[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 147 (Tuesday, October 13, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H11270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE STIMULUS LABEL MUST BE SHUNNED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I was reading the Roll Call 
newspaper today, and on the front page it says, ``New Economic Plan 
Weighed, But `Stimulus' Label Shunned.'' It says, ``Democrats are 
scrambling to define a new plan to boost the economy as unemployment 
hurtles toward double digits, after months of insisting that talk of 
another stimulus package was premature.''
  Just don't call the as-yet-unwritten new proposal ``stimulus.''
  Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. 
They're talking about another stimulus bill. And everybody in this 
country knows that the $787 billion stimulus, and with interest it's 
over $1 trillion, did not work.
  The President said that unemployment would not go over 8 percent. 
It's over 9.5 percent right now. And the Democrats are scared to death 
it's going to go to 10 percent, so they are coming up with another 
plan, stimulus, to get the economy moving so there won't be any more 
unemployment. It won't work. It won't work just taking government money 
and throwing it at the problem. It creates more deficits, it's going to 
cause more inflation down the road, and it's going to cost higher 
taxes, but it's not going to create jobs.
  The thing that creates jobs is giving Americans more disposable 
income in their paychecks. The thing that creates jobs is for 
businessmen and industry people to have more money so they can buy more 
equipment and more plants so they can produce more products that people 
can buy. And then the employees, because they have more money because 
their taxes have been lowered, can buy it. That's what Ronald Reagan 
knew.

                              {time}  2000

  Ronald Reagan cut taxes when he came in. We were in a very bad 
economic time back in the early eighties. A lot of people don't 
remember that, but they were very bad coming out of the Carter 
administration. So he came in and they said, You've got to raise taxes. 
You've got to throw money at it. And he said he thought we ought to do 
just the opposite. We ought to give people some of their money back by 
lowering taxes. We ought to give business and industry some of their 
money back so they can invest more, and that would create a rising tide 
that would raise all boats. And you know what? It did. And it created 
the longest period of economic expansion in the history of this 
country.
  Now, today the President wants to solve the problem by taking 
taxpayers' money, raising taxes, coming out with new programs that are 
spending billions of dollars and then throwing money at it. It will not 
work. If they come up with another stimulus package and they throw all 
of this money at it that we don't have, we will have to print more and 
we will have inflation because of it, and that will raise taxes. Then 
the unemployment rate will continue to rise because people won't have 
disposable income to spend. And many of them will be losing their jobs 
because businesspeople will be cutting back and laying people off or 
going offshore.
  The fact of the matter is raising taxes right now, throwing more 
taxpayers' money that we don't have at the problem, will not solve it. 
The thing that will solve it, if I were talking to the President--and I 
hope maybe someday he will be listening--is, Mr. President, cut taxes 
on the individual, cut taxes on business and industry. Give us more 
disposable income and people will buy products. And when they buy 
products, we will create products. And when we create products, we will 
create jobs. That is the answer. Ronald Reagan knew it, but President 
Obama doesn't, but maybe he will get the message before long.
  Where we are heading right now is toward a socialist economy, a 
government-run socialist economy like the Europeans are doing. It 
hasn't worked there; it won't work here.
  Mr. Obama, Mr. President--if I were talking to him, I hope he will 
listen--cut taxes. Do what Ronald Reagan did and you will solve the 
problem.

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