[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 136 (Wednesday, September 14, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H6144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, ``THE SINGLE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENT TO JOB
GROWTH''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Broun) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. A legendary Georgia businessman recently called
the Obama administration ``the single biggest impediment to job
growth.''
That same man, Mr. Bernie Marcus, also says the business that he
founded would have never succeeded if he were trying to start it today.
Home Depot, his Georgia-based company, currently has more than 2,200
stores all across the United States. They support more than 300,000
American jobs, and they generated $68 billion in revenue just last
year.
Now, imagine the impact on our country if companies that start out
like Home Depot--which started as an individual store--or other small
businesses weren't able to flourish. That is what the Obama
administration is trying to do to the American Dream today. By creating
a huge bill with ObamaCare and a failed stimulus bill and by piling
thousands of new government regulations onto the backs of small
businesses, it is no wonder that job creators are afraid to expand and
hire new people.
And so, after 2\1/2\ years of growing the Federal Government and $4.5
trillion in spending later, the Obama administration has given us
another proposal of the same old failed policies. Unfortunately, their
latest solution to our 9 percent unemployment rate comes with a price
tag of almost a half trillion dollars, money that we just simply do not
have. So to pay for the American Jobs Act, as I like to call it
``stimulus part II,'' our Democrat leaders want to hike taxes on
families and job creators.
We've been down this road before. The stimulus did not work 2 years
ago, and it will not work today. Hiking taxes in the middle of a
recession will make our economy worse, not better. When will this
administration learn that more of the same just simply isn't good
enough anymore? Jobs will come when government gets out of the way--by
getting rid of ObamaCare, by stopping the reckless spending here in
Washington and the threat of higher taxes, and by ending the
uncertainty in the marketplace.
{time} 1030
Congress needs to pass my jobs bill, which would immediately and
permanently lower the corporate tax rate to zero, and it will
permanently lower the capital gains tax to zero. This will stimulate
our small businesses so that they can do what they do best, grow,
expand and to thrive.
In the words of Mr. Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, ``It's time to
stand up and fight.''
The free enterprise system has made this country what it is today,
and we must have policy that makes it prosper.
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