[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 15, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H306-H312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE OFFICIAL TRUTH SQUAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, what a great pleasure it is to 
come and speak to the House tonight about a number of different topics. 
I want to thank the leadership and the conference for giving me the 
opportunity to lead an hour here and talk about things that are of 
utmost importance to our citizens all across this Nation.
  When I have talked with some of my constituents, many of my 
constituents at home, over and over and over again I hear them say, 
what is going on up there in Washington, why has the discussion, the 
personal animosity that seems to be brought to so many of our debates, 
why is that occurring? It is a great question because it does a 
disservice to us all; it really does.
  What we are beginning tonight is what we are calling the Official 
Truth Squad. This is our new logo of the Official Truth Squad, and we 
thought that was appropriate because there are so many times that you 
hear on the floor inaccuracies here, and so we thought it was 
appropriate to put together a group of folks that would come as often 
as needed to bring some truth.
  To start that truth, I just wanted to set kind of the premise of why 
people are so disgusted, what kinds of things that are being said that 
make people so doggone disgusted with some of the language that is 
going on up here in Washington.
  These are real quotes; and I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that 
people

[[Page H307]]

hear these things because, again, it does a disservice to the whole 
debate. These are quotes from Howard Dean, who is the chairman of the 
Democratic party. This is a quote just a year ago: ``I hate Republicans 
and everything they stand for.'' Can you imagine that? What an awful 
thing to say to at least a third of the Nation, if not more, to 
individuals who voted in the last general election for President, over 
half of the individuals that voted, and that kind of tenor is just 
wrong. It is just wrong. It does not help anything.
  Just 6 months ago or so, he said: ``Republicans, a lot of them 
haven't made an honest living in their lives.'' What kind of nonsense 
is that? What kind of disservice does that do to our Nation?
  We have heard some of that same kind of tone here on the House floor, 
and so we endeavored to put together a group that would talk about the 
truth, talk about real things, and try to bring some real information 
to our citizens all across this Nation.
  Daniel Patrick Moynihan, I do not have the exact quote, but he said 
something like, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but they are 
not entitled to their own facts; everyone's entitled to their own 
opinion but not their own facts. So we thought we would bring some 
facts, and we will do that over this next hour and over the next number 
of days as we come and talk with folks.
  This Official Truth Squad grew out of the freshman class group of 24 
or 25 of us who get together on a frequent basis, and we thought it was 
an appropriate thing to do to counter what has come to be known as the 
culture of cynicism, the culture of pessimism and the culture of 
negativity that we oftentimes hear from the other side. So we hope to 
bring a much more positive outlook, a much more positive view, frankly, 
of our Nation and to bring some facts to the table that I think and we 
think are appropriate just so people have the right kind of information 
out there to make decisions, to figure out what their government is 
doing and what it is not doing and what it ought to be doing.
  With that, I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues, and first to 
come talk to you about some things as its relates to the economy and 
the budget is the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx). She is a 
member of the freshman class. I have come to know and respect her so 
highly. She has a background in education and is just as principled as 
they come and as frankly positive as one could be about the outlook for 
our Nation. So the gentlewoman is going to spend a few moments and talk 
with you about the economy and the budget.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) 
very much for inaugurating the Truth Squad here tonight. I think it is 
high time that many of us came here to the well and shared the truth 
against many of the negative things that have been said night after 
night after night on this floor.
  I am very positive about our country. It is the greatest country in 
the world, and it is the only place I know of where people are dying to 
get into. We need to make sure that the positive things about this 
country are talked about.
  I want to talk a little bit tonight about the important role this 
Congress is going to continue to play in balancing our budget by 
spending our constituents' money wisely and by putting our national 
priorities in order. I also am looking forward to exposing this 
hypocrisy that has been exhibited here night after night by people who 
are quick to lament our Nation's problems but unwilling to take 
positive action towards solutions.
  The Congress must become a better steward of the taxpayers' dollars, 
and we must do it now. Our constituents deserve to send less of their 
hard-earned dollars to Washington and spend more on their families, 
businesses, and dreams. By cutting spending and cutting taxes, we will 
allow citizens to have more time with their families because they will 
not be having to work so much. Our constituents meticulously budget 
their dollars at their kitchen tables, and we owe it to them to do the 
same thing here in Washington. It is their dollars we spend, not ours.
  Cutting Federal spending is not an easy thing to do. We have seen 
this even as freshmen. However, it is the right thing to do, and my 
colleagues who join me here tonight recognize this important 
distinction and important responsibility to do what is right over what 
is easy.
  We had the chance recently to slow the growth of Federal spending, 
and I am proud that this House did the right thing by passing the 
Deficit Reduction Act. However, those very same Democrats who come here 
night after night and complain about the deficit were unwilling to roll 
up their sleeves and get to work to actually solve the problem. They 
had their chance to contribute to a solution with the Deficit Reduction 
Act, but they took the easy way out by voting against the bill. The 
Deficit Reduction Act is one of the long-term solutions for the future 
that we are supporting.
  It is easy to hand out money willy-nilly. However, it is not easy to 
find areas to reduce chronic spending; but reduce Federal spending we 
must, and we must demand more accountability for that spending.
  My constituents work hard, and more of them are working than ever 
before. More people are working all over this country than ever before. 
They have adapted to our changing economy; and as a result of sound 
economic policy, more of them are in good jobs than ever before. We 
have reduced the tax burden on American workers and small businesses, 
and our economy is strong.
  The money coming into the Federal Government has increased 
dramatically; but, unfortunately, the money we spend has increased 
dramatically, also. It is the taxpayers' money we spend; and we must be 
responsible, meticulous, frugal and effective in the ways the Federal 
Government spends this money.
  As this Congress takes up the fiscal year 2007 budget, I hope my 
colleagues will maintain that mentality. We have made great progress 
with the Deficit Reduction Act, but we must do much more to transition 
from deficit reduction to deficit elimination.
  I also call on the Democrats to contribute to the solution and to do 
the right thing by finding commonsense ways to reduce Federal spending. 
While we are here tonight to expose some blatant hypocrisy by the 
quick-to-complain Democrats, I would also like to invite them to start 
doing the right thing. I would love to see some Democrats join us in 
calling for reduced spending. I would love to see them back it up with 
a vote for reduced spending. It is not the easy thing to do, but it is 
the right thing to do.

                              {time}  1945

  It is unfair to leave our children and grandchildren with massive 
debts resulting from overspending. The President's budget is a further 
attempt to help spare younger generations from debts that they do not 
deserve, but we must keep making progress with what the President 
outlined.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues for joining me 
tonight in highlighting this important issue. I am really proud to be a 
part of the Truth Squad, made up only of House Republicans; and I would 
like to reiterate my hope that Democrats will join us in doing the 
right thing, however difficult, by slowing Federal spending. I look 
forward to working with them to restore fiscal accountability and 
restraint so we can continue to trim and soon eliminate the Federal 
deficit.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Price for hosting this hour, and I am 
looking forward to many more evenings of our presenting to the American 
people the facts about our economy.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's 
participation and involvement. It brings light to the appropriate 
problem and the appropriate solution. The problem is too much spending. 
The problem that we have here in Washington is too much spending, which 
means the appropriate solution is to decrease that spending. The 
Deficit Reduction Act was a move in the right direction, to decrease 
spending by $40 billion.
  Mr. Speaker, I know it is hard to believe, but we did not get a 
single vote from anybody on the other side of the aisle for something 
that is a move in the right direction. Was it as much as we would like? 
Certainly not. But without any help from the other side, things get 
much more difficult. We appreciate the gentlewoman bringing us the 
truth as it surrounds the budget.

[[Page H308]]

  I am pleased now to yield to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. 
Blackburn) who, although not a member of the freshman class, we have 
adopted because she brings such clarity of thought to the issues. She 
has presented the optimistic and positive view of our Nation and the 
hard work we are doing to move our Nation forward. I am pleased she is 
able to join us tonight and talk a little bit about the budget.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia, and 
kudos to Mr. Price and the other freshmen class members for starting 
the Truth Squad. I know that each and every one of you are going to do 
a great job as you take issue by issue that comes before this body, 
issues that are so important to the American people because we want to 
be certain that we do a few things while we are here, that we are good 
stewards of the taxpayers' money, that we are diligent in preserving 
freedom because we know that our children and our grandchildren deserve 
the opportunity to have the ability to dream big dreams and, as we said 
last night, to grow up in a safe, free and secure world. We want that 
for them, and we want that for every American citizen.
  Certainly being certain that we focus on our economic security is 
important. As I said, last night we talked about national security and 
that importance, that we have that free, safe world. Tonight we will be 
looking at economic security. Congresswoman Foxx always speaks so well, 
and I loved what she was saying about the spending habits of 
Washington.
  Mr. Speaker, some of my constituents remind me regularly that 
Washington does not have a revenue problem, Washington has a spending 
problem. This great big bureaucracy that is built up around Washington 
has a tendency to eat up those tax dollars that come from the local 
communities in Washington and somehow never get back out there to the 
programs.
  I think one thing we all would agree on is that Washington is never 
going to get enough of your money. It is never going to get enough of 
your money. It has an endless appetite for your money. Certainly Ronald 
Reagan's statement that there is nothing so close to eternal life on 
earth as a Federal Government program, we see that borne out every 
single day. We as conservatives keep focusing on that spending problem. 
We keep focusing on ways to reduce Federal spending.
  Certainly we have made some inroads. The gentleman mentioned the 
Deficit Reduction Act which was and is a plan that is going to yield a 
savings for the American people. In this, we saw the 1 percent 
reduction. How we pushed to get those bills in there. Last year, we had 
bills, and the gentleman from Georgia joined me in sponsoring those 
bills for 1, 2 and 5 percent across-the-board reductions so that we 
would begin to prioritize.
  That is what the American people want us to do, to prioritize, to 
make decisions about where is the best way, the very best way for this 
government to function so that it is continuing to provide the services 
and the infrastructure that we need to be the greatest Nation in the 
world. That is what they want to see from us. We were so pleased to see 
those reductions included in that Deficit Reduction Act. Yes, indeed, 
we are going to be working to be certain that we do that again this 
year.
  One of the good things about the Truth Squad and what you all are 
going to do over the next many months is to bring forward ideas, to 
bring forward ideas. How do we make this government more efficient, how 
do we make it more effective, how are we certain that we are 
prioritizing and meeting the needs and desires of the American people, 
and how do we hold the Federal Government accountable for the dollars 
that they are going to spend. Because it is not government's money, it 
is the taxpayers' money.
  I know that Representative Conaway is going to speak in a few more 
moments. I hope he is going to talk about the Federal Programs Offset 
Reduction Act that he introduced today. I am cosponsoring that bill. 
That is the type of innovative idea that we need to see brought 
forward. If you are going to propose a new program, then, by golly, get 
in this budget and find something that is duplicative, that has 
outlived its usefulness, that is wasteful and eliminate it. If you are 
going to do something new, take away something that is not working.
  As I have co-chaired the Task Force on Waste, Fraud and Abuse, that 
has been one of the creative suggestions and one of the 
recommendations, programs like that that we are looking for. We are 
looking forward to supporting Mr. Conaway in that work because we know 
it is our responsibility to be a good steward. We know that it is our 
responsibility to keep in mind that Washington is never going to get 
enough of the taxpayers' money, and we know that it is our 
responsibility to remember that Washington does not have a revenue 
problem. It gets plenty of money. Washington has a spending problem.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee for coming and providing great light for some of the 
principles that we ought to be holding dear here.
  One, we ought to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money. We 
oftentimes see Washington just spending too doggone much money. People 
know that. They understand and appreciate that.
  They also understand that Republicans are the team that has the 
ideas, as Mrs. Blackburn said, to decrease spending. She has provided 
great leadership in providing a bill that would reduce spending across 
the board at the Federal level by 1, 2 and 5 percent each. So take your 
pick. Where do you feel comfortable? I, frankly, would support as much 
as we can do. I know she would as well.

  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Conaway), another member of the freshman class of the 109th Congress, a 
Member I have come to respect very highly for so many things but 
especially for his financial acumen. He is a CPA in his real job, his 
real life, and he has brought great interest and enthusiasm to the 
challenges we have in the economy and in the budget. He sits on the 
Budget Committee. I am pleased to have him join us to talk about the 
budget and where we are headed in the future.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for not 
only those kind words but also for creating the Truth Squad and being 
the motivating factor behind that. I think it is going to do us good to 
come here from time to time to talk about these things.
  I also want to thank my colleague from Tennessee for those very kind 
words. The bill the gentlewoman is talking about would actually be a 
change in the House rules for next session, the 110th Congress, and 
that is if you can find something that the Federal Government is not 
already currently doing, in order to convince us that new program 
should come into existence, you have to do away with an existing 
program of equal or greater spending.
  In other words, if your new program is not more important than some 
other program in the vast array of public programs, basically you are 
telling us this new proposed program is the least important thing that 
our Federal Government can do. If that is the case, obviously why would 
we do it?
  Now the great thing about being freshmen, except for Mrs. Blackburn, 
is that we do not know what we are not supposed to suggest and we do 
not know what, quote/unquote, cannot be done. I know this is going to 
cross jurisdictional lines within committees, and some would say that 
it puts a damper on the creative spirit that brings these new programs 
to life. In the short run, maybe that is not a bad idea. Nancy Reagan 
had it right when she said just say no to drugs. Maybe we should say 
just say no to new programs for a little cooling off period and get an 
evaluation.
  The President in his budget came up with 141 programs that through 
the evaluation process, an objective evaluation process, that could be 
targets for this program.
  What I would like to talk about tonight is the reason why the 
discussions we are having tonight are so important and try to add a 
little sense of urgency to the overall issue of the budget for 2007. 
That is the long-term look, the 50-year look at the growth in the 
Federal Government, growth in Federal spending.
  I would argue with just about anybody that the single biggest threat 
to

[[Page H309]]

our way of life is the growth in Federal spending over the next 50 
years. Now I say that with a recognition that we are at war, the global 
war on terror is important and it is a crisis that we ought to have to 
deal with, but I think spending of the Federal Government will ruin the 
American way of life.
  If you look at studies done by the Congressional Budget Office, they 
have recently posted one to their Website, CBO.gov. If you look at that 
long-term study in the growth in Federal spending, it will frighten you 
or it should frighten you and add a sense of urgency to the need for 
what we are doing here and what we are discussing here tonight, and 
that is to try to trim back the rate of growth in this government.
  Today, we spend an equivalent amount of 20 percent of our gross 
domestic product. It is consumed by the Federal Government. That $2.7 
trillion, in round numbers, that we will approve for the 2007 budget is 
about 20 percent of GDP. Our current tax revenues, all revenues for the 
Federal Government, are about 18 percent. So we are creating a deficit 
that we all have to deal with and decry. Nobody defends the deficit and 
nobody thinks it is the best way to go, but being an accountant and a 
CPA, those are the facts. As the photographer said, if you want a 
prettier picture, you need to bring me a prettier face.
  But let us look at that spending out over 45 years. In the year 2050, 
if you look at the CBO report, the Federal Government will consume 
about 50 percent of gross domestic product. My colleague from Atlanta 
knows the world has never seen a free market enterprise country where 
the central government can consume half the GDP and the rest of the 
country prosper on the other half. It just does not work that way.
  So we have two choices as I see it. One, reduce the rate of growth 
and reduce the programs that are not sustainable and bring the 
projected growth in Federal Government in line with what tax revenues 
can be. Or out of whole cloth, come up with a brand new economic 
system, a brand new way of doing business that will allow the central 
government to consume half, and the rest of us prosper and grow and 
have a better standard of living on the other half.
  Today, we had hearings in the Budget Committee. We had General David 
Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office; we had 
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was the immediate past chair or the director 
of the Congressional Budget Office; and we had Elizabeth Sawhill from 
the Brookings Institute, three individuals with impeccable credentials 
in this area. They bring a great deal of credibility to the table.
  Today in the hearings they were unanimous in the problem we are 
talking about, in their agreement with the problem we are talking.
  Now GAO's estimate is about 40 percent of GDP by 2050, and the 
Congressional Budget Office is about 50 percent. There is a margin of 
error there that is irrelevant when you look at revenues. The question 
was asked, can we grow our way out of this problem? And the short 
answer was eloquent in its brevity. All three simply said, no, we 
cannot grow our way out of it.

                              {time}  2000

  We cannot grow our way out of it, an elegance to that answer that was 
deafening in the room. So we cannot grow our way out of it.
  It requires us to begin to make choices today that are easier than 
the choices available to us next year, and are clearly easier today 
than any choice we will have 3 years from now regarding how we will 
begin to reduce the rate of growth in this Federal Government.
  As I have said, in this Chamber we give speeches, and with hyperbole 
we typically overreach and puff and brag in order to convince our 
colleagues that our particular argument is correct.
  But a threat to our way of life, the threat to my grandchildren, your 
grandchildren, is there. It is imminent when you look at the long term. 
The bad news about it is it is not imminent in the sense that it is 
going to happen tomorrow afternoon.
  We as Americans just tend to deal with today's issue, tomorrow's 
issue, maybe next week's issue; but we rarely want to take a look at 45 
years down the road and make some hard choices that we have today. Let 
me finish up with one quick anecdote about the importance of doing 
this.
  I have six wonderful grandchildren that I am incredibly proud of. 
When I talk in the district to town hall meetings and groups like this, 
I typically ask all the grandparents to raise their hands. You get a 
good smattering of those folks.
  I say, which grandparent in the room today would take their 
grandchildren to their local bank and say, Mr. Local Banker, I want to 
borrow every dollar in this bank, but I want my grandchildren to sign 
the note. I want them to be responsible for paying it off. I am going 
to take the money, and I am going to spend it on a few good things, but 
I want to spend it the way I see fit. But I want you to look at my 
grandchildren and make them pay off that debt.
  There is not a grandparent in the room that says yes. There is not a 
grandparent anywhere that I know of who would take that. Then I look at 
them and say that is exactly what we are doing as a group. Our 
collective conduct is doing just that. By 2050, we will have an 
economic model that cannot be sustained, and the size of the Federal 
Government cannot be supported by any level of taxation that would make 
sense.
  In an attempt to add some sense of urgency to the importance of what 
our colleagues, you and our other colleagues, are talking about tonight 
with respect to this year's budget and next year's budget and next 
year's spending, the long look is important. As I said to start with, I 
believe that this is the single biggest threat to our way of life that 
we face, that is, acknowledging the fact that we are at war with some 
pretty terrible people.
  Dr. Price, I appreciate you allowing me to speak with the group 
tonight. I appreciate you allowing me this time, and thank you for your 
leadership in this Truth Squad effort as we go forward in the second 
session of the 109th Congress.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thank you so much, Congressman Conaway, for 
your clarity. Clarity of thought is not often seen here in Washington. 
You have just laid out for us, really, a pretty foreboding picture that 
in a relatively short period of time, less than one lifetime, the 
government, if not changed, will spend 45, 50 percent of the GDP on 
government, on government programs. That just cannot be done, as you 
say.
  The positive thing that you mention is we can solve it. We can solve 
it if we all knuckle down and get to work together, which I think is 
the uplifting message that we need to give to the American people, 
because it can be solved. We just have to do it together and do it 
positively.
  Thank you so much for coming and joining us this evening.
  We are joined now by Thelma Drake, Congresswoman Drake, who is 
another member of the freshman class and another member of the Official 
Truth Squad who oftentimes comes to the floor and just provides great 
insight into so many different areas. She is a Representative from 
Virginia, has owned a small business, understands what it means to sign 
the front side of a paycheck, and has great insight into the economy 
and the budget itself. I want to thank you so much for joining us 
tonight.
  She is going to talk a little bit more about the budget.
  Mrs. DRAKE. Thank you, Congressman Price. I want to thank you for 
this effort, because this is a big effort to bring people together to 
come and talk about America. I really chuckled when I heard 
Congresswoman Blackburn talk about Ronald Reagan's quote, that no 
program has eternal life like a Federal program.
  You will remember, in the President's budget last year, in our very 
first year as freshmen here, that he did propose cuts in programs, and 
he has proposed cuts in programs this year.
  The theory behind that is there is no way to end programs without 
making very, very hard choices. But I do admire that the President and 
this Congress are willing to look at does a program work, what are the 
results, and how could that money be used if it were used somewhere 
else. There are two things that I hear back home, and one is, when are 
you going to balance the budget, and when are you going to control 
spending?

[[Page H310]]

  But then, of course, if a program is cut, the next thing I hear is, 
why was that program cut? Of course, you and I understand, when we say 
cut, now, with these programs, we are talking about cutting. But 
usually when someone says something was cut, they usually mean it is a 
reduction in the growth of spending. I think that is clear that we need 
to talk about that so the public does not believe that there has 
actually been a reduction.
  With my staff, I look at them and say, don't tell me percentages; 
give me the dollar amount for last year, the dollar amount for this 
year, and then we can stop talking about cuts. Medicaid. We have heard 
from constituents at home who say I want to talk to you about cuts in 
Medicaid. I say, do you mean the 7 percent growth as opposed to the 7.4 
percent growth that was projected before?

  But last year as a freshman, when people would come to me, and they 
would say the President has cut my program, I would explain the 
President's philosophy, which was, let's look for programs that work, 
let's look for programs that don't.
  So I would say, maybe the President has made a mistake, and maybe his 
information is wrong. If you would like to come back to me with the 
good information, we will take it to the President.
  Not one person ever came back.
  I learned as a child in school that taxes are what we pay for 
civilization. We as Americans all believe in that. We know that we have 
a responsibility to Americans who are less fortunate. We have the grave 
responsibility of defending this Nation, of educating our children, 
that we have huge responsibilities on us. But one of the greatest 
responsibilities, I think, is to ensure that every dollar we spend of 
taxpayer money is spent wisely.
  But what I was really thinking about, when I came over here tonight, 
because I came over here tonight to talk about how great our Nation is, 
as I came to the floor, one of the things I thought was how quickly we 
as Americans have recovered since the very devastating attacks of 9/11.
  We gathered our strength and our resolve and, through the courage of 
our fighting men and women, have taken the battle to the terrorists who 
despise our love of freedom and our open society. We have risen as a 
beacon of hope to those who live in the Middle East and yearn for the 
freedoms that we have.
  Perhaps the most important thing about Americans and what we have 
been attacked for, and please believe me, the targets that they took 
were not chosen at random, when the terrorists attacked the Twin Towers 
on 9/11, they did that because they are important symbols to our 
commitment to capitalism and to free and open markets. They struck us 
at our core. What they intended to injure was our spirit.
  It was here that they failed, because they underestimated the 
strength of the American people. The American people know that while 
bricks and mortar can be torn down, that our resolve and commitment to 
the principles that define us cannot be harnessed.
  We have weathered a very difficult recession. We have weathered the 
attacks of 9/11. We have experienced the burst of the telecom bubble; 
and now we find ourselves, once again, in an economy that is exploding 
with growth and opportunity.
  Today our economy is experiencing significant growth. Since the 
second quarter of 2003, we have experienced an average of 3.8 percent 
quarterly gross domestic product growth. Nearly 4.7 million new jobs 
have been created since that time, and today's unemployment rate is at 
4.7 percent. That is lower on average than the seventies, eighties and 
nineties. 2.1 million jobs have been created in the past year, and 
193,000 were created in the past month alone.
  Congressman Price, I would say that tells a very important story 
about our Nation. Real after-tax income has grown by 7 percent since 
2001. The average hourly wage is up 3.3 percent over the past 12 
months, the largest 12-month increase in just under 3 years. Inflation 
remains low. Consumer confidence is at a 3-year high, and homeownership 
is at an all-time high. Tax revenues for fiscal year 2005 grew by 14.6 
percent over fiscal year 2004. That has resulted in a $120 billion 
reduction in the deficit.
  This is a perfect example that there is such a thing as taxpayer 
behavior, that when you allow people to keep their own money, they 
create jobs, they save it, they invest it, they spend it, they grow our 
economy. I believe, and I know that you believe, that our tax policy 
must support our economy, and it must grow our revenues.
  Congress is currently in the process of renewing aspects of the 
legislation, the tax cuts, that have brought a lot of this economic 
growth about.
  But today is not a day to rest on our laurels. Leadership is about 
creating a vision of where we want to go and how we want to get there. 
It is not enough to create a favorable climate for economic growth. 
This majority has a clear vision of how we can help Americans succeed 
in this climate.
  You and I both serve on the House Education and Workforce Committee. 
We both know how hard our committee has worked to provide greater 
educational opportunities for Americans from all backgrounds, as well 
as to provide assistance for prospective employees to receive the 
skills and training they need to be competitive in today's workforce. 
You and I know the committee will continue to work hard this year.
  I also think it is important, as I close, to just talk about who in 
America pays taxes. One of the things that we have heard over and over 
again is that the tax cuts are for the top 1 percent of America. 
Americans do not realize that 50 percent of our people pay over 96 
percent of the taxes. The top 50 percent pay 96.5 percent of our taxes.
  That means the bottom 50 percent wage earners pay 3.5 percent of our 
taxes. Forty-four million Americans are estimated to owe zero Federal 
taxes this year and will receive a dollar-for-dollar rebate for their 
withholding tax, thanks to the 10 percent bracket that was created.
  I think it is the least-told story of the year, how great our economy 
has done, the success of the tax policies. I think it is a story 
America needs to hear, and I thank you for giving us the opportunity to 
stand and talk about America, how great our Nation is, how wonderfully 
our economy is growing, and that we are committed to the policies that 
will continue that growth, continue to improve the lifestyles of all 
Americans.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. What a wonderful vision you have created and 
the great story that you have told about the recovery after 9/11 and 
the incredible economy that we have going in America right now.
  Often at home, people do not understand that. They aren't getting 
told that, certainly not on the nightly news and not in the newspaper. 
Thank you so very, very much for joining us.
  I also want to just highlight what Representative Drake said about 
the words that are used here in Washington. So often you hear about 
cutting this and cutting that. In fact, things are not being cut. We 
will talk a little bit more about that in just a minute.
  Oftentimes, things are just decreasing the rate of increase, which is 
a little different way to say it, but it has been said that Washington 
is the only place where a decrease in the amount of growth that was 
projected is considered a cut. We just have to suffer with that.
  That is why we are joining you tonight as the Official Truth Squad, 
to bring some real facts, some truth to the issue of the economy. I 
wanted to expand a little bit on what I hear at home when people talk 
about the kind of news that they see on television or the kind of 
things that they most often read in the paper.

                              {time}  2015

  They want to know why are they not hearing these good things about 
America.
  To highlight once again some of the statistics about our economy, 17 
straight quarters of growth, 17 straight quarters of growth. The home 
ownership rate in our Nation now is at an all-time high. Nearly 70 
percent of Americans own their own home, 70 percent. What an incredible 
story that is, and it cuts across all demographic lines and all sectors 
of our society. And that is positive. That is a positive thing, that is 
a good thing, and it is the result of the economic policies that have 
been put in place here in this Congress.

[[Page H311]]

  Unemployment rate: 4.7 percent. Four point seven percent. And most 
economists will tell you that 5 percent unemployment is full employment 
because we have got people looking for jobs or looking to change their 
job or moving, those kinds of things. Five percent is full employment. 
Right now, our unemployment rate is 4.7 percent. Four point seven 
million new jobs in the last 5 years. Good news. Great news. It really 
is.
  And because you occasionally get that, this is today's Wall Street 
Journal. The other side likes to talk about their third-party 
validators. Here is a third-party validator, a Wall Street Journal, 
front page story today: ``Retail Sales surge 2.3 percent, Underlining 
Economy's Health. A 2.3 percent increase in sales. That just shows the 
kind of wonderful and good economy that we have got going. So we have 
got a plan. We have got a plan to continue to increase the wonderful 
performance of this economy.
  I wanted to talk a little bit more about some truthful aspects that 
ought to be discussed, and Representative Drake talked about this, this 
chart here, again trying to bring some truth to the issue of who pays 
taxes. Oftentimes, we hear that the wealthy do not pay any taxes in 
this Nation at all and they have all sorts of ways to get around paying 
taxes. And this graph is so telling because oftentimes we hear, Mr. 
Speaker, that a picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture is.
  We have got six bars here. The first bar here is the top 1 percent of 
wage earners in this Nation, and then, on this ordinate here, we have 
got the percent of taxes that they pay. Out of 100 percent of taxes 
here in America, what percent did the top 1 percent of wage earners 
pay? Thirty-four point two seven percent. Over a third of the taxes in 
this Nation paid by the top 1 percent wage earners. And if you go on 
down, the top 5 percent pay over 50 percent of the taxes in this 
Nation.
  These numbers are not my numbers. These are official numbers, and it 
just is really telling.
  When we look down at that fifth bar, the largest bar there, that is 
the top percent, 50 percent of wage earners. That is half of the wage 
earners in this Nation. And the top 50 percent, as Congresswoman Drake 
said, pay 96.54 percent of the taxes. The bottom 50 percent of wage 
earners pay less than 4 percent.
  So when you hear that the wealthy in this Nation are not paying their 
fair share, I do not know about you, but I would say that this 
distribution is not unfair to those at the lower end of our scale, and 
it ought not be. But this is the truth. This is the truth. When you 
hear those other lines and you hear those other statements, you just 
know that it is not the truth.
  This chart here talks about the revenue growth that we have had. This 
is the amount of money coming into the Federal Government. And you have 
heard it said oftentimes that in Washington we do not have a revenue 
problem, we have got a spending problem. And, indeed, we do. Washington 
spends too much of the hard-working taxpayers' money. But I think this 
chart is telling. Because what this shows from the year 2000, and it is 
projected out to the year 2011, there is a dip here at about 2002, 2003 
in revenue coming into the Federal Government. And currently in 2006, 
the amount of money that came into the Federal Government is $2.3 
trillion. A lot of money. A lot of money.
  But being an individual who likes to know why things happen, I want 
to know why that increase occurred; and I think it is important to know 
that at this point at almost the lowest point of revenue over the past 
5 years, 6 years in this Nation, what happened is that we decreased 
taxes. We decreased taxes through the President's recommendations and 
through the hard work of this Republican Congress, decreased taxes to 
all taxpayers in this Nation.
  And what happens when you put more money in people's pockets? 
Incredibly, what happens is that there is more revenue that comes into 
the Federal Government because they become more productive. They spend 
more, but they save more, and they have greater incentive, greater 
incentive, frankly, to work. So the truth of the matter about revenues 
in this Nation is that they are up because of decreases in taxes.
  Numbers do not lie. Senator Moynihan said everybody is entitled to 
their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts. And 
the facts will show that, in fact, after the tax decreases what 
happened is an increase in revenue.
  Now, oftentimes our friends on the other side of the aisle like to 
say, and, in fact, we have heard it here tonight and I wrote it down 
because I hear it so often but it is put in different ways, but we 
heard tonight that government assistance to education has been flat 
under this leadership. ``Government assistance has been flat.'' Well, 
again, you are welcome to your own opinions, but you are not welcome to 
your own facts.
  Here are the education totals: The annual growth over the last 5 
years, the annual growth over the last 5 years, 2000, nearly $40 
billion in growth in education expenditures from the Federal 
Government. Forty billion dollars. In 2001, over $40 billion of growth. 
In 2002, nearly $50 billion in growth. And you see the other columns 
there: 2003, 2004, 2005, continual increases. This is not the increase 
from 1 year to the next. This is the absolute amount of money, new 
money, Federal Government money being spent on education.
  So when you hear people say that the amount of money going into the 
education of our children and our young people has not increased or it 
has decreased or it has been cut or it is not growing at all or it is 
flat, that is simply not true. Simply not true. Again, you are welcome 
to your own opinions. You are not welcome to your own facts.
  What about Pell grants, Pell grant funding? Pell grants are those 
grants that the Federal Government appropriately provides to those 
individuals who want to seek a higher education degree and they simply 
do not have the resources to be able to assist them. What has happened 
to Pell grants since the year 2000? Remember the sounds that you hear 
from the other side that these cuts have been disastrous, that you are 
cutting and you are slashing? In fact, the annual growth in Pell grants 
over the last 5 years average, average, a 10.3 percent increase per 
year. That does not sound like a cut to me. That does not sound like a 
cut to me.
  So what this chart shows is significant growth year after year after 
year, billions of dollars over the last 6 years annually. Not a cut. 
Not a cut. And that is appropriate. It is appropriate that we do that, 
but what we are here tonight to bring to the American people, Mr. 
Speaker, are some facts, some truth that we would like to share with 
the American people.
  What I would like to do this evening in my brief time remaining is to 
just bring a little truth and fact to where Federal Government spending 
occurs. Because I think it is important for the American people to know 
and appreciate just what their Federal Government is spending their 
hard-earned taxpayer money on.

  This is a pie chart. It is relatively simple, and there are about six 
major categories of spending that the Federal Government has. And you 
have heard a lot about automatic spending that occurs, and those 
automatic areas are the area of Social Security, the area of Medicare, 
and 20.5 percent for things like Medicaid and pensions and the like, 
and then there is net interest. Then there is the discretionary side, 
which really is the only side that we have been able to affect to any 
great degree. One is defense, which is about 20 percent of the Federal 
budget, and the other is 19.2 percent, which covers everything else 
that the Federal Government does. So I think it is important to get an 
appreciation for where Federal Government money is going. Social 
Security, 21 percent right now. Medicare, 11.9 percent. Other 
entitlements or other automatic spending, 20.5 percent.
  We were talking about the amount of spending, where the Federal 
Government spends its money; and the previous pie chart showed what we 
have right now, in 2005. Currently, the Federal Government spends 54 
percent on what are called mandatory programs, and it really ought not 
be called mandatory. We could call it automatic. It is oftentimes 
called entitlements.
  But in that portion of this pie chart are Medicare, Medicaid, Social 
Security, some Federal pensions and the

[[Page H312]]

like. But those are programs that have formula within them that allow 
them just to continue to perpetuate year after year after year. And 
this area of the pie chart is what Representative Conaway talked about. 
That is the area that will consume 50 percent, 50 percent of the entire 
gross domestic product.
  Currently, this is 20 percent of the budget. This, over the next 10 
years, will grow to 62 percent. As you can see, this trend, in 1995, it 
was 49 percent; 2005, 54 percent; 2015, 62 percent. That trend is one 
that we cannot sustain as a Nation. It just cannot happen, unless you 
do what the other side talks about repeatedly, which is to raise taxes; 
and, as Congressman Conaway talked about, in fact, you cannot even grow 
your way out of it. You cannot even raise taxes enough to cover that 
and sustain our way of life as a Nation. So I think it is incredibly 
important that when we are talking here on the floor of the House that 
we talk about real facts, real facts, honest information for the 
American people.
  Mr. Speaker, with that, I would just like to say what a pleasure it 
has been to come before the American people tonight and to gather a 
group of what we are calling the official truth squad of primarily the 
freshmen class. And, Mr. Speaker, as president of the freshman class, 
Representative Jindal from Louisiana has been wonderfully supportive of 
these efforts to bring truth to the floor of the House. What a 
wonderful thing.
  We live in an incredible and a great and a wonderful Nation. It is a 
Nation that has, through liberty and through freedom, benefited more 
citizens than ever known in the history of the world. We believe, on 
this Republican side of the aisle, that it is important that government 
does do some things, but we do not want government running every part 
of our life.
  There are a couple of things the government should do well. It should 
defend us well. It should have a balanced budget and be able to keep 
the commitments that it makes. We have a clear and a positive plan to 
build a safer world and a more hopeful America. We believe that 
Washington spends too much money, too much of the taxpayers' hard-
earned money, and we have a commitment to balance the budget through 
controlling the growth in spending.
  The other side, as I mentioned, tends to be interested in doing one 
thing, and that is raising your taxes. There is a plan afoot right now 
that they have to increase and raise your taxes. It seems to be 
oftentimes the only solution that they have.
  But, Mr. Speaker, we were sent to Washington to solve problems. 
Difficult problems, yes. But my colleagues and I and the official truth 
squad will be here many, many times over the coming months to bring 
reality to the discussions that we are having, to bring some truth to 
the discussions that we are having, and to remember what Senator 
Moynihan said, and that is that you are welcome to your own opinions 
but you are not welcome to your own facts.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank the leadership once again so very 
much for the opportunity to present this hour.

                          ____________________