[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 84 (Monday, June 13, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H4067-H4073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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CREATING JOBS IN AMERICA
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Flores). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Griffin) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to some
of my friends here. We are going to spend some time talking tonight
about the difficulty this country is having in terms of unemployment
and job creation. We have got a big challenge ahead of us, and the
Republicans here in the House have a lot of good ideas about how we can
get this economy going, how we can take the regulatory burden off of
small businesses, how we can reform the Tax Code for individuals and
for businesses so we can be competitive.
I would like to yield to my friend from Illinois, Adam Kinzinger.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, we are facing some pretty tough times in our country. I
remember the days when we had very low unemployment, and if you wanted
a job you had multiple offers when you got out of college, and
everybody needed you and the economy was thriving. And now we are
creeping back up in the unemployment.
I remember when we passed an $800 billion spending package out of the
House of Representatives--$800 billion--and we were told that if we
pass this spending package, unemployment will not exceed 8 percent, and
we approached 10 percent. Thankfully, unemployment began to go down,
but now it is stalled out, and it is beginning to go up again.
What we have is this idea of we need to spend, we need to borrow, and
we need to tax our way to prosperity. And what does that do? Well, I
will tell you what it does. It raises our taxes, and it just piles
burdens on our children and grandchildren--and us. Yes, we all care
about our children and grandchildren, but even this generation now is
swimming in debt.
Think about this: If you combine the cost of the war in Iraq and the
cost of the war in Afghanistan, you combine them this year, do you
realize that is less expensive than what we are paying just in interest
on our national debt? Just in interest. And that is going to continue
to grow. As we add more and more debt, that interest is going to
continue to get bigger and bigger. And do you know what? We have
another year of deficits, so the interest is bigger, and we have
another year, so the interest is bigger.
Meanwhile, the job creators, the people who really get this economy
rolling, the people who we are going to rely on to take individuals who
are unemployed and take them from recipients of tax dollars--where they
don't want to be--to taxpayers, the small business owners and these
factory owners that we want to get manufacturing back, they are the
ones that have to say, look, I have to invest for 10 and 15 and 20
years in the future, and all I see is a future of debt, doubt, and
despair.
I think my colleagues will agree with me when I say that we live in
the greatest country in the world, and I think they will agree with me
when I say there is absolutely no reason, there is no reason that
Americans should begin to accept the fact that we are in decline.
America doesn't have to be a nation in decline. America is a world
leader, and we can retain our position as the world leader, but it is
not going to be through what is done in government. It is not going to
be by passing more regulations. It is not going to be by passing more
taxation. It is not going to be by more and more rules and redtape. No.
It is going to be done by restoring that entrepreneurial spirit that
made our country so great in the first place.
I remember as a kid watching cowboy movies and seeing the old West
and how America built the country that we have today, and learning
about the Industrial Revolution and learning about those folks that
worked long hours to make what we have, and being very proud of what I
saw, every moment. But we began to accept that is no longer in our DNA.
Ladies and gentleman, that is not true. That is in our DNA. That is who
we are.
We can recover from this massive debt we are seeing, and we can do it
easily. Well, we have got to cut spending, but we have got to get
people back to work.
My home State of Illinois, the President's home State of Illinois, is
a shining example of what not to do to create jobs. In Illinois, we
just increased the individual tax rate. Well, that was probably not
overly brilliant, because now people are leaving Illinois at an even
faster rate than they were prior.
But then we did something especially crazy--we increased the
corporate tax rate in Illinois. So now you have our neighbors in
Indiana that are really
[[Page H4068]]
having a field day with businesses coming over to them. You have our
friends in Texas and in the South, like my friend from Arkansas, that
are begging folks to come over and bring their businesses from
Illinois. In fact, The Wall Street Journal just came out with an
article that said while Illinois has raised $300 million in receipts
from this tax increase, they have given away $240 million just to keep
businesses there that were leaving because of the tax increase. Then we
even contemplate in these halls increasing taxes on job creators again.
Debt, doubt, and despair and big bloated bureaucracy is in our future
right now. It doesn't need to be. Our future is the future of the
America that when you remember your parents and grandparents working
hard, that is what we are going to be again.
The situation we are in is not fun. The situation we are in right now
is very difficult. It is going to take a lot of hard work. It is going
to take tough proposals. We put forward a budget plan to begin to get
us out of the deficit and balance the budget. But you know what we got
from the other side of the aisle, as my colleagues can attest to, is
just demonization. No, not an alternative that we can take our budget
and their budget and try to come up and meet in the middle somewhere,
which the American people want. They want both sides to talk and come
to a conclusion. But we didn't get that. We got television commercials.
We got attempts to frighten senior citizens. We got politics as usual.
I don't think it is any doubt if you are watching, I am a young guy.
I can tell you that the generation today believes in an America that I
believe in. We see people go overseas all the time to Iraq and
Afghanistan and defend freedom and stand for what they believe in. And
do you know what? Some of these people going overseas today were 8
years old when 9/11 happened, but they know what we represent.
I will not accept second place. My colleagues on the Republican side
of the aisle will not accept an America in decline, because we will
maintain our position as the greatest country in the world. But, ladies
and gentlemen, to do that, we have got to make tough decisions. It
can't be about the next election anymore. It has got to be about the
next generation. It can't be about 2012. It has got to be somewhat
about 2011--right now.
So I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for organizing this
opportunity to just talk to the American people and say, look, we want
to get people back to work, but you can't spend, you can't tax, and you
can't borrow your way to prosperity. Never accept second best. We will
continue to maintain our role as the greatest country in the world, and
I kind of like being in that position.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I thank the gentleman.
I hear a lot of folks who talk about the problem that we have
economically, the debt problem, all of the many things that we have
been trying to address here in the House, and I hear them say, well, if
we can just get to where we need to be after the next Presidential
election, after the next President, whoever that President is, after
that President is sworn in in January of 2013, if we can just get to
that point in time, then we can really address the problems.
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That scares me because I don't think we can wait anywhere near that
long. In fact, I think we are already living on borrowed time in terms
of the crisis that this country is facing. We know for a fact President
Clinton appointed a Medicare commission over a decade ago, a bipartisan
Medicare commission.
Why did he do that? He did it because we had a problem then. We had a
problem then in 1998, and we still have that problem now. We have a
problem with the insolvency of Medicare. We have a problem with rising
health care costs. We have a problem with our debt and the deficits
that we run year after year after year. We have a problem with too much
regulation--too much government regulation--which stifles job creation.
We have a problem with our Tax Code. If you're talking about our
business Tax Code and business taxes, we have a problem there. Why?
Because it's hard to compete with other countries when you've got the
highest corporate tax rate in the world.
It's not about whether you like big business or small business. It's
about job creators. And our Tax Code discourages job creation. If
you're talking about individual income tax, we've got a problem there,
too. We've got one of the most complicated Tax Codes.
So what have we done about it here in the House? Well, on all of
these counts we have acted. We have acted. And we've been passing
legislation that addresses the jobs issue, our spending issue,
Medicare, the Tax Code, overregulation. This is what we've been doing
day in and day out since we got here.
And I would like to yield to some of my friends. Before I do, I would
just like to say this: we're the only one with a plan. Where's the
Senate's plan? Where's the President's plan?
So as we discuss here tonight, I just ask us all to think about where
is the other plan that we can compare ours to. There's not one. In
fact, a former Democratic National Committee chair who's running for
Senate now in Virginia, Tim Kaine, said today, It's a pretty bad deal
when the Senate hasn't even passed a budget. The U.S. Senate doesn't
have a plan. The President doesn't have a plan. This House has a plan.
And we're working hard every day to execute it and implement it.
I would like to yield now to the gentlelady from Washington.
Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Thank you. I appreciate my friend's work here on
the floor.
I just came back from a week in my home district in southwest
Washington. It's a tremendous place. It's where I grew up. Some of my
fondest memories are in and around southwest Washington, whether it was
lakes or rivers or streams or working my first job at the Vancouver
Mall. It's not even called the Vancouver Mall anymore. I had a lot of
opportunities--a lot of opportunities that I am very worried the next
generation of Washingtonians are not going to have. And let me tell you
why. Our unemployment has been over double digits going on 3 years now.
Let me read this to you because this is important. These aren't just
empty numbers. These represent families and lives: Clark County, 10.2
percent; Cowlitz County; 11.9 percent; Lewis County, 13.2 percent;
Pacific County, 12.5 percent; Wahkiakum, 11.8 percent; Skamania, 12.9
percent; and Thurston County is at 8 percent.
Let me compare those numbers quickly. I'm not happy about 8 percent.
I'm not happy about 13 percent. But there's a slight difference in the
reason that the Thurston County numbers are lower than the other
counties, and that's because that's where the State government is
housed.
So there are more government jobs, more public sector jobs in that
area. But the rest of the district and even in Thurston County is based
on small businesses. These are the hearts and souls of our economy.
Small business owners, entrepreneurs, mom-and-pop shops.
I got to tour Somarakis Vacuum Pumps. He is an engineer that started
a small little company. Built it up. He's passing it on to his son.
He's now expanded into two counties. He has a vision to grow and hire
people. In fact, he has been able to stay afloat these last few years
because a lot of the trade that he's done, he deals with other
corporations and other countries across the world, which is one of the
reasons he's been able to remain competitive.
You know what he told me this last week when I was home and I was
touring his new facility? He said, Jaime--I wish I could give you his
Greek accent, but I can't--he said, Jaime, I'm a proud American. I
built this company because I believe in the entrepreneurial spirit of
America. I believe in this country. But you in Washington, D.C.--and
he's speaking to the governing class here--are making it harder for me
to function. You're making it harder for me to survive: the
unpredictability, the high taxes, the new energy proposals, some of
which the President has supported.
He said, Jaime, if that cap-and-trade bill went into effect or if you
increase my energy taxes through the EPA, I will be out of business. I
will not be able to hire the next generation of engineers and pass this
company on.
And other small businesses around our whole region and around our
Nation are saying the same thing: can
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you give us some predictability, quit raising our taxes, get the EPA
off our backs. We all want to protect our way of life, but what's
happening right now is small business owners, the job creators, are
being squeezed. And why?
I was reflecting on, it's true, neither the Senate nor the President
has put forward a really strong governing jobs agenda this year. When
we got to meet with the President a couple of weeks ago, he pointed to
some of the bills that they passed last year, and some of the plans. If
I reflect on the $700 billion-plus bailout or the $800 billion stimulus
or the health care bill that was over a trillion dollars, one would
think if we spent that kind of money, we would have the jobs to show
for it.
But where are the jobs? I just read you the unemployment numbers for
southwest Washington State. They have actually not gone up in
tremendous rise. So, clearly, borrowing and spending more has, at the
very least, a negligible effect. We can do better. We have to do
better. The way we do that--stop bailing out big corporations, banks,
auto dealers. Right? Stop spending more money.
Fast fact: I had some job creators in my office a couple of weeks
ago, and they were asking for more investment. And I asked them about
the stimulus--the $800 billion stimulus bill that the President and the
Democrats here voted on and passed last year--how much that had
actually stimulated job creation. You know what they told me? Less than
3 percent of that number actually went to build roads. Remember the
shovel-ready hurrah that was talked about? We're passing this because
we're going to build infrastructure. I'm one of those who believes
infrastructure is important. Less than 3.5 percent was actually used to
build roads.
Where is the rest of that money? My goodness, we borrowed almost half
of that. We're going to pass the interest and the debt on to the next
generation, and yet we didn't even use it on what we said we were going
to use it on. That tells me that we're spending too much, we're
borrowing too much. It's time to cut back.
Every family in southwest Washington and across this Nation has cut
their own budget back in recent years. Every small business owner, job
creators, they will tell you--I have several in my area who haven't
even taken a paycheck in several years in order that they not lay
anyone else off. And they're looking at us, saying, Why can't you live
within your means? Well, guess what? We're going to. Not only are we
going to make sensible cuts and reductions, we're also going to
stimulate job growth.
Energy was one of the things I mentioned. In the last couple of
months we have passed off this House floor several bills that allow us
to drill for energy here in America, using American entrepreneurialism,
American innovation, and creating American jobs. I call on our Senate
to pass those bills and the President to sign them into law. They're
saying thousands and thousands of jobs could be created here in America
if we simply take advantage of the resources in our backyards. That
will do several things. It will drive down the cost of gas, which is
going to hit every family and every small business here in the next
several months. That's one immediate step we can take, in addition to
cutting back overspending. That's a jobs production bill.
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We could also make sure that we allow for some predictability. With
these Federal regulations that are coming out, small business owners
call me regularly, and say, Good grief. I just barely get one rule
under order, and you're sending me five new ones. I can't keep up.
Here is the difference. Small businesses, small business owners, they
can't just hire someone who is not being productive and just dedicate
that person's time to going through Federal regulations. Maybe a big
corporation could, one which can retain lots of lobbyists or lawyers;
but at the True Value Hardware on Main Street in Ridgefield, both the
owners actually work the store, so they can't just waste money to jump
through government regulations and government hoops. It has got to
stop.
Last year, the EPA released 900 new regulations--900. Do you know
what the EPA acting director for the water department told us on the
Transportation Committee just 2 or 3 months ago? She basically said she
didn't have to take into account any of those regulations and their
impact on our economy. That wasn't her concern. I'm sorry. Since when
does the government put forward regulations and rules and then say,
``We don't have any concern for what that's going to do to the
economy''? That's why we're in the mess we're in now.
We can change it. We can take some steps to bring oversight to these
regulatory agencies. Man, they're just going crazy. We're going to work
to streamline those, and we're going to do it now because House
Republicans believe and understand that job creators and job growth
occur in the private sector when individuals and entrepreneurs have the
freedom to grow and to develop, not when they're hampered, not when
their wrists are tied, not when they're told, You have to jump through
these hoops just to sell your product or just to hire someone. It has
got to stop, which is why we're putting forward and why House
Republicans are proud to put forward bills that are either going to
pull back some of these regulations or streamline them, reform them or
allow for more American job growth here in the United States.
So I appreciate that, and I look forward to hearing what my other
colleagues have to say about this pro-growth agenda.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Thank you.
Before I yield to my colleagues, I would like to just go through the
plan that the House Republicans have put together that certainly
includes addressing the debt, that certainly includes addressing our
spending. It's a plan that we believe will help get us on the right
fiscal path and help this country--the private sector--create jobs.
There is much, much more to what we're trying to do here in the House
to encourage private sector job creation, and I'd like to run through
some of those.
As I indicated, certainly we need to deal with the debt. That's why
we talk about reforming Medicare and saving Medicare for those on it
and saving it for the next generation. We talk about that a lot because
that directly relates to our debt, and we have to get our debt under
control if we're going to have the type of job growth that we are
accustomed to in this country: job growth based on technological
advancement and innovation. So dealing with the debt is a critical
component of encouraging private sector job creation.
Yet there are other parts to our plan, which include increasing
energy development, maximizing energy production. We have passed
numerous bills here in the House that will encourage drilling in the
gulf and that will encourage drilling offshore so that we can create
more jobs in energy production and become energy independent. It's not
just a jobs issue. It's a national security issue.
There is also the issue of the Tax Code that I referred to earlier.
We can't be competitive in this country if we don't reform the way we
tax individuals and the way we tax businesses. Ultimately, when
businesses decide to land somewhere, they look and they ask, Is that
where I want to do business? Unfortunately, we have created an
environment in this country that runs business off. We want businesses
to look around the world and say, The United States is where I want to
create jobs. That's the only place for me. In order to do that, we've
got to make sure that we have rules in place that encourage private
sector job creation.
I'd now like to yield to my colleague from Colorado.
Mr. GARDNER. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for organizing
tonight's conversation with the American people about what our plan for
job creation is all about and how we're going to, once again, restore
the greatness of this country by getting America back to work, by
creating an economy for job creators.
The gentlelady from Washington reminded me of my visits throughout my
district this past week in eastern Colorado and northern Colorado,
Colorado's Fourth Congressional District. It's around 6 o'clock back
home, and there are probably a lot of people who are just now coming
home from work or
[[Page H4070]]
who are about to get off work. They're worried about how they're going
to continue to pay for their daughter's education, how they're going to
make ends meet, what they're going to do to afford that car payment.
I and every single person here tonight will assure them that we have
a plan for jobs, that we have voted on our plan for jobs and that we
will continue to pursue policies to create jobs in this country, not
because they're created by government but because we get government out
of the way and allow the private sector to flourish.
This last week in Colorado, I met with a number of businesses. I
toured a number of businesses in northern and eastern Colorado, and I
had the opportunity to talk to the leadership of those companies and to
the people who work on the lines in the factories. I was struck by one
statement, one statement by an individual who said, It's time that we
let loose the innovators and the entrepreneurs in America.
What are we doing to let loose the innovators and the entrepreneurs
in this great country?
I know what the Republicans have been doing to make sure that we're
reducing regulations, to make sure that we have an energy policy that,
instead of strangling the American working family, helps the American
working family and that opens up our resources. We can do so in an
environmentally responsible manner. We have done it, and we will
continue to do it. We will continue to pursue tax policies that are
fair and that don't chase businesses overseas but that allow those jobs
to be created right here.
Another business owner in my State gave me a call last year, and
said, You know what? My number one competitor just moved to Ireland,
and I'm left with a choice. I can either stay headquartered here in
Colorado and pay 30 percent more in taxes than they do or I can go
overseas and find another place to do business and take those jobs with
me.
That's not the kind of choice that we ought to be presenting in this
country to the men and women who create business in the United States.
Instead of deciding where to go, the question they ought to be asking
is, How much can we grow right here in the U.S.? Along these lines, of
the factories that I toured and of the manufacturing plants that I
toured, I spoke with one employee who came up to me and said, I'm just
glad this business is located in Colorado. I'm glad they chose
Colorado.
It wasn't that long ago that I was a State legislator. I remember one
of the debates that we were dealing with was a particular regulation
that many small businesses were struggling with. They were trying to
figure out whether or not they could survive under that regulation.
While the debate in the Colorado State Legislature was taking place on
whether or not this regulation was good for job creation or not, there
was an advertisement on one of the State's largest radio stations from
our neighbor to the north, the great State of Wyoming. Their Chamber of
Commerce and one of their municipalities said, Come to Wyoming, a
business friendly place. They said that because Colorado was forcing a
regulation on its business owners that was going to put the men and
women of our State out of business. They saw an opportunity. They said,
Come to us. We'll take your jobs. We'll take your businesses. You can
do it right here, and you'll be better for it.
That's not the kind of policy I want for Colorado, and that's not the
kind of policy I want for the United States. The policy of this country
should be this:
We will make sure our government gets out of your way to let you do
what you do best--run your businesses, your families and your lives.
We're not going to foster policies that force you to make a decision to
go overseas because of an arbitrary decision in our Tax Code or a
regulatory scheme that says, Don't do business here because we're going
to make it too tough on you to do business.
Our plan for jobs in the 112th Congress is clear. Unfortunately, on
the other side of the aisle, my colleagues on the Democratic side seem
to have labeled their 112th Congress mission the ``kick the can down
the road'' tour.
{time} 2000
It is the kick the can down the road tour because they're not going
to present solutions for Medicare. They're not going to present
solutions to solve our energy crisis. They're not going to present
solutions to solve our debt and deficit, but no, they're going to pass
it on to the next generation. They're going to kick the can down the
road and say, You know what? If you're 50 or 55, we're going to go
ahead and put the burden all on you, all on you.
That is not a solution for this country. That is debt, doubt, and
despair, as my colleague from Illinois just a few minutes ago so
eloquently stated. Debt, doubt, and despair. I haven't heard a campaign
theme of debt, doubt, and despair, but that is certainly what they are
running on.
We can do better, and I'm glad to be part of the 112th Congress and
the Republican majority that has said we will create jobs in this
country, we will get back to economic opportunity, and we will start by
taking care of future generations, and that work begins today.
I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for his time.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Thank you to the gentleman from Colorado.
I now yield to the gentlelady from Alabama.
Mrs. ROBY. I appreciate my colleague from Arkansas for giving us time
tonight to talk about this most important issue, which is jobs.
It is the number one issue here, and what I see and we've all
testified to tonight is that, as we travel throughout our districts,
the number one thing that we hear from business owners all throughout
the United States is the heavy hand of government has created so much
uncertainty that the private sector, even those who have the ability to
create jobs, are not doing so because they're fearful. They don't know
what the Federal Government is going to do to them next, and this is so
evident by the recent unemployment numbers that have come out.
Since the first day that this administration took office through the
end of April of this year, the economy has lost 2.5 million jobs. That
is an average of 3,044 jobs every single day. And unfortunately, and
just to talk about the gentlelady from Washington's unemployment
numbers, those numbers aren't even necessarily correct, because the
rate is so much higher because so many job seekers are giving up and
they are leaving the labor force.
I traveled, like you all did, throughout my district this week, and I
found myself at Rand Manufacturing, and they manufacture water heaters.
It's a household name. They have over 1,000 jobs in the city of
Montgomery, and they brought me into a room that was used for research
and development for their company, but it was an addition, a $1 million
addition to their headquarters which is already over 700,000 square
feet, but $1 million that they had to invest due to regulation alone.
This is not a research and development facility to further their
products. This is to keep up with the government regulations that they
have to comply with.
How in the world can we expect the private sector to invest in job
creation when every dime they have is going toward complying with
government regulation? Companies in the United States of America are
hitting the brakes on hiring and production. And to go back to the U.S.
factory sector, the engine of our recovery, it had its biggest 1-month
slowdown since 1984, and they showed private sector hiring dropped
drastically.
You know, I'm a mom. I have two children, Margaret and George, who
you hear me talk about often, and a lot of Members have their children
up here this week with them. And as I look around the floor and I see
these young people, I think: This is why we're here. And as was so
eloquently said, it has to be about the future generation and not the
next election. And when I look into my children's eyes, I am reminded
about how important it is that we do all we can, which is what we are.
We're leading. We're doing all we can to lift this heavy hand of
government. And when I go to the grocery store and when I'm at the gas
pump, we see it. We feel it. We know exactly what is going on.
In January of 2011, President Obama said entrepreneurs embody the
promise of America, the idea that if you have a good idea and you are
willing to work
[[Page H4071]]
hard and see it through, you can succeed in this country, and in
pursuing this promise, entrepreneurs also play a critical role in
expanding our economy and creating jobs. That was President Obama in
January of 2011. The Obama administration has done nothing to encourage
businesses to create jobs. They have been obstructionists, causing
uncertainty, this growing uncertainty with this overreaching
regulation. Economic growth has been stifled.
House Republicans have taken steps to reduce spending in a meaningful
way by approving all the legislation that the gentleman from Arkansas
talked about to decrease spending for the rest of the year, and we
adopted a budget that will cut nearly $6 trillion over the course of
the next 10 years.
Our friends on the other side of the aisle have done nothing to
demonstrate their commitment to private job growth in this country.
Increased spending, misguided attacks on the budget that we passed,
raising the debt without deficit reduction, and burdensome
regulations--this is the plan being offered by the other side of the
aisle, and this is not what the American people sent us here to
Washington to do for that future generation.
I ask the President and my Democrat colleagues to let us make sure
that entrepreneurs continue to embody the promise of America. Enough is
enough. More taxation, regulation, and litigation will not create more
jobs in this country.
America is certainly at a crossroads. We have an opportunity here,
and House Republicans are committed to taking every possible step to
spur job creation and get our economy back on track so that Americans
can do what they do best, that is, create and innovate and lead.
I again thank the gentleman from Arkansas.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Thank you to the gentlelady from Alabama.
You know, when I think about where we are in this country in terms of
unemployment and I think about what we can do to encourage job
creation, it's clear to me that we can fix this problem. This is
something that is possible.
Sometimes I feel like this administration's solution to the
unemployment problem is to go around and beg the private sector to
invest, to beg the private sector to create jobs. That doesn't work.
There's a reason that folks in the private sector who have money to
invest are not investing. They're sitting on the sidelines. Why? Well,
it's a lot like investing in your own family situation. You want to be
careful with your money. You've got a certain amount of money to
invest. You want to invest it in something that's safe. You want to
invest it in something where there's certainty. You certainly don't
want to take this money that you have, this limited amount of money,
and just gamble it on something risky. You want to make sure that what
you're putting your money into is going to pay dividends.
And so what you have is you have a lot of businesses in this country
who have money to invest but they're uncertain. We've heard that word
``uncertainty'' tonight. Well, it is not just a buzzword. It's a fact.
When businesses don't know what's going to happen, job creators, when
they don't know what's going to happen, they hold on to that money and
they say, Well, I better wait; I better wait until I know how things,
with more certainty, how things are going to shake out.
There's certainly always going to be some sort of uncertainty. Are
the crops going to get rain? Well, that's not something we have control
over. But some types of certainty and uncertainty we do have a control
over, and it directly relates to policy.
Mr. GARDNER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GRIFFIN from Arkansas. I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
{time} 2010
Mr. GARDNER. A group of us had the opportunity today to discuss with
one of the Nation's leading economists job creation and what's
happening to our businesses around the country. And he made the
observation, he said, You know, there are a lot of businesses--exactly
what you had said--there are a lot of businesses out there that have
money on their rolls, but they're not investing into our economy
because of what he called and used the term ``government activism,''
policies that relate to government activism. I said, What do you mean
by government activism? I am assuming you are not talking about
somebody going out from government with a picket sign. And he said, No,
no, no. Government activism in terms of the policies that they are
pursuing that result in uncertainty, whether it's a regulatory approach
that is an activist approach that takes away the certainty business has
for the tax structure, for business environment regulations. And the
conversation you had was, If we could bring back certainty, if we could
get this country back to a point where businesses know what's ahead
tomorrow, they know what's ahead next year, then they can plan, and
they won't be afraid to invest that money. They'll start creating jobs
now. That's one of the Nation's leading economists who said exactly
what my colleague from Arkansas is saying tonight.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. And I think the debt is directly related to
the issue of certainty or uncertainty. If you are an investor and you
want to build a new plant, create a new business, do something that
would result in job creation, whether you are from outside this country
or here in the United States, you are thinking about investing, you
look at the nervousness in the market, you look at the debt that we
have, you think about the housing collapse in September 2008, and you
sort of think to yourself, You know, this debt makes me nervous. I'm
not sure where this is going. And they look and say, Is the government
of the United States, led by the President, are they going to get their
fiscal house in order so that if I invest, it's a safe bet? So if I
invest, I can be certain that I'm investing in a country where the
government has got their act together? Or am I looking to invest in a
country that's going to just continue to raise that debt ceiling, see
no limit?
I actually was in the Judiciary Committee a couple of weeks ago, and
one of my colleagues on the other side made the argument that we just
haven't spent enough money. If we only would spend another trillion or
so, we might have some economic activity. I couldn't believe what I was
hearing. And I said to myself, How high does unemployment have to go?
How high does the debt have to go before we realize that we've got to
get the spending under control?
Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I yield to the gentlelady from Washington.
Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. I was thinking through your comments here. And
the gentleman from Colorado was talking about the uncertainty in
investment. Why would you invest when you saw someone just burning
through cash? You know, there's another reason that people wouldn't
invest, and I think of a company in my district, Longview Fibre.
In southwest Washington, we have tremendous resources in our timber,
sawmills, Holden paper companies, just tremendous renewable resources.
And one of those energy sources that people have seemed to research is
the ability to, through biomass, create energy. This is a green source
of energy.
Let's talk about what uncertainty can do to a business. So in the
last couple of years, the EPA has signaled--and then pulled back and
then signaled--that they're not going to count biomass as green. So a
company takes considerable time, energy, effort, and resources to put
in play a biomass facility. And then the EPA steps in and says, Oh,
time out, it doesn't matter how much money you have invested, it
doesn't matter how much time and resources you have invested, we don't
think that is going to count--and puts everything on hold.
Well, the EPA decided to stay its ruling for a little bit, meaning
they're not really sure whether biomass is green or not. In an
environment like that, what company would take the time and the energy
and the resources to create a biomass facility? And for a moment
there--let me explain. Biomass isn't chipping whole, new, old-growth
trees--I guess that would be old trees. It's chips. It's the waste.
It's the bark. It's actually fully using the resource of timber, right?
It's properly managing that resource. But the EPA--actually, what I
think it is is some bureaucrat in
[[Page H4072]]
the central planning office somewhere here in Washington, D.C., has
said, Ah, we don't understand that. We think you are going to cut all
your trees down. We're just going to go ahead and tie your hands. It
ties up resources, capital, and jobs.
Longview Fibre is in Cowlitz County. Cowlitz County is upwards in
double-digit unemployment. These are good-paying, family wage jobs.
This uncertainty is killing us. You know, another thing you mentioned--
actually, I think it was the gentleman from Colorado who talked a
little bit about business is not hiring and why.
I'm a member of the Small Business Committee. And through testimony,
I think it was about 2 weeks ago, we had a whole panel on--it had to do
with health information technology. But interestingly, the Gallup
organization was represented there, and they do nightly surveys. On
some of the questions that they had asked, it showed small businesses,
that small business owners were not hiring to capacity. In fact, there
was about 40 percent more they could hire. So existing businesses could
hire up to 40 percent more people if they weren't doing it. So,
naturally, we asked ``Why?'' in the answer. Shoot, they didn't have the
certainty to know whether or not they were going to have any kind of
cash flow, or if they could make payroll if they did it. You know what
was on the top of that list up there? Health care. Health care costs.
Our small business owners continue to be targeted by government-run
health care schemes. And that's what they are. Because if we want to
talk health care, we can talk health care. We can talk compromise in
health care because that's a passion of mine. But the schemes that were
passed target, unfairly, these small businesses. Now some are getting
waivers. Some are not getting waivers. Shoot, why in the world would
you hire more employees if you didn't know whether you are going to be
targeted or not targeted? That's uncertainty, and it's got to stop.
It's time that we put people before politics. We think of the
families who are at the pump, the moms who are trying to make ends
meet, balance the checkbook, go get groceries, pick up the kids from
school, make health care appointments. It's time we put them first, not
agendas, not ideas. It's time we put people before politics, and that's
exactly what we have been doing and that's what we are going to
continue to fight for here on this House floor.
Mrs. ROBY. To add to that, again, the district work weeks, this new
schedule that we have, which affords all of us more time with our
constituents, which is so important for transparency and accountability
to the people who elected us to be here, who we are making decisions
for on their behalf, representing their interests. I can't tell you how
many times in these meetings--just what you are saying--in preparation
for full implementation of this health care law, we are seeing
businesses sit around conference tables, throwing their hands up,
having to spend lots and lots of dollars that could go toward creation
of jobs. But they're spending all this money just trying to figure out
how this law is going to affect them and their bottom line. And it is a
huge travesty. And I'm sure that each of you have had similar
situations. But we know that there are free-market solutions to driving
down the cost of health care in this country, and that law does nothing
to do that, to increase competition and to drive down cost. But yet
what we do see every time we sit down at the table with these business
owners is, we see how the costs associated with implementing the law is
killing them.
So I just wanted to add that to the table. And on behalf of the folks
in Alabama that I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be here to
represent, I can't say it strong enough and loud enough about the plan
that we have here in the majority of the House to do all that we can to
untie the hands of our business owners so that we can get this country
back on track.
{time} 2020
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Thank you. You make some good points about
health care. And one of the things that we have pursued here in the
House is medical liability reform. And when we were meeting with the
President at the White House, a little over a week ago, someone raised
the issue of medical liability reform. He said, well, I'm for that. I'm
for that.
It's one thing to say you're for it. It's another thing to advocate
for this sort of legislation. We're going to send it over to the Senate
from here in the House, and we need the President to get engaged on
this issue.
Medical liability reform is one of many solutions, market-based
solutions, that can help reduce the health care costs. And it's not
enough for the President to say, well, I'm for that.
The President said in the State of the Union on the issue of business
taxes, he understands that we're at a competitive disadvantage. He says
he does. He says he would like to see us be more competitive with
regard to business taxes. But no action, nothing, no leadership on the
issue of business taxes.
If he wants to talk about competitiveness, let's talk about
competitiveness. Let's talk about having a tax structure that welcomes
job creators, not repels them.
If you want to talk about competitiveness, let's talk about trade
agreements. On January 27 of 2010, President Obama said, ``If America
sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will
lose the opportunity to create jobs on our shores.''
Mr. President, opportunity lost. We've been waiting. We've got three
free trade agreements just sitting on the shelf, one with Colombia, one
with Panama and one with South Korea. And the estimates are that these
trade agreements, if they were implemented, would increase U.S. exports
by more than $10 billion. I've got to think that $10 billion in
increased exports would equal some jobs. But no action from the
President.
I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
Mr. GARDNER. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas. And I too have
heard the President talk about his desire to increase trade and the
exports of this country. In fact, I believe I've heard the statistic
quoted, something to the effect that if we could increase trade in this
Nation by exports by 1 percent, we'd create tens of thousands of jobs.
We talk about what we're going to do to get this country moving
forward again, how we're going to get this economy back, and there is a
perfect example of what we can do, not only from my home State of
Colorado, but for this country. The goods that we produce, to share
them with the world, to make not just U.S. consumers, but world
consumers of the excellence in manufacturing that this country used to
be, can be, still ought to be and should be into the future.
And so again, I think you talk about the opportunities that we have
missed. The other night we came to the floor, and there was a group
talking about make it in America. Well, you know what we need to make
it in America? We need a business environment that fosters job growth.
We need a tax policy that doesn't penalize people for choosing to work
in the United States.
To make it in America we need an energy policy that doesn't force
people to pay $60, $70 every time they fill up a tank of gas just to
get to work. To make it in America we need regulations that are pro-
business, not anti-business.
To make it in America we need a government that actually represents
the American working families, not just bureaucracy. That's what we
need to make it in America. And when it comes to trade agreements, I
believe that we can and we ought to make it in America, and we can sell
it abroad.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. You make a good point. It's not just
happenstance when a country has a good manufacturing base. You don't
just happen to have job creation. It's a function of policies. It's a
function of the policies that we adopt in the Congress, or that we
don't adopt.
For example, we haven't reformed our business taxes in years. While
other countries are making themselves more competitive, we're sitting
on our hands. It's not happenstance.
I want to be so attractive in this country to job creators that
manufacturers in other countries want to come here. I want
manufacturers around the world to want to be in this country. And the
manufacturers that we might have lost, I want them to say, hey,
[[Page H4073]]
they've changed their tune. I'm going back home. I want businesses, job
creators around the world to say, that's the country where I want to
create jobs because it's the best place to do business.
And we, the policies that we adopt here, the regulations that the
administration puts forth, it all has an impact. It's not happenstance.
It's by design. So we need to make sure that we're doing the things
here that encourage the private sector job growth.
Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. And I couldn't agree more. I was just sitting
here reflecting on the number of people who come up and talk to me in
my district in southwest Washington about how hard it is to find work,
how hard it is to find a good paying family-wage job.
I mentioned timber resources. In our neck of the woods we
traditionally have had just a booming timber economy, resource-based
economy; and a lot of those operations have either shut down or moved
elsewhere to be more competitive.
We've got to allow job growth. I mean, it sounds simple. It really
does. You know, the last time our country had the amount of spending
that we see happening right now was actually in the lead up to World
War II. And I've talked a lot about cutting and reducing government
overspending and government growth. It needs to be done. In the last 3
years, the what we call discretionary spending, the money that has to
be appropriated annually has increased by over 80 percent. Federal
employment has increased by 10 percent in about that same time. So
government spending has grown. And people are saying that the way to--
not ``people''--my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the
President are saying that the reason we have stagnant job opportunities
is because we haven't spent enough.
Well, I listed earlier the stimulus, the bailouts, the auto bailouts,
the health care bill, all this spending that's taken place; and we're
still where we are now. And people say, well, it happened during World
War II; we spent a ton of money and then coming out of that we grew
jobs. The difference, the big difference was coming out of World War
II, the last time our debt to GDP ratio was near where it is now, the
difference was, and the thing that saved us, was the immediate cuts.
Right?
We cut government spending back, but we grew jobs. We literally made
things here in America. You know why? We had an environment that
fostered job creation. We had an environment that cultivated
entrepreneurs. We grew jobs here in America because we made things
here. We produced things.
Again, in southwest Washington we had a roaring timber industry that
has all but shut down, and the sad thing is if you don't manage the
health of a forest, it deteriorates. Some of these folks who are here
in these bureaucratic offices in Washington, D.C. I swear have never
stepped foot in a real forest. They think you just tie a big ribbon
around it and don't let anybody in or out, and that's how we protect
our environment. They're wrong. You see, they think that our
environment and our economy are mutually exclusive.
Man, that is such a low opinion of American researchers. That really
must say that we don't think we can, our citizens, our people are
intelligent enough to come up with new and innovative ways to both
manage our timber and our timber economy and protect our environment.
So what we have now is shut off stands of trees ripe for beetle
infestation, disease or worse, fire as we enter the summer seasons with
a lot of dry foliage and underbrush. You know, it sure would be great
if the EPA would have allowed some of those companies I mentioned in my
district to create their biomass facilities, because then we could
create jobs because we'd have a biomass facility up and running. We
would be taking the remnants of trees. We wouldn't be taking full
trees, but chips and bark, and using those in the biomass facility so
we are creating green energy. We're fully utilizing a renewable
resource, and we're creating jobs.
My goodness. That's a novel concept. We need to get there.
{time} 2030
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I thank the gentlelady.
I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
Mr. TIPTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I just came back from our work week. I traveled better than 1,500
miles throughout Colorado. It was remarkable to me. At every one of our
meetings, we found cities, counties, small businesspeople, talking
about the opportunity to be able to get America back to work. But the
problem, the obstacle that we are truly facing, it is not the American
spirit but it is overregulation coming out of Washington, D.C. Rather
than being the steppingstone, it has become a stumbling block, and we
are going to be able to get this economy working and moving forward
once again if we simply free up that American spirit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman from Arkansas has
expired.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
____________________