[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 34 (Thursday, February 26, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H2867-H2868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1445
               NOT DOING AWAY WITH ``POLITICS AS USUAL''

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate you, Mr. Speaker; 
you and I are freshmen colleagues, and it's wonderful to see you in the 
chair this afternoon.
  You and I came to this Congress as freshmen with a desire to do away 
with ``politics as usual'' and start anew. And what I saw yesterday on 
this floor was not exemplary of that particular goal of mine, and I 
suspect yours and some of our other freshmen colleagues as well.
  What I saw was a rule that was brought to the floor that would 
prevent us from discussing amendments to the big omnibus $410 billion 
spending bill. If you voted for that amendment to stop amendments to 
the bill, that was your way of being able to voice support for keeping 
congressional salaries capped. So those of us who are fiscal 
conservatives had to vote for that amendment in order to be consistent 
and true to our fiscal conservative roots; but at the same time, we had 
to disallow ourselves the opportunity to debate and discuss a $410 
billion spending package. So I want to discuss it a little bit today. 
That bill has already passed, but there are some concerns I have about 
it, especially when coupled with the stimulus package we passed, 
especially when coupled with the President's budget that we just 
received today.
  Some of my concerns are these: the President's proposal would provide 
that those who are making $250,000 a year and above will be those who 
are subject to a tax increase. That applies to many of our small 
businesses in the United States. And my State of Wyoming has no large 
businesses; it is entirely made up of small businesses. And those 
businesses create jobs for 70 percent of the jobs in this Nation. So we 
are, in essence, going to tax those who are creating jobs. And to me, 
when we're in a budget crisis and a fiscal crisis and a mortgage 
crisis, those are the wrong people to whom to turn and ask for more 
revenue.

[[Page H2868]]

  In addition, the previous speaker pointed out that the President's 
message, although very comforting to me coming from a coal-producing 
State like Wyoming, that he does acknowledge that we need clean coal 
technology, in the very same sentence said we also need cap and trade. 
And cap and trade is a tax, it will fall primarily on coal, that will 
send us to other nations to derive our energy. And that, I think, is a 
step in the wrong direction as well.
  Furthermore, the debt that we're taking on will have to be absorbed 
in large part by other nations. We're already the largest debtor nation 
in the world. China already owns over $1 trillion worth of our Treasury 
notes, our debt. And it must be of great concern to them that we would 
approach them to buy more of our debt knowing that the consequence of 
all of this spending will mean we will be paying them back in dollars 
that are worth less than the dollars that they needed to purchase our 
U.S. treasuries now. Inflation will be the consequence of all the 
spending we are doing.
  Consequently, I was so hopeful that the President's budget would 
provide a modicum of discipline and would be flat spending so that the 
American people will have a chance to see if the stimulus package works 
before we undertake more government spending to see if the budget that 
was passed yesterday, the $410 billion, is responsive to stimulus so we 
can flatten budgets in the future. But what we saw yesterday is that 
we're going to increase spending over last year's budget, followed the 
very next day, today, by even more spending. The levels of spending 
just get higher and higher, government intervention into the private 
sector gets higher and higher. The people of this country need us to go 
shoulder to shoulder with them and exercise the fiscal discipline that 
they are having to exercise themselves.
  Mr. Speaker, again, it's wonderful to see you in the Chair. I thank 
you for your time.

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