[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 181 (Tuesday, November 29, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7919-H7925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1920
JOBS FOR AMERICANS
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, it's good to be back, and I hope all of
my colleagues had as enjoyable a Thanksgiving as I did with my family
and with our constituents back in our districts.
We have much to be thankful for. After all, this is America, and this
has always been the place of dreams. This is America. It's always been
the place where people have found opportunity; where, whatever they
wanted to do, they could achieve it; and it's still that America today.
But it's up to us, in the third year of this recession, to restore
the American Dream, and there are ways that we can do it. And tonight,
together with my colleagues who will soon be joining me, we will talk
about various ways in which the Democrats in this House will and have
made numerous proposals to restore the American Dream.
I was out in the district for five of the days that we were gone,
talking to people. In fact, one fellow who has a book binding company--
a man who's 85 years old and is about to retire and turn that company
over to his employees--was talking about the enormous strength of this
Nation, and he was sharing the story of himself and his employees and
the way in which they came here. And many struggled from very bad
situations in other countries, but they came here with optimism. They
came here with a true belief that in America you can make it, that if
you follow the rules, if you work hard, you can make it. You can have a
good life. You can take care of your family.
Unfortunately, for all too many Americans, that's not the case today.
So restoring the American Dream is our task, and we can do it.
The President, more than 2 months ago, proposed the American Jobs
Act, a proposal that would put 2 to 3 million Americans back to work
immediately. And tonight, on the other side of this Nation's Capitol,
the U.S. Senate is debating a portion of that American Jobs Act, a
portion of it that is a very, very significant tax cut for men and
women that are working. Their Social Security payments would be reduced
by 50 percent. No longer would they pay 6.2 percent of their wages into
the Social Security fund. They would pay 3.1 percent--and for their
employers, the same reduction--providing a very powerful incentive for
individuals to have money in their pockets, about $1,500 a year, money
in their pockets so that they could participate in buying gifts for
their children. As we look to Christmas, we know there are many, many
Americans that are not going to be able to do that.
Mr. Speaker, it's time for us in this House to follow the lead of the
President and to give every American worker, 98 percent of Americans, a
very significant tax reduction, $1,500, by reducing that Social
Security tax. And for their employers, the same. If their employers are
up to $50 million of payroll, they can reduce, by 50 percent, their
Social Security tax so that that employer has more money to hire
people. That debate is going on in the U.S. Senate today.
Unfortunately, here in this House, we've not been able to even take up
that issue. We should, because it's part of what we must do to put
Americans back to work, to give them a break.
Joining me in this discussion tonight as we talk about restoring the
American Dream and about the things that we can do to make that happen
is my colleague from the great State of New York (Mr. Tonko). We have
often been here. We call ourselves the East-West Team.
It is good to see you back. I hope you had as good a Thanksgiving as
I did, and I'm sure you worked as hard in your district as I did during
those days. Please share with us, and welcome back.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for
leading us in an hour of discussion, of dialogue, that is most critical
to the economic viability, to the economic comeback of America's middle
class.
You talk about some of these incentives that would be addressed
through a payroll tax deduction. It's all about empowering our middle
class, enhancing their purchasing power, enabling us to enhance that
demand out there for products that then obviously translates into job
growth; because with more demand upon manufacturers in this country,
with more consumer confidence, with absolute increase in purchasing
power, there will be a positive outcome.
There's no denying that unemployment is driving the deficit; and if
we can turn that around, if we can invest in ways that enhance the
middle class, that's good for all strata, all income strata in this
Nation. And what's been lost in the logic here for the majority is that
the empowerment of the middle class stands to produce gains for
everybody, and we saw what happened in the buildup before our entry
here into the House.
In the period of the recession, it was all about borrowing, totally,
the money that was necessary to spend on a tax cut for millionaires and
billionaires. And some would suggest those are the job creators. But
what happened was we realized 8.2 million jobs lost, and so that didn't
work.
We ought not go back and revisit that formula, because it was not a
formula for success. What we need here is to bring about the long
overdue empowerment of the middle class. And it is working families
across this country that need that assistance today; and, by the way,
it works in everybody's favor.
So that's what we're promoting, and it's good to start off with that
discussion; because as we move forward, investments are what it's
about: investing our way to prosperity, investing
[[Page H7920]]
our way to opportunity, investing our way to a stronger tomorrow for
all Americans. It's not going to come by cutting into situations that
relieve the liability, the responsibility of those who have been most
profitable here. That didn't work, and that is not going to be the
formula for a comeback for most Americans.
What we need is to be sensitive to the investments in education,
higher education, in sounder tax policy, reforms of tax policy, and
certainly investment in research because, as we invest in research,
that equals jobs, and that's still the highest priority of America's
general public out there. We need jobs, and the dignity of work is what
ought to be front and center for the work that we do here in public
policy format or in resource advocacy so as to go forward and herald
the need of the middle class.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you so much.
The experiences that we have as we return to our districts and talk
to our constituents and share with our families, these are the stories
of life. These are the stories of real Americans that are out there.
Not that we're not real. We've got a very special task as their
Representatives to represent them here, and they do want jobs. They
want to go back to work. We know that many of them are unable to find
jobs.
In American Jobs Act, in addition to the tax issues I just talked
about--and I must say we actually got something done just before the
Thanksgiving recess--there was another provision, and that was for the
veterans. This was part of the President's proposal that actually did
become law. What he wanted to do--and we agreed with him--was to give
veterans, those men and women that are out there fighting for this
country in Iraq and in Afghanistan and even way back into the Vietnam
War and the first Gulf War, a chance for a job. There's a very special
tax provision that's totally paid for, not borrowed, that we actually
voted out of here so that employers got a tax credit, which is a
reduction in their taxes, for every veteran they hired--$5,600 for an
unemployed veteran or $9,600 for a disabled veteran. I'm very, very
pleased that we were able to do that for the veterans.
{time} 1930
That's one very important slice of the American public that is facing
unemployment; but there are many, many more. And if I can just pick up
for a second on a couple of words you said; you talked about
investment. In the American Jobs Act, there is a very, very important
investment, and you mentioned it. It's the education investment. The
President proposed that we spend about $30 billion to keep teachers in
the classroom now so that our kids would be able to continue to learn.
That's the future; and if they miss a year of learning, they're going
to be behind the rest of their lives. And so he proposed that. It's
still out there. It's open, and it hasn't had a chance to come forward
yet. We'll see, maybe we can get that one done. That's a critical
investment in our children. What's more important than our children.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, as you talk about the loss in
any given year where a student may lose the opportunity in the
classroom because of these cuts that are significant to education, that
is one measurement; but let me suggest another. We see aggressive
investment going on around the world in emerging powers out there,
nations competing with us in that global marketplace on clean energy,
innovation, an ideas economy. An ideas economy is a robust opportunity
for a sophisticated Nation like ours; but it requires commitment,
commitment to investment, investment in education. We take that
intellectual capacity, and we make it work.
We did that in the space race of the 1960s. President Kennedy, a
rather youthful President in his time, offered a challenge to America,
offered a challenge in a way that enabled us to invest in research,
that enabled us to win the global race in space. That was an unleashing
of technology in all told sectors of the economy and from every
perspective of quality of life that was enhanced by the investments
that were made.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, you were talking about the need for
investment; and, indeed, in the area of education and research,
critical functions, I do want to stay with that subject for a while.
Our colleague from the great State of Ohio, Ms. Betty Sutton, has
joined us. Thank you very much for being with us this evening. I know
you, too, had a family and a constituency to work with this last week,
so please share with us your thoughts.
Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman.
Representative Garamendi, you have done a tremendous job in leading
the way and showing the American people, because we all know that
things don't have to be the way that they are. We all know that we can
invest in the things that have always made our country strong, things
like education, that we know not only strengthens the individual but is
key to the success of our future, investing in policies that will
enable us to make it in America.
And when we talk about make it in America, Representative Garamendi
and Representative Tonko, I know that we are often talking about
manufacturing. And coming from Ohio, manufacturing of course is not
just a part of our past and our history. It is a strong part of what is
going to make us successful in the future.
I will tell you, I'm excited because in the coming days I'll be
introducing a number of bills that are all related to how we can
strengthen U.S. manufacturing and bolster U.S. manufacturing for our
workers and our productivity right here in the United States. So I'm
grateful to be down here with you. I can just tell you, I went out and
talked to our folks and there is a growing belief that there is a
better way. There's a comprehensive understanding that things have not
been fair, that the deck has been stacked, and that there are still
those here who are trying to protect the wealthiest and the most
privileged at the expense of the others. And that's why I'm so grateful
to have the chance to be here and fight alongside you and
Representative Tonko and others, like Representative Jackson Lee from
Texas who has just joined us.
In the last election, we heard over and over again the refrain that
people don't want a government on their back. And I agree, and I know
you do, too, that people don't want a government on their back. But
they do want a government on their side, and that's what we're here to
make sure that they get, because that is not what they're getting with
the Republican legislature as it exists today.
So carry on, Representative Garamendi, and count me in as somebody
who supports those investments in education and in making it in
America.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, indeed, you are carrying many pieces of
legislation. I like your one--what was it, don't flush America down the
drain--having to do with rebuilding our sanitation systems here in the
United States.
Ms. SUTTON. Representative Garamendi, if you'll yield just a moment,
the name of the bill, just to set the record very clear, is Stop
American Jobs from Going Down the Drain Act. The whole point of that
bill is when we are building our infrastructure, our water and sewer
systems, as you point out, that really need to be built in this
country, and of course it would put people to work, it would help our
communities, spur our economy; and if we do it using U.S.-manufactured
goods and iron and steel, which is what the bill would require, then we
put even more people to work while we're strengthening our community.
So it's the Stop American Jobs from Going Down the Drain Act.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I appreciate your correction of my characterization of
the bill. Nonetheless, it's a great piece of legislation; and it's part
of the Make It In America agenda, using our tax money, in this case to
build the sanitation systems, the water systems, and requiring that
that money be used to buy American-made equipment.
I have a bill that would do the same thing for solar and wind
programs--wind turbines and solar, as well as for trains, buses and the
like. It's our tax money; use it to buy American-made equipment. That's
part of the Democratic agenda. And it works. I can give some examples a
little later. I do want to thank you because there is nobody working
harder in this entire Capitol building--Democrat, Republican, or the
Senate--than you are in rebuilding the
[[Page H7921]]
manufacturing center of America, the great State of Ohio.
Now, Texas is a little far from Ohio, but you've got a few things
going for you in Texas. Let me introduce Sheila Jackson Lee. Thank you
for joining us once again.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. It is a delight to have been here with the
gentlelady from Ohio. We have worked together closely, as I have with
the gentleman from New York. I always want to ask him how his fair
constituents are dealing. They have some serious mountains to climb, if
you will, with their recent hurricane, a very unusual set of
circumstances. We joined together to allow those communities to come
back. Wouldn't that be a perfect investment of rebuilding
infrastructure.
Mr. Garamendi, let me thank you for your long-standing history of
putting things back together. I'm not going to call you the Humpty-
Dumpty man, but recognizing that we can put America back together and
make it in America. Let me share some anecdotal uniqueness to this
whole question of make it in America. I hope everybody had a wonderful
Thanksgiving. It's a special holiday where we find time to say thanks.
I heard that the gentleman from New York might have been giving away a
ham, made in America. And I know the people who received the ham were
grateful for it.
I had the opportunity to work with those, we had over 800 turkeys--
made in America--to be able to give to seniors and families. The joy
was, of course, that it was in the giving. But more importantly, it was
a product that we made from start to finish. Yes, it's food. As we went
down the aisles of many grocery stores, since the highlight of that
season is eating, people were buying goods in most instances that were
made in America. And they bought them.
And then, of course, that famous Friday that we can now tout to be
the best Friday over a number of years, certainly 2010; $52 billion was
spent by Americans in many instances on the electronic goods that were
made in America. Steve Jobs is no longer with us, but he created that
infrastructure of technology and software and the sophistication of
pretty things that many Americans went to buy, some $7 billion over
2010. And the studies indicated that--and that's all right to my good
friends out there--that Americans were buying first for themselves
those electronic items that they wanted to have for this holiday
season.
{time} 1940
As I begin to look at legislation to talk about jobs, I'm going to
try to make the energy industry a little bit more friendly. And we'll
be introducing legislation that talks about creating jobs in that
industry, but working in the environmental aspect of it--fixing the
coastline, for example.
As you well know, we have suffered through Hurricanes Rita, Katrina,
Ike and the deterioration of the coastline, so if somebody wants to
stop us from going down the drain, I want to stop us from a
disappearing coastline. I want you to have the beautiful beaches,
whether it is in Alabama and Louisiana and Texas, Florida. Those
coastlines have been deteriorating. We can find work. Individuals can
have work in fixing the beautiful coastlines. Even in South Carolina, I
know that the gentleman wants the coastline to be fixed. So there is
not a lack of opportunity-to-fix work.
I just heard my good friend from Massachusetts in the Rules Committee
indicate that there are bridges in the State of Massachusetts--my good
friend, Mr. McGovern--that are older than some States and that they
need to be fixed. And that would be a sharing of the wealth to many,
many different districts and States if we were to engage, as the
President wanted us to do, to look at how we do the infrastructure.
But making it in America is happening. Right now, in the Carolinas, a
young lady is bringing her company back from Sri Lanka, and she is
using the textile industries--I don't have its full name, but it begins
with ``Mic''--using the textile industry to now make her product.
So I came today to say that I have hope. I'm an optimist, and many of
the economists that we've been listening to--Jeffrey Sachs, for
example, and Mr. Spence, who I think I heard in the last couple of
days, has indicated that we worry too much about the deficit and the
debt, not to ignore it but we really should be worrying about investing
in America, rebuilding, make it in America, investing in
infrastructure, creating jobs. And Americans will do what they did on
last Friday, November 25, and they went out and they bought goods, by
and large, made in America.
Let's do more of that. Let's have the incentives that they need. And,
by the way, let's add the small business component to it. We had the
buy from a small business on Saturday. These small businesses are in
America. And if you support a small business, you support one or two or
three or four employees.
So I am grateful, as I said. I'm going to do this coastline bill. I
can see just persons for eons being put to work. I can see moneys going
in to reduce the deficit. We'll join that with the drain, if you will,
or the infrastructure for our sewage and wastewater. It comes under
homeland security, by the way. We have to protect that. The
infrastructure of security provides jobs as well.
I want to close on this note, which sound as if it's not tied in, but
it is. It really is tied in. We have, in the Thanksgiving backdrop, was
the acknowledgment--I'm not going to call it failure--by the
supercommittee that they could not complete their task. Let me, on the
record--I have said it in public settings--thank the colleagues that
accepted the challenge. But I want to say to my colleagues, let us not
be nonoptimistic. Let us not be unhappy or disappointed or sad.
Frankly, the job of the Congress is to formulate the vision going
forward on behalf of the American people.
Let me tell you why I see we have been given an opportunity. Some
people only talk about defense. I talk about 46 million Americans that
are on SNAP. Here's our chance. We can take the works of a Jeffrey
Sachs. We can take the works of Mr. Spence, who talks about
infrastructure investment. We can find these long-term cuts of a
trillion dollars, leaving out Medicare and Social Security and
Medicaid, and we can find them in a way that talks about Bush tax cuts
but has a thoughtful way of looking at tax reform, and then we can put
our vision forward that includes making it in America.
My friends, we make defense products in America. I don't want to be a
war promoter--I want our troops home--but I believe in military
preparedness. Those are jobs. We have a year to do it. We can throw off
the shackles of partisanship and thoughtfully put forward a legislative
initiative which the President will not veto if there is a plan that
includes deficit reduction. Don't be afraid of doing it on jobs.
So I'm willing to say we have been given an opportunity, just like my
Cougars are being given an opportunity for a championship this coming
weekend at the University of Houston, which will, by the way, create a
lot of revenue with folks coming in from all over.
But we have been given an opportunity. And I am glad that we're here
on the floor to point out that it is not the end, but it is the
beginning. I simply ask there be friends on the other side of the aisle
that will join us in revenue, job creation, deficit reduction, revenue,
job creation. We can pass these bills. We can join the Senate. We can
do the payroll tax relief for a little bit and the unemployment, but we
can create jobs.
I thank the gentleman for allowing me to participate with you. I'm
excited about the legislation that my colleagues have. I know I have
worked with Mr. Tonko for all that he has done in the legislative
initiative and, also, you. Thank you so very much.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much. You are always on top of the
issues and you're always so very, very correct. Sheila Jackson Lee,
thank you for the enormous amount of work you have done for your
constituents in the city of Houston.
You mentioned the supercommittee. We ought to spend at least a few
moments on that. Everybody says it was a failure and they did not
achieve the goal that was set out; however, the public needs to know
that the legislation that set up the supercommittee actually reduced
the deficit of the United States by $2.1 trillion. A $2.1
[[Page H7922]]
trillion reduction in the deficit in the legislation that established
the supercommittee. One trillion of that is already going into place.
The other $1.1 trillion, it was the specific task of the supercommittee
to try to find out if there was a better way to make the cuts, or
adding revenue. They were unable to put the revenue together, but the
cuts remain, and those are going to go forward.
You're quite correct, Ms. Jackson Lee, that we do have the next 13
months, almost 14 months, to figure out a better way. Maybe it's
revenue or less cuts. Maybe it's different cuts that are currently
across the board in the Defense Department as well as in the
discretionary funding. But we have a chance to do that. We have time to
do that. It's not all lost. The deficit has been reduced. Now we need
to do it in a smarter way, one that actually promotes American jobs,
puts people to work, and creates more jobs and manufacturing in
America.
Mr. Tonko, you come from a State that really started the great
American Industrial Revolution and an area in which it actually began,
the Hudson River Valley, so why don't we carry on our conversation
here. You were talking about research, or take it wherever you would
like to go.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Let me just respond to the absolute clear
focus of our friend, the gentlewoman from Texas, and for the strength
of Texas. Representative Jackson Lee is constantly talking about the
opportunities to make it in America, but she cited, also, the flood
damage in my district, in the Mohawk Valley, the Schoharie Valley of
upstate New York.
Sometimes we will sit around and try to tout the effect of
infrastructure for our job growth. There are different ways to express
the economic development quotient related to infrastructure, the
traditional roads and bridges, but then broadband and our grid system
for our electric utilities, what role does it play?
{time} 1950
Well, sometimes the best expression is done when that is taken from
you. And when roads and bridges were washed away, we saw immediately
what the effect was on the regional economy--and therefore the State
economy--and then we're all connected one to another so that the
national economy hurts through the ravages of flood waters that
impacted this district, some would say with 500-year storm impact.
What did that mean? It meant that you couldn't haul milk that was
processed, produced on these farms; and you could not ship products
being manufactured. It stopped the economic viability of a district and
of a region. So it's important for us to look at those bridges that
measure in deficient form. We need to make certain that we have state-
of-the-art infrastructure and broadband. We began to talk about this
with the space race of the sixties; we unleashed untold amounts of
investment in technology that enabled us to stretch opportunity here.
Think of the rotary phone that's now moved all the way up to what is a
changing telephone by the week. And that all happened because of an
investment in the intellect of this Nation.
So the intellectual capacity of this Nation has been an inspiration
to not only this country but to folks around the world where the
quality of life was raised simply by the inventive qualities of
American workers. And so that's what we're calling for here. The
Democrats of the House of Representatives believe in investing in the
worker and in research. Research equals jobs, and research equals
opportunities. The intellectual capacity that was developed here, I'm
told by the most recent former energy minister of Denmark, influenced
the turnaround of thinking in Denmark where they transitioned their
economy, created energy-innovative outcomes, all inspired by patents
coming from the United States of America. So we have that intellect.
We talk about manufacturing as a base. We saw the exodus of
manufacturing jobs to the millions--to the millions. We're still
perched highest on the list for manufacturing jobs; but if we allow
that trend where we were disinterested, paid no attention to
manufacturing and agriculture, if we allow that to continue, we will
sink as an economy. What we need to do is now bring the focus back to
manufacturing and to agriculture. The focus was totally on the service
economy, and there more narrowly to the financial services. We know
what happened.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Would the gentleman pause for just a
moment.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. You're saying something that is just so
inspirational, and I just want to add these two points: one, we are
still the greatest and largest economic engine in the world in spite of
China, in spite of Russia and in spite of India, our good friends.
We're the largest, still percolating along.
Second, when we've had our difficulties in the past, there have been
recessions in the fifties, post-World War II, on into our good friends
both former Presidents Ford and Carter, as you well know for those who
read the history books we had some moments, but the reason why we are
in troubling waters that people can't seem to comprehend, they just
need to read, we never had a euro.
We never had Europe in the state that it is presently in. And when
the markets were troubled on Monday--it was Monday, even post--I think
Monday they percolated, but when they were troubled, they were looking
at Europe. And so if we get obsessed with other than what you're saying
about how we can get back in the game at the peak that we want to be,
we don't take in the great picture. And that great picture is our
markets are not necessarily troubled about how we're percolating on.
We need to do better. We need to create jobs. But they're
international markets, and they're troubled by the euro, which I never
agreed with. I would just say, let's understand that so we can do our
business here in the United States and focus on the American people,
tend to the markets, but go ahead and invest and realize that the
markets are interrelated. We can overcome that by doing exactly what
the gentleman from New York has said, make it in America.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Jackson Lee, you've talked about the investments;
you've talked about the international aspects of our economy. Mr.
Tonko, you were so correct when you talk about what happens when those
infrastructures are not there.
Now, in the American Jobs Act, which we ought to be working on and
passing, there is $50 billion over and above the ongoing money. This is
new money, additional money, that would be immediately available to
restore the coastal areas of the United States, to rebuild the
infrastructure and those areas that have been hard hit by the floods of
this year, to improve the 100-year-old-plus bridges in America. Those
are all things that we need to move our economy.
Ms. Sutton from Ohio talked earlier about the sanitation and water
systems. Each and every one of these should be framed in such a way as
to create American jobs, not just the construction jobs but the rest of
the story, which is the concrete, the steel, the bolts, the pumps. All
of those things that go into the infrastructure can and should be
American made if we have a policy.
Now, on the floor here 3 weeks ago, we were talking about this; and
our colleague from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) brought something to the
floor that just blew me away. She brought a document that was prepared
in 1788 by George Washington, and it was a manufacturing policy for
America. He told Hamilton, who was then the Secretary of the Treasury,
to go out and to develop eight steps for an American manufacturing
policy.
So this is not new in America, folks. We need a manufacturing policy
in America. We call it Make It in America. It's a tax policy, an
educational policy, an infrastructure policy, and it is an
international trade policy where we don't give it away, but we require
fair trade--not free trade--fair trade. These are American
manufacturing policies of today. Thank you, George Washington, for
setting us on the course. We need to continue it.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. I hear in your statement the wisdom of sound
planning. We need that for a government to be smart and efficient,
which is the call by the general public. We want smart investment from
our government. Ask any competitor out there
[[Page H7923]]
in the global economy. They are competing against industries that are
being co-invested in by their native lands. There are co-investments
with governments and their private sector, and we're moving in the
other direction.
So a couple of things come to mind here. I participated this past
weekend in Small Business Saturday. And the spirit I detected was a
leap of faith, a sound leap of faith, by many small business leaders
who said, I want to offer a service, I'm going to put my creative
genius to work. I'm going to make my commitment to community a response
here that's tangible.
I saw a lot of belief in the American public, a belief in the
American system; and it offers a warm and fuzzy, cozy personalized
relationship. People come in; they're known when they walk into the
shop; they see the creative flair that's been introduced into that
small business. I also see more technically savvy qualities that are
engaged in the district I represent with a lot of start-ups,
incubators, again, another leap of good faith but needing an
investment, a co-partnering with government, especially in a very
tenuous economy where there's still a lot of guesswork. We need to be
there to remove some of that risk. That is so critically important.
Representative Garamendi, you mentioned earlier the fact that my
district is that donor district to the Erie Canal/Barge Canal, which
was the westward movement that triggered an industrial revolution.
These mill towns that were given birth to by the canal became the
epicenters of invention and innovation--manufacturing towns and mill
towns that had blue collar workers coming up with tremendously clever
ideas.
And for people to throw up their arms and say manufacturing then is
what it was, it was our greatness, it's gone today, nothing could be
farther from the truth. What is the challenge today to a sophisticated
society like the American society is that while we have a number of
product lines that we developed through our decades of manufacturing,
the challenge to a sophisticated society is to build the products that
are in demand today.
And if we believe that every product that's ever required by society
has been conceived, engineered, designed and manufactured, then the
story is over. But if we believe, as so many of us do believe, that we
can be the wizards of those new products and we develop it by investing
in ideas and investing in research, then we build those products that
are now the step up, if you will.
{time} 2000
That's where we are with our policy initiatives as a Democratic
Caucus in the House of Representatives. Make it in America by embracing
the intellectual capacity of this Nation and holding fast to
innovation, entrepreneurs, and the manufacturing of today, spun up to a
new level, that's America at her greatest moment.
Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for just a moment. Every hour
we're here we're joined by men and women who are working hard on behalf
of the American people. The stenographers taking down our words here
deserve a praise of thanksgiving; not that our words are so worthwhile
to put into the American Record, but they do it, nonetheless, and I
want to thank them for their good work, and for the staff behind us as
we go through this hour.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Let me just, if you'll suffer an interruption,
or yield, please, Representative Garamendi, I absolutely endorse what
you just said. They are devoted. They are an essential part of this
body to introduce all of the statements into the annals of history,
making certain that statements that might inspire the sort of progress
that is required by this Nation right now--they provide an awesome,
awesome task.
Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might take up, after interrupting you, some of
the things that you were talking about. Down through the years, from
the very earliest days of this country, there has been a joining of the
government and the private sector to accomplish, really, the building
of America. And it's been done in many, many ways.
I was startled and surprised and frankly, very, very happy when Ms.
Schakowsky brought that document in from George Washington's
administration about the establishment of industrial policy that placed
the American government in synchronization with the then-new
manufacturing program industries in America.
You talked about the mill towns. They didn't just happen. They
happened because there was a government policy working with them, those
entrepreneurs, to create these new businesses, these new jobs. And down
through the centuries, more than 2\1/2\, almost 2\1/2\ now, we have
been able to use this synergy, this government working with the
American public, the private sector, to create this incredible country
we call America and really, to create the American Dream that all of us
possess or have participated in.
Today, we're in a discussion, if you will, with the American public
about whether to continue that coordination of the public governments--
State, local, Federal governments--working to achieve a goal in the
private sector. There's a different vision out there that basically
says, get out of the way. Get government away and things will go well.
Eliminate all regulation, eliminate all of the programs, and let the
free market do it.
It's never worked, and the proof of it is found in the first decade
of this century. In the first decade of this century, that philosophy
of push government aside, deregulate, reduce taxes, and get government
out of the way actually created a situation of the Great Recession and
no jobs; in fact, 8 million American jobs lost.
We need to go back to the policies that actually created growth in
America, the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, carried out by Truman and
Eisenhower. Even Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson carried out the very
basic policies that, working together, we can build a great country.
Mr. TONKO. You're absolutely right. And I believe, as you just
indicated, our history, our American history is replete with the
soundness of government planning and policies that incorporated
investments from the public sector. And it made us strong. It retained
our strength. It was a sustainable outcome. And the way of the world
today is other nations are doing that with their private sector co-
investing with them.
And when you look at the scenario of threats to cut some very
valuable programs, you know you're going to place our businesses at
risk. And if there's anything I hear from my middle class that is
disgruntled with Washington is that they're not against people making
money. They're not against that.
They're concerned, and they're deeply upset by the undue influence
that a few, a growing few, most powerful have on the process. They see
it as insatiable greed. They see it as a rejection of what worked in
the past, where people shared the wealth, shared by investing in
America's middle class, which is that intellectual capacity, is that
innovative spirit, is that potential for the next generation of jobs.
And that's where our strength lies, and that's why they're upset. The
undue influence has caused this insatiable greed that produces a drain
on the middle class of this country and, therefore, reduces the number
of jobs that we could possibly have in this Nation.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Before I turn to my colleague from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur)
who has just joined us, I want to pull up this chart. If only you had
had this next to you while you just made this statement about the
change in the nature of America's wealth. This chart has become, I
think, rather famous--or infamous, I think, is a better word.
The blue line here is a chart that shows the growth in the wealth,
the income of the top 1 percent of Americans. And down here is what the
rest of Americans have had over the last 20 years or so. What we've
seen is basically a flat-lining for the middle class, and certainly for
the poor--no improvement, or very, very little improvement, in their
situation. This is the 99 percent here. This is the 1 percent.
This is the anger that you now see on the streets of America, and
it's exactly what you were talking about, Mr. Tonko, with a few, 1
percent of the American public, getting an ever increasing share of the
American income and wealth, creating a bifurcated society, one with
very few that are extremely wealthy, and the rest that are actually
growing poorer.
[[Page H7924]]
With that, I'd like to turn to a woman from the great Midwest, the
State of Ohio that is enduring this exact hollowing out of the American
middle class.
Marcy Kaptur, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for
years of work representing your part of what was once the great
industrial strength of America. I know that you want to share with us
tonight some thoughts that you shared with me earlier this day, as you
went home, as you talked to the men and women in Cleveland. Please.
Ms. KAPTUR. Thank you very much, Congressman Garamendi, for your
leadership in bringing us together so often. You are absolutely
unrelenting, and that's the spirit that is America, so we thank you for
your time tonight.
And Congressman Tonko of New York, your steadfast service here in
representing a State that has some similar situations to Ohio's in the
industrial and agricultural heartland of our country. It's really a
special privilege to be here tonight with both of you.
This morning, one of my first visits was with a company in Avon Lake,
Ohio, PolyOne. This is a company that makes products in America. Yes,
it's a global player, but its innovation center is in Ohio. Hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of jobs are associated with its
plastic products, made both out of traditional petroleum-based inputs
as well as the new carbohydrate economy that you can see developing,
and it was really quite exciting.
We know that real wealth is created in our country when we make goods
in America, when we make it in America. I think the problem over the
last several years has been that if you travel to any city in America
and you look at the tallest building, what are they? Are they the firms
making things or are they merely, as I saw in Michigan recently, a
gigantic bank whose headquarters is on Wall Street, a bank that just
got bailed out by the American people?
I stopped my car and I looked at that building, and then I looked at
the devastation of the communities around that particular part of
Michigan, and I thought, what's wrong with this picture? Basically,
this institution has sucked up the wealth of neighborhood after
neighborhood and left rubble in its way.
They're not being held accountable. Yet I see companies like PolyOne
trying to make it in a global economy with a very unfair set of trade
practices--closed markets around the world, currency manipulation,
intellectual property theft.
{time} 2010
I look at what's happening with competitors, with competition to U.S.
industry, and you have to say to those patriots who are making goods in
America, we stand with you. We should be rewarding those companies. We
should be making more goods in our country.
I wanted to just add a word about the automotive industry. There were
those in this Chamber that voted against the refinancing of the
automotive industry. Without that industry, this country would not have
a defense base, and we would not be a great industrial power. And now I
see in our region of the country--I was just at Chrysler Fiat. They
announced billions of dollars of investment. There's going to be over a
thousand more people hired at their main production facility in Toledo,
Ohio. Chrysler Jeep makes the Wrangler and the Liberty and likely
vehicles that will follow on.
The feeling inside that plant of people who have given their lives to
keeping America competitive and to manufacturing a label that is known
throughout the world, it was a wonderful day to be there. And I was
reminded, and I said very frankly, You know, there were 170 Members of
Congress that didn't think you should be here and didn't think that
this company should be here. And the company has paid back the loan
that was made, and now we're going to have good jobs by making goods in
America. So I wanted to share those experiences.
I feel bad that we have a country where certain financial firms that
have, totally speculative, have brought us to this point. But I stand
with those who have weathered the storm and who are now hiring and
trying to move this economy back where we know it can be.
I was very proud to be a Member, as are those who are here with us
tonight, to vote for that refinancing of the automotive industry and
with its procurement from suppliers--whether it's plastics, whether
it's glass, whether it's fibre, whether it's textiles, whatever, that's
helping to lift this economy to where last week, on the day after
Thanksgiving, retail sales in our country went up about 16.7 percent, I
guess. It shows that people have more spending power. That's what we
should be doing. We should be using our power here to lift those
industries that can really make goods in our country and help recreate
a strengthened middle class.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We have maybe 10 more minutes here.
You talked about the purchasing power of Americans. On January 1,
unless we act, American workers will lose about $1,500 of purchasing
power. We must renew and continue the reduction in the Social Security
tax that American workers are paying and businesses are paying. And by
the way, it's totally paid for by those superwealthy--a 3.5 percent
increase on their taxes over a million dollars a year. So it's totally
paid for. It's part of the American Jobs Act.
I was just talking to the gentleman from New York, and it came about
because of what you said about those men and women that have spent
their lifetime working here in America. And I want to end on this
between the three of us.
We Democrats have made a promise to America. It's not a contract. It
is a promise. It's a pledge. And that pledge is to protect Social
Security and Medicare, two of the most fundamental American programs,
both of which are at risk of being significantly modified or, in the
case of Medicare, destroyed by our Republican colleagues.
I want to make it very, very clear and get the comments from my two
colleagues here about our commitment to these programs.
Social Security is the bedrock foundation for every American's
retirement; and given the way the stock market gyrates because of those
financial institutions and the games they play, you can't count on your
401(k).
But here's the promise to America from the Democrats: you will always
be able to count on Social Security. If they want to fight about it,
then this is the fight we will have and we will win.
On Medicare, millions of seniors are not in poverty today and alive
today because they have Medicare insurance, a fundamental American
program.
Mr. Tonko.
Mr. TONKO. I think you highlight some of the major differences and
disagreements that have highlighted the debate on the Hill here in
Washington between the two parties. And I would suggest it's probably
some of the reasons that the supercommittee could not come to
consensus, because we have called upon an outcome that is fair,
balanced, and bold--that we will not allow for the price tag on further
continuing tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to be paid for by
cuts to Medicare. There were those who fought Social Security at its
inception and have fought it for 76 years and want to deny it.
It's about making certain that there is an underpinning of support
for our elderly as they grow into what is a longer life span. We have
to have measures in place that enable there to be a quality of life
that provides economic vitality, economic balance for those who move
into their retirement years.
I think that when we look at some of the measurements of Medicare,
for instance, where it's about 5 percent of the GDP, much more modest
than private sector health care is to GDP, and here's a program that
has worked tremendously well. Can it be made better? Absolutely. That's
where we stand. Make it better. Make it more secure. Make it more
sustainable.
But do not deny the masses of this country who have prospered, who
have been strengthened, who were lifted by programs like Medicare and
Social Security. And I am proud to serve in the caucus that, as a
conference, has said we stand for keeping these programs in place,
strengthening them, not denying them, which I think is a major
disagreement on the Hill.
[[Page H7925]]
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, you are absolutely correct. This is where
we stand. This is where we fight.
Ms. Kaptur.
Ms. KAPTUR. Thank you so much, Congressman Garamendi and Congressman
Tonko.
I just wanted to say on Social Security and Medicare, I'm proud to
stand with my Democratic colleagues. Social Security is an earned
benefit, and it's one that belongs to the American people. We all know
its power, not just to allow seniors to live a decent life in their
retirement years. But also it's power to lift the economy because
seniors spend, mainly on their grandchildren. And they move those
dollars into the economy. You watch with that cost-of-living increase,
which I'm very happy about, next year, and the fact that the Medicare
offset will not be so great that seniors will have extra buying power
and they will watch every penny.
I am just so proud to be a part of a tradition of the Democratic
Party that has fought for Social Security and has fought for Medicare,
not just for the few but for all. And we have made the country a better
country as a result.
So I think it's fair to say that, yes, it is true the Republican
Party has fought Social Security. Can't they find something else? I
don't know what the problem is when the vast majority of the American
people, I think like 99.99 percent of the American people, agree with
this. I don't know what their problem is. Maybe they're not living in
reality most of the time.
I am just very proud to be a part of this tradition along with my
colleagues and to say to our senior citizens that next year will be a
better year than this year.
My hat's off to Franklin Roosevelt and Frances Perkins and all of the
people that fought back in the 1930s to make this program part of the
American way of life.
Mr. GARAMENDI. And then carried on in the 1960s with Medicare.
We have much to be thankful for as Americans, don't we?
Mr. TONKO. We do.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We have much to be thankful for. We are thankful for
those men and women that served here in this House over the years that
brought us to where we are--the world's strongest, greatest country
with the greatest opportunity. Even with all of the troubles we have
today, it's still a country with great opportunity.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
Mr. GARAMENDI. It's a country in which the American Dream lives, and
we have the obligation to make sure that it's there for future
generations.
Mr. Tonko, we're going to do a rapid 30 seconds around.
Mr. TONKO. We've had a wonderful hour of discussion, and I give
thanks for the wonderful investments that have made us this strong
Nation. In conclusion, if we invest in the middle class of this Nation,
our greatest days lie ahead of us. We have a chance to be continually
investing in a way that allows us to make it in America and allow for
our intellectual capacity to reign supreme. It's been our history. It's
our DNA. Let's make it happen. I'm optimistic about the tomorrows for
this country with the appropriate investments.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Kaptur.
Ms. KAPTUR. America has always been a Nation of great promise, a
Nation of great hope; and I like to quote in my speeches the last four
letters of the word ``American'' are ``I can.'' It's positive energy.
It's promise that we all work toward, and the American people know it.
It's great to be a part of a party of hope and promise for the American
people.
I say what a pleasure it has been to join my colleagues here this
evening.
Mr. GARAMENDI. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back with great thanks
to my colleagues and for the opportunity to be a Member of Congress.
____________________