[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 188 (Thursday, December 8, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8306-H8309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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. My name is Keith Ellison. I am the cochair of the 
Progressive Caucus and a Member of Congress from the great State of 
Minnesota. I'm here claiming time to speak on behalf of the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus.
  The Congressional Progressive Caucus, Mr. Speaker, is 77 members in 
the United States Congress who believe that when we say the Pledge of 
Allegiance and we say liberty and justice for all, that means all--all 
means blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, straight, gays, the senior 
citizens and the youngest among us, people with disabilities and people 
who are able-bodied. It means the great mass of American people 
included in ``in liberty and justice for all.''
  The Progressive Caucus believes in economic justice. We believe in 
civil rights and human rights for all people. We believe that public 
employees are valuable to our society, and we honor and respect the 
services that they give to us. We believe that America, with 
our awesome military power, should use that power to promote peace in 
the world. We are the ones who called for the U.S. to not go into Iraq. 
When we went in there, we were the ones to push to get us out. We are 
the ones who are raising the issues around Afghanistan. And we'll 
continue to argue the case for diplomacy and for development and to 
make friends with the world, to be a good member of the international 
community in the United Nations and under international bodies.

  We're not the ones who believe that the world is a scary, dangerous 
place and we've got to jack up the military as much as we can. We're 
not the ones who think that the rich don't have enough money and the 
poor have too much. We're not the people who believe in dividing 
Americans based on culture and color and gender and urban versus rural. 
We believe in unifying Americans and having equal rights for all 
people.
  Yes, we are liberal, and we are proud of it. We're the Progressive 
Caucus.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, I'm here to deliver the Progressive message. The 
Progressive message is what we're talking about today. The topic I'm 
going to address, Mr. Speaker, is going to be jobs in this American 
economy.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, we want to speak as bipartisan as we can, but 
there's no question that the arguments that we have in Congress have a 
partisan tone. Therefore, for us to sit up here and say we're all just 
getting along here in Congress and we don't have a different point of 
view would be not exactly being straight with the American people.

                              {time}  1600

  So we're going to say that the debates that we have been having in 
the House of Representatives have to do with those of us who believe 
that we as Americans need to live in harmony with the planet, need to 
try to cut down our carbon footprint, need to try to diminish 
pollution. And those others of us--mostly on the Republican side of the 
aisle--who make the case that, for the sake of industry, we have to 
sacrifice our health, our lungs, our good clean environment, they're 
making that case.

[[Page H8307]]

  We're trying to ask Americans to look carefully at the different 
programs that are being offered on this House floor and to make a 
decision: Do you believe that we have a responsibility to the poor? The 
Progressive Caucus does.
  Do you believe that public employees and government brings quality 
and improves the quality of life for Americans? Not all the time. 
Government needs to be refined like everybody. But the Republicans and 
conservatives in this House who make the case that government is the 
problem, we wholeheartedly reject that point of view. That is wrong. We 
believe in a mixed economy, where the private sector and the public 
sector exist to benefit the American people in general.
  So we're here to talk about these things tonight, and we're here to 
lay it on the table so that Americans of all backgrounds, all colors, 
all cultures, all faiths can make decisions about what kind of America 
they want. Because there are clearly two different visions of what 
America is about being offered on this House floor every day for the 
last year and for the next year, and I think Americans should be able 
to say, I think this is the kind of America I want. And others who 
think that rich people don't have enough money and poor people have too 
much, they can support the Republican program.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a little bit about jobs tonight; and, 
therefore, I just want to make the case that, again, I don't think it's 
a good idea to always draw the partisan divide, but I think it is 
important to be honest. And my Republican colleagues just have not--
even though they're the majority--have not introduced a single bill for 
jobs this whole time they've been in the majority.
  They will say, Oh, yes, we've brought jobs. We had jobs bills. We had 
jobs bills. Didn't you see us cutting the EPA?
  That's not a jobs bill.
  Didn't you see us trying to let cement companies be able to emit more 
pollution in the air?
  That's not a jobs bill.
  Didn't you see us trying to let coal companies, electric coal 
companies be able to put more emissions in the air?
  That's not a job bill. That's just saying industry can do what it 
wants to our lungs.
  But a jobs bill to help rebuild America's infrastructure? Haven't 
seen that from our friends on the Republican side of the aisle. A jobs 
bill that would help refurbish public buildings like schools, haven't 
seen that. They don't want to do that.
  A jobs bill that would say, Look, you know what? We need to train 
Americans to be able to do the jobs of the 21st century and to promote 
solar, wind, biomass, the waves, all these kind of ways that we can 
live in harmony with the Earth and power the Earth at the same time. 
They haven't had any jobs doing that. To make our grids smarter, our 
electrical grids smarter, they don't want to put money in that. They 
think that is a waste of money.
  The fact is Republicans have not come up with a jobs agenda. I call 
it the Republican no jobs agenda.
  And, you know, it's clear that the government has an important role 
in terms of jobs. You hear some of my Republican colleagues say the 
government doesn't create jobs. This is absurd.
  Ask any small retailer out there who's trying to make a go of it in 
their local community. They may have a nail shop or they may have a 
hair shop or they may sell retail clothing or they may have just a 
small little business that they opened up. If they don't have any 
police protection--that's the government--then that's going to cut the 
number of customers that come to them. That is going to hurt their 
business. Government helping business to thrive.
  Ask a trucker, somebody who may own their own rig or maybe somebody 
who owns a trucking company. If we don't have public roads, highways 
and things like that--that's the government--where would their business 
model be?
  The Internet. Think about Google. Think about all of the wondrous 
economic activity associated with the Internet. Well, the Internet was 
started by the government--yes, it was.
  I'm telling you that, whether it's the National Institutes of Health 
coming up with lifesaving innovation and funding important basic 
research or whether it is the Food and Drug Administration giving 
Americans confidence that when they buy that product it's not going to 
kill them, the government helps business thrive. It helps the market 
operate properly so that we don't have caveat emptor, so that the buyer 
doesn't have to beware. The buyer knows that somebody somewhere is 
looking to make sure that the food is edible and the water is 
drinkable.
  Now, my friends on the Republican side of the aisle that say 
government doesn't do anything to help the economy are wrong.
  I was so proud to hear the President discredit the false economic 
theory of trickle down. What is trickle down? Mr. Speaker, trickle down 
is the theory that, look, if we give as much money as we possibly can 
to the richest Americans and we take it from the poorest Americans and 
the middle class, then maybe the rich people, through investments and 
stuff, will put money into the economy and maybe it will trickle down 
and other people will be able to get something out of it. Well, the 
President said it's an okay theory except for it doesn't work.
  The President's right: Trickle down is a failure, and trickle down 
doesn't work. I'm so glad that the President really helped explain this 
to the American people. Because trickle down, at the end of the day, 
it doesn't trickle down. It just stays up there. And that's why we see 
so much wealth concentrated in the hands of so few, because Republicans 
think the only way to make the economy work is to cut all of our health 
and environmental regulations and to give tax breaks to people who 
already have more money than they know what to do with.

  Some of my Republican friends like to say, well, you've never met a 
payroll. I met a payroll. I was a small business owner for many years. 
I was a lawyer and ran a law firm, had to pay my staff. And it wasn't 
taxes and stuff that I worried about. You know what I worried about? 
Mr. Speaker, I worried about customers. Could I get some clients coming 
through the door asking me to write a will, to incorporate their 
business? Could I get some clients to say, Would you represent me in 
this accident? Or, I got in a little trouble. Would you represent me in 
that?
  Clients is what I needed. And if my customers didn't have any money, 
they wouldn't be able to hire me. But if the customers aren't working 
and the economy is poor and there's no money circulating amongst 
working folk, my business suffered. And if people were doing well, my 
business would thrive. You ask any business person: What would you 
rather have, a tax cut or a lot of customers? They're going to say, 
Customers. I want customers.
  And so this claim that the Republicans make, that we don't need to 
make sure that the average working American is doing well, we just make 
sure that the money gets up to the top and it will trickle down, is not 
true. And I'm so glad that the President made that point today.
  We've got to destroy myths around this economy because, again, there 
are people who tell self-serving narratives. They tell stories and 
narratives that help them make more money.
  I'm sure that the Koch bothers, who have given a lot of donations 
around and who own this big refinery and make a lot of money, would 
really like it if we all believed that giving them a huge tax cut and 
getting rid of environmental regulations was good for the economy. Of 
course we don't believe it because it isn't true. But we know that if 
we keep on arguing, that masses of American people will say, You know 
what? I think it's okay to have unemployment insurance for people who 
are out of work. You know, I think it's okay to, in an economy like 
this, to extend the payroll tax cut.
  Rich people get tax cuts. Republicans like it when rich people get 
tax cuts. They don't like it when working middle people get tax cuts. 
They would rather have just the rich people get them.
  But the fact is people are waking up all over America. They're 
saying, Hey, you know, when I voted last time or I didn't vote last 
time, I was upset because of the job situation. And my friends on the 
Republican side of the

[[Page H8308]]

aisle didn't get to the business of jobs. They got in here going after 
the EPA and going after tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. And 
because of that, you know, things haven't been good.
  Now, I will give President Obama some credit. Because of the good 
work that he has done, we have seen private job growth continue for 
about 24 months.

                              {time}  1610

  The problem is we have cut the government so badly, and at the wrong 
time, that State and local governments have had to shed public 
employees left, right, and center. We are literally seeing gains in 
private sector employment being offset by cuts in public sector 
employment, and it's unfortunate that that's the situation that we 
have.
  So today, I'm here with the progressive message. Today we're here to 
illustrate what's at stake in America today. And this week, thousands 
of Americans all across the country came here to Washington to raise 
their voices. They call themselves the 99 percent. And I have to say, 
it's starting to feel like the people's House around here.
  I had a number of folks in my office who came on a 24-hour bus ride, 
Mr. Speaker, from my district in Minneapolis, to come tell me that, 
look, you know, we've got to rebuild America and put people back to 
work. Infrastructure crumbling, people can work to rebuild it.
  They said, hey, look, you know this income inequality is not working. 
And as you give more and more tax cuts and loopholes to the richest, it 
just ends up hurting us.
  I had to tell them that two-thirds of all American corporations don't 
pay any taxes at all. Two-thirds of all American corporations don't pay 
any taxes at all. And I brought in this chart, Mr. Speaker. I pulled 
this chart out because they were--it was hard for them to believe.
  I told them, I said, you know, the companies on this chart that I'm 
about to show you, you know, show me however much money you have in 
your pocket, you paid at least as much taxes as these companies, 
because if you paid nothing, then you paid the same as them. If you got 
one penny, you paid more than them.
  Bank of America paid no taxes. Now, let me tell the story about Bank 
of America, Mr. Speaker. Bank of America made bad business deals. When 
you make a bad deal in business, you're supposed to pay for that. You 
know, things go wrong, people go out of business.
  Bank of America, they went and bought Merrill Lynch after this guy, 
this CEO named Stan O'Neal, ran the company into the ground. They still 
gave him a golden parachute of, like, several hundred million dollars. 
And I often joke and say I'd have been happy to run the company into 
the ground for just a million dollars. But he did it, they paid him 
millions to run Merrill Lynch into the ground. And Bank of America 
bought that company.
  And then Countrywide, which is the leading predatory lender, subprime 
lender, bought them, Bank of America did. Got all these bad mortgages 
that weren't performing because they were never properly underwritten 
because people made money by just selling the mortgage and then selling 
the paper. And it was like a hot potato. Once you sold the mortgage, 
you got the fees out of it, send it to somebody else to be securitized 
into a mortgage-backed security. So a lot of those happened.
  And Bank of America bought those two companies, and then it started 
causing them losses. And then they said, America, America, we're going 
down. Help us, please. And then they called us all together in 
September and October 2008 and said, we need a bailout, please.
  We came up with a bill called TARP and Bank of America got bailed 
out. Now, the problem is, after Bank of America got bailed out and got 
back up on its feet somewhat, they paid all their executives big giant 
bonuses, they laid off 30,000 people.
  What? Yeah. That's how they repay the American people helping them 
out.
  Citigroup, another one, paid no taxes. They got saved. They were 
absolutely going down. They probably are, I don't know, Citigroup is a 
company with a lot of problems. Paid no taxes.
  ExxonMobil. Now these people are making money hand over fist. They 
are making money. They are very, very, very, profitable. Why? Because 
you're happy to pay $3 gas. If you can go pay $3 you'd be, like, 
hooray; this is the store I'm going to go to. And you know you see it 
going up to four. And over the last few years, it's fluctuated between 
three and four.
  Well, do you think that ExxonMobil is not making money on that? They 
are absolutely making money hand over fist because of that, and yet 
they pay no taxes.
  So, look, the fact is--oh, GE. Don't let me forget about my friends 
at GE. I think they're the biggest corporation in the world. No taxes. 
GE pays no taxes.
  I'm like, look, you know, GE, we, the government, because we've cut 
taxes for the wealthiest people, and two-thirds of all corporations 
don't pay any taxes, we don't have that much money. We're in a position 
where we may have to cut Head Start, home heating oil program for 
senior citizens. Do y'all think you could do a little bit better?
  And they say, nope, can't do nothing for you. This is amazing. You 
mean to tell me you've got more--the executives of these companies got 
more houses than they could ever, ever visit; they've got more lakes 
that they live on than they could ever water ski on. They've got more 
$1,500 Armani suits than they could ever wear. They've got more 
monogrammed shirts that are tailored than they could ever put on. 
They've got more expensive shoes. They travel all over the world. They 
fly around in jets. And they won't pay nothing, and we've got to then 
talk about cutting home heating oil, the LIHEAP program, cut the food 
stamp program.
  I mean, how do you sleep at night? It's amazing to me. Shocking. 
Shocking.
  And I'm sure all of them look at each other and they say well, you 
know, we earned it. You can't tell me that you earned that.
  This is--and I'm going to tell you, you know, Mr. Speaker, some 
people want to say, well, they work hard. No, no. This is not true. 
What they do is they take all that money that they make, and they come 
down here and they get us to go argue for loopholes for them, and 
they--$50 million is spent lobbying Congress; $130 million spent giving 
donations to campaigns.
  As of 2008, 94 percent of all candidates with the most money win the 
election.
  And about 261 Members of Congress--and there's only 535 of us--are 
millionaires. The average worth here is about $700,000. And let me tell 
you, I'm not one of those rich guys. I actually live on the money my 
constituents pay me because I'm working for them 24/7. And yet, you 
know, I go to the grocery store. I know how much bread costs.
  And so what I'm saying is, to whom much is given, much is expected. 
And if America, Nation that I love so much, has a military which 
protects us all, has a police department that protects us in our local 
communities, has a fire department that makes sure that Bank of America 
branches don't burn to the ground, America, if one of their executives 
or employees gets sick, the EMT truck, the emergency medical truck is 
going to come help them and bring them back to life if they can. The 
roads and the bridges that people drive to work on to all these 
companies, publicly paid for.
  And yet they turn around and say, yeah, you've done all that for us, 
America; but we've got nothing for you. Zero taxes.
  It's wrong. And there should be an Occupy movement to say so.
  Now, this is a chart, Mr. Speaker, that I do like to pull out now and 
again. And I want to say that I actually have no beef with Donald Trump 
or Paris Hilton. I'm sure they're both nice people.
  But, you know, do you really think they need a tax break, Mr. 
Speaker? I think they're getting along just fine.
  I think that some of my neighbors who are firefighters and cops and 
teachers, or who work at the local bank branch, or who work at the 
local grocery store stocking up groceries, I think they could use a 
little help. But I do believe that if Donald and Paris don't get a tax 
break, they'll manage just fine.
  These are the millionaires and billionaires of our society. When we 
cut

[[Page H8309]]

taxes for the richest people, you're putting more money in the hands of 
these folks. I don't think that's wise public policy.
  So my point, Mr. Speaker, is just this: you know, you want to talk 
tax breaks. We're actually talking about extending the payroll tax 
deduction so that $1,500 bucks, you know, could stay in the hands of 
people who are really struggling.
  We asked--in the U.S. Senate there was a bill that said, you know, 
millionaires, on your first million, we're not asking you for no more 
taxes on your first million. But on your second million, can we have 3 
percent? You know. What do you think?
  They're, like, nope, nothing doing.
  I said, even if it's going to help working class people, you know? 
Will you help then?
  Nope. No. Can't do it. Cannot possibly do it. It might sap their 
incentive to work. If we were to help the working class people of 
America, it might sap their incentive to work, so we can't help them.

                              {time}  1620

  Tax breaks for billionaires or tax breaks for teachers, police, 
firefighters, job training, small business, investment, better schools, 
clean energy, health care, infrastructure investment, college 
affordability.
  Now, my question is, Mr. Speaker, what are America's priorities? I've 
got a feeling that they're with these folks down here. I think America 
would rather help these folk than these folks. Just a wild guess.
  So that's all we're asking for. This payroll tax deduction, you know, 
$1,000, $1,500 in the pockets of people who really need it. We asked 
billionaires and millionaires to pony up just a little more. They 
wouldn't even notice it, wouldn't have to cancel any of your country 
club memberships. But they said no.
  There is a loss of civic virtue among some of our most privileged 
Americans, but I'm proud to tell you about a group of guys and women 
called the Patriotic Millionaires. They came to a forum that the 
Progressive Caucus organized last week, Mr. Speaker, and the Patriotic 
Millionaires said, You know what, you've invested in research which we 
used to make our products that made us rich. You invested in roads and 
bridges and education that we used to help make us rich. And we love 
America more than we love all that money, and we're here to pay taxes.
  And then some smarty-pants Republican said, Well, if you want to pay 
extra and you're rich, you can. I'm sure the Treasury will accept your 
checks. And then one of the Patriotic Americans said something really 
wise. He said, You know, America is not a charity. America is all of 
our responsibility, and that's what taxes are.
  I'm here today, Mr. Speaker, to argue that taxes are the dues we pay 
to live in a civilized society. Taxes are not a punishment. When they 
talk about tax relief, really, from what, from good schools and clean 
water? When they say ``tax burden,'' I mean, let me tell you.
  If you want to live in a society where there's no taxes and therefore 
no public services, you could move to Somalia. That's what it is. No 
government. I don't see any of our friends who love--I call them the 
free market fundamentalists--I don't see them running to Somalia, 
moving to Mogadishu.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I just want to say quite frankly that on this 
Thursday night in this great country, in my view the greatest country 
in the history of the world, Americans have a question before 
themselves. Are we going to choose community, choose each other, or is 
it going to be a selfish pursuit where everybody is only on their own? 
I view America as people who would look out for each other, even the 
least-to-be.
  Americans don't think that helping seniors who are on Social Security 
is a bad thing to do. Americans don't think that helping the poor and 
the sick is somehow a bad thing to do.
  In fact, one of the things that illustrated this national debate 
we're having, Mr. Speaker, is something that happened in the United 
States Senate today, the other body.
  Today, I can't blame my friends in the House, my Republican friends 
in the House. They didn't do this one. But today, Republicans in the 
Senate voted to block President Obama's appointment of Richard Cordray 
to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  Now, look, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau came about 
because of the massive failure of decency on Wall Street that resulted 
in all of the foreclosures and America having to bail out the likes of 
Bear Stearns, and Bank of America and a whole bunch of others. And they 
said, look, you know, a mortgage document can be very complicated, and 
we just want to have a bureau that will try to make these things 
simpler so people know what they're signing up for; a bureau that will 
say you've got to say what the interest rates are going to be, you've 
got to say what the terms are going to be so that we can have 
transparency.
  Actually, the real free marketeers around here would never be against 
more information and better and more effective information going to the 
consumer. I mean, Adam Smith, the one who wrote--oh, my goodness, I 
can't believe I can't remember the name of that great book--but the one 
in which he describes the invisible hand and how markets move and 
people operate and their individual interest yields the economy. He 
said in that book that consumer information is key to a good market 
operating. So I don't know why people wouldn't want a good market to 
operate.
  But anyway, Republicans in the Senate--can't blame the House members 
this time--like to claim that the new Consumer Financial Protection 
Agency would be reformed before it gets a new director. They say they 
won't even allow it to exist. They won't allow it to have a director 
until they change it. Well, we had a vote and it came into being. So 
now they're trying to wreck it before it even gets up and running.
  The truth is that these folks who are against consumer protection and 
the lobbyists that support them are trying to water down our new 
consumer watchdog's power so they can't hold Wall Street and predatory 
lenders accountable. And that's too bad. They don't want anybody to be 
the new cop on the beat protecting all Americans against these 
predatory lenders.
  I've always said, look, if you're offering a good financial product 
that helps people and is fair, why would you be afraid of a little 
transparency? Only if your business model is based on bilking and 
cheating customers would you want to fight against a Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau.
  Without an enforcer and without real powers to crack down on 
predatory loans, we will keep on seeing mortgages that are designed to 
fail from the very beginning, tricking people with the fine print, 
cheating consumers to make a quick buck.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I see that Republicans are ready to take the time. 
I'm happy to yield it. I'm going to yield back the balance of my time 
in just a moment.
  But I just want to say that America was a good idea. America is a 
good idea. But it's an idea that you have to fight for; and the idea of 
liberty and justice for all living in a fair, prosperous economy is 
something that Americans all over this country have to stand up for and 
assert because if we leave it to the big guys, to the 1 percent, to the 
people with all the money and all the dough, they're going to snatch 
this great American Dream away from us.

  With that, I yield back the balance of our time.

                          ____________________