[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 41 (Tuesday, April 4, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1424-H1425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, we live in quite interesting times. Where 
else could you invest about $1 billion and get $100 billion in return? 
A Republican Congress, but of course.
  As the New York Times recently pointed out, the people's House has 
turned into the House that Jack built. Here is what the Times says in 
an op-ed:

     These are the men
     That fleeced the tribes
     That paid the money
     That made the bribes
     That purchased the Congress
     That Jack built.

  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to read the rest of this poem, 
written and published last Friday, because it nails right on the head 
this is the House that Jack built.
  Let's look at the $1.2 billion that Jack Abramoff bought. Let's look 
at the house he built. The energy industry, oil and gas interests, they 
spent about $87 million. What did they get? $14.5 billion in tax 
breaks, given and paid for by the United States taxpayers; given access 
to $65 billion in oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico, costing the 
taxpayers $7 billion in royalties they should be paying back to the 
Treasury that they did not get; given $2 billion to the ultra-deepwater 
drilling fund. They were given that money, all for $87 million in 
contributions and expenses paid on lobbying. $14 billion in tax breaks, 
$7 billion in lost revenue for royalties in the Gulf of Mexico, $2 
billion in tax subsidies there to the ultra-deepwater drilling fund.
  You can't get a return on your investment like that on Wall Street. 
Where can you get a return like that? The Republican Congress, of 
course. But that is not limited. In fact, that is prevalent.
  Let's take the health care industry. They spent about $173 million on 
lobbying and campaign contributions. Yet the pharmaceutical interests, 
$139 billion in additional profits over 8 years. The prescription drug 
bill here, which was supposed to cost $394 billion, ended up costing 
close to $790 billion to the American people.

                              {time}  2000

  Private insurers will make $130 billion in extra profits in Medicare 
overpayments, HMOs given a $10 billion slush fund, all for $173 million 
in lobbying expenses and contributions mainly to the Republican Party.
  Take business interests, spent $500 million on lobbying. We had a 
corporate tax bill to fix a $5 billion disagreement with Europe. By the 
time it was done, it cost $150 billion, not $5 billion, and it never 
fixed the problem. $150 billion in corporate giveaways to special 
interests on the corporate tax bill, $139 billion in additional profits 
for the pharmaceutical interests, $130 billion in additional profits to 
the HMOs, and in lost revenue to oil and gas companies close to about 
$22 billion while oil and gas interests are trading and oil is trading 
at $66 a barrel, all in The House That Jack Built.
  This is the operative philosophy of the Republican Congress. They 
have turned the Capitol upside down to figure out how much change they 
can take over from the American people and pass it off to the special 
interests.
  When the gavel for the Speaker comes down, it is intended to open the 
people's House, not the auction house. For the last 6 years that gavel 
has been turned over to the auction house, whether it is the oil and 
gas interests, whether it is private insurers, whether it is the HMO 
industry, whether it is in fact the pharmaceutical industry, or whether 
it came to the corporate tax bill.
  Oil is approaching about $70 a barrel, now nearly $3 at the pump. Gas 
home heating costs, up 38 percent. Health care costs are up 58 percent 
for the average family, $3,600 in the last 4 years. College costs and 
tuition, up 38 percent for the American people, yet median incomes are 
down 2.3 percent, and yet what does this Congress continue to do? It 
continues to turn itself into an auction house for the special 
interests. When college costs were up 38 percent, the Republican 
Congress cut student loans by $13 billion. Yet, we have continued to 
pass on over the last 4 years $3 trillion in additional debt that was 
borrowed, more than all the predecessors of the last 42 Presidents 
combined.
  One thing you can say about the Republican Congress and President 
Bush when it comes to the economy: We will be forever in your debt, 
because that is all you have left is a sea of red ink, and

[[Page H1425]]

you have turned the American people and the treasures that this country 
has over to the special interests when it did not need to be this way.
  Mr. Speaker, the special interests may have bought the Capitol, but 
the American people are paying for it. Jack is gone, but others are 
leaving. This place will remain The House That Jack Built until we get 
serious and undertake real lobby and ethics reform and return to the 
work of the American people. They are struggling under the interests of 
higher energy costs, higher health care costs, higher educational 
costs. They have not had a raise in over 5 years, and the politics as 
usual, business as usual continues with the policies and making sure 
that the special interests get heard first.
  This House is the time and this election will be about returning the 
people's House back to the American people and ensuring that that gavel 
does not open up the auction house but the people's House.

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