[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 23, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H736-H737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE PRESIDENT'S EXTREME AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this past week was the 1-year 
anniversary of the so-called ``stimulus bill''--$862 billion--every 
dime of it borrowed from the future and from our grandchildren.
  When that bill was rushed through the House with almost no time to 
study it, we were promised as a country that it would jump-start the 
economy, that it would stabilize unemployment and that it would restore 
consumer confidence.
  The fact of the matter is that we have lost 4 million jobs since the 
stimulus was passed. Unemployment has risen dramatically. It continues 
to hover around 10 percent. Only 6 percent of Americans in the latest 
poll believe that the stimulus actually created jobs in America. Most 
of them feel that that extra debt has actually hampered the economy. 
Six percent. By comparison, I should say 7 percent of Americans still 
believe Elvis is alive, so you

[[Page H737]]

sort of know what range this credibility has for the stimulus.
  The fact of the matter is that stimulus wasn't designed to create 
jobs. It was designed to bail out government workers at the State and 
local levels. The truth is, if you are a government worker or if you 
belong to a teachers' union, you probably got a pay raise from the 
stimulus. If you work in construction or in manufacturing, you probably 
got a pink slip.
  The fact of the matter is the government has grown since the stimulus 
has passed. The jobs in the private sector--small businesses and 
medium-sized businesses--are disappearing and continue to disappear, 
and that's because it wasn't designed to create small business jobs. In 
fact, more money in the stimulus was set aside to buy public art in 
America than to help small businesses to create jobs. It shows.
  Too much of it was wasted. Too much of it was exaggerated claims 
where the White House announced jobs created in fake congressional 
districts. You heard about some of the waste, the fraud and the abuse 
in the stimulus: the $3 million turtle crossing in Florida, the $50,000 
hand puppet grant in one of our States, the $4 million bike trail to 
Taco Bell in Massachusetts. By the way, I love Taco Bell, but that's 
not how our tax dollars should be spent. I'll end with this one, but 
this is one of those which is too hard to believe. $390,000 of your tax 
dollars was spent at the University of New York, in Buffalo, in a study 
to compare the relationship between drinking malt liquor beer and 
smoking marijuana.
  So American taxpayers have given to 100 people for 3 weeks $45 a day. 
To do what? According to published reports, to drink malt liquor beer 
and to smoke marijuana. Those types of abuses are spread, 
unfortunately, throughout the stimulus. It's one of the reasons there 
is no public confidence in it.
  Today, they are looking at a second stimulus. They call it a ``jobs 
bill,'' but it's much like the first one, just smaller.
  Over the district work period, I met with small- and medium-sized 
businesses in Orange, in Lumberton, in Lake Conner, and in the 
Woodlands. I asked them what they would do to create jobs, and they 
turned thumbs down on all this new stimulus spending. What they said is 
that the government is in the way.
  In Orange County, at a roundtable, Keith Wallace, who owns a dry 
cleaners there and is on the port commission said, We need to get rid 
of the fear--the fear of higher health care mandates and taxes, the 
fear of cap-and-trade, the fear of new tax increases.
  Marjorie Claybar, who runs a cafe in Orange County, said, We need 
certainty from our government. We need certainty.
  Sue Cleveland, over in Lumberton, Hardin County, said, There is so 
much fear about what is going to happen in Congress with all of these 
tax increases, health care, and cap-and-trade.
  Lori, from State Farms, said, People are simply too scared to invest.
  The truth is that is it. Businesses are not willing to risk their 
hard-earned capital. They are not going to bring back workers that they 
had to let go. They are not going to hire new ones or make that 
expansion plan as long as government continues a job-killing agenda in 
Washington and as long as it proposes a job-killing budget. The 
President's budget, in my estimation, has killed more jobs than any 
budget in American history--new tax increases on small businesses, on 
energy companies, on local real estate companies, on families, on 
professionals all across the board, U.S. companies that compete 
overseas. All of those kill jobs in America.
  The truth of the matter is we are not going to get out of this 
recession by government spending. Private enterprise, when those small 
businesses and medium-sized businesses start hiring again, is what will 
sustain an economic recovery in America. America hates being in a 
recession. They hate even more being in a depression. They are 
naturally prone to pull themselves out, but now the government is 
clearly the obstacle in the way of it.

  We see this President and Congress pursue a more extreme agenda, a 
bigger health care bill--the President actually announced a bigger 
health care bill than the Senate one--more spending, more subsidies, 
more tax increases. They are not listening to the American public. They 
are not listening to our small business community. We are in trouble. 
It is time to get back on track.

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