[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 31, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H4241-H4248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2145
               THE CONCERN OF AMERICA'S FUTURE DIRECTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) is recognized 
for 60 minutes.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Thank you. I appreciate the impassioned gentlemen and 
their commitment to a pro-life agenda. I truly do.
  I stand tonight and rise because of my concern about the direction of 
this country. I was elected here as a freshman. I did not create this 
problem in Washington, D.C., but I am here to help clean it up. We have 
the greatest opportunities ahead of us. The United States of America is 
the single greatest country on the face of the planet, and every time 
we are faced with a challenge, we overcome the obstacles that are 
thrown ahead of us. I would like to see our government get out of the 
way and stop being an impediment. I want to make sure that it is the 
American entrepreneur who is emboldened. It has always been the 
American entrepreneur who has driven this country forward.
  As I rise today, my concern is that often what we hear and see in 
Washington, D.C., is not a reflection of the reality. The rhetoric has 
been very strong, but with all due respect to our President, of whom I 
have the greatest admiration--he is a great success story--what I hear 
and what I see tend to be two different things. There has been some 
good work done by Phil Kerpen of the Americans for Prosperity. I 
appreciate the work that he has done. I want to touch on a few points 
that I have great concern about.
  We were promised by this administration and by the Speaker of the 
House, Mr. Speaker, that we would have this sunlight before signing 
things. In this body right here, the House Republicans and Democrats 
unanimously passed a resolution that said we would have 48 hours to 
review a bill before we would sign it. Yet, shortly thereafter, the 
single largest spending bill in the history of the United States passed 
out of the Rules Committee. It was just around midnight when we got the 
final copy of the bill, the so-called ``stimulus bill.'' Just over 13 
hours later, we had to vote on it. That is absolutely the wrong 
direction.
  Then candidate Barack Obama said, ``Too often, bills are rushed 
through Congress and to the President before the public has the 
opportunity to review them. As President, Obama will not sign any 
nonemergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to 
review and comment on the White House Web site for 5 days.'' That does 
not happen on a regular basis, and it is wrong. It needs to change. We 
need to live up to those campaign commitments. They are not happening 
now.
  The American people were promised that lobbyists would not be 
participants in this administration. On the Barack Obama Web site, it 
says, ``No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will 
be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and 
substantially related to their prior employer for 2 years, and no 
political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after 
leaving government service during the remainder of the 
administration.'' That

[[Page H4242]]

is not happening. That is not happening.
  During the campaign, we talked about there being no tax hikes on the 
poor. On September 12, 2008, in Dover, New Hampshire, the President 
said, ``I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less 
than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase--not your income 
tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, not any of your 
taxes.'' What was one of the first bills that the President signed? A 
tax increase. It was the SCHIP bill. It was under the disguise that we 
were going to help children with their health care insurance. He raised 
the taxes on cigarettes. That affects a host of Americans. Now, I don't 
smoke; I don't advocate smoking, but the reality is there are a whole 
lot of smokers who make less than $250,000 a year. That was a tax 
increase. That was in opposition to what the President said he would 
do. There are other examples.
  We were encouraged by the President to pass in this body legislation 
free of earmarks. We were promised earmark reform. The statement on 
earmarks that came out on March 10: ``The system is broken. We can no 
longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a Member of 
Congress' seniority rather than the merit of the project. We can no 
longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to 
navigate that a municipality or nonprofit group has to hire high-priced 
D.C. lobbyists to do it, and we can no longer accept an earmarks 
process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the 
real needs of our country.''
  When the President addressed the joint session of Congress, I was 
sitting right there in the seventh row. The President said he wanted no 
earmarks. The very next day, the United States Congress, despite a lot 
of us who voted ``no'' against it, passed a $410 billion appropriation 
with no less than 8,500 earmarks. The President signed it.
  Big government: In the joint address to Congress, the President said, 
``Not because I believe in bigger government--I don't.'' Now, I want to 
believe the President when he says he doesn't believe in big 
government, but we have the single largest expansion of government in 
the history of the United States happening, one of the largest tax 
increases in the history of the United States of America.
  So, when I look at the President's budget, when I look at what Nancy 
Pelosi is proposing as the Speaker of the House, Mr. Speaker, I have 
serious questions and reservations because I believe that this budget 
that I am looking at and that we are going to be asked to vote on very 
soon spends far too much money; it taxes us on too much money, and it 
borrows too much money. We are fundamentally compromising our future.
  You know, I have worked for big companies. I have worked for small 
companies. I have owned my own company. I have spent 16-plus years in 
the local business community. I have hired people in the past, and 
there is a fundamental thing that I look for. I just want to hire 
people who will do what they say they are going to do. I think the 
American people should demand that with regard to what is happening in 
Washington, D.C. I think we should demand that at every level of 
government.
  Earlier today, we saw the next nominee for the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services admitting that she had failed to pay taxes. 
Shouldn't there be a standard, a level, that says, ``You know what? If 
you can't figure out how to pay your taxes accurately or if you can't 
hire the right person to get your taxes done properly, then you're 
probably disqualified for being a secretary-level person in this United 
States Government''? It is so disappointing. It is so disappointing.
  We have great hurdles, great opportunities ahead of us. There is 
probably nothing stronger in this country and more fundamental to what 
we should be doing in this government than our national security. I am 
joined today by somebody who is passionate about national defense, 
about the great work that men and women are doing all across the world 
to help us, to protect us.
  During my campaign, I had an opportunity to meet a number of soldiers 
who did not come home to this same kind of welcoming that they thought 
they would. They were injured. They came back to families who were so 
concerned because the breadwinners in their families could no longer 
win the bread. These were brave men and women, soldiers, who fought and 
sacrificed for our country. I fundamentally do not believe we are 
taking as good of care of them as we should be. These are people who 
are giving so much. It is not welfare. It is not a handout for us to 
take care of the men and women who are taking care of us.

  So, as I look at all of these broken promises, at all of these things 
that we are supposed to be doing--basic, fundamental things within our 
government--I find that one of the true, proper roles of government and 
that one of the things we really should be doing is making sure we are 
taking care of our military.
  So I would like to take a moment, if I could, and yield for a time to 
my friend, the gentleman from California, Mr. Duncan Hunter.
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman from Utah. Thank you for your 
leadership and for your courage in telling the American people and in 
telling the Members of Congress what is really going on and what the 
money is being spent on that the President is asking for and that the 
Democrats are asking for. Thank you for your kind words as well.
  I have been to Iraq twice as a United States marine, and I have been 
to Afghanistan once. We are probably at the biggest tipping point that 
we have ever seen since World War II when it comes to national defense 
and to national security. We have more violence along our border region 
than we have ever had in this country. Right now, with those two, 
large, pressing issues, we are spending a pittance on those two 
issues--the national security issues that involve the border and that 
involve Iraq and Afghanistan and China and North Korea and Russia--
compared to what we are spending in giving money to the failed 
companies run into the ground by their executives who have been ruled 
by greed. I would like to go over some of those shortfalls in the 
President's defense budget coming up.
  First off, in fiscal year 2010, the President's budget is $30 billion 
less than what the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked for. The Joint Chiefs of 
Staff are the ones who are the experts on the military and on what the 
American military needs to sustain itself and to fight future threats 
and future enemies. We are $30 billion short. They asked for $584 
billion for fiscal year 2010. The President is only going to give them 
$533 billion. This is a 10 percent decrease over what the joint chiefs 
asked for over 10 years. That is a $1.3 trillion deficit for the U.S. 
military at a time when we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and 
when we are prosecuting terrorists around the world for our security 
here at home.
  We have veterans returning home, and we have people coming home who 
have given that ultimate sacrifice, those who have paid that ultimate 
price, who have given that final measure of devotion. We are going to 
cut spending for them. We are going to cut their benefits here at home. 
We are going to cut the money that goes towards their armor and their 
bullets and their food and their medicine. We are going to cut that 
right now. In this time of gluttonous spending, we are going to choose 
to cut spending for our U.S. military.
  Our Navy fleet has declined from 568 ships in the late 1980s to 276 
ships now. We need over 300. The average age of the airplanes in the 
Air Force has risen from 9 years in 1973 to 24 years old. I mean the 
average age of each of the Air Force's airplanes is over 27 years old. 
They used to have 37 fighter wing equivalents in the '80s. Now they 
have only 20. This past year alone, ship maintenance funding is $417 
million short. That is not what I would call putting America's security 
first. That is putting America's security last.
  When I hear the President talking about national security or when I 
hear the Democrats giving a moment of silence in this room for our 
military, it seems insincere to me that they would do that on one hand 
and tell the American people that they are helping out and that they 
are doing everything that they can do for national security's sake 
while, at the same time, they are

[[Page H4243]]

going to cut defense spending. JFK spent more on defense than we are 
spending now. Ronald Reagan spent more on defense than we are spending 
now. While in the middle of two wars, we need to increase, if anything, 
defense spending and keep it at 4 percent of our GDP to keep America 
safe. We have more threats now than we have ever had.
  I would like to yield back to the gentleman from Utah.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Well, thank you, and thank you for your personal 
service to this country. I know that you have served and have served 
with honor, and I know that your father has served in this body. He was 
a great inspiration to me and to a lot of Americans, and I appreciate 
your commitment to making sure that our United States military is taken 
care of.
  You know, when we passed the stimulus bill, I did not vote for it. In 
fact, 100 percent of the Republicans did not vote for it. It took $1 
trillion and sprinkled it over 106 Federal programs and grew 
government. The loser in this budget, in addition to the American 
people with the debt that they are saddled with and the overspending 
that is there and the borrowing that has to happen, is the military. We 
are in the middle of armed conflicts, and the United States of America 
can never, ever be second. It can never, ever be close to somebody 
else.
  We have to have the very best intelligence. We have to have the very 
best equipment. We have the best men and women, but we are not taking 
care of those men and women. I wish this budget that we are looking at 
would take care of those men and women and would take care of the 
weapons systems and things that we need to do to keep this country safe 
and to keep the world safe. The sacrifice that those men and women give 
and that the families give is just unparalleled. It is absolutely 
amazing.
  I want to tell a quick story here--a little perspective if I could--
of a man who served in Vietnam. He happens to be my brother Alex's 
father-in-law. His father-in-law is named Bob Johnson. You know, when I 
think about this budget and about what is happening, I think about Bob. 
I think: What about Bob? You know, what about Bob? Because Bob is just 
a great American. He is working hard. He is doing exactly what we want 
him to do. Yet this budget and this administration seem to want to 
punish success and reward failure.

                              {time}  2200

  It is exactly the opposite of what I think we ought to be doing.
  And on March 16 of 2009, the President said--I want to read a quote 
from an address he gave related to small business, and I am extracting 
one paragraph, but I would encourage everybody to go back and read it 
for themselves.
  In one paragraph, he said, ``Small businesses are the heart of the 
American economy. They are responsible for half of all private sector 
jobs--and they create roughly 70 percent of all new jobs in the past 
decade. So small businesses are not only job generators, they are also 
the heart of the American dream. After all, these are businesses born 
in family meetings around kitchen tables. They're born when a worker 
takes a chance on her desire to be her own boss. They are born when a 
part-time inventor becomes a full-time entrepreneur, or when somebody 
sees a product that could be better or a service that could be smarter, 
and they think, `Well, why not me? Let me try it. Let me take a shot.' 
''
  The President delivers it a little bit better than I do. I understand 
that. He's the President of the United States.
  I agree with everything that he said in that paragraph. But as I look 
at this budget, it fundamentally does not help the small businessman. 
Because it extends spending, it increases taxes, and puts borrowing at 
record levels. Literally double.
  Let me tell a really quick brief story here about Bob Johnson, what 
about Bob, in Topeka, Kansas.
  Bob has lived his whole life in Kansas. He was raised on a farm with 
six brothers and sisters. After high school, Bob joined the Marines. He 
wanted a better life for himself. He served in Vietnam and was 
honorably discharged.
  He went back home to Kansas, married his high school sweetheart, 
Janet. Together they raised a daughter, Christy. Bob spent his days and 
nights learning a trade, and when he mastered that trade, he opened up 
his own transmission shop in Topeka, Kansas. And for the past 30 years, 
Bob Johnson has worked his tail off to make sure that the Topeka 
Transmission Service is the most successful, most disciplined, 
cleanest-run shop in town. People who know Bob know they are going to 
get good service, and a lot of people in town know Bob. He's using the 
skills he learned as a farmer and a marine to teach his employees that 
character, skill, and hard work are the formula for success. And Bob 
has undoubtedly been successful.
  His daughter was the first in their family to graduate from college, 
the University of Kansas, the Jayhawks. His business has been 
successful. His employees have earned their paychecks. Bob cares about 
their success and his customers being happy. And Bob's business pays 
their taxes so this Congress has resources to spend.
  So I ask what have we done to support Bob lately? Bob is the heart 
and engine of the United States. He's the heart and soul of the dream. 
It's what drives this country forward.
  Well, lately he's probably seen his savings get obliterated like the 
rest of the hardworking Americans. As a small business owner, he 
appears to be the target for a tax increase. That's Bob's reward. Work 
hard for 30 years, do everything right, and now suddenly we're going to 
tax him more, we're going to spend more and we're going to leave his 
family and his grandkids, Jake and Taylor, a legacy of debt.
  So what do you think Bob's choices will be? Do you think he will be 
in a position to give his employees a raise? Do you think he will be in 
a position to hire more people? Or do you think Bob Johnson will get 
more protective of what he has and worry more about how he's going to 
meet his payroll and how he's going to keep the employees he has and 
the savings he's worked so hard for over the last 30 years?
  I don't think we're doing him any favors with this budget. There is 
nothing in the stimulus, there is nothing in the bailouts, there is 
nothing in our tax policy that rewards Bob Johnson. And yet Bob 
Johnson--I agree with the President--he's the heart and soul of what is 
going to drive this country forward representing 70 percent of the new 
jobs.
  The Obama budget spends at record levels, it taxes at record levels 
and doubles our national debt by spending, taxing and borrowing too 
much. That's what we're doing to destroy the American dream.
  I have another colleague here who is also a freshman. He didn't 
create any challenges, but like me, he's here to help clean it up.
  I would like to yield some time to my friend from Ohio, Mr. Austria.
  Mr. AUSTRIA. I thank the gentleman from Utah. I thank you for the 
great work you are doing for the State of Utah and our country as a 
freshman. Thank you for putting this on today.
  I want to thank my other colleague from California. Thank you for 
your service to our country. Thank you for putting things in 
perspective for our military.
  And I want to add one thing. We had an opportunity to change some of 
this budget, and another freshman--it seems like the freshmen now are 
taking the lead role on some of this stuff, which is good--Congressman 
Harper from Mississippi and myself cosponsored an amendment in the 
budget that would put the troops' increase, their pay increase where it 
should be at 3.4 percent where it has been lowered and marked down in 
this budget to 2.9, which is the minimal amount required by statute.
  When we have troops that are now fighting in two wars, we're 
increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan--I have had an 
opportunity, I represent the largest single site employer in the State 
of Ohio Wright Patterson Air Force Base. I have four military 
facilities in my district. I have had an opportunity to attend a number 
of deployments for men and women in the military. And I have to say, 
they are the greatest people I have had an opportunity to meet, and I 
would go so far as to say it's the next greatest generation that's 
serving our country today.

[[Page H4244]]

  And when these--we're asking these men and women to serve and the 
deployments are lengthier than what was expected, more often than what 
was expected. There are tremendous sacrifices that are being made by 
their families, by our troops. I think that the least we can do in this 
budget is not cut what was expected as far as their pay but give them 
the increase that they deserve, and in my opinion earned. They are 
doing a spectacular job in protecting us, and we thank them for their 
sacrifices to protect our freedom.
  But unfortunately, that amendment was shot down and was voted down in 
Budget by the other side of the aisle. And so we had an opportunity to 
try to fix some of that, and we didn't do that in the Budget Committee, 
and I hope that we can get our priorities straight on that.
  Let me build off of my colleague from Utah. Let me talk about Ohio 
because you two are out west and some of the things that you talked 
about--the difficult times that small businesses are going through, 
families are going through out west--we are experiencing these things 
in the midwest.
  I represent the State of Ohio, the heart of the midwest. And I can 
tell you we have over 900,000 small businesses in the State of Ohio. 
And within the last few weeks, in particular, our phones in the 
district offices have been ringing. Business have been calling us, 
families have been calling us. They are going through very difficult 
times right now. They are making sacrifices for our country. Small 
businesses are calling us, and they are having difficulty getting the 
financing, the credit that they need to be able to meet their payroll, 
to be able to save the jobs that are out there, much less create new 
jobs and sustain those jobs in the long term.
  The Bob Johnsons that you just talked about. We have a lot of Bob 
Johnsons, those types of businesses in Ohio, and they are the economic 
engine of our State and this country. As you mentioned, they create 60 
to 80 percent of the jobs across this country. And I think here in 
Congress we can do better.
  As freshmen, we've been in Congress now for less than 100 days, and 
we have been faced with a $700 billion TARP financial market bailout 
that has not worked, in my opinion. It has been a disaster because 
there's been no--there hasn't been the accountability needed, there 
hasn't been the transparency as to how that money has been in place. 
There is no plan in place.
  The Treasury Department did not have a plan in place. We had 
Secretary Geithner come into the Budget Committee, and we asked him 
about the financial bailout, the market bailout. And he could not give 
us specific answers as to how the money that has been spent has been 
spent and how their plans on the future dollars on how they were going 
to be spent.
  And then we had the stimulus package, $791 billion spending package, 
I call it, $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years of taxpayers' dollars. 
In that stimulus package was a paragraph in there on a bill that not 
one Member of Congress had an opportunity to read completely before we 
voted on that, said, You know what? We can now take your tax dollars, 
we can use it as a bailout, give it to a company like AIG, and they can 
pay out $165 million in bonuses, 73 of those being over $1-million 
bonuses. One lucky guy got a $1.64 million bonus, and twelve of them 
don't even work for the company.
  These are hardworking American taxpayers' dollars that are paying out 
these bonuses. As the public begins to understand what is happening 
here in D.C., they are outraged. They are outraged by this stuff, and 
it shouldn't be happening. We can do better than that.
  Now we have a $3.9 trillion budget before us. And guess what is in 
this budget? We're now going to tell you how we're going to pay for the 
historical amount of debt that we just built up. We're going to start 
taxing the American people.
  In this bill, there is nearly a $2 trillion tax hike over the next 
decade: $2 trillion of taxes. That's going to further weaken America's 
prospects with sustained economic growth and job creation well into the 
future. And let me tell you who's going to be paying for this. It is 
going to be many of our small business owners that are struggling to 
make paycheck to paycheck, that are struggling to not just save jobs 
but create jobs and be able to sustain those jobs. Now they know they 
have a tax increase coming at them. I mean, is that how we're going to 
expand and create new jobs?
  American families, 95 to 100 percent of the American families across 
this country, we're now going to hit you with higher costs on energy, 
taxes. This little thing that's stuck in the budget--and I appreciate 
your chart up there because I think it helps put things in perspective 
as to how we're paying for this debt. We're going to stick this 
proposal in there that's cap-and-trade. It sounds harmless. It is not 
harmless. We're talking about $629 billion of tax increases on 
families, families that are making sacrifices right now that are 
struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck.
  Anyone who uses natural gas, who turns on your light switch, who uses 
electricity, heats their home, fills up their gasoline tank, you know 
what we're going to do now in this budget we're going to raise the cost 
of energy on you for the average American family of about $1,600 per 
household.
  So everybody's electricity rates--anybody that uses any type of 
CO2 or carbon, your energy costs are now going up.
  And then this tax is also--this is what worries me in Ohio because we 
have a lot of manufacturing in Ohio. It's the number one industry with 
agriculture. It's going to further erode the job growth in the U.S. 
manufacturing sector. It's going to put American companies at an even 
greater competitive disadvantage with China and other companies--or 
other countries. I apologize. It's late tonight.
  And this is what is supposed to be turning our economy around 
creating jobs, this cap-and-trade proposal, which should be called a 
cap-and-tax proposal. We can do better. We should be doing better. And 
let me tell you, the reality is that all of this infusion of spending 
in government and expanding government, the reality is we are serving 
our constituents in our district, and we have constituents that are out 
there that are asking for our help right now. They don't know where to 
go. This is not good for them. They can't get the financing, they can't 
get the credit to help save and create new jobs. And we can do better. 
We should be targeted on our small businesses, on those families that 
are struggling.

  And I know both in your States, Utah and California, and across this 
country, they are going through the same thing.
  So I thank the gentleman for yielding. I will yield back. I know 
you've been wanting to jump in on this.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Thank you. The people in Ohio, so much like what is 
happening in California and which is what is happening in Utah.
  I look at the State budget in the State of Utah for the entire State. 
Everything they need to do is roughly $11 billion. And here this 
Federal budget is going to be nearly $4 trillion. It's a number so big 
we can't even fathom how big it is.
  I heard this great stat that is just mind boggling. It says if you 
spend $1 million a day every day, it would take you nearly 3,000 years 
to get to $1 trillion. And we're going to spend 4? The numbers are so 
astronomical.
  I really believe the heart and soul of what we've got to do is get 
back to the proper role of government. The former Secretary of 
Agriculture wrote a great talk that's turned into this pamphlet. It 
talks about the proper role of government. And the essence of it is we 
can't be all things to all people. The government is there to provide 
some very basic needs and services to protect the community.
  But it is not there to be all things to all people. We vote on a 
regular basis in the United States Congress for things we, as a Federal 
Government, have no business doing. And when we have men and women, 
businesses that are struggling, how can we look at a budget and look at 
this chart here, where based on the President's own numbers, his 
scenario, that we will double the debt? How can you look at--look. We 
cannot run this government on a credit card. We've been doing it. Too 
many people in the United States have been doing it. But it just gets 
you further and further into trouble.
  I feel a duty and obligation to leave this country better than how we 
found

[[Page H4245]]

it. When you have a budget that spends this much and taxes to the 
degree it does and it borrows at these record levels, I just don't 
think that we can sustain that. And certainly for my kids it is not 
going to leave the world a better place.
  Nearly 30 cents in this budget, nearly 30 cents of every dollar. 
Think about that. Nearly 30 percent, 30 cents of every dollar will be 
spent by the Federal Government.
  What about Bob? Who do you think is better to run Bob's transmission 
shop? Bob or Washington, D.C.? The Federal Government? It's Bob. And 
that's fundamentally what I have challenges with.
  I would like to yield some time to the gentleman from California, 
Duncan Hunter.

                              {time}  2215

  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman.
  You know, as freshmen, we can honestly say that we're not responsible 
for what's going on right now, but we are trying to fix it.
  We came into this Congress in January with President Obama; and, 
frankly, I believe what he said when he was campaigning. When he talked 
about making tough choices, when he talked about not spending so much, 
when he talked about tax cuts for the middle class, when he talked 
about our foreign debt and the money that we owe China and money that 
we owe the rest of the world, I believed him, along with majority of 
the American people.
  But it turns out that those tax cuts and that spending reduction and 
that reduction in debt and that reduction in borrowing were simply 
campaign talking points because they don't exist in the 
administration's budget as it exists now.
  I would like to know where those tough choices are. Where are those 
cuts? Where is Bob's tax cut? First, how are we going to pay for all of 
this spending? For that chart that shows that debt, how are we going to 
pay for it?
  As my colleague from Ohio mentioned, we're going to raise taxes on 
people who use electricity. I have news for the administration; this is 
everybody. Everybody uses electricity. We're going to put a $640 
billion tax on Americans who use electricity. For every small business 
that uses electricity, that has carbon emissions, this cap-and-trade 
tax is going to kill American business. We're going to raise taxes on 
small businesses. We're going to raise taxes on the middle class. Bob's 
tax cut isn't there.
  You know, we talk about energy right now. I would encourage my 
colleagues to be extremely skeptical over any talking points that talk 
about energy in this country and becoming self-sufficient on energy 
when it doesn't mention nuclear. If you don't mention nuclear, then it 
is not a real alternative to using oil that we get from foreign 
countries, especially when we are going to tax the American people for 
using electricity.
  It's hard to trust the administration when they talk about fixing the 
economy, but they want to tax small businesses and the middle class, 
and we maintain record trade deficits with countries around the world.
  We're not talking about trade right now. No one is talking about 
fixing our trade relations with China so that American companies and 
American manufacturing firms are punished right now for making American 
goods and trying to ship them overseas. They're being punished, but 
we're not talking about helping them out. We're going to tax them more.
  When we talk about national security, the administration wants us to 
think that they're going to be good on national security while at the 
same time cutting defense. Where are these hard choices?
  Right now, every man, woman, and child in this country owes $35,000 
in debt that you show on that chart. With the President's plan, that's 
going to increase to $70,000 in 8 years. Every man, woman, and child is 
going to owe $70,000. I have three children, too. Each one of them is 
going to owe $70,000 in 8 years if the administration budget goes 
through.
  I would like to say to my colleagues and to the President; we don't 
need anymore stimulus. We don't need any more TARP, no energy tax, no 
small business tax raise, no tax raise on the middle class. The 
President is spending, taxing, and borrowing into oblivion. It is time 
that he put the checkbook down.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. I thank the gentleman from California. You're exactly 
right. I mean, just look at this chart. You look at the spending, and 
yet, didn't we all hear in the campaign from the President that we were 
going to rein in spending? How many times did we hear during the 
campaign, ``a debt we inherited''?
  Well, I ran against it. I ran against the Republicans. I'm a 
Republican and I ran against it. I said, look, they had the House and 
Senate and the Presidency and they blew it, they overspent, but somehow 
we were going to change. That change under this budget represents a 
doubling of the debt and all-time record-high expenditures.
  No matter which financial statistic you want to do, this is the 
biggest, especially if you look at it as a percentage of the gross 
domestic product, nearly 30 cents of every dollar.
  Mr. AUSTRIA. If the gentleman would yield for just a moment, because 
I think what these tax hikes are doing, they're giving the illusion 
that they're not really increasing the deficit or the debt as much as 
they really are. And the fact is, without any spending restraints--and 
you have got your chart up there--that this illusion is only going to 
last so long, because even with all these tax increases, the budget's 
spending growth is so explosive that it outpaces the revenue for the 
entire budget. I mean, the entire budget period, you know, the spending 
outpaces the revenue that even these huge tax hikes can bring in.
  And I think it's a feel-good thing. I think it's one of those where 
the Federal Government right now thinks that they can just spend all 
they want for as long as they want, just continue to borrow, and now 
they're going to start taxing families and all so that they can keep 
this feel-good spending going on. And I think the Americans, as they 
begin to realize what's going on here in D.C., are becoming more and 
more outraged, and businesses are already very concerned on how they're 
going to be able to continue to survive.
  I thank you for yielding.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Again, September 12, 2008, in Dover, New Hampshire, 
Barack Obama said, ``I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family 
making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not 
your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, not 
any of your taxes.''
  One of the very first bills he signed, tax increase on cigarettes. 
That affects Americans across the board. This energy tax, the so-called 
cap-and-trade, will affect 100 percent of Americans. Every single 
American's going to have to pay this tax because those energy needs 
affect every single industry, every single product, and every single 
household.
  This is not the time to be raising taxes, and I think there's 
something to be said about self-restraint, self-responsibility, 
personal responsibility.
  You know, you look at Wall Street and you look at some of these big 
fat cats, and you see this greed and it makes you mad. It makes you 
mad, especially when you know that the government went into everybody's 
pockets--I mean, this is what I try to tell my staff, my kids, myself. 
When we have an expenditure before the United States Congress, what you 
really need to ask yourself is, is it right for the government to reach 
into the people's pockets, everybody's pockets, and pull out money and 
give it to somebody else over here? Is that right? I mean, that's the 
prism by which I think we should be asking are these expenditures 
proper, are they right, and is this what we should be doing.
  And yet, as I look at that, I just think, my goodness, we cannot keep 
pulling money out of people's pockets. We just can't keep doing that. 
There's no way for the American entrepreneur to thrive if you continue 
to do that. What about the Bobs of the world? How are they going to 
grow their business?
  So I look at that, and I get so infuriated because we have such great 
opportunities. We're the greatest country on the face of the planet, 
but as I look at this idea of personal responsibility, you know, cable 
television in this country is not a right. It's not a right. You have 
to get out there and earn it.

[[Page H4246]]

You've got to go take care of it, take care of yourself, take care of 
your family. We're turning into this nanny State.
  People get all uppity when I say we're turning into this socialist 
Nation. How can you look at the definition of that and say, no, that 
we're going in the opposite--we're just not going in the right 
direction. We seem to have this socialist mentality that we've got to 
take care of everyone and everything, and yet this country was founded 
on the idea of the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
  Remember when President Kennedy said those famous words, probably 
some of the most famous words ever uttered by a President of the United 
States: Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do 
for your country? And yet look at where we are today. Everybody's got 
their hand out, and it just feels so wrong and so wrong that our 
government just wants to pull more out. They want to spend more, and if 
they don't have the revenue, well, they just keep borrowing more.
  So we have to have I think a gut-check and a realization in this 
country that we can't be all things to all people. We're going to have 
to make some hard decisions. The President campaigned on that. I 
campaigned on it. I think you gentlemen campaigned on that. We've got 
to make some hard decisions around here. We can't be all things to all 
people.
  With that, I'd like to yield a moment to my friend, Duncan Hunter 
from California.
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman from Utah for yielding, and you're 
absolutely right.
  Whoever thinks that we can spur this economy back into action by 
taking money out of the American people's pockets is delusional. 
Whoever thinks that we can bring this economy, the greatest economy in 
the world still, put it back on its feet by taxing people for using 
electricity is delusional. Whoever thinks that by increasing the per 
capita debt for each man, woman, and child in this country from $35,000 
to $70,000 in 8 years, that that's going to help the country out, 
they're delusional.
  I'd like to read a letter here from a small business owner in my 
district in eastern San Diego: ``President Obama has unleashed his 
massive grassroots army in an attempt to sway Members of Congress to 
support his bloated $3.55 trillion budget.'' I think it's actually 
higher now. It was 3.55 when this letter was written.
  ``I urge you to resist such attempts, and oppose his irresponsible 
budget plan that would usher in massive tax hikes, including the 
imposition of a global warming carbon tax, a doubling of the publicly 
held national debt, and a permanent expansion of the Federal 
Government.
  ``There is no measure of fiscal responsibility and accountability 
with this budget. Instead we are merely breaking the backs of 
hardworking taxpayers and passing the buck on to our children.
  ``Any budget that doesn't have the best interests of the American 
people at heart must be opposed.''
  And that's the key to this budget. It does not have the best 
interests of the American people at heart. What it has at heart is the 
biggest government Federal grab of power that this country has ever 
seen. From our founding--the gentleman from Utah is absolutely right--
it's been about rugged individualism and individual responsibility, 
people taking responsibility for their actions.
  Right now, we're punishing those people that take responsibility for 
their actions, punishing those people that pay their mortgages, 
punishing those people that actually can get out there and start 
businesses and hire people. And we're doing it so we can help out those 
who maybe don't want to help themselves, who look to us here in this 
Congress as their savior.
  When this stimulus bill was passed, one of our Democrat colleagues 
from Florida actually said that this stimulus bill will heal the sick, 
feed the hungry, and house the homeless. The stimulus bill was not the 
Messiah. I have news for him: it was not the Messiah. It will not do 
any of those things.
  What it will make happen is make the American people more dependent 
on a failing Federal bureaucracy that's growing at an unprecedented 
rate.
  I thank the gentleman from Utah and the gentleman from Ohio for their 
leadership in this and for pointing out to our colleagues in Congress 
and to the American people the evils that are about to befall us in 
this country if we have unrestrained spending, unrestrained taxing, and 
unrestrained borrowing, which is exactly what the President's budget 
gives us.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Thank you. I think you're exactly right. Somebody has 
to pay the bill. You know, you can't just take and take and take and 
not actually produce things.
  I worry that this country has this mentality that manufacturing's 
bad. Manufacturing's good. We have to remember in this country, we 
succeeded when we created things, and that manufacturing is so critical 
and important to our future. We actually have to create and invent and 
get up out of our seats. When the going gets tough, we ought to get 
going.
  And I would expect that people take on their own personal 
responsibility, that they set greed aside, that they remember the words 
of John F. Kennedy: Ask not what your country can do for you but what 
you can do for your country? Great words. The reason we learned them in 
school is because they're so profound and they withstand the test of 
time.
  And so I still have the greatest optimism about the United States of 
America. The reason we spend time away, all of us, from our families 
night after night to serve in the United States Congress--it's a great 
honor, it's a great privilege--but the reason I think we fight and have 
that passion and we're fired up about the United States of America is 
we want it to go the right direction.

                              {time}  2230

  I, too, was elected. I think if we can get back to those core 
principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, and a strong 
national defense, that will empower the Bob Johnsons of the world to be 
that entrepreneur, be the best they can be, provide for their family, 
get up off their tush and actually get out there and make things 
happen.
  I know that the gentleman from Ohio shares those same values. I want 
to yield my time.
  Mr. AUSTRIA. Let me tell you, it has been an honor tonight to stand 
up here with my colleagues, all of us being new Members here. 
Congressman Chaffetz from Utah, you are doing an outstanding job in 
representing your great State; to have a Member who's served in our 
military, and we thank you for your service, Congressman Duncan from 
California; two of my outstanding colleagues that I have had the honor 
to come in with in this class. There's 22, I think, Republicans, and 34 
Democrats, if I'm not mistaken. Just outstanding talent. And to join 
the two of you.
  I also have a family at home. I have three sons. When I came to 
Congress, I came to Congress because I thought I could make a positive 
change. I thought we had opportunities to change the direction this 
country was going and to really move in the right direction to help our 
small businesses, to help strengthen our economy, to help those 
families that were out there that are suffering right now going through 
difficult times.
  Let me tell you, I did not come up here to run up the deficit, to 
create historic amounts of debt for my three sons at home, for our 
children and our grandchildren that will have to pay for this in years 
to come.
  We have a budget that we will be debating this week and voting on 
this week that's now going to, all of a sudden, start taxing. This is 
how we are going to all of a sudden start paying down some of this debt 
and start taxes American families, as we have talked about tonight, by 
hitting them at home where it hurts most, we know, with heating their 
homes, filling their cars with gasoline, and electricity, as we 
mentioned multiple times.
  It's not the way to go. I think we can do better. I think the 
American people expected better last November. They expected us to work 
in a bipartisan manner to move good public policy forward. Quite 
frankly, I haven't seen that in my first 100 days. What I've seen is 
business as usual here in Washington, D.C. It's been partisan politics, 
it has been legislation decided by a small group on one side of the 
aisle

[[Page H4247]]

only that has been pushing this stuff through.
  I think the American people know, as they are beginning to realize 
what is going on--and many of them have gotten their quarterly 
statements. Their retirement accounts are down significantly. Their 
children's education funds are down significantly. Their savings 
accounts are down significantly.
  It's starting to sink in what is really happening here. The concern 
is tremendous. We have a responsibility to be accountable for those 
hardworking Americans tax dollars. That's our responsibility in 
Congress, is to ensure that there's accountability, there's 
transparency, and that we do have a plan to turn this country around.
  So, again, I thank my two colleagues for allowing me to join them 
tonight. Every day I walk into my office, I take off my coat, roll up 
my sleeves. I've got a wonderful intern by the name of Louis who comes 
in and says, Congressman, what fight do we have today?
  I can tell you, we're not going to give up that fight. We're going to 
keep fighting and fighting for the hardworking Americans out there and 
hardworking taxpayers out there and being accountable for their tax 
dollars. Thank you for yielding.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Thank you. It really is about personal accountability, 
about getting up, whatever your situation in life is and, believe me, 
people are hurting. We know that. The question is how do we best move 
forward. There's some that would argue that only government, only 
government, can solve these problems. I don't think so. I beg to 
differ.
  I think it's the American entrepreneur, it's the American families, 
it's the strength of the individuals collectively within this country 
that, given the right set of freedoms, the right set of liberties, that 
can pursue their own happiness. That's what makes this country great. 
That's what makes this country so strong.
  It's also the right and the opportunity to vote and participate. I've 
got concerns about another big initiative that's being slammed down the 
Americans peoples throats, and that is card check. I recognize the 
right of people if they want to gather together and join a union. But 
how we do that--if we don't get the process right, we can't ever get 
good results.
  I look at the way we look at things in the United States Congress. 
When the single-largest single spending bill in the history of the 
United States came before this body and we just over 13 hours to review 
it, there was not one Member of the United States Congress able to read 
it. It's physically impossible to go through the 1,400 pages of a $1 
trillion bill, the single largest bill in the history of the United 
States, and actually try to consume that.
  So if you don't get the process right, it's really hard to get a good 
result.
  Mr. Gohmert's here with us from Texas. I'd appreciate it if he would 
join us. I'd like to yield to him because I'm really concerned about 
this card check and what it's going to do to the American way of life.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I appreciate my friend for yielding. He knows about 
scoring points--going back to school--but this is outrageous.
  Here, the economy is hurting. And, as my friend so eloquently put it, 
the government doesn't do things better than business. Business always 
does a better job than government. Yet, here we are. We are piling on.
  I don't know if most people are aware, but virtually every week we 
are putting more of our energy resources off limits. So we are going to 
run up the price of energy as we approach the summer--and the prices 
are already going up on their own. And then you have got this 
ridiculous spending that's going crazy. Begging the Chinese to keep 
loaning us money. We're going to print money. Inflation is going to hit 
it.
  On top of that, we're going to really hammer free enterprise by 
saying, in effect--you guys wouldn't know this, but my elementary 
school teachers, who I think were all Democrats, were liars. Because 
they told me growing up in school that you cannot have a free society, 
a Democratic country, if you don't have a secret ballot. That's what 
they told me. And I believed them. I still believe them.
  Yet, here is this bill, they call it card check, but it's the anti-
secret ballot initiative by the Democratic leaders. Obviously, it's 
being pushed by the people they owe a great deal to.
  But Fox News had a story on about the Dana Corporation Auto Parts in 
Albion, Indiana, and they said that the card check process has nearly 
torn the 50-person plant apart after harassment and intimidation from 
the United Auto Workers Union forced them to a secret ballot vote.
  The union organizer, they said, came to the plant 2 years ago, asking 
employees to join the UAW because the company had signed a neutrality 
agreement with the union. The meeting didn't go well.
  One of the people interviewed, Larry Guest, said, ``He was using real 
rough language--cursing. It didn't go over well with the women at all. 
There were a couple that just got up and left.
  So employees said the union representatives approached them in the 
break room, at the plant doors, and even followed them to their cars 
and just harassed them and even followed them home--and the employees 
verified this--and they said, ``We're in a little town. We're in a 
plant of 50 some people. The last thing you need is to have a union 
come to your door saying: I want your name.''
  But that's all it took under the card check process. They didn't get 
a secret ballot. All they needed was their name. So if it meant 
following them home, following them to their car, going to their kids' 
baseball games, whatever it took until they finally got them to sign 
just to get them off their backs.
  As one employee said, Jamie Oliver, ``When they approach you every 
day, every day, every day, after a while it's like `Okay. Fine. I'll 
sign the card.' ''
  The UAW collected the necessary signatures but plant employees 
appealed to the NLRB--the employees appealed. Then they finally got it 
overturned. The card check didn't make their life better, it made it 
more miserable. So here you have got companies struggling to stay 
afloat.
  Now I have had private businesses in my district say: I'm barely 
staying afloat. If this card check bill passes, I'm going to have to 
let everybody go. I'm too old to keep putting up with it. I've heard 
this from a number of people. We're going to let them go. And the card 
check will put a bunch more people out of business.
  Here, at a time when the economy is already struggling, and I think 
my friend is so right--my friend from Utah nailed it--the American 
people are what makes this country great.
  I was visiting with some students here from the Big Twelve. We have 
A&M, Baylor. They're still here, but the House rules say you can't 
acknowledge people in the gallery, so I won't. But we have some from 
Missouri, from Texas Tech. From around the Big Twelve. They get it. 
They know that the American people are the real strength of this 
country. And for the government to try to cram this stuff down on them 
and say, We do it better, is really outrageous.
  So I appreciate all of my friends here today making that point to the 
American people.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Thank you. Thank you for your service. It's an honor to 
serve with you. We're on a committee together.
  I want to talk about another bill that recently passed the United 
States Congress--something that I voted against. It's the so-called 
GIVE Act. Now think about this. Again, I think the way we ought to be 
looking at whether we ought to be spending money is to say: Is it 
right, is it proper to put the government's hand in everybody's pockets 
and pull money out and give it to somebody else. If the answer is yes, 
so be it.
  National defense? Absolutely. It's in the Constitution, it's in all 
of our best interests. We have to have it in order to survive. Yet, 
that is the place that the President is trying to cut the budget. 
That's a proper role of government.
  The so-called GIVE Act was going to be a program for paid volunteers. 
Now, to me, that is an oxymoron. It doesn't seem right. We are going to 
pay and compensate volunteers. It's just amazing to me.
  Pete Roskam pulled out these quotes--a colleague of ours here in the 
House--the President said, ``The question we ask today is not whether 
our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.'' Moments 
later, he

[[Page H4248]]

said, ``Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the 
answer is no, the programs will end.''
  I also remember the President said ``we go line-by-line through the 
budget.'' Line-by-line. Have you heard anything that we're going to 
cut, other than national defense, one of the key cornerstones of things 
that has to happen in this country? I haven't heard that.
  Where is that middle-class tax cut. I haven't seen it. To think 
you're going to get an extra $10. You can barely get through Quiznos to 
do that.
  Yet, they pass this GIVE Act--over $5 billion in new money. There's a 
great Web site out there called ExpectMore.gov. It's put out by the 
Office of Management and Budget. There are over 1,100 Federal programs. 
Go to that Web site--ExpectMore.gov. You can look it up for yourself.
  One of the things that was funded in the GIVE Act was Learn and 
Serve. According to the Office of Management and Budget, it is 
described as, ``not performing; results not demonstrated.''
  It also funds AmeriCorps, the National Civilian Community Corps, 
which the OMB described as, ``not performing. Ineffective.'' Yet, they 
just got a huge funding increase. And the President promised us, 
``Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer 
is no, the programs will end.''
  I hope partly what I can do, Mr. Speaker, in my career, leaving at 
whatever point I do, that I can leave some mark at some point to say 
that we shrunk the size and scope of government, because we can no 
longer be all things to all people. We cannot take 30 cents of every 
dollar in this economy and spend it through the Federal Government. 
That is not the way to prosperity, that is not the way to pursue life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  It's the American entrepreneur, it's the American family, it's the 
American businesswoman, it's my 16-year-old son who's getting ready to 
go in the world. And look at the debt. Governments going to do 
everything. No, it's not. And until the American people get fed up, 
they stand up, they call their representatives. There are a good number 
of people here on both sides of the aisle.
  But we cannot be all things to all people. We have to say ``no.'' You 
do it in your life, business does it every day. And this government and 
this President fails to do it every day.
  Get fired up. Get all a hold of your representatives. We cannot have 
a budget that spends this much, that taxes this much, and that borrows 
this much. You're going to double your debt. Would you let that happen 
in your family? No. Would you let that happen to your business? No. 
Your government's doing it right now.
  Please, stand up and get involved. Mr. Austria from Ohio, Mr. Hunter 
from California, a host of other people, they are passionate about 
this. We can't do it ourselves.

                          ____________________