[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 26, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H5498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE FAIRTAX
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Woodall) for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to come to the floor today.
I'm still a little bit winded. I was over in the Ways and Means
Committee room where we were talking about exactly these issues. I'm
embarrassed that my fitness is in such a state that running up the
stairs winds me.
But that's what happens when you don't focus on something, when you
don't put in the time it takes to stay fit; things degrade. And that's
exactly what's happened with our economy, Mr. Speaker. It's absolutely
true that folks are out of work, and it's absolutely true that the best
form of unemployment relief is a paycheck. It's not an unemployment
check. It's a paycheck.
But why are these jobs going overseas? And this is the real debate
that happens up here absolutely every day because people just believe
different things about how it is that we put Americans back to work.
Every single person who comes to this House floor wants Americans to go
back to work, wants America's economy to be the pride of the world once
again.
But I will tell you the reason we lose jobs overseas is not because
we're taxing businesses too little; it's because we're taxing
businesses too much. We have the single highest corporate tax rate in
the world in America. Why does Sony want to locate their next plant
here? Why does Rico want to locate their next plant here? Why does
Whirlpool want to keep their plants here? We punish business in this
country through our Tax Code like no other country in the world.
Now, is there a regulatory component to that too that we need to
solve to make America attractive for business? There absolutely is. Is
there a health care component of that if those costs rise? Absolutely
there is. Is there a payroll tax cost in that we need to address, the
largest tax 80 percent of Americans pay? Absolutely there is.
There is only one proposal in the House that does it, and the Ways
and Means Committee right now across the street right here behind you,
Mr. Speaker, in the Ways and Means Committee room, is holding a hearing
on H.R. 25, the FairTax.
The FairTax eliminates these income taxes and moves America to a
consumption tax model. America is the only country in the OECD nations,
those economically developed nations, that does not have a consumption
tax. The FairTax shifts us in that direction.
And what it does for the first time, the only bill in Congress that
does it, it eliminates every single bit of corporate welfare in the
United States Tax Code. Oil companies, gone. Solar companies, gone.
Foreign companies, gone. Every single tax break in the Code is
abolished, Mr. Speaker, because we know the free market works best when
the market is free. And we know that businesses don't pay taxes.
Consumers pay taxes.
There is not a penny that we charge Walmart that they don't roll
right into their costs and pass it along to us. You see it. You see it
absolutely every day. If we raise gas taxes, gas prices are going to go
up. If we lower gas taxes, gas prices go down. The market sorts those
things out.
Have you ever been to a Coke machine, Mr. Speaker? I'm from Atlanta;
so I'll talk to you about Coke machines. But usually they're going to
sit beside a Pepsi machine. Have you ever seen that Coke costs $1 and
the Pepsi right beside it cost $2? No. Do you ever see the Coke sell
for $1.50 and the Pepsi beside it try to sell for $5? No. And that's
not just because Coke's a wonderful product. It's because the consumer
rules in America and price matters. You can't charge whatever you want;
you can only charge what the consumer will pay. And when taxes go up,
consumers have to pay more.
The FairTax, Mr. Speaker, will bring those jobs back to America like
no other proposal in this Congress. It eliminates those corporate
income taxes, and it eliminates payroll taxes. Have you thought about
your payroll tax recently? It is 15.3 percent of every paycheck that
you get.
Now, the wealthy don't pay payroll taxes because they're making their
money in interest or dividends or capital gains, these things that
payroll taxes don't come out of. Those of us who work for paychecks, we
pay payroll taxes. And at 15.3 percent, the payroll tax is the largest
tax that 80 percent of Americans pay.
{time} 1050
The largest tax that 80 percent of American families pay, and we
don't spend any time on the floor discussing that. We argue about
income tax all the time. Half of America doesn't even pay income taxes
anymore. Payroll taxes are the taxes that American people pay, 15.5
percent; and it comes out of your paycheck before you even get to see
your paycheck.
Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who helped during
World War II establish the withholding system--the government needed
money in a hurry. It was wartime. That's when we began sucking money
out of your paycheck before you ever see your paycheck. Milton Friedman
said the worst decision of his life was not working to do away with the
withholding system once World War II ended because you need to know how
much money you are paying. You need what it costs you to run this
United States Government.
We talk about trillions. Have you thought about $1 trillion, Mr.
Speaker? One trillion dollars, the cost of the President's health care
plan, for example. If you started a business on the day Jesus Christ
was born and you were so bad at your small business, Mr. Speaker, that
you lost $1 million a day, every day, 7 days a week from the day Jesus
was born through today, you would have to continue losing money for
another 700 years to lose your first trillion dollars. We throw that
number around like it is nothing. It is something. We need jobs back in
this country. The FairTax will do it.
I encourage folks to pay attention to what's happening in the Ways
and Means Committee today on H.R. 25.
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