[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 186 (Tuesday, December 6, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8179-H8185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1800
                          THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. KAPTUR. I thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
  I am very pleased to join my colleagues this evening, including John 
Garamendi of California, to talk a little bit about the standoff that 
appears to be happening in discussions between the Senate and the House 
and the seemingly irresolvable issue of whether or not average American 
families are going to be able to maintain a tax benefit on their 
payroll tax deduction relating to Social Security contributions for the 
average family, which is about $1,000 a year; or whether that money is 
going to be taken away from them and, instead, tax breaks given to 
multimillionaires and billionaires in our country.
  It appears that the Republican Party is quite averse to having 
everybody in this country pay their fair share, so I just want to go on 
record as saying, at this point in our economic recovery, nothing could 
be more important than keeping that tax benefit in the hands and 
pockets of America's families. They're the ones who actually take those 
dollars every month and buy essentials, not extravagant purchases. They 
make their car payments if they're fortunate enough to have cars; they 
buy enough food for their families; they buy clothing; my golly, during 
the holiday season, they might even be able to buy a little bit extra--
something special--for their holiday dinners; and they pay down some of 
the debt their kids have in trying to pay their college or after-high 
school training bills.
  It's really amazing to me that in the richest and most powerful 
country in the world that we continue to have this tremendous friction 
here in the Congress to do something that is so reasonable--that is 
just so eminently reasonable--and would contribute to economic growth. 
We know that consumer spending is the most powerful instrument to help 
lift this economy out of its doldrums.
  We see the automotive industry recover, this industry that the Obama 
administration and certain Members of this Congress worked so hard to 
fight for the recovery of; and we got more signs of that today in Ohio 
with a wonderful announcement by Ford that it is moving its truck line 
from Mexico back up to Avon Lake, Ohio, and that it's making over a 
$128 million investment there. We see car sales increasing, and that's 
because people have spendable income.
  So why at this point in our history would you want to allow those who 
have the most not to pay their fair share and take away $1,000 a year, 
on average, from middle class families who would spend those dollars in 
helping to propel economic growth?
  I can guarantee you that at firms that I represent, like Chrysler, 
Jeep, Fiat, that the Wrangler, that the Cherokee, that the Liberty are 
selling very well and that General Motors' Cruze vehicle, which is 
largely a northern Ohio-made car, is selling like hotcakes because 
people are able to make those monthly payments. So that particular part 
of the discussion here in Washington makes such eminent sense.
  Why in the world would you want to penalize middle class families 
because you want to just take care of the top 1 percent? It simply 
isn't fair. It simply isn't fair.
  It would seem to me, in the holiday spirit, that the tax-writing 
committees of both Chambers should get together and figure out a 
solution that is fair to all families. It's pretty clear to me what 
that is, and it's pretty clear to me that with corporate profits at 
all-time highs and with those who run these corporations and sit on 
their boards that they have been doing quite well, thank you, and it's 
time for them to do something for the Republic.
  It's not that big a deal. Who is going to miss an eighth home or a 
seventh yacht? But the average family is having trouble meeting its 
credit card debt, paying its children's bills, having enough, as prices 
go up, to pay for food on the table, and taking care of elderly 
relatives sometimes who need extra medications.
  So I would urge those in both Chambers who are on these budget and 
tax-writing committees to spend the time that's necessary and not 
burden the American people with unnecessary delay. Instead, give the 
economy the boost that it needs by maintaining the middle class payroll 
tax cut and by making those in the top 1 percent pay their fair share.
  Many, many years ago, they paid a lot more percentage-wise than they 
do today, and we had lots of job creation in this country. It simply 
eludes me why those at the very top of the income scale, who have taken 
most of the benefit of growth in the last 20 years and who are doing so 
well, are so averse to helping our country and to making sure that 
everyone has a chance to prosper because, when everyone prospers, so 
does the top 1 percent. That's where this consumer spending injection 
from the middle class payroll tax cut plays such a significant role in 
the economy.

  Now, as we buy for the holiday season, nothing could be more 
important than buying ``made in the USA'' goods. Why is that important? 
It's important because, when you see that label, ``made in the USA,'' 
you know that those dollars flow back to that company and to those 
workers and that you actually help build wealth in this country.
  Last weekend, when we were doing some shopping for the holidays, we 
went in one store. I kept looking at labels, and it was China, China, 
China; and I'd put them back on the shelf. It was actually staggering 
what percentage of those goods--a majority of the goods on the 
shelves--were actually made someplace else. I made a point of going to 
a craft fair in our region and was able to buy several Christmas gifts 
that were handmade. I felt really good about that because I knew that 
those were people who had taken their artistic abilities and that they 
had created tableware, table linens and other items. There was jewelry 
that was handmade. I knew the profits would benefit those families and 
that they would go to the communities that they came from. It shouldn't 
be so hard to find ``made in the USA'' goods on the shelves of our 
major retailers.
  So I would just urge our citizens--and I know sometimes it's hard--as 
you're doing your holiday shopping to really try to look for that label 
``made in the USA'' and to help your own community. Find small 
businesses and find products in your community that are made here so 
that those dollars recirculate over and over and over again and so they 
help to build the real wealth of our Nation that made America great.
  I would urge you to look at candy-makers in your region, at those who 
are making cookies, at those who are small entrepreneurs of different 
kinds, making scarves. I was able to go to one potter in our region, 
and I ordered several items for this holiday season. That's a local 
artist who has her own shop and makes her own goods right there. She 
exports out of that shop, and I know that that's going to help our 
region grow. So we can do a lot in our own lives and in the way that we 
spend those precious dollars to really help job creation in our 
regions, in our country, at a time when we really need it.
  I see that some of our other colleagues have joined us here on the 
floor. I want to thank Congressman Paul Tonko of the great State of New 
York for joining us this evening. He is such an outstanding and really 
relentless voice on job creation and economic recovery in our country.
  Mr. TONKO. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio. Thank you very much for 
kicking us off on a wonderful hour of discussion as to a plan to 
revitalize our economy and to grow the opportunities for our working 
families across this country.
  President Obama has ushered forward a wonderful package called the 
American Jobs Act that will enable us as an American society to respond 
to the crisis for jobs and to the crisis for economic recovery, all of 
which are incredibly valuable to the future of this country.

                              {time}  1810

  We need to invest, I believe, in a way that allows us to provide the 
tools that are essential for a modern-day economy and modern-day 
manufacturing.

[[Page H8180]]

This proposal stands in sharp contrast to the work done a decade and a 
half ago, a decade ago.
  What was done then is this spending frenzy that paid for tax cuts for 
millionaires and paid for tax cuts for billionaires and bought wars in 
Iraq and Afghanistan and offered a pharmaceutical plan for the Medicare 
program, all without having a payment mechanism.
  And so this spending frenzy, which was tremendous, it was a huge bill 
for the American public, had been done off budget and had no funding 
sources. There were no pay-fors, as they are addressed today.
  The contrast here with the President's proposal, with President 
Obama's proposal, is that there is an offering for relief for America's 
working families, for her middle class strata, with a payroll tax 
reduction extension, and that enables both employers and employees to 
realize the savings that then allow us to put together a balanced 
approach on assisting the economic revitalization of our working 
families and middle class, and on providing the investments that are 
essential in going forward, automating our manufacturing concepts in 
providing an inducement for an ideas economy into the equation of 
success for this country.
  That all requires investment. And so as we look at this plan that is 
very balanced and paid for, we know that we can compete in that global 
market if we're given the appropriate revenues to invest in a modern 
manufacturing concept. Keep in mind, certain sectors were totally 
avoided by the Bush administration. No focus on agriculture, no focus 
on manufacturing, a focus on the service sector of the economy, but 
they are narrowly on the financial services.
  We all know the saga there. We know the scenario all too well, that 
avoidance of a watchdog, turning our back so that there could be this 
laissez faire approach that brought America's economy to its knees, and 
we saw the displacement of 8.2 million jobs.
  That was painful and impacted people in tremendously profound 
measure, and people lost their lifetime savings through those failures. 
Housing values went down. They plummeted and, again, 8.2 million jobs 
were lost.
  So we have an opportunity, Representative Kaptur, as you've talked 
about an extension of the payroll tax holiday, we have an opportunity 
here to not only provide for savings, for our families, but for 
investments in a modern world manufacturing model that enables us to, 
again, utilize the strength of research, the strength of technology, 
the strength of ideas that can then bridge into a new threshold of 
manufacturing opportunities in this Nation, and then, of course, the 
investment in the human infrastructure where we train and retrain 
workers for that automated phase that comes in manufacturing.
  So, I thank you for bringing the focus tonight on the floor of the 
House of Representatives to what we call in our caucus a progressive 
agenda for revitalizing the economy, and emphasizing, underscoring the 
concept of making it in the USA, making it in America, putting a focus, 
again, onto the manufacturing base.
  I represent a host of communities dubbed mill towns. They were the 
economic engine for an industrial revolution. They were the epicenters 
of invention and innovation that led to this westward movement that 
enabled us to impact not only the growth of this Nation in favorable 
measure, but to impact the quality of life in peoples around the world 
simply by our spirit of pioneer, which is within our DNA to make a 
difference in the product delivery, in the quality of life that's 
addressed by that product line.
  I'm filled with optimism. I'm filled with optimism if we move to go 
forward in a way that invests in the American worker, invests in the 
American business, small business, and invests in our ingenuity and our 
innovation.
  Thank you so much for the discussion.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Congressman Tonko, I want to thank you so much for coming 
to the floor tonight to again express your deep and abiding passion for 
jobs in our country. And I wanted to follow on something you said.
  This is actually a chart which shows our trade deficit with China. 
Like your community, our communities are just loaded with goods that 
are coming in here from China. And if we just look back at the last 
decade, the enormous rise in those goods on our shelves, when you 
really put the math of it on a chart, it looks like an avalanche. It is 
just crowding all this money--in 2010, over $273 billion of hard-earned 
American money was actually used to purchase Chinese goods, and that 
money then went back to, not the United States, but to China.
  And you think about the displacement of production in this country, 
for everything from tableware to sometimes food products now, and I had 
an experience over the weekend because I like to work with small 
businesses, and I ran into a woman who was blending coffee, she's 
called a master roaster, and her product is called Bea's Blends, Bea's 
Blends from Toledo, Ohio.

  And she was asking me, I want to expand my company but I need a very 
small loan, and I don't want to go into debt and, oh, gosh, what should 
I do next? And I told her I would try to put her in touch with the 
Small Business Administration.
  But it was really, when you said the optimism that you have, I'm 
meeting companies all the time that are inventing new products--
incidentally very good products--and trying to counter this trend of 
more imports versus our exports. And her product is a product that can 
be sold locally, it can be sold interstate, and ultimately it can be 
sold internationally because it's vacuum packed.
  And I was thinking about the creativity of this individual American 
trying to make it in a very tough economy. And then a couple of days 
later I was over at a coffee shop in Lakewood, Ohio, and I happened to 
tell the owner of that shop--also a woman--that I had met this master 
roaster. And she said to me, well, you know, Congresswoman, it's 
interesting you should say that. I'm trying to bring together all these 
master roasters across the coast.
  I said, gosh, we have coastal roasters or roaster coastals? But the 
point was people were thinking, they were creative, they were bringing 
something new to the market, beautifully labeled, an excellent product, 
and trying to counter these trends.
  And because small business is located in our communities, it's 
interesting to look at the last several years as well, which conform to 
the rise of Chinese imports and other imports into our country. And 
look at the distribution of income of people in our country. And what's 
happening is what the American people obviously know, which is why we 
need to maintain the payroll tax holiday and to make those in the top 1 
percent pay their fair share.
  The divergence between people who are in the lower income spectrum 
and the upper has just exploded. It is just that before, those who had 
much and those who had just enough and those who had little were not so 
far apart. But the gap has just widened to a level where the American 
people know something is fundamentally wrong, and that the ship of 
State is very out of balance, and that somehow we have to begin to make 
sure that all boats are lifted in this society and not just some boats 
get lifted.
  And we know that job creation, business growth, business startups, 
business expansion of American-made products are essential; products 
that can be exported, that can help to close the trade gap but also 
then begin to narrow the income gap that we see as we allow more income 
to be earned by those who are in the middle class and who are in some 
of the categories of income where they're stretching just to make it 
every day, every week, to put enough food on the table.
  This is really almost un-American. This looks more like an old, 
stratified society from times past that was very, very undemocratic, 
places where we wouldn't want to live, the kinds of places that our 
relatives fled because they couldn't get enough to eat, because they 
didn't have a chance to earn a fair day's wage.

                              {time}  1820

  We are joined this evening by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee from 
the great State of Texas, such a hardworking and able Member who is 
such a voice for citizens across our country and our world every day.

[[Page H8181]]

  We thank you so much for joining us this evening.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Congresswoman Kaptur, thank you for 
allowing me to join you and to join the distinguished gentleman from 
New York. We are on the floor often, but it is very special to come 
here tonight as I listen to you discussing the issues not only of Make 
It In America, but something you have been on--and, in fact, we have 
known Ohio to be the center point of manufacturing, the center point of 
production of what we call the raw materials, overlapping with our 
friends in the Midwest on steel production. We call Ohio the true salt 
of the earth and the underpinnings of America's economy.
  Again, they are very fortunate to have a Member such as Marcy Kaptur, 
who has never stepped away from the morality and the moral compass of 
allowing constituents to work and to fight for them having the 
opportunity to work and to create opportunities and jobs and 
manufacturing in Ohio. We thank you. We are joined, of course, by Mr. 
Tonko, who has never wavered from assisting his constituents, 
particularly facing the hurricane they had.
  I want to join you and pick up the populist chord, if I can. The 
President went to--I guess he listened to us, listened to you and went 
to Kansas and went to the place where Teddy Roosevelt, the man with the 
big stick, went. I think we need a big stick around here. I don't 
believe in violence, but if I might just get one quote in that I really 
like: This country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when 
everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules.
  This is what we've been speaking about. This is what the public has 
been asking us. This is what the coffee maker or the small businesses 
have been asking for: Give us an even playing field.
  I want to briefly speak, as I participate in this Special Order, on 
one or two points, and that is these go hand in hand.
  We know there are people who are unemployed. We know there are 
working people who will benefit from the extension of the payroll tax 
cut. We also know that we have great respect for our colleagues, but 
that we have not been tending to the people's business for the last 3 
weeks. We have been passing legislation which has been job killers. We 
could have had a reasonable discussion on how we get to a point. And I 
don't mind doing things in a bipartisan way. I've never seen you reject 
bipartisanship. I have never seen Mr. Tonko reject bipartisanship, or 
Mr. Garamendi do so. We are eager to move this country forward.
  I'm going to give the other body a compliment because I know they 
were stuck on the plan of the payroll tax, but I kind of like the idea 
of a 1.9 percent surtax applied in 2013--not even in 2012--to 
millionaires over a 10-year period. An additional $31.8 billion would 
be generated by increasing fees on mortgage lenders paid to Fannie Mae 
and Freddie Mac; and those may have to be reviewed by this body, but it 
is seeking a way to ensure that everyone gets a piece. Let me tell you 
what the response is.
  The hostage-taking comes when one Senator of our friends on the other 
side in the other body, a Republican Senator says: Okay, we don't want 
the Bush tax cuts to ever expire. That's their response.
  So I just want to say to my colleagues that the olive branch has been 
extended. If we do not do this, I will tell you the GOP will be risking 
160 million Americans who will not be protected and will be subjected 
to this massive, if you will, tax increase. If we do it, it will give 
160 million Americans relief. 300,000 people making more than $1 
million a year will give a little bit of sacrifice to give a fair shot, 
a Teddy Roosevelt fair shot, to the American people of $1,000 to 
$1,500.
  Let me speak briefly about the unemployment circumstance here. Six 
million Americans lost their jobs. And I want to speak briefly, and I 
want to show this picture of a happy family. You've got manufacturing 
and I've got the Houston port. We've got stevedores. Obviously, when 
the international economy slows down, what happens to the guys who load 
and unload ships? My guy who is in this family that's in need, he's 
been off work for a month or two months. He's got these beautiful 
children and a wife. They've got some medical problems. He's had to 
have surgery. These are the kinds of people that we are castigating, 
the salt of the earth in Ohio that had jobs in manufacturing and were 
laid off or they were slowed down.
  This headline says: ``Illness and budget cuts fail to diminish 
family's good cheer,'' but they are the recipients of charitable aid 
here in Houston, Texas. And you see their three lovely children. If 
this gentleman does not get unemployment, if, for example, he continues 
to be laid off, then we are talking about a family that is not on 
public assistance. We are talking about a family that in fact worked, 
which is what unemployment insurance is, car insurance, fire insurance. 
They worked, and they've come upon hard times. New Yorkers worked, and 
they've come upon hard times. Californians worked, and they've come 
upon hard times, as have those in Ohio. So I would just, in the spirit 
of bipartisanship, say to my good friends, find a way to repay the 
American workers who have come upon hard times, the children who have 
watched their parents get up every day and work.

  Here is my swan song on this point. I wanted to show this picture 
because I have been plagued over the weekend by the words of one of our 
national figures who indicated that poor children have no role models; 
no one in the poor communities ever goes to work; no one who happens to 
be poor watches any family member get up and go to work unless they're 
doing illegal activities.
  So a solution is we watch the janitors in the schools--let's make 
sure the poor children, pluck them out of the pre-K and first grade and 
sixth grade, let them do the janitorial work of an adult who is 
providing for his family. In my day, janitorial work, the sanitation 
department, that was good, hard work for individuals who were providing 
for their families, and maybe they educated a whole generation of 
children by being a janitor. Or someone who was housekeeping or someone 
who was cleaning facilities or office buildings. We are not suggesting 
that these individuals are not looking for greater aspirations. Maybe 
somebody went and got a GED or went to a community college.
  But to suggest that poor children in Appalachia, where Robert Kennedy 
went and said he saw the worst poverty he had ever seen, or in places 
such as inner-city Houston or rural America don't have role models 
because they are impoverished and the only thing that they are able to 
see is illegal activity is an insult to the American spirit and is a 
reflection on what we have come to in this body when we can't give to 
the working class, this wonderful family that is on the front pages of 
our paper, indicating they're only in this predicament, they only can't 
see daddy go to work because he is a stevedore without work and then 
getting back surgery, so compounded not because they are poor and in a 
family where nobody gets up and goes to work.
  We've got to do better than this. We have to take the Teddy Roosevelt 
spirit. I'm glad the President was in Kansas and has taken on this kind 
of hard talk in order to provide for the working families of America.
  Ms. KAPTUR. I want to thank you so much for bringing this family's 
plight to light here in the Congress on behalf of all of America's 
families who are suffering at this holiday season.
  Isn't it an indictment on the legislative branch of this country at 
the national level that when people need unemployment benefits, we have 
to run out the clock right to the bitter end, right to the bitter end 
for benefits that have been earned--earned.
  In church on Sunday, a couple came up to me and the husband asked: 
Congresswoman, if you know of any other jobs, please let me know. 
What's going to happen with unemployment benefits? This was a family 
that obviously needed help, a family that had spent their entire life, 
the man and wife, both working.

                              {time}  1830

  He didn't want to ask about the unemployment benefits; but he knew 
that for that family, maybe it was all that would be there in the near 
term.
  I'll give you a couple of figures I would like to put on the record 
this

[[Page H8182]]

evening. One, I called the head of one of our major railroads the other 
day because I was trying to get the word out across my region--not 
everybody is plugged into the Internet--that there were 4,000 jobs that 
CSX was offering around the country. I wanted to make sure that people 
in our region knew that they were available. The chief executive 
officer of the company said, Well, you know, we've had 500,000 
applications for 4,000 jobs.
  The American people want to work. It is not that they do not want to 
work, as some of our friends on the other side infer. No, no. They're 
looking every day. They're just not finding the jobs that existed in 
past generations. And we know that those jobs have been displaced by 
imports from places like China. And company after company that used to 
be located in our neighborhoods aren't there anymore.
  So it's harder to find jobs. We have to create new jobs. But the new 
ones aren't coming on stream fast enough. The level of desire to work 
in our country is so much higher. Millions more people want to work 
than there are jobs available right now. And so for many families, 
unemployment insurance is all that's left for them. Again, this 
Congress is just waiting to the bitter moment rather than acting 
responsibly to help families who have literally built this country and 
who have a very good work ethic and want to work.
  So I want to thank the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 
bringing this subject up and putting a human face on what this 
unemployment really looks like out in the country. If anyone has any 
doubt, come to Ohio. Come meet these families who want to work and are 
looking every day.
  Of course, the way it works, you can't go into a company. They tell 
you, Well, we might have a hundred jobs but apply to us through the 
Internet. It's like you go into this faceless system where you can't 
really find a human being.
  They're trying out there in the country. All the economic figures 
show us--and the last thing I will say here for this segment--Mark 
Zandi from Moody's has classified every single expenditure that one can 
make that gives the economy more than a dollar for every dollar 
expended. Would you believe that if one looks at things like 
unemployment insurance and payments to the unemployed, that produces 
the biggest bang to the economy? Well over $1.35 for every dollar 
invested as opposed to, let's say, tax credits or something like that, 
these arcane tax provisions, where less than 30 cents is actually 
reinvested in the economy.
  So unemployment insurance extensions also make sense for economic 
growth at this very tender time because the people who receive those 
benefits spend them on essentials that drive the economy.
  I yield to the gentlelady.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I want to follow up and put two more 
numbers on the record, as you did. You made a very valid point that 
here we are at the last minute. You would think that we would be 
sensitive enough to know that families are gathering. Families want to 
have a holiday for the children. They're trying to be the Santa that 
they know that the children believe in. They're trying to make 
preparations. Families are trying to find ways to be with loved ones. 
It may be gasoline that they may need to drive a car. If we don't do 
this unemployment insurance, we are poised--unlike if we did it and we 
get bang for our buck--to lose 200,000 jobs. Compound that with not 
extending the payroll tax cut and we'd lose 400,000 jobs. That is 
almost 600,000 jobs.
  I finish by saying the tragedy of your point about China--and I want 
to make it very clear that we love all people. We wish the best for the 
people of China. It is the policies, the currencies. But not only do we 
have this in the backdrop; we have to fix our own house so that we're 
not building a bridge in California that has drawn steel and workers 
and designers and accountants from way across the ocean in China. We've 
got to get our house in order.
  And so 600,000--if the payroll tax cut extension doesn't go forward, 
we're losing 400,000 jobs. And if unemployment insurance doesn't go 
forward, we're losing 200,000 jobs. Is this the way to welcome the most 
sacred season for many faiths and many families of the year of giving, 
where we teach our children to give? Is this what we should be doing to 
the American people? Is this what we should be doing to our soldiers 
who will be coming home by the end of December? I think not.
  I thank the gentlelady for allowing me to share these thoughts. I'm 
only looking forward to getting our house in order and getting our 
holiday house in order and reflecting on the needs of the American 
people and not special interests.

  Ms. KAPTUR. I want to thank the gentlelady for those very profound 
comments tonight and just place on the record that just in our church 
last weekend the priest informed us that compared to last year he was 
asking for people to dig deeper because the number of baskets and the 
number of ``asks'' was up well over 125. I think just for our church 
it's over 360 now for this year. For a small congregation, that's a bit 
of a struggle. That's just one place, just one corner in America, 
repeated in 50 States, in every hamlet.
  I appreciate what the gentlelady said about the spirit of this 
particular season of light and of giving and that the people who are 
out of work have earned these benefits. They're not asking for any 
handout. They're asking for the insurance that they earned as a 
condition of work in order to help have a merry Christmas and a happy 
Chanukah and very Eid greeting season. They're not asking for anything 
they haven't earned.
  I thank the gentlelady for coming down tonight.
  Our leader, Congressman John Garamendi of California, is with us 
tonight. We thank him so much for reserving this Special Order and for 
the incredible leadership that he has exhibited each and every week 
that we have been in session. Just a powerful and sustaining voice on 
Making It in America and creating jobs here.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Kaptur, you've gone too far. Thank you so very, 
very much for picking up.
  Tonight is a very special night for California. We lit the holiday 
tree in front of the Capitol. It was a tree that came from a community 
very close to where I was raised in California. I was out there with 
the choir from Summerville High School in Tuolumne County, an area that 
I represented for some 20 years, and then others around the area. A 
beautiful, beautiful tree from the Stanislaus National Forest in 
California.
  There really is much to celebrate and much to be concerned about in 
America. We are still a very great country. We're the strongest, 
wealthiest place on this Earth. We have incredible opportunity and 
potential. I saw it in those kids that were singing in front of the 
Nation's Capitol this evening. Yet there's so much pain, as was pointed 
out by you and our colleague from Houston earlier.
  Americans care about each other. They deeply are concerned about 
what's going on in our communities, and they want solutions to the 
problem. That's our task. There's 435 of us here and over in the Senate 
another 100. And, of course, the President. It's our task to find the 
solutions. The President has put forth a very powerful program called 
the American Jobs Act. One piece of it has, fortunately, passed. It was 
passed just a few days after Veterans Day when I guess we were out at 
the parades, and we made promises to take care of the veterans. 
Fortunately, a piece of legislation did pass. Only one part of the 
American Jobs Act, though there's much more to do.
  My colleagues, Ms. Kaptur, and the gentlelady from Houston, we're 
talking about a piece of it. The veterans piece provides employers a 
very powerful incentive to hire a veteran. A very, very powerful 
incentive. You can reduce your taxes by $2,600 to hire a veteran that's 
been unemployed; a long-term unemployed veteran, $5,600 reduction in 
your taxes; and in addition to that, the President proposed that if it 
is a veteran who is disabled as a result of their service, a $9,600 
reduction in taxes.

                              {time}  1840

  That's right off the tax line. So we've got to get the message out to 
employers: Hire, put people back to work, the veterans. It's one of the 
elements the President has proposed in his American Jobs Act.
  And you were so powerfully putting forward just a moment ago the 
issue of

[[Page H8183]]

the payroll tax deduction. It's going to end. There will be a tax 
increase for every American who is earning up to $106,000, a tax 
increase average of $1,500 across this Nation. We want to keep that tax 
reduction in place. We Democrats do not want a tax increase on the 
working middle class, no.
  But again, as was pointed out just a moment ago, our Republican 
friends are saying, Well, that's a good idea, but where are you going 
to get the money? You can't get the money from those whose annual 
income is more than $1 million; $1 million a year annual income, you 
can't tax them. That's not fair to tax those people. They're the job 
creators.
  Baloney. They're not the job creators any more than any other small 
business in the community who doesn't even come close to having an 
annual income of $1 million.
  So let's be fair about this. They've had an enormous tax break over 
the last decade. It's time for them to come forward and to share in the 
burden of America and put Americans back to work. The American Jobs Act 
works.
  Let me now turn to my colleague from New York.
  Well, Ms. Kaptur, you're running this operation, so, please.
  Ms. KAPTUR. I am going to yield the time to you, Congressman 
Garamendi, but I did want to say for the listening audience that this 
is a coast-to-coast operation. I'm looking at you from California, 
Congressman Tonko from New York, Congresswoman Jackson Lee from Texas, 
and myself from the heartland. That's a pretty broad variety of opinion 
from across our country, from very significant States.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank my colleague from the great State of New York, 
picking up the east-west program once again.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, thank you again for bringing us 
together with this request for a Special Order.
  If Representative Kaptur could just take us back to that second chart 
that she shared with us earlier this evening and the measurement or the 
depiction of real average after-tax income.
  Now, you talk about the unfairness out there or the inability to go 
forward and tax fairly. When you look at that graphic, to see the 
injustice that's displayed just in simple line graph format, that 
flatlining of America's middle class from 1979 forward, that flatlining 
contrasted with that steep climb upward for those in the upper income 
brackets tells us the whole story.
  And people have said across this country, when I go home to the 
district, people say to me that they're concerned, they're upset. 
They've been taught, rightfully so, they've learned along the way that 
if you play fair, you roll up your sleeves and you abide by the rules 
that you should be able to have within your grasp that American Dream. 
The American Dream, one that allows for working families to climb the 
ladder. They don't feel that that's within their grasp today.
  And it's not only the injustice here that is measured on a chart--and 
be mindful, they don't reject the notion of working hard and scoring 
big, making money. They're not concerned about that. They honor that. 
What they're concerned about is the undue influence that the powerful 
have, those sitting perched high on the income ladder, the power they 
have with the process and the policy outcomes. And the fact that we 
would avoid fairness in revenues and not invest in the American Dream, 
not invest in opportunity, not invest in the prosperity of this Nation 
is what bothers them. They don't want to be ignored that way. They want 
to know that a process out there, there's a government working to 
create policies that initiate a comeback, that enable people to have 
within their grasp the American Dream. That's what they want to know is 
alive and well here in Washington.
  And now it's a fight. It's a fight for the Democrats in this House to 
score a victory for the middle class. We want that victory. We want 
people to be able to know that there's a fairness out there. Look at 
it, $1,800, $1,500, whatever your strata would produce as a favorable 
outcome is something for them. Month to month they will score some 
victory here where the essentials, as Representative Kaptur labeled 
them, are available to them with these savings. Contrasted with 
opportunities that we see here that find this group that's rising to 
the top exponentially just won't share the prosperity in that way.
  And I think it's the avoidance of sound progressive policy that's 
really the struggle right now. And people are expressing their anger 
and their frustration, and rightfully so, because we need to be more 
fair.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might just interrupt you, Mr. Tonko.
  You mentioned sound progressive policies. We've all been back home 
over Thanksgiving. I've talked to a couple of those people that are on 
that blue line way up there, and they're willing to pay a little more 
for fairness. But I also have heard from some who say, well, we can't 
do anything until you control Medicare. And what do they recommend in 
Medicare? They recommend extending the age from 65 to 67. And I'm 
going, What sense does that make?
  When you consider that Medicare was started in 1964, 51 percent of 
those men and women over 65 had no health insurance. Today, virtually 
everyone over 65 has health insurance. It's Medicare. It is one of the 
solid bedrock programs that keeps people--seniors--from falling into 
poverty.
  Back in 1964, 30 percent of the seniors were in poverty. Without 
Medicare, they would be in poverty again today. And yet our Republican 
colleagues want to terminate Medicare, literally turn Medicare over to 
the private insurance companies who I know, as a previous insurance 
commissioner, will not provide a reasonably priced policy or benefit to 
somebody who is 65 because those are the people that get sick.

  Similarly, they have said repeatedly since the 1930s that they want 
to terminate Social Security. We hear that. We hear the background buzz 
around this building. They want to terminate Social Security. These are 
the programs that give American seniors the dignity and the opportunity 
not only to live a good life, but to even live, to stay alive.
  Mr. TONKO. Let me just talk about a point of clarification, too, to 
add to that discussion.
  On this whole tax fairness, people have approached me. They've said, 
Now, explain to me--because they hear different scenarios. They were 
imagining that there would be this tax, this surcharge on $1.2 million. 
For instance, if you're over that $1 million threshold and you have an 
annual income of $1.2 million, the people are now reminded that it's on 
that $200,000 over and above the first $1 million upon which the 
surcharge is levied. You know, that's an important fact that is 
sometimes lost in the discussion. So now people are saying, Well, wait 
a minute; so the first million dollars isn't taxed.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Same tax rate, doesn't change at all.
  Mr. TONKO. Right. And so they're saying, Well, whoa, we've been 
flatlined for so long, and this exponential rise for the highest in the 
income ladder's outcome.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Surcharge is only on the amount over $1 million.
  Mr. TONKO. So now there is more determination by America's middle 
class families to have it fixed and done correctly.
  And the other thing is, I'm reminded, every time I go home, by middle 
class Americans, modest household incomes, that: We're job creators. My 
children needed my attention at home. I opened a childcare in my home. 
I charge. I have a small business.
  Many small business people tell me, as an idea came to mind, they now 
wanted to turn that into a product. They're small business owners. 
They're the engine. They're connected to the community. They're 
tethered to the small community.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Can I interrupt for just a second?
  The American Jobs Act, which we're trying to push through this 
Congress to get men and women back to work, provides a tax reduction 
for the employer on wages less than $50 million. So for your childcare 
provider, for the small business person, the carpenter out there in the 
small business, they also get a 50 percent reduction in their payroll 
tax. So instead of 6.2, it goes to 3.1. So this isn't just for the wage 
earner. This is also for the business person.
  Mr. TONKO. Exactly.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. So why don't they support this?

[[Page H8184]]

  Mr. TONKO. You know, this is a statement of underpinning of support 
for middle class, for working families, for small business. It's the 
engine that's making it happen.

                              {time}  1850

  Small business, the investment we can make, not only the tax cut we 
can provide here, but the investments that are required for the ideas 
to move along. We're in a challenging time. We're there competing in a 
global economy. We invest in the intellectual capacity of this Nation, 
and how foolish of us not to take that investment, that product of that 
investment and put it into working order. That's what we're asking for 
here.
  Give small business the tools, give working class families the 
opportunity, and we will have a comeback story that is glorious, and we 
should be filled with optimism if we do the things that are so logical, 
and that polls across America, individual polls from all sectors, all 
angles, all different groups that measure, they're saying this is what 
America wants. And how come they can't get it delivered by their 
government?
  They're speaking to us loud and clear through their opinion surveys. 
We want this progressive schedule. We want this agenda. Make it happen. 
We're trying here as the Democratic Caucus in the House of 
Representatives, Representative Kaptur, to make it happen, and I think 
we can if we put our minds to working together in a very, very 
bipartisan, bicameral way, executive branch working with the 
legislative branch, vice versa, and making a progressive agenda happen.
  Ms. KAPTUR. If the gentleman would just yield, I'd like to add that I 
agree with you completely. Every small business that I walk into tells 
me, Marcy, bring me customers. Customers are a function of having 
spendable income.
  There are no more important decisions we could make as a country, 
right now, as we finish the month of December, than to make sure that 
middle class families have spendable income by not raising their taxes; 
middle class families, who've been holding the line here without real 
additional spending power over the last decade, and to make sure that 
we extend unemployment benefits to those who've earned those benefits 
because that has the maximum bang inside the economy when people spend 
those dollars on basics, on essentials.
  Those are two practical decisions from an economic standpoint no 
rational human being would disagree with. And they contribute to 
economic growth. They contribute to keeping us on an upward path as we 
move forward here in our country after coming out of this deep, deep, 
deep recession.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might, Ms. Kaptur, a fascinating piece of 
information came across my desk today, and it had to do with the 
Affordable Care Act, which our Republicans like to call ObamaCare. Hey 
guys, it's working. It's working.
  You just talked about spendable income. Let's see here: 2.65 million 
seniors, because of the Affordable Care Act, had an average of $569 
additional in their pocket as a result of the discount drug benefit 
program. Wow. It was incredible. It actually, the 50 percent discount 
on brand name drugs, saved $1.5 billion for 2,650,000 seniors. Saved 
$1.5 billion, an average of $569 per senior.
  It's working. It's working. And also, very interesting, these kinds 
of statistics come across, and normally we ignore them. But the annual 
wellness program, 1,931,927 seniors were able to take advantage of the 
annual wellness program that is in the Affordable Care Act; 24,175,608 
seniors took advantage of the free service program in the Affordable 
Care Act.
  So when folks are out there and they're putting down ObamaCare, be 
careful. It's not a negative. It's a very, very strong positive.
  And you'll like this one, Ms. Kaptur. Hang on a second. Ohio. One 
million, let's see here, 1,864,243 seniors took advantage of the 
affordable care and 50,178 seniors in Ohio took advantage of the 
discount, the drug discount. It's working. That's exciting.
  This is legislation that we passed that's actually helping the 
seniors and the economy by putting money back in their pockets, rather 
than in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies.
  Ms. KAPTUR. If I could say, Congressman Garamendi, with those 
seniors, I know the first place they're going to spend those extra 
dollars, after they pay for food, will be on their grandchildren. And 
all I hope is that they don't buy Chinese toys this Christmas. I hope 
they find a way to buy little outfits that are made at your local craft 
fair, or they find ways to find candy that's made by a local firm, they 
find ways to spend those dollars wisely, because if we do that, if we 
spend every dollar as wisely as we can, we really lift the economy of 
this country, and we put those dollars back into businesses that 
actually are conducting business on our shores.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me for getting back into this, but Mr. Tonko 
gave me that look that says what about New York? 1,410,533 New York 
seniors were able to get free medical services, and 127,691 were able 
to take advantage of the 50 percent drug discount. Good for you. You 
voted for that act. I voted for that act, and I didn't even talk about 
California. Should I?
  Mr. TONKO. You should share it for your home State.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Yes. 1,962,809 seniors in California were able to get 
free medical services and 139,396 were able to take advantage of the 50 
percent drug discount. $569 average savings for seniors. It's working. 
The Affordable Care program is working for seniors, and it's putting 
money back into our economy to grow this economy.
  Ms. KAPTUR. I was just going to say, very quickly, that sounds to me 
very life-giving, Congressman Garamendi. It doesn't sound like there 
are death panels. It doesn't sound anything like some of the opponents 
were saying when that bill was first passed. In fact, seniors have a 
greater chance to live now because they can get the medicine they need 
and they can get the checkups they need, and to me, that's very life-
affirming. I just wanted to put that on the record.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. We also know that there are--I don't know the exact 
number--I think it's about 20-some million young men and women, age 21 
to 26, are now back on to health insurance, their parents health 
insurance as a result of this law. We'll pick up that statistic as soon 
as I get my hands on it, but I think that's the number, over 20 
million.

  Mr. TONKO. So many of these programs, including the longstanding 
Medicare program, are looked at sometimes in dollars and cents and 
argued about how they're improved or not improved. But sometimes lost 
in the whole discussion is the value added, the whole underpinning of 
support that is offered the senior community.
  Prior to the inception of Medicare in 1965, families that retired 
were probably going to see their economic well-being dip precipitously. 
And what they had here, with the Medicare Foundation, was that their 
economic stability, their dignity factor, was addressed in tremendously 
strong and powerful ways so that they were able to move forward in 
those retirement years with that sense of dignity, with the quality of 
life, with economic stability.
  These are facts that need to be maintained in the front of any 
discussion; that to undo Medicare would be a tragedy for American 
families, for our seniors. And certainly, let's go forward, as we have 
said, with optimism. Let's invest in Medicare. Let's invest in Social 
Security, and let's invest in an economic recovery where we cut where 
we can, belt tighten, but invest where we must so we can compete 
effectively.
  And to my colleagues on the floor here tonight, Representative 
Kaptur, Representative Garamendi, I join with you in being a powerful 
voice in promoting optimism as we go forward, and wanting to have 
progressive change.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank you so very much.
  Marcy Kaptur, thank you for grabbing the microphone early on. I was 
down with that Christmas tree and the lighting ceremony from 
California. I got here just in time to pick up a couple of these 
issues.
  We know we can put men and women back to work. We have the tools. The 
question is whether this House has the will to do so and not increase 
our deficit. We can actually do this and not increase the deficit, take 
people that are not paying taxes now, put them back to work.
  The Affordable Care Act is working. And we know that we can continue 
the

[[Page H8185]]

unemployment benefits, and there's a way of paying for it. You show it 
there on that. The super wealthy, it's time for them to pick up their 
fair share.
  Thank you so very much for this wonderful evening and telling the 
story of the prosperous America that we can have once again. This is 
America. This is a great country. We have within our power to get back 
on our feet and to charge forward, and we really appreciate all that 
you're doing to make that happen in the great Midwest and in New York 
and in Houston.
  Ms. KAPTUR. I really have enjoyed sharing this hour with Congressman 
Tonko of New York and Congressman Garamendi of California, speaking out 
for 100 percent--the 99 percent that are often forgotten, the 1 percent 
that we don't forget but know that your patriotism really will come to 
shine in this holiday season--and to urge our colleagues in the House 
and Senate to do what's right, to make the decisions on extending the 
payroll tax holiday for the middle class, making sure we extend 
unemployment benefits which are earned benefits, and that we stand up 
for all of America because we're all in this together.
  I thank my colleagues very much, the listening audience, and those 
who are out there helping us to move the ship of state in a direction 
so that we create jobs in this country and we keep this economy on an 
upward roll.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. It's for the 99 percent.
  Ms. KAPTUR. For the 99 percent as well.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. And 100 percent of Americans moving forward.
  Ms. KAPTUR. That is right.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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