[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 183 (Thursday, December 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8058-H8063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Meehan). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, thank you.
  My name is Keith Ellison, cochair of the Progressive Caucus, and I do 
hereby claim this Special Order hour on behalf of the Progressive 
Caucus.
  Right away, I'd like to introduce my good friend from the great State 
of Georgia, Congressman Hank Johnson, who has served with distinction 
along with me since 2007. Congressman Johnson is the whip of the 
Progressive Caucus. Tonight we're going to be talking about jobs, 
income inequality, and we're going to be talking about this issue on 
behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
  Our Web page is right here at the bottom of this document that I'm 
showing, Mr. Speaker. So we do encourage people to sign up and get 
ahold of us.
  In the very beginning of this hour, I want to recognize my friend 
from Georgia so that he can make some introductory remarks about the 
importance of jobs, just as soon as he's ready to take it on.
  If the gentleman is prepared to make some opening and preliminary 
remarks about the importance of jobs, economic justice in the American 
middle class, I would like to yield to the gentleman to take it away 
there.
  Congressman Johnson.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota, my 
junior in the House. When I say that, I mean we're both juniors, having 
served now in our third terms. We will be officially recognized, I 
guess if we're fortunate to make it back for the 113th Congress, that 
will be our fourth term. We will be seniors, and we will be permanent 
seniors as long as the voters allow us to be. And we certainly want to 
do what the voters want us to do here.
  What the voters of the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia tell 
me over and over and over again, day in and day out, 24-7, is that jobs 
is the issue, and they want us to pass the President's job creation 
bill. They don't understand why simple proposals that will create jobs 
and reinvigorate

[[Page H8059]]

our economy are something that we can't come to grips with here on the 
House floor. And I tell them to keep the faith, but I also tell them 
where the problem lies. It is not with the President. It's not with the 
Democrats in the House of Representatives. It's with my friends on the 
other side of the aisle, the Tea Party-Grover Norquist Republicans who 
want to balance the budget. Their main issue is balancing our budget. 
And certainly our budget needs to be balanced, and that's something 
that we should do. It's not our first priority.
  Our priority right now, and I agree with the people of the Fourth 
District, it should be jobs. And if we don't create jobs, if we leave 
people on unemployment or unemployment having expired, that means less 
money circulating in the economy. If there's less money circulating, 
less economic activity, less job creation. And so there's a lot that we 
can do, Congressman Ellison, to help the people, especially during this 
holiday season.
  Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentleman.
  I just want to say this is the holiday season. We should have a 
spirit of charity in looking out for our fellow Americans during this 
time of year. But unfortunately, we have seen a no-jobs agenda from the 
party opposite. From the majority party, we have been here 11 months, 
we haven't seen any jobs bills out of them.
  They say that tearing apart the EPA is a jobs bill. It is not a jobs 
bill. They say that damaging the National Labor Relations Board is 
somehow going to bring forth jobs. It will not.
  Everything they say is a jobs bill basically boils down to two 
things--I think you might agree, Congressman--is deconstructing health 
and safety rules and cutting taxes for people who already are rich; and 
this is not a jobs bill.
  A jobs bill is taking care of our Nation's infrastructure, putting 
our veterans back to work, as we tried to do today. The Democratic 
Caucus offered a motion to recommit to help support jobs for our 
veterans, get small businesses to hire them, and we didn't get any 
Republican support, which is quite amazing to me.
  The fact is that, yes, here we are nearing the end of this year, 
nearing the end of 2011, and we're seeing unemployment insurance 
perhaps about to run out. We're seeing payroll tax cuts about to run 
out. Therefore, some people will see the end of their unemployment 
insurance and other people will see an increase in their payroll taxes.
  And it shocks me that our Republican friends are all for tax cuts, 
can't wait to vote for a tax cut, dying to vote for a tax cut whenever 
the recipient of the tax cut is rich. But if the tax cut happens to go 
to somebody who works hard for a living, who goes to work, gets their 
hands dirty and comes home, they don't want to see a tax cut for that 
person. They just want to see tax cuts for only some people.
  I think that you're right to describe our colleagues as the Tea 
Party-Grover Norquist Republican Party because that seems to be who's 
running things over there.
  You know, my father was a Republican. He is a Republican. He hasn't 
voted that way in a while. But he says, I remember you guys could go 
down there and talk. You could debate the issues. Some of us wanted to 
pinch a penny a little harder, some of us wanted to emphasize pulling 
yourself up by your bootstraps a little more. You liberals want to help 
everybody.
  That's what he says about me. But the point is we could find a way to 
get along.
  Today the moderate Republican, I'm looking for him. I can't wait to 
have him show up, because I cannot see anybody who has the spirit of 
cooperation that we could cut a deal with that could balance fiscal 
discipline on the one hand and the need to help and respond to the 
needs of Americans on the other hand. We see people who are carrying 
forth an extreme ideological agenda that is all around tax breaks only 
for the rich people, that revolves around unemployment being ignored, 
that revolves around all of these things.
  They say ``jobs.'' People shouldn't be confused, Congressman Johnson. 
You will hear Republicans say ``jobs.'' You just won't see them do 
anything about jobs, because if they want to do something about jobs, 
we could pass the American Jobs Act right away.

                              {time}  1830

  We could help make sure those payroll tax deductions are extended, 
and we could make sure unemployment benefits are extended, but we're 
just not seeing any of that.
  What we are seeing is described on this board right here, which is 
the Republican no-jobs agenda. They've got a no-jobs program. They're 
saying, Get rid of the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, which 
protects the water and our lungs; make sure we are subject to toxic, 
hazardous waste and pollution; and cut taxes for rich people. Then 
somehow, magically, we'll end up with jobs. That's not going to give 
anybody a job.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. It certainly will not create any jobs. There 
is a false perception that has been bought into wholesale, unanimously, 
by my Tea Party-Grover Norquist Republican friends, and that is that 
deregulation somehow creates jobs.
  Now, I know what kind of jobs are created when you deregulate the 
health and safety of food, water, air quality, drugs, Wall Street. I 
know what happens when you don't have any regulations. It means you're 
going to have more people going to the doctor because of unsafe and 
unhealthy conditions--adulterated food, water. It means that you will 
have more----
  Mr. ELLISON. Asthma.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. People in the mortuary business who are 
trying to determine the cause of death for people. You will have more 
cleanup workers, workers who are dispatched to clean up toxic sites. 
You'll create those kinds of jobs. Yet, as for the kind of high-level, 
21st century jobs that America needs in order to be the leader of the 
world economy in this global environment that we're in, there is not 
one measure that the Republicans have introduced that will stimulate 
the creation of those kinds of jobs.
  So what we're doing, Congressman Ellison, is just creating conditions 
of great suffering so that people will vote against President Obama 
next November. The stated goal of my friends on the other side of the 
aisle--their main, central goal--is to make sure that President Obama 
is a one-term President. They don't care about how much pain they 
inflict on the American people, on the 99 percenters--and 47 percent of 
them are millionaires, so they don't have to worry. It's just to serve 
a political purpose.
  Mr. ELLISON. The gentleman mentioned that the stated goal of the 
Republicans was to make President Obama a one-term President. This is 
not just political rhetoric. Mitch McConnell--and anybody sitting in 
front of a computer can Google it and look it up--said that was his 
goal, which was to make President Obama a one-term President.
  I think the goal of a Member of Congress ought to be to look after 
the welfare of the American people. I think a Member of Congress ought 
to be trying to figure out how to look after the best interests of the 
congressional districts that they represent. I think that ought to mean 
jobs, health, safety, education.
  Trying to defeat the President should never be anyone's goal. I can 
guarantee you it was not my goal. Even though I did not think that his 
administration was the best administration for America, my first goal 
was not to get rid of President Bush. It was never my top goal. My goal 
was to try to promote peace and justice, economic opportunity and 
prosperity, not to try and defeat somebody else. The fact is that the 
Republicans have neglected the economy, and they've neglected the 
middle class. It really is too bad.
  So, on this issue of paying for the extension of the payroll tax 
deduction, I just want to say that there is $1,000 that Americans don't 
have to pay in their paychecks when they get them every 2 weeks or 
every month, which is because of the payroll tax cut. If that expires, 
they'll see 1,000 more bucks over the course of a year that they'll 
have to pay.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Starting January 1.
  Mr. ELLISON. Starting January 1, it's going to come out of their 
checks.
  Now, Democrats have said, Let's ask the most well-to-do Americans----
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. The top 1 percent.
  Mr. ELLISON. And they don't have to pay based on their first $1 
million;

[[Page H8060]]

it's just after their first $1 million--to toss a little back to the 
American people so that we can extend the payroll tax cuts for working 
class people.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. But Grover Norquist doesn't want them to do 
it.
  Mr. ELLISON. Grover Norquist said no. They signed a pledge.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. They signed it 20 years ago.
  Mr. ELLISON. They signed it. They signed a pledge, not to the 
American people, but to Grover Norquist.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Who does he represent?
  Mr. ELLISON. Do you represent him?
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I don't represent him, and he doesn't 
represent me or the folks that predominate my district. I've got a 99er 
district.
  Mr. ELLISON. I've got a 99er district as well.
  The thing that really gets me is that, if Grover Norquist lived in my 
district, I would feel duty-bound to at least listen to him because I 
listen to everybody in my district. But to sign a pledge to him to 
subvert the interests of the 99 percent is an outrageous thing.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. All the while, Congressman Ellison, pitting 
Americans against each other, trying to stoke hatred and anger amongst 
the 99 percenters on any issue they can.
  Mr. ELLISON. Right, divide and conquer.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. That's the way it is.
  So right now, Congressman Ellison, I feel like I have to say this 
because you're such a great example of a true American patriot, one who 
lives life in accordance with your inner ideals. We have the freedom in 
this country to do so, but there are those right here in this Congress 
who would try to turn the American people against you and people like 
you because of the religion that you have chosen to follow.
  Mr. ELLISON. That's right.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. They don't have any idea that your dad is a 
Republican.
  Mr. ELLISON. Yes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. They don't have any knowledge of how you grew 
up and what kind of values you were taught and what kind of family you 
had. They just want to condemn you because you are a Muslim. They want 
to make you a threat to America, a threat to our military, and make a 
threat of those engaged in the military who happen to practice the 
faith of Islam. It plays into this decision to put Americans through 
this suffering so that they will then vote against President Obama and 
the Democrats so that the Republicans can then throw the welcome mat 
out like they have done for the large corporate interests and wealthy 
individuals in order to control public policy in America.
  Mr. ELLISON. The gentleman makes an excellent point. I mean, let me 
put it like this:
  How are you going to get the 99 percent to vote for the exclusive 
interests of the 1 percent? Or a better question: How are you going to 
get 50 percent plus one to vote for the interests of the 1 percent? 
You've got to keep them divided. You've got to keep them confused. 
You've got to keep them asleep. You've got to keep them disliking each 
other for no legitimate reason.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. So you hold hearings on issues that are false 
issues.
  Mr. ELLISON. Yes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. You create controversy where there is none.
  Mr. ELLISON. Right.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. This is a game that, certainly, many people 
see is being played, but I wish far more people saw and understood what 
is actually taking place in their House of Representatives. I believe 
that it's one reason we have two groups of 99ers--the Occupy Wall 
Street and the Tea Party movement, those who are dissatisfied with how 
things are going in America.
  Mr. ELLISON. I do hope that we can help the people understand that 
their interests lie with each other, right? So whether or not you're a 
Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Bahai, a person who doesn't 
practice any faith but is just spiritual, an atheist--or whatever you 
may happen to be--the fact is we all breathe the same air; we all 
occupy this same small planet; and we have to find a way to live here. 
Whether you are black, white, Latino, Asian, no matter whether you're 
from the South or from the North, no matter whether you were born in 
America or you came here, no matter whether you're straight or gay, or 
no matter who you may be, you're an American.

                              {time}  1840

  When you and I stand up in this very room every morning and we say 
the Pledge of Allegiance, we, in that Pledge of Allegiance, with these 
very simple words, ``and liberty and justice for all,'' all, liberty 
and justice for all, all Americans, I urge Americans to look for the 
common good, the things we all share.
  How can we come together around a common narrative of a shared 
reality as Americans so we don't look at each other as you're a this 
and I'm a that, and I don't like you because of this historical thing 
and all of this kind of stuff. Let's find a way to unite our people; 
because if we can unite our people, Congressman Johnson, we can stand 
up and advocate for policies that are to the best good of the American 
people.
  The American people will be wide awake and clear that our economic 
interests lie with each other, and we will not vote a program to give 
tax cuts to millionaires simply because we have been convinced that 
people of a different--people who pray on a different day that we do or 
pray in a different way than we do, or have a different appearance than 
we do are somehow our enemy.
  You know, we've got to build human solidarity. This is what we've got 
to do. And the one thing I like about the Occupy movement is you go 
there and you see people of all colors, all cultures, all faiths. You 
go there and you see people, even people of different income groups.
  There was a group that we had at our hearing, which we had just a few 
days ago, which there is a videotape on, on our Web site, 
USCongress.org, and they were calling themselves the Patriotic 
Millionaires. Now these are people who used the American free 
enterprise system, came up with a great idea, sold it, people bought 
it, and they did well in the marketplace.
  Now, this is a good thing, but their attitude is not, yes, America, 
you have public schools which educated my workers, you had publicly 
funded roads which allowed me to drive here, to drive there. You have 
the police department, which protects my business. You have the 
military, which protects our whole country.
  Yes, America, you've done all this stuff for me, but all this money 
is just mine, and I'm not giving any to anyone. They didn't say that. 
They say, you know what, to whom much is given, much is expected and 
they don't mind doing their fair share for America. That's the 
Patriotic Millionaires; that's the spirit that helped this country 
become a great country; and it's a spirit we need today.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I do believe that you are 100 percent correct 
on that, and I want to give a shout out to those millionaires who are 
socially conscious. There are so many people who are afflicted and who 
are just eaten up with greed, and they already have more money than 
they can possibly spend in this lifetime; yet they have an insatiable 
quest for more and more and more.
  They are the ones who are supporting people like Grover Norquist and 
like Dick Armey----
  Mr. ELLISON. FreedomWorks.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Who is a proponent of the Tea Party movement; 
and those are the people, the Koch brothers, those kinds of interests 
that benefit from our system of government but then, ironically, they 
would support and encourage those who want to do away with government. 
They want to strip government of its power to regulate. They want to 
strip government of its power to protect and to create fairness and 
prosperity. And it is just basic. I don't care how rich you are, but if 
you're riddled with envy and with the need for more, you know, you just 
can't be satisfied, you are going to be unhappy.
  And the person who is unemployed but doing their best to find a job 
and take care of their family and despite all obstacles is willing to 
do with half a crumb that they have extended to their neighbor because 
their neighbor is in the same shape, we're all in this together. Those 
are the types of ideals that we used to have in this country, we used 
to exemplify. But now it's this

[[Page H8061]]

culture of greed and avarice and self-satisfaction. Reminds me of the 
old days of the Roman Empire.
  Mr. ELLISON. Or even the old days of the robber barons, like the 
1890s, you know, 1900. This was a time when industry in America was 
young, and there were no right--labor unions, there were no 
environmental protections and people would, if you lost your hand on a 
punch press, you just were out.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. So be it.
  Mr. ELLISON. And if you actually tried to get a fair wage from your 
boss, you just could be arrested or thrown into jail or whatever. And 
if you got sick based on the smog that the smokestack was pumping out, 
then you just died young, I guess.
  But then America went through some changes; and we said, you know 
what, workers are going to have the right to organize. That's a good 
thing. Our air is going to be clean. Companies are going to have to 
abide by some of our environmental regulations.
  And there became an American consensus where we said, yeah, you know, 
we're a mixed economy, which means that we have a strong public sector, 
but we have a strong private sector too. And the private sector, you be 
innovative, you come up with good products, services that people need, 
and by all means we hope you do well, but after you do well we need you 
to toss something back----
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Give back.
  Mr. ELLISON. For the common good. And what we have now is we have 
people who say, I don't care about the common good. And here is the 
thing----
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Every man for himself.
  Mr. ELLISON. Every man for himself.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Only the strong survive.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair must ask that the Members yield 
and reclaim their time in a more orderly fashion so that the court 
reporters are able to make the appropriate transitions.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Fair enough.
  Mr. ELLISON. Thank you, sir.
  And so we are now at a time, we have now approached the time where 
there are some people who become well-to-do whose attitude is that they 
want to shrink government to the size you can drown it in a bathtub. 
This is what Mr. Norquist has said. That's a quote from him.
  His vision of America, like the Koch brothers, they do oil refineries 
and stuff; and you drive by some of these plants and they smell awful, 
and you know that nothing good can be coming out of those smokestacks, 
but they want a condition in America. Their vision is that if a person 
from the government says, you know what, there's a lot of people 
getting sick around here, you can't just spew that stuff out of that 
smokestack, we're going to regulate that stuff and some of that stuff 
you're going to pay for the costs and the harm that you've caused to 
people as you go making money on that factory you have.
  They have a vision where that factory owner will say, Mr. Government, 
you get out of here. I'm going to call your boss. I gave a campaign 
donation to your boss, and we're going to just make you leave us alone.
  And if we can't get your boss to back up off of us, we're just going 
to sue you back and dump a ton of paperwork on you, and you don't have 
enough lawyers working for your government agency to defend the public 
interest; so we'll just drown you, and we're just going to be able to 
do whatever we want to do.
  This is the kind of condition they want to create. They want an 
environment where the government is too small to tell them, you cannot 
pollute the air. You cannot abuse people's civil rights. You cannot 
hurt people's interests, the public interest this way. And that's the 
kind of condition they are creating.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I could not have said it better; and I will 
say, so that I don't repeat what you've said, that when we do have a 
strong government, then government is there to protect the interest of 
all of the people, those who are the so-called job creators, who 
haven't been creating a lot of jobs here lately, by the way. I don't 
know why they still have that title, because all the jobs have been 
moving offshore, out of America and leaving these workers here without 
jobs.
  We're doing ourselves a disservice by cutting government and cutting 
our ability to clean up the mess that has been created through decades, 
now, of deregulation. It has caused us to be a society where we spend 
more money on health care, but we're the sickest people in the 
industrialized world, among the industrialized nations.

                              {time}  1850

  We've got a financial system that nearly collapsed because of lack of 
regulation. And the same people who profited so mightily back during 
those winner-take-all days want to keep the winner-take-all days, make 
the big bonuses, the obscene bonuses at year end that they're getting 
ready to publicize now, and they would rather collect those bonuses 
than create jobs for Americans to clean up the environment, to 
reregulate Wall Street. They want to cut those jobs, so job creation, 
it will actually result in the job creators, or the 1 percent, being 
able to experience even more profit.
  People should understand that if you help someone else, it comes back 
to you. These are just simple concepts of living that we have gotten 
away from as a society.
  Mr. ELLISON. What you're describing is a win-win situation. But some 
people have a psychology of a win-lose. They think in order for me to 
do well, you have to do poorly. But the truth about the universe we 
live in and a strong economy is that if I do well and I'm creating 
prosperity in the world through good products and services, and then I 
give you some of my money by hiring you, then you have some money and 
you will bring me value and we will see the economy grow and we all can 
be a little more prosperous. But some people think, well, if you get 
something, then that means I don't have something, so they just hoard. 
This is a very, very poor strategy to pursue.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. If the gentleman would yield, what we do when 
we create job growth and when we spread the wealth, it means that we're 
able to pay down that deficit, that debt that we have. We are able to 
clear that out. America is certainly not in a crisis as far as debt is 
concerned. We borrow money at 2 percent. You can't get it much cheaper 
than that. And while that cheap money is available, we should be 
borrowing that money and investing it in our own economy, in our 
infrastructure, in our research and development for medical care, 
health care delivery, energy production, our education system from the 
buildings on down to the lowest piece of equipment that's in there, the 
teachers who teach our children. We should be investing in those areas. 
We'll see this economy turn around rather quickly, and we'll see that 
debt disappear quicker than most people believe that it will.
  Mr. ELLISON. I just would like to say something very important here.
  It's common for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to say 
we're broke, we're broke. They get up and say we're broke all the time. 
It's like one of their favorite things to say. The truth is we're not 
broke. America is not broke. This is designed to create a certain sense 
of crisis and urgency to scare people into favoring a program of 
austerity which they propose.
  But I think it is important to note that two-thirds--two-thirds--of 
American corporations don't pay any taxes at all. Two-thirds pay none. 
And I just want to point out to Americans, Bank of America doesn't pay 
any taxes. They got a bailout from the government. The American people 
got a call from Bank of America: Oh, my God, we bought Merrill Lynch; 
we bought Countrywide. It's not a good deal. We're going down. Save us, 
please. Through the Congress, which is the people's House, they got 
their bailout.
  Now, the assumption was that Bank of America would then turn around 
and pay the money back and then help people with their mortgages and 
help improve the economy. What they actually did is they didn't pay any 
taxes and they laid off 30,000 people. Bank of America didn't pay a 
single penny of Federal taxes. I've got more money in my pocket right 
here than they paid in taxes.

[[Page H8062]]

  Boeing, despite receiving billions of dollars from the Federal 
Government in taxpayer giveaways, Boeing didn't pay a dime in U.S. 
Federal taxes.
  Citigroup. Citigroup deferred income tax for a third quarter in 2010, 
amounting to a grand total of zero. At the same time, Citigroup has 
continued to pay its staff lavishly. John Havens, head of Citigroup's 
investment bank, is expected to be the bank's highest paid executive 
for the second year in a row with compensation of $9.5 million. They 
paid no taxes at all.
  ExxonMobil, they paid no taxes. In fact, I think we give them money. 
Big Oil tax dodgers use offshore subsidiaries in the Caribbean to avoid 
paying their fair share. Although ExxonMobil paid $15 billion in taxes 
in 2009, not a penny of it went to the American Treasury. It went 
elsewhere. This is the same year that the company overtook Walmart as a 
Fortune 500 company. Meanwhile, the total compensation of ExxonMobil's 
CEO is about $29 million.
  We say we're broke. What we're doing is we're not collecting enough 
revenue because we think that corporations are job creators. And, of 
course, they're not creating any jobs, as you pointed out. But we're 
operating on some faulty assumptions.
  General Electric. In 2009, General Electric, the world's largest 
corporation, filed more than 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing 
to the government in taxes. GE managed to do this with aid of a rigged 
Tax Code that essentially subsidizes companies for losing money and 
allows them to set up tax havens overseas. With the Republicans' aid in 
Congress whose campaigns they finance, they exploit our Tax Code to 
avoid paying their fair share.
  And who do Republicans blame? The middle class. They say that the 
middle class is the problem. They say tax breaks for billionaires, 
which is the GOP plan, tax breaks for huge corporations, which is the 
GOP plan, huge bonuses for big CEOs; but who is it who our friends in 
the Republican caucus think is responsible for all of the problems? 
Well, it's public employees.
  I just want to point out something very important before I yield to 
the gentleman.
  The Republicans now have said they will support a plan to extend the 
payroll taxes by cutting the Federal Government workforce 10 percent. 
And by giving--get this, Congressman--a means testing for Medicare, 
food stamps, and unemployment insurance benefits. That ought to get a 
lot of money. But public employees are who they think should bear the 
brunt of the refusal of the corporate elite from paying taxes.
  They say that teachers should pay, that cops should pay, firefighters 
should pay, job training programs should be cut. Small business 
investment, no. Investment in the National Institute of Health and 
Research, we should cut back on that. Schools, they should have to pay. 
Clean energy, we can't afford that. That's what they say. Health care, 
can't afford that. Infrastructure investment; I come from a city where 
I-35, the Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River fell into the 
river and 13 Minnesotans died, 100 got severe back injuries, all 
because of deferred, delayed maintenance. Infrastructure investment is 
not just a job creator; it is a public safety issue. And, of course, 
college affordability. They want to cut programs that make it more 
affordable to go to college.
  The brunt and the burden of balancing the budget is not and should 
not be on our public employees, our everyday heroes, the people who 
take care of our kids, the people who look after our younger people, 
the folks who look after us, the police department. Who are you going 
to call? Firefighters.
  I thank the gentleman for allowing me to elaborate on this point 
because I want to say that, on the one hand, they say we're broke. 
We're not. What we are is we don't ask the wealthiest among us to help 
out. And what they offer as a solution is to cut the people who give a 
good quality of life to the average Americans--our public employees.
  I yield to the gentleman.

                              {time}  1900

  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Thank you.
  Many Americans watched in horror as the drama unfolded on the I-35 
bridge, the aftermath of crashing into the waves of water below and 
taking out a multitude of cars and taking lives and causing people to 
be injured, and also resulting in an economic detriment to that area 
that needed that bridge in order to continue to conduct business. We 
can look at it sterilely on the TV from a distant location, but we 
should realize that the same thing that happened to you guys in 
Minnesota can happen to us in Georgia with our own bridges that are in 
disrepair due to deferred maintenance.
  This is something that can happen not just in Georgia, not just in 
Minnesota, but all across the land. And it doesn't have to be that way, 
because as President Obama has proposed in the American Jobs Act--or as 
a part of the American Jobs Act--there is money--a small amount, but 
any amount is better than none--for infrastructure. I think it's $50 
billion. That infrastructure, in addition to helping with our public 
safety issues--health, safety, and well-being of the people--would also 
create jobs. So we're killing more than one bird with one stone by 
passing the American Jobs Act.
  Not one of my friends on the other side of the aisle has been able to 
put forth any rationale for not considering any part of that Jobs Act. 
We did, I'll give them credit, pass something last week having to do 
with veterans. They just could not find it within their hearts to avoid 
voting for that. But if there was some way that they could, they would 
have.
  They are insisting that the tax cuts to the working people of this 
country, the payroll tax, they want that to be paid for. But nobody 
said anything last year about paying for the extension of the Bush tax 
cuts.
  Mr. ELLISON. Right.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Nobody said anything and nobody is saying 
anything because they want those tax cuts to become permanent while 
they at the same time would vote to impose a balanced budget amendment, 
which really would just simply lock in an unfair tax rate or a tax 
system that is unfair, would lock it in and make it much more difficult 
to change it.
  So, Congressman, these are issues that I'm pleased to sit here and 
discuss with you. I look forward to further dialogue from both people 
on this side of the aisle, along with my friends on the other side of 
the aisle, because when it's all said and done, we're all in the same 
boat together.
  Mr. ELLISON. I want to say that it's been a real pleasure to spend 
this last hour with you, Congressman Johnson. We in the Progressive 
Caucus believe in one America--all colors, all cultures, all faiths. We 
believe in promoting human solidarity, not making Americans fear each 
other. We believe in economic prosperity and justice for working and 
middle class people. We believe in environmental sustainability, and we 
absolutely believe in peace with our Nation and other nations. We are 
always going to promote diplomacy and dialogue and development over 
war.
  We are the Progressive Caucus. I will allow the gentleman to offer a 
final word. If I could just say, my name is Congressman Keith Ellison, 
the cochair of the Progressive Caucus. Look us up on the Web.
  The final word will go to Congressman Johnson. After that, we will 
yield to the Republican side.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I just want everyone to know that even though 
I stand up and talk about the Grover Norquist-Tea Party Republicans, I 
admire the Tea Partiers because they got up off of their duffs because 
they were upset about how things were going. They were misled in terms 
of thinking that the health care reform was not going to be good for 
them. It's good for them. And they will soon find out--they will 
continue to find out--that the things that we have done are good for 
them and their attention will be diverted from this President to their 
pocketbook. And so I look forward. I admire them for their activism. I 
love them. Don't take it personally when I talk about you being a Dick 
Armey-Tea Party Republican of the Grover Norquist ilk.
  With that, I will close. I believe that my friends on the other side 
of the aisle are ready to delude you with some information.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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