[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 27, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H4676-H4678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE LATEST EDITION FROM THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH SQUAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gohmert). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is 
recognized until midnight as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, what a pleasure it is to come back 
to the House floor this evening, even though it is for really just a 
few short minutes, and bring the latest edition of the Official Truth 
Squad.
  The Official Truth Squad is a group of Republican Members who began 
with a group of freshmen Members of Congress in their first term this 
past year, who got together and said, why on Earth do we have all of 
the misinformation and disinformation and distortion that you hear 
oftentimes on this floor over and over and over again, and nobody, 
nobody, refutes it. What is going on? So what we did is we formed the 
Official Truth Squad.
  We have heard some items just this evening that deserve some truth. 
So I am pleased to come this evening to the floor, Mr. Speaker, and to 
bring some facts, some facts, to the issues, because facts are 
important when we are talking about issues in Washington. If you don't 
deal with true facts, then it is extremely difficult to get to the 
right solutions.
  We in the Official Truth Squad have a saying that we are fond of, a 
quote that we like to identify and like to call to people's attention. 
It is from the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He said everyone 
is entitled to their own opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own 
opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts. That is 
important, Mr. Speaker.
  We have just heard from what has been described as the fiscally 
conservative Blue Dogs. Well, I am here to tell you, Mr. Speaker, these 
folks have perfected, perfected, saying one thing at home and doing 
something here. In fact, as I was sitting here tonight, they have 
perfected saying one thing here and doing something different here.
  To point that out, facts, Mr. Speaker, the truth, Mr. Speaker, here 
they tout the importance of the line item veto. We believe in the line 
item veto. A number of years ago we had an opportunity to demonstrate 
our belief in that by a vote on the floor of the House. This vote was 
back in 1995. At that time, eight Democrats voted in favor of the line 
item veto.
  This is a bill that would give the President an opportunity to 
control spending, to assist in making sure that we move toward a 
balanced budget, and in fact eight Democrats voted yes. 194 Democrats 
voted no. Most of those, most of those that were in the Blue Dog 
contingent, were in the no column.
  I haven't updated this, Mr. Speaker, but as you know, last Thursday 
we voted on a new line item veto bill on this floor of the United 
States House of Representatives. I have got to update this, because the 
numbers are staggering. The numbers are staggering. 156 Democrats voted 
no. It is a fact, Mr. Speaker, they voted no on the line item veto. In 
fact, half, virtually half of those folks who call themselves fiscally 
conservative Blue Dogs, voted no.
  So, as I say, Mr. Speaker, they have perfected the fine art of saying 
one thing here and doing something different here, not just saying one 
thing at home and doing something different here.
  You heard about a balanced budget tonight, how strongly they support 
a balanced budget. Well, what about when given the opportunity to vote 
for a balanced budget, Mr. Speaker? What happened then? This is very 
recent, just this year. Roll call vote 156 this year, 2006, the 
balanced budget substitute was an amendment to the fiscal year 2007 
budget. This is a bill that the Republican Study Committee put on the 
floor of the House and it would in fact balance the budget, which is 
what most folks say they desire and what they say they want.

                              {time}  2345

  But when given the opportunity to speak up, what they say they want 
with true action, what happens? You see it right there, Mr. Speaker. 
Not a single, not a single Member of the minority party voted in favor 
of that bill, including, including all of the Members of the Blue Dog 
Group.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I know facts are difficult, because they are tough 
to argue with and they are tough to refute. But truth and facts are 
important. And there are individuals here trying to do very responsible 
things as it relates to the economy and as it relates to our budget, 
and as it relates to being responsible with spending hard-earned 
taxpayer money.
  And the vast majority of those folks are in the majority party. And 
the reason that I say that with such confidence is because the actions 
that have been taken by the Republican majority have resulted in a 
remarkable economy. A remarkable economy.
  Now, you will not see that on the nightly news, and you will not hear 
about it on the radio, likely, and you will not read about it in your 
local newspaper. But it is important stuff that is going on. It is 
important and exciting activity that is going on in our economy. And I 
would just like to highlight a few of them. We have got some charts 
that we would like to show that demonstrate that.
  The economic boom that we are currently under is almost 
unprecedented. Today, at this point, last month America had 75,000 new 
jobs, 75,000 new jobs created, which is in addition to 1.9 million new 
jobs in the last 12 months. This is really exiting news, Mr. Speaker.
  More than 5.3 million new jobs since August of 2003. Now, the 
unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent. Unemployment rate at 4.6 
percent. That is lower than the average of the 1960s, the 1970s, the 
1980s, and the 1990s.
  Mr. Speaker, this is all great news. It is remarkable that we do not 
hear that

[[Page H4677]]

kind of positive news coming from many folks on the floor of the House. 
We have had the fastest real gross domestic product growth in 2\1/2\ 
years. Productivity has increased at a strong rate, 3.7 percent in the 
first quarter, increase this past first quarter.
  Real hourly compensation, real hourly compensation, all of the times 
you hear folks say that real wages are not going up. In fact real 
hourly compensation rose at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first 
quarter of this year.
  Personal income. Oftentimes you hear things that are not the truth on 
the floor of this House and across this Nation. They talk about people 
not having an increase in their income. Personal income, the facts are, 
Mr. Speaker, the truth is, Mr. Speaker, personal income increased at an 
annual rate of 6.7 percent in April.
  And since January 2001, real after-tax income has risen by 12.9 
percent. That is a remarkable, remarkable achievement for this economy, 
which continues to grow.
  Real consumer spending increased at an annual rate of 5.2 percent in 
the first quarter. Employment increased in 47 States over the last 12 
months ending in April. Industrial production. We often times hear 
about lagging industrial production. Industrial production increased 
4.7 percent over the past 12 months.
  And manufacturing production which has been criticized as lagging 
behind in this recovery, in fact it is showing strong rebounding with, 
over the past 12 months, manufacturing production increasing by 5.5 
percent.
  Those are facts, Mr. Speaker. Those are facts. That is the truth 
about a remarkable economy that really is going along extremely well 
and continuing to improve. There is a reason for that. We are going to 
touch on that in just a minute.
  But I think it is important when we talk about our economy, the 
American economy which is strong, and is growing stronger by the day, 
that we use some benchmark. And probably the best benchmarks to use are 
other large developed nations and developed economies. How are we doing 
compared to the rest of the world?
  And I have here a paper from the Joint Economic Committee, which is a 
bipartisan group that reports on economic activity, not just in the 
United States but around the world. And it states here that although 
some people have expressed dissatisfaction about the performance of the 
U.S. economy, the economic data show that since 2001 the United States 
has outperformed every other large developed economy.
  Mr. Speaker, did you hear that? The United States has outperformed 
every other large developed economy since 2001. Now what does that 
mean? Well, the United States ranks first in economic growth among the 
other large developed economies.
  It is first in job creation. As I mentioned 5.3 million new jobs 
since August of 2003. In terms of industrial production, the largest 
cumulative increase in industrial production, 4.6 percent. That is 
compared to nations, other large developed nations that have not seen 
that kind of growth.
  First in labor productivity growth. Remarkable productivity growth 
that we have seen in our Nation. And when we compare it to our nations, 
that have large developed economies, remarkable, remarkable progress 
and remarkable improvement. And we ought to be celebrating that, Mr. 
Speaker, we ought not be casting aspersions on the kind of policies 
that have had a direct affect and a district positive, positive result 
on the United States economy.
  And so folks say, well, why is the economy booming? What is happening 
out there? In addition to the hard work of Americans all across this 
land, I think it is important to appreciate that one of the reasons 
that the economy is doing so well and that we continue to improve is 
because of the tax policy that was put in place by this Republican 
Congress and this Republican administration in 2001 and 2003.
  And the reason that that is important to look at is because you often 
times hear the other side say, well, we in fact they say, well, you 
need to be more responsible with spending. You need to decrease 
spending. You need to have greater accountability. But then immediately 
out of their mouth is the programs that they would spend more money on, 
in fact billions, billions more money on.

  And their solution to how to get more money into the system is the 
tried and true system that they use all of the time, and that is to 
raise your taxes, Mr. Speaker. That is the tried and true method that 
they have.
  But we believe and can demonstrate clearly that by decreasing taxes, 
by decreasing taxes, you increase revenue to the Federal Government. 
And this demonstrates it so very, very clearly. This is a graph that 
shows the increase in tax receipts over each year from 1982 on through 
2005 and 2006.
  In the last 3 years you see a significant increase. In fact, in 2005-
2006, a $432 billion, 2-year increase. That is a significant increase. 
And the reason for that is because people had more money in their 
pockets, they spend, they save, they invest as they choose. And in fact 
that drives the economy in a much greater way.
  And it sometimes seems counterintuitive, but if you look at this 
graph, this is the growth, projected growth of revenues. And the 2001 
and the 2003 tax relief being made permanent. And what you see here is 
the historical average of the percent of gross domestic product that 
comes in as revenue. That is this green line right here that is 
straight across. And what we see with the red line is what happened 
with the tax policy previously, and the recession and the affects of 9/
11.
  But what happened at this point is that tax decreases, appropriate 
tax decreases, were put in place, often times opposed, most often times 
opposed by the minority party. But what we have seen is a significant 
increase in receipts to the Federal Government because of, because of 
the appropriate tax policy that was put in place.
  So tax decreases indeed help increasing revenue to the Federal 
Government. Our good friends on the other side often times talk about 
the debt. And they talk about the deficit. And we have shown that in 
fact when given the opportunity they do not support a balanced budget, 
but they often times talk about the deficit and not being responsible 
enough with hard-working taxpayer money, and we can always be more 
responsible.
  But I think it is important to appreciate that what is happening 
under current policy is that we are decreasing the deficit 
significantly. This graph shows the deficit over a 40-year historical 
average of 2.3 percent. That is that dotted black line straight across 
the chart here.
  And what we are seeing is a continual decrease in the deficit of 
hundreds of billions of dollars, put in place because of appropriate 
tax policy that allows individuals to have more money in their back 
pocket, again, and decide when they spend or they save or they invest. 
And that drives the economy to a much greater degree, Mr. Speaker, as 
you well know.
  So we are making progress. We are making good progress, in a 
wonderful economy that is moving along in the right direction. What we 
need to do is greater fiscal responsibility, yes indeed, but also 
making certain that we continue the appropriate tax policies that allow 
individuals all across this Nation, hard-working American taxpayers to 
have more of their own money in their back pocket.
  I think it is also always important when we talk about taxes to get a 
lot of distortion and misinformation that often times comes from folks 
in Washington when they talk about who is paying taxes. You often times 
hear that. Well, you know, it is just, the rich do not pay their fair 
share. And you get this class warfare going on that is really 
destructive, it does not help anything, it does not solve any of the 
challenges that we have, and it is not positive in terms of its 
presentation.
  But I am struck by the amount of tax revenue that comes from 
different sectors of our society. And if you look at the percentage of 
taxpayers, and if you look at the share of individual income taxes that 
those percentage of taxpayers pay, the top 1 percent, remember this is 
what the other side call the richest of the rich, and they continually 
denigrate them and belittle their participation in our system.
  In fact, the top 1 percent, Mr. Speaker, pay over 30 percent of the 
taxes in this Nation. The top 1 percent pay over 30 percent. And you 
can see that as you get to the top 5 percent, it is over 50

[[Page H4678]]

percent. So the top 5 percent of individuals in our Nation pay over 50 
percent of the taxes.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that probably really shows, one, the facts and 
the truth, but it also makes it so that the argument that the other 
side brings forth over and over and over about the class warfare just 
is so destructive, and it is not even true. It is not even true.
  So the foundation of their argument does not even hold any water. And 
that tall bar over there, Mr. Speaker, that is the top 50 percent, and 
in fact the top 50 percent pay about 96 percent of the taxes.
  The hard-working Americans taxpayers, hard-working American 
taxpayers. But this is a very progressive scale. And it is important 
that we appreciate that. It is also important that we remember that. It 
is important that we talk about it, because when you try to define 
these issues as they relate to taxes in terms of class warfare, it does 
not help.
  It is not a positive solution. It does not bring us together as a 
people. We have so many challenges out there, Mr. Speaker, they are not 
Republican challenges, they are not Democrat challenges, they are 
American challenges. And we do best when we work together.
  I encourage my friends on both sides of the aisle to make certain 
that we do indeed talk about facts, talk about truth, try to make 
certain that we work together as we move through the remarkable 
challenges that are present in our Nation today.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be able to come tonight and bring that 
positive information about the economy, positive information about 
where we are going as a Nation, and as a United States House of 
Representatives.
  Mr. Speaker, we live in a wondrous and a remarkable Nation, a Nation 
that remains the land of opportunity for all who are here. It is indeed 
a beacon of hope and a vessel of liberty to men and women around the 
world. It is such a privilege for me to have the opportunity to come 
tonight and to share that kind of positive information with not just 
Members of this body, but with you, Mr. Speaker, and with the men and 
women around the Nation.
  So I thank you and the leadership so very much for the opportunity to 
be with you tonight.

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