion in subsidies 
from taxpayers. $14.5 billion from taxpayers in subsidies so you can 
just do your business plan. They spent $87 million and got a $14.5 
billion gift from the taxpayers.
  $87 million will also allow to you pump about $65 billion worth of 
oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico, and you do not pay a single 
royalty, costing the taxpayers $7 billion. That is $7 billion that 
could pay for child support collections, $7 billion that could pay for 
college education, $7 billion that can create new broadband expansion, 
everything that we would be doing. $7 billion could pay down the 
deficit.
  No, taxpayers have been asked to forgo all the royalty that is owed 
to them, and the oil and gas companies walked away with it, $14.5 
billion in taxpayers subsidies. All the while, while energy is about 
little north of 60 bucks a barrel. That is right, 60 bucks a barrel. We 
are subsidizing big oil and big energy companies who also have made 
record profits.
  Now, I think that is great. I think Exxon Mobil should make all the 
money they want to make. But why are subsidizing them when they are 
making record profits to do nothing but their business plan? I don't 
know of another family that has their family budget subsidized by the 
rest of the taxpayers to this level. $87 million investment and 
contributions got them $14.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies and 
basically a pass on $7 billion they owe the taxpayers for having 
drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.
  But that is not just alone in the energy sector. Let us talk a look 
at the health care sector. They have given about $173 million in 
contributions, lobbying activities, all types of expenses. Drug 
manufacturers saw an extra $139 billion in profits over the next 8 
years from the prescription drug bill. HMOs, $130 billion in additional 
profits through Medicare overpayments. There is actually a section in 
the prescription drug bill called the HMO slush fund for $10 billion. 
Where else can you get an investment like that? You cannot get an 
investment that gives you 100 percent return on your money on Wall 
Street.
  My grandmother used to say, with a deal like this, where you 
basically give $173 million and you get $132 billion profit, such a 
deal is what my grandmother used to say. Nowhere except in Washington, 
D.C., in a Republican Congress can you give $87 million and get $14 
billion in return. Give $173 million and get $132 billion in return. 
That is close to a hundred percent return on your money.
  So what do the American people get out of this blue-light special and 
how do we get out of this? We have created a structural deficit to the 
system and a system that works against the American people and the 
taxpayers, whether you are a senior citizen who is struggling with this 
prescription drug bill which is total chaos but has guaranteed and 
locked in profits for HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, or whether you 
are a consumer going to pump paying close to three bucks a gallon, and 
yet we are also paying on April 15 subsidizing the big companies. Yes, 
there are 30 different insurance forms for a senior citizen to try to 
figure out which drug they can get matched with.
  Now do you think the oil and gas companies fill out 30 different 
forms for oil and gas leasing or for their $14.5 billion in taxpayer 
subsidies? No, they do not. Now there are over 100 questions for a kid 
who is just trying to apply for a student loan for about $2,000, yet we 
do not force oil and gas companies, pharmaceutical companies, HMO 
companies to fill out forms like that when it comes to the subsidies we 
are providing these companies.
  It is time to end corporate welfare as we know it. The People's House 
and the Speaker's gavel when it comes down it is intended to open up 
the People's House, not the auction house. In the last 5 years, this 
place has looked like an auction house, whether it is oil and gas 
companies, whether it is HMO companies, whether it is pharmaceutical 
companies. In fact, last year, we had a corporate tax bill on the 
floor. It was supposed to solve a $5 billion problem. By the time the 
Republican Congress was done with it, $150 billion it cost the 
taxpayers. Time and again, we are paying for the types of wheeling and 
dealing and what goes as business as usual.
  If you go out to the north side of the lawn here at the People's 
House you will see the for sale sign, and the lobbyists have paid a 
little over a billion dollars and gotten everything money can buy. So 
it is time in this election that we turn the People's House back and 
that gavel back to its rightful owner, the American people.

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