Congressional Record, Volume 157 Issue 162 (Wednesday, October 26, 2011)

[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 162 (Wednesday, October 26, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7115-H7122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

AMERICAN JOBS

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to present
here on the floor the solution to the question that was just raised by
my colleague from the Republican side of the aisle.
A month ago, the President laid out a plan that would create millions
of jobs here in the United States. It was the American Jobs Act. We are
going to talk about this tonight. Before I get into the details of it,
last week, in fact 1 week ago, I held a town hall meeting in Fairfield,
California.
At that town hall meeting the question of jobs was on everybody's
mind. What are you doing about jobs? What is Congress doing about jobs?
It just seems as though nothing is happening, and all we're seeing from
Congress is talk of the deficit and cuts.
Every time there's a cut, we have another job loss here in our area.
Maybe it's a school teacher that's laid off or some highway project
that's not going forward. So what's happening with the jobs?
And I then began to explain the American Jobs Act, and we're going to
spend some time this evening talking just about that issue, the
American Jobs Act.

[[Page H7116]]

{time} 1730

As proposed by the President, it does address a variety of ways in
which American jobs will be created, and not increasing the deficit at
all, but rather fully paid for.
I would like to start off this evening by asking my colleague from
the great State of New York (Mrs. Maloney) if she would like to express
the view from the East Coast, and then I'll move to the West Coast.
Mrs. MALONEY. I would like to thank my colleague from the great State
of California for bringing the American Jobs Act to the floor, every
single week, speaking out in favor of American workers, small
businesses, and a sane, balanced approach that not only has a cutback
in order to cut back our deficit and our debt, but also a revenue leg
and a jobs leg. And the President has come forward with a balanced
approach that has won support not only from New York and California but
clear across this country. Economists are speaking out in support of
the American Jobs Act. There have been two Nobel Laureates that have
come out in support of it. Mark Zandi, who was the economist in Senator
McCain's race for the Presidency, he has come out and he has said that
next year it would increase the GDP by 2 percent. It would lower the
unemployment rate by 1 percent, and would create 1.9 million jobs.
Now, after hearing your Special Orders on this, I think it would
create even more jobs. But this is just a sense of economists from all
sides of the country coming out in support of it.
I think it is unfortunate that the Senate did not pass it because we
need this act, and we need it now. Americans have shown that they are
worried about their future and they want this Jobs Act. Analysts have
speculated that our country faces the same kind of lost decade that
Japan has struggled with.
In a New York Times article by Daniel Alpert, a managing partner at a
private capital firm, he was quoted as saying, and I'd like to bring it
to your attention and the American people's attention: ``Unless we take
dramatic steps, it will be Japan all over again--continuous deflation,
no economic growth, in and out of recessions, and high unemployment.''
Robert Hockett, a professor of financial law at Cornell in New York
and a consultant to the New York Federal Reserve, added: ``It will be
like the economic version of chronic fatigue syndrome--a low-grade
fever all the time.''
So we need to prevent that fatigue and cure the low-grade fever.
That's why we need to pass this bill. It would be the kind of short-
term immediate impact that our economy needs. With job creation stalled
and median income dropping, Americans just aren't buying. That's why
economists and forecasters are so strongly in support of it. And the
American Jobs Act goes after unemployment in three big ways: it cuts
taxes to spur small business hiring and consumer spending; it prevents
layoffs of our vital services, our teachers, our firefighters, and our
law enforcement officers; and it puts people to work building roads,
bridges, and schools. That's so important.
The infrastructure jobs not only create good paying jobs now, they're
an investment in the future to help America compete in the world
economy. I know from my own State many of our bridges and tunnels and
roads and mass transit are crumbling, and we could use this influx of
infrastructure money to rebuild and put people back to work. Very
importantly, the President's plan maintains a safety net for Americans
most hurt by the economic downturn. It's a good plan.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank you very much for bringing us the overall view
of this. You are quite correct about the small businesses. Let me just
put this pie chart up here.
Small business is where 64 percent of all new jobs have been created
over the last 15 years. Big businesses actually lost many, many jobs as
they have offshored jobs. In fact, it was just last December that the
Democratic-controlled House passed a tax bill that terminated tax
breaks for big businesses sending jobs offshore. That was about $12
billion of tax breaks that were terminated so that American businesses
would not get a tax break to send jobs offshore. I would just like to
point out that not one Republican voted to end that tax break that sent
those jobs offshore.
But the point here is that small businesses really do create 64
percent of the jobs. Now, in the American Jobs Act, as my colleague
from New York said, there are some very, very important provisions that
deal directly with small businesses, encouraging them to hire. For
example, we've got some 6 million people that are unemployed more than
6 months, so those are the long-term unemployed. If a small business
were to hire one of the long-term unemployed, they would receive an
immediate $4,000 tax credit. That is off the bottom line of their
taxes, providing a very powerful incentive to hire the long-term
unemployed.
Now, I think the entire Nation is sick and tired of our wars, but the
wars are real. Those wars have created a situation where a very, very
high percentage of the veterans that come back are unable to get a job.
These may be those veterans that have been off in Afghanistan or Iraq.
There's a tax credit again for a veteran returning from the wars, a
$5,600 tax credit for hiring an unemployed veteran. Now if that veteran
happens to have a service-connected disability, and we've seen the
terrible tragedies of those disabilities, arms, legs, and other
problems that have befallen the veterans as they serve our country,
there's a $9,600 tax credit in the American Jobs Act for those small
businesses that hire the veterans. So by hiring new people, small
businesses will be able to receive a very, very significant benefit as
a result of this American Jobs Act.
If the gentlelady would like to continue on with some of the reasons
why this is important to New York, please, Mrs. Maloney, if you would
take care and have at it.
Mrs. MALONEY. I would like to respond to the point that the gentleman
made. Economists tell us that one of the ways that we climb out of
recessions--and we're in the worst recession that I've experienced in
my lifetime, the worst since the Great Depression--the way we climb out
is often small businesses. Small businesses hire and grow. Two out of
three people hired in America are hired by small businesses. But at
this time their hiring has not moved forward. That's why this subsidy
and support for small businesses is so important, and I applaud the
President for including it in the American Jobs Act.
But because of the economic downturn, localities across our country
are having to lay off workers, essential workers who are investors in
the future of our young people: Teachers and the protectors of our
communities, firefighters and our law enforcement, are being laid off.
I want to talk a little bit about New York, the great State that I
have the honor of representing, and I have some numbers that I would
like to share with you, but they are the same in many localities across
the country. In my own State of New York, according to the
Congressional Research Service, the estimated grant for the teachers
and the first responders would be $1.7 billion, which would save an
estimated 18,000 educators and first responder jobs. That's important
not only to these families but to the localities. These teachers are
needed. These fire and police are needed. And very importantly, one of
the things that I think is so important is the focus that the President
has put on modernizing our schools.
When I was in school, all you needed was a piece of paper and a
teacher and a pencil. Now our young people need computers, and we need
to start teaching them computer sciences and math and technology very,
very early. This would have grants to modernize schools so they are
really ready for the 21st century, wired appropriately for high-tech
computers. This would have a grant for New York City alone of $1.6
billion to modernize the community colleges and the public schools so
they are ready for the next century.

{time} 1740

But it's our infrastructure that is so important. We are falling
behind in terms of high-speed rail. Much of our infrastructure is
crumbling. And the infrastructure investment would total over $105
billion, including $50 billion on transportation infrastructure. This
not only moves people and makes a

[[Page H7117]]

more livable environment, it's an investment also for not being
dependent on oil that we have to import.
Very importantly, there is $10 billion on a new national
infrastructure bank that would help finance private ventures of public
roads and highways and bridges and railroads. And so that's a very,
very important part of it.
Very importantly, it also talks about rehabilitating the foreclosed
or vacant properties. This is a problem. Some of my colleagues in Ohio
tell me they're literally bulldozing down vacant foreclosed properties.
And this would allow to help these blighted neighborhoods and help
rebuild.
All in all, it is a great plan. We need to get behind it. We need to
put Americans back to work. And we should have passed it yesterday. But
I'm here tonight supporting the President's plan to put Americans back
to work and to invest in our future, invest in America's
competitiveness, and our leadership in so many areas depends on getting
our economy moving again.
I appreciate being here with my good friend and colleague, and thank
you so much for raising these issues. You're doing an excellent job.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I can go through each one of those numbers that my
colleague from the wonderful State of New York talked about.
California, similarly, would receive very, very significant benefits.
However, we need to look at the reality of what is happening here in
this Chamber where the Speaker of the House refuses to even allow a
vote on the President's proposal. All of the things you talked about
that would benefit New York will come to nothing unless the Speaker of
the House will allow these proposals to come to a vote.
Mrs. MALONEY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GARAMENDI. Certainly.
Mrs. MALONEY. This is a democracy, and I believe that there is no
idea in the world that is so dangerous or challenging that you can't
debate it in the United States Congress. It should be put up for a
debate and have it fully debated and have a vote. That's the least that
the Speaker should provide for the American people.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Over on the Senate side, the leader of the Senate, Mr.
Reid, brought the issue to the Senate floor and was unable to even get
a vote on the Senate floor because of the Republican threat of a
filibuster and the 60-vote requirement to end that filibuster. And so
even though on the Senate side they almost came to a vote, they were
stopped short by a filibuster. And the reason, apparently, was that the
Republicans did not want to raise a one-half of 1 percent tax on those
very small number--the top 1 percent of Americans that are earning more
than a million dollars of adjusted gross income a year. And so with
that small tax increase, they refused to go along.
So here we are in this House without a vote and on the other side
because of the threat of a filibuster, and 280,000 teachers are not
going to be hired unless we're able to break through. The only way to
break through is for the American public to rise up, the 99ers out
there, and say: Enough. Give us our jobs. Give us the opportunity to go
back to work.
I yield to my colleague.
Mrs. MALONEY. It could not be stated more appropriately. The 99ers
and all Americans should speak out and demand a vote on this.
Now, the President has pointed out that it should be a three-legged
stool. It should be revenues, we need to cut back on other
expenditures, and we need to invest in jobs. Right now, we have roughly
15 percent of our GDP is revenues, but our expenditures are roughly 35
percent.
The gentleman points out the tax on millionaires and other areas that
they were looking at. You have to bring that in balance. You cannot
continue with 35 percent of the GDP being expenditures and only 15
percent being revenues. Granted, we do have to cut back, and that's
what the supercommittee is working on, but it needs to be a balanced
approach. Actually, that's what's always worked in the past. It's
always been a balanced approach. That's the only way we can get this
country on firm ground to reduce our debt, reduce our deficit, invest
in opportunities, innovation, and jobs for the future.
You expressed it very well, and I support your efforts here tonight.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much for joining us this evening.
Before I turn to my colleague from California, I want to just
emphasize the point that the President's American Jobs program is
balanced, fully paid for. It's paid for with a fair tax.

We know that over the last 12 years now the upper income, that top 1
or 2 percent, has enjoyed an enormous tax break that was put in place
during the George W. Bush first and third year. They've had it good.
They've really seen their share of income in America grow
extraordinarily fast while the great middle class of America has had
basically a flat situation. They've seen no improvement in their
income. And then in the last couple of years, they've seen a very
precipitous decline.
The President has also proposed--and I know I agree very strongly
with this--end the tax breaks for the oil companies. Why does the oil
industry need another $5 billion or $6 billion a year of tax breaks
when in fact over the last decade they've earned more than a trillion
dollars in profit?
Our colleague from California is ready to go. This is Maxine Waters,
representing Los Angeles, a colleague of mine dating back to our years
in the California Legislature, which was just a few years back.
If you would care to share with us your thoughts on how we're going
to get Americans back to work.
Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much. I'm very appreciative, Congressman,
for your taking this time out on the floor this evening and sharing
this time with your colleagues to talk about the American Jobs Act.
What I'm going to say will take a little bit of a different tack. As
you know, we just had a contest about the use of social media in our
caucus, and I devised a program where I promoted a campaign on
#ourspeech, which asked our followers, if they had the opportunity to
speak to Congress, what would they say, using the 140 or so characters
on Twitter. We got a lot of comments in. We combined them, and now I'm
going to share them. A lot of it is about jobs, but they speak about it
in a little bit different way. If you would indulge me, I would like to
take a few minutes.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I'd be fascinated to hear. I know that your
constituents have been very, very active, and I know that over the
years you have been superactive. Please share those tweets with us.
Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much.
Today, I'm delivering what is known as #ourspeech--a speech composed
of words solely from my followers and friends on Facebook who posted
their thoughts about the economy and jobs online. This is a part of my
effort to bring Americans closer to Congress.
To the people that sit on Capitol Hill:
As Members of Congress in the greatest country in the world, you are
very well aware of the concerns expressed by the American
constituency--jobs, stable economic environment, education, crime, war,
et cetera. You are not Republicans. You are not Democrats. You are not
an independent. You do not belong to any faction. Stop worrying about
party and do something for the people. Pass the jobs bill. Pass the
American Jobs Act. We all need to work.
A child with no food doesn't care about your power struggle with
those who are across the aisle. You must represent the most downtrodden
people in your district, not the most successful business nor any
special interest. Big money donations from corporations and the
financial industry have purchased our democracy. America elected the
House, not corporations. It is time they represent us. You have an
obligation as a public servant to ensure that the underprivileged of
our society will be protected. Don't forget the poor, a group that
continues to grow while the rich get richer. We have to trust you to
make the right decisions for us. Support and pass the American Jobs
Act.
My Facebook followers continue by saying:
We labor to right our small, overturned coffers to replace what was
lost. We labor and pay three and four times over for substandard
services.

{time} 1750

We have become the disenfranchised while billionaire executives live
and work in very comfortable environments. We are bludgeoned with
partisan rhetoric that detracts from the

[[Page H7118]]

real American issues and Representatives who feel they may act without
giving heed to the desires of their constituents.
Put partisan politics aside, they say. Start serving your citizens
with measured focus on supporting the people. Congress must support
jobs. Congress must support the American Jobs Act. We need jobs so that
we can pay our reasonable share for life activities and services. We
want the right to realize the promises of our founding documents.
The middle class have been the legs this country has stood on. The
lack of meaningful action in D.C. has crippled us. We have not been
able to save for our children's college education as we live paycheck
to paycheck. We worry about the more immediate dilemma--will we be able
to keep our home? We are 2 months behind in our mortgage. Bank of
America, our lender, was bailed out with our tax money. Now who is
going to bail us, who played by the rules and worked hard, out? Please
don't give another dime of our money to save the banks, they do not
care about us.
Americans are sick of hearing Congress bicker about who is to blame
for our issues. While Congress pontificates and filibusters, Americans
are starving, losing their homes, working multiple jobs if they can
find them, and puzzling over ways to balance our incredibly shrinking
budgets against the rising costs of tolls, gas, food and corporate
thievery in the guise of bank fees and loan rates. Good, hardworking
Americans shouldn't be rubbing nickels together and shouldn't have to
pick food over medicine.
My Facebook followers wrap up by further saying: We wonder how we
will pay our taxes and student loans, avoid answering our phones, leave
our mail unopened as we struggle. The system, if it ever was for us,
has failed at this critical juncture in history to safeguard us. The
global Occupy Wall Street movement illustrates beautifully the
consciousness of the people which has been missing from the political
landscape. Congress must support jobs, education and health care.
People are hurting out here. Our silence has finally and irrevocably
been broken. Those of us who have been awakened are now willing
soldiers in the fight.
The voice of the people occupying around the Nation will not go
unrecognized. Our strength, our passion and our vision can, and should
be, harnessed to power change.
Thank you so very much for allowing my Facebook followers to have a
word on the floor tonight. They are watching us. They will be
responding. But I think they are very appreciative that you have
allowed me this time to condense those comments and the words that they
gave to me to bring to the floor.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentlelady from California so very much
for sharing with us the words that she has received from her
constituents. I know that for me, and I suspect for many of our
colleagues, there are similar words, similar comments to us. It's time
for us to get with it. Let's pass a jobs bill. Let's really work for
the people out there, not only the unemployed, but for the great middle
class that has been pushed down over the last decade. It's time for
them to have their say. Thank you so very, very much for being with us
this afternoon.
Ms. WATERS. Thank you so very much.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You said something that came to my mind--I'm going to
do this quickly before I turn to my colleague from--Rhode Island? You
mentioned student loans. Now, the President has been out in California,
in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, near my district, and he's been
saying something that really caught my attention, and that is: we can't
wait. Speaking for the American people, we can't wait for Congress to
act. We can't wait.
And he did something that is really, really close to home. My
daughter and son-in-law just finished medical school. They have huge
loans that they took out to go through medical school. But across this
Nation, about $1 trillion of loans have been taken out by young men and
women--and older--who have gone back to school to improve themselves,
to get an education, to learn a skill, $1 trillion out there. And many
of those loans are at a very high interest rate, and they may be from
different sectors.
And the President says, we can't wait to help these people. These
young men and women and others who have these loans, they need help
today. And so he put together a new program based upon a law that we
passed last year--the Democrats passed last year--that said we're going
to do some consolidation. So he's taken that step. He's going to allow
for the consolidation of these loans into one loan package and allow
the interest rate to be reduced, on the average, at least a half
percent interest rate and stretched out--and a small percentage of the
income. And many of these young men and women--I'm just going to say
men and women, they're not all young--aren't able to get a job other
than just a minimum wage, and so they can't pay. So he's giving them a
break.
And that's what we want our President to do. We want our President to
go out there and say we can't wait for Congress--even though I'm ready
to go and I know my colleagues are--and giving them a break. This is
really important that he has done this.
Ms. WATERS. I thank you. That is well said. You are absolutely
correct. And the young people are waiting on us to act. They are
burdened with debt. They can't get careers started. They can't get
families started. This will be very helpful to them. The consolidation
and the reduction of the interest rate is extremely important.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We can't wait to get a bill out of this House, and
hopefully the Speaker will allow us to bring it to the floor. And I
can't wait to hear from Mr. Courtney of Connecticut.
Mr. Courtney, please join us.
Mr. COURTNEY. I thank the gentleman from California. Connecticut,
Rhode Island--you know, when you're from California, I'm sure we all
look like one of your counties there. But it's eastern Connecticut. At
least I abut Rhode Island. But thank you for the invitation to speak
this evening.

I wanted to start, first of all, by just sharing with you that I am
in the final day of a 1-week challenge that myself and four other
Members of Congress have engaged in to live on a food stamp budget for
a week. That's $4 a day, which is what the budget is for millions of
Americans today. And my wife and I and my daughter got through it in
one piece--although I had to kind of take my little care package down
to D.C. with me. And frankly, it has been harder than I thought and a
real eye opener. I mean, a cup and a half of coffee----
Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me. May I interrupt? You and three of your
colleagues or four of your colleagues have undertaken a program to try
to live on the unemployment insurance?
Mr. COURTNEY. No. This is a food stamp budget, the SNAP program.
Again, the SNAP budget for millions of Americans is $4 a day. And so
obviously you've got to shop as aggressively as you possibly can, and
frankly you're buying somewhat lower-cost items. As I said, we're about
to get across the finish line at midnight tonight. Again, a cup and a
half of coffee a day, half a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, generic
cereal, little bananas, some meals at night. You don't have to worry
about cleaning dishes when you're on this kind of budget because you
eat every bit of it. And as I said, it has been a real eye opener in
terms of the fact that this is really an experience that isn't just
limited to 1 week for millions of Americans. It's something that,
again, is just part of a growing reality.
I raise it in the context of the Jobs Act because today there are,
again, millions of Americans who are 99ers; they are people who have
gone through their unemployment compensation period, which, as we all
know, has a cap of 99 weeks. For a lot of them, there really is nothing
else waiting at the end of that time other than food stamps--or the
SNAP program as it's now called. To basically live on $32, which is
really what the amount is for a single adult, is really impossible.
As a result, we're seeing, again, record numbers of people showing up
at food banks, record numbers of people showing up at soup kitchens.
There is now a suburbanization of poverty that's going on in this
country. Again, I represent Connecticut, which has the highest per
capita income in America--obviously lots of suburbs. There are now,
again, food banks that are operating in a lot of these communities.

[[Page H7119]]

Clearly, this is an issue in terms of the supercommittee and the
sequestration, whether or not a program like SNAP is going to be at
risk. For people to go backwards from $4 a day is something that I
personally can't imagine.
But at the end of the day, the real solution is to get this economy
growing again, and the best social program is a job. I mean, that is
the bottom line in terms of what is a real fix to this problem.
One of the things that I just wanted us to, again, spend a minute on,
and then I'll hand it over to my friend from Ohio who's here, is that
the pay-for that's been proposed and supported in the Senate and the
White House is a 5 percent surcharge on income above $1 million.
Recently we had, again, in my opinion, a patriotic, courageous American
who stepped forward to really put the spotlight on what that means.
Warren Buffett, who, again, is a legendary investor, financier,
commentator on all the news programs and the business channels, shared
his tax return for last year.

{time} 1800

His gross income, his top line was $63 million, his adjusted gross
income was $32 million, and his payment was roughly about $6 million.
As he explained in a number of op-eds, that roughly translates into a
tax rate of 17 percent, which, again, you're here, Johnny-on-the-spot
with the charts, which is terrific.
If his tax return was subjected to the surcharge which has been
proposed and supported in the Senate, basically, it would add about
another $2 million to $3 million of tax liability in terms of what his
return would be, and his overall effective rate would be roughly about
25 percent.
He clearly makes the argument about the Buffett rule that he should
pay a higher rate than his secretary and his staff--today he pays a
lower rate than all of them. But the real, I think, power of his
argument which he made in The New York Times op-ed piece, ``Stop
Coddling the Rich,'' was that the tax rates that he paid gladly back in
the eighties and nineties, which again, is even higher than it would be
if we passed the surcharge, did nothing to inhibit his willingness or
desire to go out and compete and invest and participate in the drive
for the American Dream.
And if you look at the growth rates that we experienced in the 1990s
when, again, the tax rates on both capital gains and regular income
were much higher than today, and would still be higher than if we
adopted the Jobs Act pay-for, as he powerfully makes the point, it
would do nothing to inhibit growth, and it would do nothing to inhibit
or punish success.
It, in fact, would just do a lot to try and create some balance in
our public finances so that we can afford to do the great things that a
great Nation must do to get us out of the predicament that we're in
today.
What I want to say to anyone who's watching here today, who's on food
stamps, having experienced briefly the challenge that you face over a
1-week period of time, we can do better, as a Nation, than that, and we
must adopt the Jobs Act to make sure that we solve the problems of
Americans who today are trapped in an economy that allows no way out
except subsistence programs that are inadequate to lead a healthy
productive life.
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentleman from Connecticut. My apologies,
Rhode Island being not too far away. Thank you very much. And thank you
for pointing out that it's very, very difficult in America if you're
poor. One out of six Americans now live in poverty and are dependent
upon food stamps and other kinds of subsistence in order simply to stay
alive.
And we cannot forget that, although we ought to remember that here on
this floor very recently there was an effort to reduce the food stamps.
So I don't quite understand why anybody would want to do that, given
the poverty rate.
You also spoke to the issue of fairness in taxes. Eighty-four percent
of all of the wealth in this Nation is now controlled by the top 20
percent, and the bottom have become more and more poor.
Now, one of the States that is struggling to get back into the
American Dream is the State of Ohio, and there's a lot of conflict
going on there about labor and politics and the like.
But I know, Mr. Ryan, that you're focused solely on trying to get
people back to work in your community. If you would please join us. If
I recall correctly, you're from the eastern part of Ohio.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is correct, the northeastern part, and I'm
happy to be joined by my colleague from the northwestern part, Ms.
Kaptur, to talk about these issues.
I think, as I sat here and I listened, whether it was California or
whether it was Connecticut or whether it's Ohio, I think the number one
issue facing the country right now is the income inequality. It is now
just starting to percolate up as the number one issue, the greatest
inequality in this country since the Great Depression.
I know many of us have been talking about this for a long, long
time--we've had 30 years of stagnant wages in the United States. There
is no way that we're going to be able to continue to be the leader of
the free world, or really even have the kind of country that we want,
if we have this kind of level of inequality.
There are issues that come before the House of Representatives. There
are issues that the President is continuing to push that will help
rectify this problem that is not getting any attention at all in the
House of Representatives, whether it's the American Jobs Act, which
would put people back to work, infrastructure, roads, bridges, get that
20 percent unemployment within the construction trades, or 18 or 19
percent, or whatever it may be, and drive it down.
The China currency bill, passed by the Senate with well over 60
votes, passed the House of Representatives last year, had 99
Republicans, 350 total votes, and we can't get a vote in the House of
Representatives to take on the Chinese.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Explain to us what the Chinese currency bill is all
about.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, they're manipulating their currency. They're
devaluing it so that the exports coming into the United States are
artificially cheaper than they would normally be, already with benefits
of no EPA, no OSHA, no regulations. But in addition to that, they
manipulate their currency, devalue it to make those exports landing on
the shores of the United States even cheaper.
Now, all of these unfair trade practices have cost the United States
2.8 million jobs in the last 10 years; 1.9 million of those are
manufacturing, and 100,000 in Ohio. When manufacturing jobs pay more,
there's more intellectual property spinoff, better benefits, better
pension.
All of this comes together with an issue that we're facing back in
Ohio, and a philosophy in the country that is basically saying, if the
middle class just made a little bit less, the country would be better
off; we'd finally fix these problems. That's what's happening with S.B
5 and S.U. 2 in Ohio, where we have a Republican administration taking
on the teachers, the police and the fire, and saying they make too much
money, and it's because of them that we have these huge budget issues,
when really, they're the last bastion of the middle class, and they run
into burning buildings, and they go out and they take care of us when
we're in a dangerous situation, or they teach our kids, or they clean
the public restrooms, or they clean the restrooms in the schools.
These are people who serve us, all of us as a country. For us to
continue to go down the path of, we've got to dismantle the middle
class, we've got to dismantle the unions, we've got to cut programs
like Pell Grants or food stamps or things that help us invest, or keep
interest rates high on student loans, or cut funding for the National
Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, this is not a recipe
for success. This is a recipe for the destruction of the middle class.
These are investments we've always made as a country that have
benefited us. And to say to these police and fire and teachers and
public employees, you're making too much money, you're part of the
problem, when they're making $30,000, $35,000 a year, is ridiculous.
The policies coming out of Washington and the House of
Representatives, we don't even have the courage

[[Page H7120]]

to take on China to say maybe we'll drive some manufacturing jobs back
into the United States, create some wealth back in the United States so
these local communities have money to fund their police and fire. This
is what we've always done.
One final point. You're starting to see it percolate. You saw it in
Wisconsin. The coalition in Ohio, now, against this issue too, is
incredible. Police, fire, teachers, public employees, building trades,
auto workers, machinists, average people, all coming together to say,
this is the middle class, and we've had it up to here. With Occupy Wall
Street, it's the same thing. Income inequality. High levels, it's been
going on for a long time. People are up to here.
And for a while, my friend, they have said, go get Washington, D.C.
Look at them. Look, it's the Democrats, get them. It's their fault. But
the reality is it's where the money is, and that concentration of
wealth you were talking about, that's driving the policies here.
Somebody explain to me how we can pass a China currency bill last
year, with 350 votes, 99 Republicans, and we can't get a vote in the
House of Representatives on it now. The Senate just passed it. Because
there are some very powerful interests that don't want it on the floor.
They don't want to vote on this. They like the system just the way it
is. They can locate over in China and ship their product back and the
Americans will buy it.
But what's coming home to roost now is that the Americans aren't
making the wages they were in the last 20 or 30 years.

{time} 1810

In the last 20 or 30 years, consumer spending is down, consumer
confidence is down, wages are stagnant, and there are high levels of
poverty even in the suburbs. And so it's all coming home to roost.
I think it's time for our country and all of these disparate groups
to now come together--police, fire, teachers, building trades, and
working class people. I'm telling you, in Ohio they're coming together
and they're saying: We are the middle class, we are working America,
and we are going to set the agenda.
Mr. GARAMENDI. And we can't wait. We cannot wait.
I'm just going to toss out two more statistics here. The top 1
percent of Americans in 1974 had about 9 percent of income of all
sorts--capital gains, interest, dividends, as well as earned income,
about 9 percent. In 2007--that was 4 years ago--they had 23\1/2\
percent. So you've seen the income of the very few at the top grow
extraordinarily from 9 to 23. It's probably up to 25 or 27 percent this
year. The top one-tenth of 1 percent--this is 15,000 families in
America--have raked in more than $1 trillion of income in 2009; just
15,000 families, $1 trillion of income.
Yet, when the Senate took up the bill to provide about 2 million jobs
for America to be paid for by these men, women, and families that have
had this extraordinary growth in their income, just a small percentage
of a surcharge, 5 percent surcharge on that additional income, the
Republicans in the Senate refused to pass that bill. So 280,000
teachers are not going to get a job, 100,000 police and firemen will
not be back on our streets protecting us, and $50 billion of
construction programs will not be built, 35,000 schools will not be
renovated, and all across this Nation the pain of the middle class will
continue.
It's time for us to have a better deal for America. The American Jobs
Act can do that. And I think it can help Ohio in the central part.
Ms. Kaptur, if you would care to join us, thank you so very much. I
yield to a terrific Representative who I know has fought fiercely for
years and years here to bring back to middle America the manufacturing
base and the middle-income jobs that are so important.
Ms. KAPTUR. Congressman Garamendi, I want to thank you for your
leadership coming from California. And my dear, dear colleague Tim Ryan
from the eastern quarter of Ohio, what a privilege it is to be here
with you as well and to be a voice for we the people--we the people,
not just the superrich people, not just the people running the six
biggest banks in the country that just took the rest of America to the
cleaners, but Americans who speak for the vast majority who, like that
chart states, want a better deal for America. We want investment in
America. We want to make goods in America because we know, when we
create here and we make here, we create jobs here and we create real
wealth here for everyone, not just the privileged few.
It's really an amazing fact to think about that General Motors, when
I was growing up, was the biggest employer in the country, and northern
Ohio just hummed. Plants had 14,000 workers, 10,000 workers. Now you're
lucky if a plant has 1,200 workers, and you see shuttered plants around
our country. Thank God for the recovery package and what was done to
resuscitate and refinance the U.S. automotive industry so that other
countries can't eat our lunch, that they can't eat our investment
capital and all of the investment that still exists around this
country, the millions of families and retirees that depend on a healthy
automotive sector.
When you think about it, today, Walmart is the largest employer. We
have gone from General Motors being the largest employer to Walmart
being the largest employer. And this week, Walmart announced that even
though it's the largest employer, even though it's making so much money
for its shareholders and top executives, if you work for Walmart and
you put in under 24 hours a week work, you're not eligible for their
health insurance. Yup, I can just think of all those women, all those
people that are working in Walmart around the country, their standard
of living will drop.
I agree with what Congressman Ryan says about the middle class. We
believe in people earning a living and, as a result, being secure in
the middle class--earning a decent wage, getting a decent health
benefit, and having a retirement program you can depend upon.
I'm really happy that the cost-of-living increase will give, on
average, to seniors across this country 360 extra dollars--360 extra
dollars a year on average--because they're going to be able to buy some
food, better food for themselves. They're going to be able to pay their
utility bills. Do you know the first thing they will do? I'll tell you
the first thing they'll do. They're going to buy their grandchildren
presents. They're going to go spend that money. They're going to spend
it in the economy.
Every single business in this country, what do they say? We need
customers. We need customers. We don't have enough people working--
carrying 14 to 24 million people unemployed or underemployed--to really
get this economy to hum. They're waiting for customers. Every Member of
Congress, if they're awake, knows that.

And so when we see a call for a better deal for America--for all the
people, for we the people, not just for the Wall Street bankers who
brought us to this juncture who, by the way, are doing very well and
controlling two-thirds of the financial system of this country, which
is part of the problem we are facing--too much power in too few hands.
But as we look across our country to say what can we do, as Members, in
order to create more of an investment climate here, you create
investment when you create customers. And, honestly, you don't create
customers and create wealth at the same time when you just take all the
stuff that's made in China, bring it here and sell it. That money
goes--most of it goes back to where those goods were made.
We have a real challenge in our country to reward Make It In America,
to make goods here and to sell goods here. And as Congressman Ryan
says, for those countries that don't play by the rules--and China
doesn't--whether it's on currency, whether it's on the environment, or
whether it's on the fair treatment of workers, they're not even living
in the same universe as we live in. Who would want to live in Beijing?
You'd need a gas mask to survive. Is that really what we want to do is
downgrade our standard of living for the American people to that level?
And that is the course we are on. That is the course we are on,
Congressman Garamendi.
When you talk about how many people in America are poor today, do you
think they like being poor? God loves them just as He loves everybody
in the upper class and the middle class. They don't want to be poor.
They want a job.
Here's the figure. Let me put this one on the table. I was talking to
one of

[[Page H7121]]

the major rail executives today, and I was inviting him to come out to
our region because we have a lot of railroads, and they're hiring. He
said, Congresswoman, I want you to know something. We posted 4,000 jobs
in rail across this country. And he said, Guess how many applications
we got? Five hundred thousand. Five hundred thousand applications for
4,000 jobs.
Think about what the American people are saying to us. Austerity will
not bring prosperity. What will bring prosperity is investment in
America, making goods in America, creating goods in America, growing
products in America, processing products in America, and holding our
trade partners accountable for their actions, whether it's currency
manipulation or renegotiating trade agreements that are not operating
in the interests of the United States and that are far out of balance.
Let me tell you, the most out-of-balance trade agreement is with
China. And if you go back to NAFTA when it passed here in 1993, they
said, Oh, my goodness, there are going to be millions of jobs. Well,
they're not in the United States. They're not here. In fact, we've
amassed a $1 trillion trade deficit with Mexico since NAFTA passed. So
all those people must live somewhere in outer space to think that that
has actually created wealth in America. It has been a sucking sound, a
sucking sound to other countries--not here.
All you've got to do is know the math. Know the math. Just look at
the numbers. You don't have to believe me. Look at the trade accounts.
It's written in black and white every month. We aren't winning. We are
losing the trade wars all over this world, and it is costing us
investment here. It's costing us jobs here. It's costing us wealth
here. And that is where those poverty figures are rising, because we
aren't reading the math and we aren't making goods in America and
balancing our accounts here at home by putting people back to work.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We certainly can rebuild the American manufacturing
industry, and there are ways of doing it. That was done in part when
the President stepped up using the stimulus money to rebuild General
Motors and Chrysler. They're now back, and millions of jobs have been
saved and, simultaneously, the entire small business supply chain is in
order.

{time} 1820

Mr. Ryan, I know that you have other thoughts that you'd like to add,
so please share with us.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I just think we're competing directly now with
China in such a significant and direct way. So we put, say, $8 billion
in the stimulus package for high-speed rail. I think China is spending
tens of billions of dollars----
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well over $100 billion.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think it's $120 billion, maybe, on high-speed
rail. They're going to have more tracks in China than in the rest of
the world combined in the next 5 or 10 years; and we're sitting here
saying we're not going to do anything because we're not for high-speed
rail. Ohio gave back $400 million, and Florida gave back a few hundred
million dollars. We know from conversations we've had with
businesspeople that that would have lured companies into the State of
Ohio because they want to build railcars, but they're not going to
build them if we don't have a high-speed rail program. These are
investments that we have made.
We've gotten into the mind-set that the government can't do
everything, but it has to do something. What it has to do is make sure
our roads and our bridges and our infrastructure are up to speed.
I was just talking with Congressman Doyle from Pittsburgh. He said $3
billion in sewer projects need to get done--EPA-mandated in Pittsburgh.
I think Cleveland is $2 billion to $3 billion and that Akron is about
$1 billion. It's hundreds of millions in places like Youngstown and in
smaller cities. I'm sure Toledo is up there in the hundreds of millions
in these older cities.
Ms. KAPTUR. And Sandusky.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I saw Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor. He was
saying these are 100-year-old systems in Chicago. Do we really think
that Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Akron and Youngstown and Toledo have
$1 billion to go make these investments? But if we say collectively as
a country we're going to rebuild the country and that right now we're
going to use the power that we have to go out and get the money and
make these investments and put all these people back to work, they'll
be working for a decade.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me tell you how that could be done. It's in the
President's American Jobs Act.
He has suggested that we establish an infrastructure bank. Every one
of the projects that you just described is a cash flow project. There
is a fee for sewage and there is a fee for water. There are fees that
come traditionally with each of these services. If we had an
infrastructure bank--and the President has suggested we put $10 billion
into it--we know that we could get the various public pension funds
around to invest in it and that we could probably have $100 billion
within several months that could be invested in each one of the
projects that you talked about, and those projects over time are able
to repay. Do keep in mind that the Federal Government is now able to
borrow that money at about 2 percent for 10 years. So this is an
investment opportunity to build for the future.
We've got about 5 minutes. So, Ms. Kaptur, if you'd like to take it,
then we're going to wrap this thing up.
Ms. KAPTUR. I would just like to say, for investment in our ports, in
our airports, in our rail, what could be more important to our country?
When I was born, there were 146 million people in this country. We're
now near 320 million people. By 2050, we will have 500 million people
in this country. We cannot continue to live like it's 1950. We have to
sort of catch up, which is where these public investments come in. They
create jobs. They create real wealth that you can't take away or
outsource. It belongs to the American people. It belongs here.
I wanted to say a word about Ohio. We're facing this vote on Issue 2
in Ohio, which is an effort, as Congressman Ryan says, to dismantle
what's left of the middle class in our State: our teachers, our
firefighters, our police. We have a Governor who called an Ohio highway
patrolman an ``idiot,'' which I consider a complete degradation of the
Office of Governor and an insult to those who put their lives on the
line for us every day.
We stand against Issue 2. We're going to defeat Issue 2 in Ohio
because we believe in building the middle class; and we are proud of
our police, of our highway patrolmen, of our firefighters, of our
teachers. They hold us together as a community, and it is our job to
push investment into airports, highways, high-speed rail, trains,
transit, ports, water and sewer--all of the pieces of ``community''
that hold us together and make our economies hum. Either you're looking
through the rearview mirror or the windshield going forward. This is an
``I can'' Nation. The last four words of ``American'' are ``I can,''
and we are an ``I can'' country.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Indeed, we can.
This piece of legislation, H.R. 613, is one that I've introduced. It
simply says that this money that we want to invest in our sanitation
systems--high-speed rail and energy systems, whether those are the wind
turbines or similar systems--is American taxpayer money. This bill
says, if you're going to use American taxpayer money, then you're going
to spend that money on American-made equipment. Make it in America.
It's our money. Use it here in America.
The Chinese currency bill ought to be passed. I know that our
Republican colleagues are going to be following me here in a few
minutes, and they're probably going to say the solution is to end
regulation. They had a bill on the floor that would end the regulation
that would prevent the despoiling of our air with such things as
mercury and arsenic and dioxins and other kinds of poisons. We can't
build America by ending the regulations that protect America: the food
safety regulations, the environmental safety regulations, the clean
water regulations. That's not how we're going to build America. That's
how we'll destroy this country.
We will build America through the kinds of programs that the
President has proposed with the American Jobs Act, which is fully paid
for with a fair tax system, one in which those at the top end of this
economy, who have

[[Page H7122]]

prospered so well over the last 15 years, will now pay just a little
bit more so that Americans can go back to work and so that those
unnecessary tax breaks that have been given to the oil industry for a
century--that 5, 6, $7 billion a year that they've received on top of
their trillion dollars of profit over the last decades--will go back
into America's Treasury so that we can build America once again. We
will make it in America.
The President is quite right: we can't wait. Americans can't wait.
It's time for Americans to go back to work. The American Jobs Act will
put Americans back to work without increasing the deficit and, in fact,
by creating tax revenues for the American Treasury.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

____________________