[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 31, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, the Republicans are at it again. It would be funny 
if we weren't in such dire financial straits as the government is, 
thanks to a number of years of Republican rule.
  During the Bush era, George Bush inherited a balanced budget, he 
inherited projections of a surplus for years to come, and paying down 
the debt of the United States substantially. Well, he went to work 
busily, and using restrictive legislative rules the Republicans passed 
massive tax cuts favoring the wealthiest of us. Those with estates over 
$5 million, those who earn over $250,000 a year got huge largess from 
the Republican Party.
  Now, in a time of surplus, it didn't hurt too much. But then, George 
Bush launched an unnecessary war in Iraq and decided to pay for it off 
the books; i.e., he did not score it in the budget, and just every year 
declared it as an emergency as much as it might cost. So far, close to 
$700 billion has been spent on George Bush's war in Iraq.

                              {time}  1045

  Of course George Bush's tax cuts and his off-the-books spending and a 
massive expansion of government under total Republican rule, took us 
from a time of surplus to a time of massive deficits. George Bush set 
record after record with deficits during his Presidency, and he managed 
in 8 short years to double the debt that it had taken us more than 200 
years to accumulate as a Nation. And the Republicans were all for it.
  But now they would have us believe that their born-again fiscal 
conservatives, with a 19-page document with no specifics--and guess 
what it contains, this is how we are going to balance the budget, 
folks--more tax cuts for rich people. Oh, what a surprise. That will 
solve everything. They do have this cockamamie theory, and it is that 
if we give all of the money to the rich people, the rich people will go 
out and invest that money. When they invest that money, the little 
people will get jobs, and the little people will pay taxes because the 
rich people shouldn't. That is their budget, plain and simple.
  Eliminate the estate tax. That would mean that if Bill Gates died 
tomorrow, and God forbid, I hope he is healthy and he won't, but if he 
did, the unrealized capital gains of his stock would then become 
nontaxable. No taxes would have ever been paid on that stock, passed on 
to his kids. If his kids invest it for a living under the Republican 
plan, they would earn capital gains and under their plan investors 
don't pay taxes. So you can have multi-generations of people 
accumulating more and more wealth who haven't paid a penny in taxes. 
But don't worry, the Republicans tell us, they will invest that money 
in America and put the little people to work. Well, no, maybe they will 
invest that money in China where labor is cheaper, or Mexico where 
labor is cheaper, or who knows where. Who knows how they will waste it. 
Who knows what new, speculative instruments they will come up with. 
Their so-called alternative would be funny if it wasn't so serious. But 
this is deadly serious.
  President Obama is trying to dig us out of an incredibly deep hole 
and a very difficult time in the American economy. The radical 
deregulation of the Bush years and all of that wealth creation on Wall 
Street, which has now tanked, many people's pensions and their 401(k)s, 
it is killing jobs, we are trying to fix that, and we are trying to re-
instill a sense of fiscal responsibility here in Washington, DC. It 
will not be easy. And particularly it won't be easy if the Republicans 
continue to play the clown on their side of the aisle and say 
eliminating taxes for rich people will solve all of the problems 
confronting the American people. Maybe it will provide them health 
care; I'm not sure how that works. Maybe it will help educate their 
kids in public schools; I don't quite get that part. Maybe it will 
rebuild our infrastructure; hmm, it won't do that, either. But it will 
make the rich richer, and that's all they are about.

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