[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 105 (Monday, July 22, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H4842-H4848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SOLUTIONS FOR OUR COUNTRY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Perry). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Alabama (Mrs. Roby) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to have the opportunity
tonight to be here in this Chamber with so many of our colleagues,
either to discuss solutions--solutions for our country, solutions for
our economy--and I am just going to invite my colleagues to
participation in the conversation as they see fit.
Mr. Speaker, I want to just point out to you that we have reached out
to our constituents about this leadership hour tonight on Twitter using
#4jobs; and, Mr. Speaker, we are hopeful that tonight during this hour,
we will continue that conversation with our constituents at #4jobs.
I have a lot of comments from my constituents back home that I'm
eager to share as we go through this hour. I want to point out what
many of you may have already read, and that is that the President has
stated that he plans to pivot, once again, back to jobs and the
economy. I thought, well, that's great news. That's what we have been
pushing here. Many of you have seen us carrying around our laminated
cards that talk about all of the jobs bills that we've passed in this
Congress and, last, trying to promote economic growth in this country,
to help get hardworking, taxpaying Americans back to work.
But I lost my enthusiasm when buried in that article was the
President's statement: White House officials said three speeches will
not offer new proposals or approaches.
So we're going to pivot back to jobs and the economy, but we have no
new approaches and we have no new ideas. That to me is a pivoting of
message and not a pivoting of policy. We are watching, and all of us
have stories of going back home to our constituents and meeting with
American families that continue to struggle. The rhetoric that we all
feel is not helping the reality of the situation of the people that we
were sent here to represent.
We are not losing faith; the American people are not losing faith
because the President's message isn't working. They are losing faith
because his policies aren't working. I'm the first to say that we've
got to quit doing a lot of this pointing fingers, so I'm hopeful that
tonight we can have this conversation, and I have some solutions that
I'd like to put out there. You can't criticize without coming behind it
and offering a solution. We've continuously done that in this House and
will continue to do so, Mr. Speaker.
I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I thank the gentlelady from Alabama for
organizing this. It is great to be joined with you on this very
important subject, the idea that over 7.5 percent of our fellow
neighbors--and by the way, the President's own State of Illinois, it's
higher than 7.5 percent. If you want to see what Big Government is
going to eventually do, just look in my home State. You're going to see
people that are desperately searching for work, that wake up every day
just wondering if they are going to get a paycheck. If they have a job,
they're wondering, Is this the last day? Am I going to go into work
today and get that pink slip? Am I going to go into work today and have
to tell my wife or husband or kids that we're going to have to tighten
the belt because dad or mom just lost their job?
[[Page H4843]]
Illinois has been hit very hard. The reason Illinois has been hit
very hard is not because it is cold. It is cold in Illinois sometimes
in the winter, and my friend from Colorado can talk about that, too.
It's not because it's flat, although parts of Illinois are very flat.
Illinois, in fact, used to be and still maintains some edge, but used
to be the powerhouse for manufacturing in the country, but we've seen
the disappearing of manufacturing. And in the bipartisan spirit of not
trying to point too many fingers, I'll say that's happened under all
administrations, where we've seen manufacturing leave. But the one
difference between Illinois and what we've seen, and the States that
surround us, is a big, stifling, bloated, bureaucratic government, a
government that is so big it takes away the opportunity for the free
market to breathe.
Mr. Speaker, I understand, and I'll be the first to admit that my
party, the Republican Party, has not done a great job of messaging. I
think that's the understatement of the century. Sometimes we get
absorbed in the idea of numbers, and we talk about what it means to
balance the budget, but we don't explain why we want to balance the
budget. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about the
middle class and those in lower incomes.
My father ran a homeless shelter, and he did this for a couple of
decades. I was raised in an environment to understand conservatism and
how that works with those who are homeless and down and out. My mom is
a public schoolteacher. I understand the importance of public education
in our society. And I understand that I became a Republican because I
believe that a kid born in inner-city Chicago just 40 or 50 minutes
from my house should have the same opportunity as a kid born in
Channahon, Illinois, where I live, or Inverness, Illinois, a wealthy
suburb. They should have every opportunity to find personal achievement
to get an education and be successful.
I look forward to having this conversation and talking about the fact
that there is a compassion for those who need help and the fact that
too many people are out of work today.
I know my colleague from Colorado (Mr. Gardner) would like to say
some things.
Mr. GARDNER. I thank my colleague from Illinois and the gentlelady
from Alabama for her leadership and the things we truly need to get
under control in order to build better lives for our families and
families across this Nation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the time
tonight. I know the gentleman from Illinois said that his district is
flat. I think I'll surprise a lot of people when I say that I represent
the second largest geographic area in the State of Colorado in Congress
and most of my district is flat as well, so I understand what the
gentleman is talking about when he talks about vast areas of great flat
land in the high plains of Colorado.
When we got elected in 2010, the three of us here tonight, who all
got elected in 2010 because we wanted to find a way to make America
work again, to empower people around this country, whether it was the
inner cities of our biggest areas, to people in rural areas across
Colorado and this Nation, empower them to build the life that they
always wanted to, to pursue their dreams, to ensure that the American
spirit is alive and well. I think most of us recognize that we do that
when we give people the power to do that for themselves, to get
government out of the way and let America work, to tear down
regulations that prevent job creation, to help make sure that access to
capital is easier, not more difficult, that energy is more affordable
and not more costly. And over the past couple of years, we have pursued
policies to do just that.
In fact, this upcoming week, we will be voting on legislation to
ensure that energy policies don't drive up the cost that it takes to
power our economy, but to ensure we have a safeguard over regulations
that cost too much, to make sure that the Department of Energy
is paying attention to what is happening at the EPA in terms of
regulations.
We've passed legislation to make it easier for people in small dollar
amounts to loan money to their neighbors, to their friends, to invest
in businesses that they're excited about, to try to tear down hurdles
to invest at the individual level. You don't need a stockbroker down on
Wall Street to figure out how to get involved in the American economy.
We've passed legislation that allows individuals to get involved at the
very start-up level of companies, innovators and entrepreneurs around
this country. We did it because we know there are people who have
incredible ideas of how to create opportunity, incredible ideas of how
to create new wealth where none existed before.
In my district, whether it's agriculture, whether it's energy, or
whether it's high tech, entrepreneurs are leading this Nation. And I
know the gentlelady from Alabama and the gentleman from Illinois have
similar experiences. We talk tonight about what we can do for this
country and legislation that we will be introducing. But we will also
be talking about the impediments we have to a full, healthy, economic
recovery, and that's the President's plan.
While the President talks a lot about the economy, and I hear that
he's going to be talking once again about the economy, but,
unfortunately, his actions haven't matched up and the people in this
country are still suffering.
Mrs. ROBY. Like I mentioned at the beginning, buried in that article
is when the President gives these speeches over the course of the next
few days, there will be no new approaches or ideas. I also said that we
can't stand here and criticize without offering our own recommendations
about how we can do this better and how we feel like we have done it
better and offered real solutions for hardworking Americans.
I wanted to compare some of the things that we've done with what I am
hearing directly from my constituents. Tonight, Mr. Speaker,
specifically we wanted to communicate with our constituents using
#4jobs. These are some of the comments that we've gotten.
Chris Ray from Prattville, Alabama says:
No business is going to risk hiring full-time employees
like they did in the past because they will have to provide
health care due to ObamaCare. Change that and address the
widening skill gap, and I think businesses will begin to hire
en masse. So it's a regulation problem and an education
problem, in my opinion.
That's from Chris Ray from Prattville.
Well, let's look at our approach and how that matches up with the
concerns of our constituents. Instead of pivoting back to no new ideas,
because we remain focused on jobs and the economy, let's pivot away
from ObamaCare to patient-centered health care that actually improves
health care, brings down the cost, takes a market approach to help
struggling families, and makes it harder for small businesses to hire;
a health care system that ensures when you are sick, you and your
doctor are in the driver's seat and making the decisions.
And then to address the concerns of Mr. Ray from Prattville, Alabama,
about overburdensome regulations, we want to pivot again back to all
these bills that we have offered that ease burdensome regulations so
that businesses are free to expand and invest and hire so more people
have good jobs.
Okay, so what regulations? I can look at any one of you and you could
say, Keystone pipeline, the hindrance of allowing that to move forward;
replacement to the health care law. I had a bill, the Working Families
Flexibility Act, that amended part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a
70-year-old restriction that doesn't allow compensatory time in lieu of
cash payments for overtime in the private sector which would help these
very Americans that we're talking about, about providing flexibility in
the workforce and all of the uncertainty that we see. We have stood on
this floor many times talking about testimonials that we have heard
directly from business owners.
{time} 1930
And it just never ceases to amaze me that we're having these
discussions here. But we're all about to go home in August, and I would
love to hear from even our colleagues on the other side of the aisle
about what they're hearing from their businesses. Do they feel
certainty? Do they feel like they can ramp things up and hire more
people in this uncertain environment with all of this overburdensome
regulation that we're
[[Page H4844]]
trying so hard to ease so more Americans can have jobs?
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I just would like to add to that.
So, you know, we talked about regulations, and I know, look, the vast
majority of Americans, myself included, are not small business owners.
And so the vast majority of Americans can listen to this and say, I
understand in theory what's being said, but it's not something I
necessarily feel.
So let's try to put this in a way that I think a lot of people can
relate to. If you're looking at buying a house, now, you have a big
decision to make. You're ready to buy a new house. You've got a family
you're providing for. You know what your budget is, what you can afford
on a mortgage. You know what you can afford for your property taxes.
But let's say there's a lot of government uncertainty out there.
Let's say, first off, you may not have a job in 6 months because of
this economy. You may be saying, Boy, I just don't know what my cash
flow is going to be like, and I don't know if it's going to be there.
Well, let's relate that to the bigger economy. These companies don't
necessarily know what's going to be brought and put before them by
Washington, D.C., what it's going to cost them.
Let's say your local government was threatening to raise property
taxes in a major way. Well, now that comes into play.
Let's say there was a threat of losing your home mortgage interest
deduction, and so, as you put that into play and you're trying to
decide ``Do I buy this house?'' now that's a threat.
And you watch the television, and all over the television the idea is
homes are collapsing in value. We remember that from a few years ago.
That's uncertainty. That's the kind of uncertainty that every day
Americans feel, the kind of uncertainty that you wake up sometimes in a
cold sweat because you don't necessarily know what the next month is
going to look like.
Well, Mr. Speaker, that's our point is take that uncertainty that an
individual feels, but now put that on a bigger level of a business
owner, a business owner who sometimes is the last person to get paid
because they sign everybody else's paycheck first.
And sometimes these small business owners are literally in tears at
night. They're in bed; they don't know whether they can make payroll.
They know they have 5 or 10 people that are relying on them to provide
that paycheck because they have families, too. That's a lot of
pressure.
So we're not talking about making businesses not pay taxes. We're not
talking about getting rid of all regulations and letting this be the
Wild West of business, but we're talking about creating a level of
certainty that these businesses can plan, and they can begin to know
what they can do and take a deep breath and create jobs.
Mrs. ROBY. I want to share something that I pasted on Facebook last
week, and it was an article. Many of you may have seen it, but it was
in The Washington Post last Wednesday, and this is what I wrote:
If you've ever wondered just how ridiculous Federal regulations can
be, just ask Marty the Magician. This front-page Washington Post
article tells the story about how USDA regulators required a children's
magician to license his trick rabbit and even compile an animal
disaster plan to comply with the Federal mandates. It's a lighthearted
tale, but the rabbit trail of regulations Marty was forced to navigate
illustrates a lesson in one of Washington's bad old habits: the
tendency to pile new rules on top of old ones, with officials using
good intentions and vague laws to expand the outrage of the total
bureaucracy.
If you haven't seen that, I strongly encourage you to get online and
find a copy of it. It is a funny story, but it's really sad at the same
time because it shows and highlights exactly what you're talking about
for a guy that just wants to pull a rabbit out of a hat for some kids
at a birthday party.
Mr. GARDNER. I've talked to countless individuals, business owners,
people who wanted to start a business, that talked about what it took
for them to get started. Some of them maxed out every credit card that
they had. They applied for more credit cards just so they could max out
to try to get the business off the ground.
Others are looking at it, saying, you know, I've got some great ideas
where we could grow, we could expand, or I could even start my own
business, but I can't do that because we don't have the ability or the
means to do that.
But to your point about the USDA requiring a license of somebody's
rabbit, The Wall Street Journal recently talked about a Competitive
Enterprise Institute study estimating that Federal regulations cost
over $1.8 trillion. Now, that's nearly $15,000 for every American
household, $15,000 that, before you can start your business, before you
do anything else, is already built into the cost of doing business.
That's already part of the factor you have to overcome the regulations.
$1.8 trillion, that's about the same size as Canada's GDP, the gross
domestic product of Canada.
We are regulating this country to the size of Canada's gross domestic
product; and yet we're hoping to solve our unemployment problem by
getting people to put it all on the line and risk their houses, their
lives to go out and start something, to go out and take a risk, and yet
we have regulations, $15,000 every household.
How can we expect this economy to recover when we have the
uncertainty, whether it's the President's health care bill, whether
it's uncertainty over energy regulations, coal ash bills that we'll be
dealing with this week, or, indeed, licensing a rabbit at USDA?
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I understand that. And look, as we go
forward, you hear the rhetoric a lot; right? I mean, the House of
Representatives is filled with rhetoric; right? It's probably been like
that since the day it was built and the day it was created.
Some of the rhetoric I've heard is that our party only cares about
big business, that we only care about the 1 percent. Recently, we
talked about taking food from the mouths of children; right? We heard
about that.
Any sane, reasonable person knows that's not the case. Any sane,
reasonable person knows, look, both sides of the aisle are very
passionate about the future of the country; they want success. I think
it's okay to have a conversation about how we get there.
I believe that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want
their country to be successful. I think if we can hear that they also
agree that we want our country to be successful and we can have this
conversation, this is so helpful.
Now, let me ask, in that vein, in having a fair and honest debate
about this, let's see what the President's plans are. I mean, we hear
constantly more and more stimulus spending.
Do you realize that the last stimulus bill that was really passed at
midnight, basically, with a lot of Christmas tree ornaments for
everybody to get ``yes'' votes, and only about 6 percent of that
actually went to infrastructure, which is the job of the Federal
Government in the first place; it's denoted in the Constitution. But,
you know, interestingly to me, we spent, in one night, almost as much
money, maybe even more money, but almost as much money as we had spent
in Iraq to that point.
And what did we get for it? What did we get for it? We had a promise
of unemployment staying low. It didn't.
Look, I get it. I believe that the President, I believe my colleagues
on the other side of the aisle really thought this was going to be the
thing that worked. I really believe they believed that. But it didn't.
History shows it didn't. History shows this didn't work.
So are we going to really, honestly, revisit the idea of more and
more stimulus spending again?
Mr. GARDNER. The gentleman brings up a good point. Just one instance
of stimulus spending in my district where it actually threatens jobs,
and that was a program that came out of the BTOP grant program to try
to provide broadband to unserved and underserved areas across this
country, a noble purpose, to try to make sure that we're connected to
Internet technologies that we need with high speed, to make sure we're
able to educate children and a competitive workforce.
But, unfortunately, the money that came out of the stimulus actually
was used to duplicate services by the private sector. In some areas,
they actually overbuilt, 100 percent with government money, services, a
fiber-optic
[[Page H4845]]
cable that was already in place by the private sector.
Many of these companies are very small, small co-ops, telecoms that
can't afford to have somebody come in and undermine them with the free
government money, trying to offer under-cost services, and yet that's
exactly what happened in the stimulus bill. They were already providing
the service, and yet the government came in and laid a line right next
to the line that already existed in there. So that's what happened in
the stimulus bill. Instead of creating jobs, it actually undermined our
ability to build the private sector up.
And I know the gentlelady from Alabama has been an incredible leader
on this.
Mrs. ROBY. Well, I just was thinking, while we were talking about
this, part of the President's criticism in this article that came out
is about Republicans' approach to just slashing spending.
If any of us cannot recognize that we are spending well beyond our
means--we have $17 trillion in debt and our 4th year with over $1
trillion deficit. My kids, Margaret and George, are the reason that I'm
here. Why I'm fighting is for that generation that's going to carry
this burden after we're all gone.
And for us to not first admit that we have a problem as we move
toward finding solutions and admitting that we are spending well beyond
our means, that we do have to rein in spending, that we have to change
the approach, that's when we see our economy improve. That's when we
see hardworking American taxpaying families begin to be able to pick up
and make that investment that you mentioned into the business so that
they can be the job creators.
So this is great if the President wants to talk about this again
because I see, for my kids' future, that this is how we're going to get
this country back on track.
Mr. ROTHFUS. It's a pleasure to join this conversation. I thank the
gentlelady from Alabama for starting it.
And we've heard this phrase for years now, ``pivot to jobs.'' And,
frankly, I'm new here. I've been here a little over 6 months, maybe 7
months, and I've been looking at it from the outside, and I haven't
seen that pivot to jobs.
And sometimes folks hear that phrase in Washington, D.C., and they
think ``pivot to jobs.'' Well, what they really mean is pivot to
government, and that's certainly what we've seen. Every time they think
they're going to do something to help the job market, they pivot to
more and more government.
Remember when they passed the health care bill, it was suggested that
this is going to be a job creator. Well, it really hasn't been, and
we're talking to businesses time and again who are not hiring people.
I had a great conversation with somebody in my district, a very tough
conversation, and she was upset because her hours are being cut back
because of the health care bill. And of course we see this across the
country, not just in my district.
And then we see more government as a proposal for more jobs, but we
see the regulations coming out of this town that are hurting the jobs
in my district.
Just last week, we learned that some power plants are going to be
closing in western Pennsylvania. These power plants are not in my
district, but you know what? There are people who support those power
plants by providing things to those power plants. You have jobs of
truckers, of shippers, miners.
More regulations coming out of this town by these Federal elites
doesn't help jobs. I'm glad that we're going to pivot to jobs.
I've talked about how you get jobs going in this country for quite a
long time now, and I've stumbled on to three Rs. You remember the three
Rs from going to school.
Well, the three Rs, I think the number one R, or the first R is
``repeal.'' Repeal ObamaCare.
The administration acknowledged, I think, the problems with this bill
by coming out with a unilateral action just a couple of weeks ago,
saying, Don't worry, big business; you don't have to comply for another
year with the mandates here; but the everyday folks, you still have to
comply.
So this House, last week, took an action to provide some relief
there. We'll give the President the authority that he assumed
unilaterally, but it needs to come from this House, and it's called the
rule of law, that the President--it's our authority to give that
waiver.
And so we passed a bill last week to say, You know what? Take another
year. And to the individuals who are going to be struggling, give them
the same break, too.
Mr. GARDNER. The gentleman from Pennsylvania, I think you make some
great points, and I just am reminded of the businesses that I've talked
to in my district, from employers who are concerned they may have to
reduce hours of their workforce, or employees who've already had their
hours reduced.
And I don't want to interrupt your comments, but I think you are
pointing out how this is actually hurting the economy. So, as the
President pivots to jobs, perhaps he should pivot away from the bad
policies that are driving this economy downward.
Mr. ROTHFUS. When you look at the regulatory framework that we have,
this House is soon to consider a bill known as the REINS Act. It's a
very simple bill. It basically says to the agencies that are staffed by
bureaucrats, not by individuals who are elected, who are accountable--
the people in this House are accountable. We stand for election every 2
years. We get a performance review every 2 years. I tell the people in
my district I'm their employee. I'm the employee of about 705,000
people, and I get a performance review every couple of years.
Well, you know, the regulators, we need a check and a balance on
them.
{time} 1945
So there's a thing called the REINS Act, a very simple bill that
talks about if an agency puts out a regulation that's going to have an
impact on this economy of $100 million or more. And as the gentleman
from Colorado said earlier, the SBA, the Small Business Administration,
has said that the cost of complying with all the regulations in our
Federal Register is $1.8 trillion across the economy. The REINS Act
says if you have $100 million or more in a regulation that's going to
go on the economy, it comes back to the Congress for a vote. We get to
take accountability there.
And so we get to assess whether the cost benefit is going to be good
for this economy and good for the American people. Otherwise, the out-
of-control government is going to continue to choke our communities and
our businesses. And what happens? Middle class jobs are lost. Power
plant workers. You can't replace jobs like that.
Mr. GARDNER. To the gentleman from Pennsylvania, I would just point
out that this is not a radical Republican idea. The idea behind the
REINS Act is actually something that's embraced across many States in
the country right now. In Colorado, we have what's called the rule
review bill. When an agency, whether it's the Department of Health,
whether it's the Department of Agriculture, issues a new regulation, it
actually comes to the State legislature for a vote by the State
legislature. The State senate and the State house get to vote up on or
down on whether or not that regulation is in the best interest of the
people of Colorado, if it complies with the will of the legislature and
the executive branch is carrying it out in the right way.
So the REINS Act that you point out is not some crazy idea. It's
actually something that's in use right now to protect our economy from
overreach.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Let me add to that. I want to briefly
remind people about the State of Illinois. I'm so proud of the people
of the State of Illinois. I love my State. I've lived there most of my
life, except my time in the military. But let's look at that approach.
That approach has been a regulatory approach. That's been a big
government approach. In fact, you look at, again, the south part of
Chicago, and you see I think it was like nine people killed just in
this last weekend. It's unreal. That's more than you will find killed
in a day in Afghanistan. And this is an American city.
How is the best way to fix that? It's to pull people out of poverty.
Illinois has a big government. Illinois has very
[[Page H4846]]
generous stuff they give. But Illinois is not good lately at generating
jobs. So does big government help those people in a tough situation in
south Chicago? You know what would help the people in south Chicago is
an opportunity to go out, work hard, earn a living, and an opportunity
to get ahead. That's what this is about.
This is about how do we give everybody the opportunity that all of us
speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives have, who have
all the different backgrounds that we've got, whether it was from our
parents or our education or from whatever it was. How do we ensure that
we replicate that?
Mr. ROTHFUS. The good news is that we can do that. If we empower our
communities, empower individuals, and empower families, we can do that.
The solutions are not inside this Beltway. They're out there. And
Washington needs to get out of the way so that people can take their
own initiative and build those real economies out there.
The third R I talked about--we've got repeal ObamaCare and replace it
with commonsense, patient-centered reform that gets care to people. The
second R is the REINS Act. Stop the overregulating. And thirdly,
reform. Reform our Tax Code. We have the highest corporate tax rate in
the world, the highest business taxes in the world. This is a world
economy. Ninety-five percent of the consumers in the world are outside
our borders. We need to be competing for the world's capital to come
here to invest in our communities.
I was talking with a business in my district that is a subsidiary.
They have a foreign owner. But they were trying to convince the foreign
owner to invest in our country, which would be a good thing because
that's going to mean more jobs. The parent company said, You're just
not competitive right now. And that's a lost opportunity.
Our corporate tax rate is 35 percent. And do the corporations really
pay that? Our Tax Code is so riddled with loopholes and picking the
winners and the losers, rather than having a competitive, fair playing
field. We have to move to have the most competitive tax system in the
world.
Mr. GARDNER. I was speaking to a business in my district several
months ago, and they had a conversation with somebody who isn't
interested in reducing the burden on American families by making common
sense out of our Tax Code, creating a flatter, fairer tax system. This
is a manufacturing business in Colorado. They were talking about what
their tax rate is and that they have looked at every way, every
provision, every code possible to try to figure out how to lower that
rate, and they can't go any further. They're still in the lower
thirties.
The response they got from a legislator was, Well, you just need to
hire a new accountant. Instead of actually trying to get to real reform
of our Tax Code to lower the rate, flatten the code, they actually were
told to just get a new accountant because they're not doing the right
jobs. That's not how we're going to create jobs in this country.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I think the great point on that is why do
we want to lower the tax rate, right? Is it because we want to protect
the 1 percent? I've heard that a thousand times. And I'll be honest, I
probably haven't been the best at coming back at that and explaining
why we want to lower the Tax Code and why we want a fair Tax Code for
everybody--a tax that people pay what they need to pay to the
government, they aren't overcharged, but then people aren't also
allowed to get away with being undercharged.
It's because on an individual level you literally have mothers
filling their vans up with gasoline, buying groceries, and not able to
afford to feed their children because the government, in some cases,
takes a third of what these single mothers make. They just take it. And
then we see people that can get away with all the loopholes in the
system. They hire enough accountants and they don't pay that percent.
So let's make it fair for everybody.
Mrs. ROBY. But we got ourselves in that trouble, as far as the
government goes. We can't point fingers at somebody that is smart and
figures out how to do it. What we do is fix the problem, which is the
underlying code, by making it fairer and flatter.
I'll just say, we were saying earlier, Mr. Speaker, that we've been
communicating tonight with our constituents at #4Jobs. Just some of the
things that I'm hearing go directly to this point.
Josh from Troy says:
Throw out the Tax Code.
I just want to highlight that the people that we're hearing from, Mr.
Speaker, are saying exactly what our frustrations are on this floor, as
the President tells us to pivot back to jobs and the economy.
James from Dothan, Alabama, says:
Taking out ObamaCare will help free employers to hire full-
time employees, which our economy really needs.
Sara from Dothan:
Health care is the biggest problem. Employers are afraid to
hire until they know the whole deal.
We've talked about that in your three R's, the repeal and the replace
being the first, about this uncertainty not just in the regulatory
environment that businesses have to deal with, or, with the Tax Code,
which is the point you were all just making, but also in how these laws
are going to be implemented. We've passed these gargantuan bills. We
don't know what's in them. And they get passed. And now the uncertainty
associated with it.
How many people have you talked to have had to hire a new person just
to come into compliance with what they think the health care law might
be, instead of hiring another individual that can then produce what
that company produces to provide a product for this country? Instead,
they're having to compete with all of the Federal employees that are
put in place to implement these laws. Employers are going to go out to
hire somebody just to come into compliance with the laws.
Now I hear from our bankers back in our State--and you've probably
heard this one--that not only is the regulator showing up, but the
regulator is now showing up with a lawyer as well. So the bank has to
go get their lawyer there because they're not going to find themselves
in a position to not be duly represented at a time when there's a
Federal regulator in their office. This is just costing businesses more
and more dollars.
Mr. ROTHFUS. It's not just costing businesses. Again, for the mom
who's sitting at that kitchen table.
Mrs. ROBY. It's passed off to me, the consumer.
Mr. ROTHFUS. You think of the mom who no longer has the free
checking. They're paying the monthly bills. They're looking at that
utility bill. The electric bill is coming in. And remember when the
President in 2008 said that electricity rates are necessarily going to
skyrocket with his plan? Well, there's the mom who's going through the
monthly bills, wondering how she's going to make ends meet. And all of
a sudden there's another $5 or $10 or whatever the charge is going to
be for losing the free checking. That's real money. And then she goes
to the gas tank and all of a sudden prices are going up at the gas tank
again. Another $10 there, $10 for the checking. That's $20 right there.
And it grows and it grows and it grows.
Mrs. ROBY. Then she goes to the grocery store and she sees that the
cost of milk is higher because the cost of gasoline is higher. I'm that
mom that puts gas in her car and goes to the grocery store. And you can
see the net effect that this has on the individual. So you're
absolutely right. It's not just the businesses. The businesses then
have to turn around and pass that cost on to the consumer.
We have solutions for these problems--real commonsensical solutions
that we have put forth and put forth and put forth, reducing the
regulatory environment, a health care solution that works, that allows
for individuals to make those decisions between themselves and their
doctor, an all-of-the-above energy plan that is actually put into
practice here in the House of Representatives instead of being that
campaign rhetoric. We really have demonstrated our belief in our
approach to an all-of-the-above energy plan.
Speaking of energy, thanks for joining us.
Mr. GRIFFITH of Virginia. Glad to be with you this evening.
I thought it was interesting. You just raised the issue where the
President
[[Page H4847]]
said that costs would necessarily skyrocket. I actually carry that
quote around in my back pocket. So I pulled it out, my little folded-up
version that I have, and what he said was:
When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, you know,
under my plan of cap-and-trade system, electricity rates
would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say
about whether coal is good or bad because I'm capping
greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas,
you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry
was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will
cost money.
And you know what he said next? Exactly what you've been talking
about. That they, talking about those plants that would have to
retrofit, will pass that money on to consumers.
But it's not just the higher cost to the consumers, the moms and dads
that are going out there shopping, trying to make ends meet, trying to
look at their grocery bill getting bigger, their gas bill getting
bigger, et cetera, et cetera, but it's also the impact on the families.
Because no matter what they say about we can do this with jobs and we
can create jobs, that's not been the case, particularly in my district,
which is a natural gas and coal-producing district.
I was at a Remote Area Medical program this weekend in my district.
Senator Kaine was there. I was doing intake and helping folks get those
documents filled out. One of the people that came through was there
because she needed some help, her husband needed some help, and her
daughter needed some help. Her husband lost his job in the mine. This
is happening all across my district, all through central Appalachia.
They're laying off people. Every month, we're losing more and more
jobs. A lot of folks don't know that those jobs are bringing in money
to the community and that these are big-paying jobs. The estimate is
somewhere between $75,000 and $95,000 dollars a year. That's what these
jobs bring into the community.
So here's a lady that needs help because they've lost their job
because of the policies of the administration that have killed those
jobs. But as the gentleman previously stated, it's not just the jobs in
the coal mines, it's not just the coal operators. It's the people that
sell the cars to the people who used to work in the mine. It's the
people who sell the mine safety equipment to the people who run the
mines and work in the mines. It's the people who haul the coal. It's
the people who work for the train companies that haul the coal. And
it's the cost of making goods in the United States of America, where
those costs are going up and up and up compared to other parts of the
world.
In fact, there's an article just recently that says that Southeast
Asia, even though natural gas is available to that Asian market, is
choosing coal over and over again because per Btu, it's better for them
to use coal. And a lot of times people talk about the low cost of
natural gas in this country. I have to tell you, it's a great boon to
us in many, many fields and lots of areas. But you have to remember, at
$4 per million Btus created, coal and natural gas are equal. Anything
above $4, coal is more efficient. It's cheaper to use. But guess what?
This year we've been over $4. Right now, today, it's at $3.83. This
year we've been over $4.
{time} 2000
So what we're doing is we're passing these costs on. We're taking our
jobs and we're shipping them overseas. And I know you all have heard
this before, but Mr. Speaker, I want everybody in the country to know
that we send these jobs overseas. They're making the goods that we used
to make in this country; they're getting the money that we used to have
in this country for our jobs, our employees. And according to a NASA
study, it takes 10 days for the air from the middle of the Gobi
Desert--that's in central China--to get to the Eastern Shore of my
beloved Virginia. The air is coming back over here.
So what we need to be doing is we need to be looking for things that
resolve this issue of the pollutions and so forth on a global basis,
and we don't need to be killing jobs in the United States of America
while we look for those solutions. We need to make sure we're
encouraging those jobs in the United States of America.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. That was very well said. Wouldn't it be
nice if we could just all have conversations like that all the time? I
mean, look, there are people that really believe that coal is bad. I
disagree, I disagree vehemently. They believe it. And I'm sure my
friend from Virginia would love to debate them, and debate them
respectfully. I remember hearing rhetoric about our party supporting
black lungs and that rhetoric that's meant to fuel instability and
anger and division. That's what's disappointing to me.
Mr. Speaker, as I look to the President to lead this country, I want
to look at a man who--of his past and who he is is a very dynamic
person. He came from some very tough circumstances to become President
of the United States. I wish he would say that, you know what, my job
is to lead this conversation about jobs and the economy. My job is to
lead this conversation. Look, we tried stimulus spending. I really
thought it would work, but it didn't. Some Republicans, why don't you
come to the White House. Why don't you have a conversation with me. I
haven't been invited to the White House in years. Why don't you come to
the White House, and let's have a conversation. Maybe we're not going
to find any agreement, but at least we can respect each other's
opinions and say what do we need to do to get this economy back on
track. Why is it that over 7 percent of our neighbors don't have jobs?
Many more than that are underemployed in jobs they don't want. Why is
that? What can we do to come together?
Mr. GARDNER. One of the things that I think the gentleman brings up
in tonight's conversation is he continues to talk about opportunity and
what we stand for and what we've been able to do for jobs. I know that
the gentlelady from Alabama is leading, if you're interested in
engaging in this conversation around the country, wherever you are over
the next days, weeks, months, as we talk about the economy, and beyond
then, sending a tweet with the #4jobs in terms of engaging in this
conversation. But you talked about what we can do. What we can do right
now--and the gentleman from Virginia knows very well--it is energy.
We've talked to people about a manufacturing renaissance in this
country. There are articles in the paper about businesses that were
located in Germany that are looking to relocate into the United States.
A company we talked to said the cost of energy in India is four times
what they were paying here.
Traveling to my district, the Niobrara Formation, Eastern Plains,
Western Slope, the energy that we can create there that's allowing this
to happen. Whether it's coal, whether it's natural gas, whether it's
renewable energy in my district, we have incredible opportunities to
create these kinds of jobs that we know will put food on people's
plates around the table, that will actually allow people to go on
vacation, to afford to put gas in the car, to find a better way for
their families.
So these are the kinds of jobs with this revolution that we can
continue to foster, but we have to have a President that doesn't just
pivot to jobs once in a while, but is committed to a long-term, healthy
economy that gets the regulatory mess out of the way, that provides
certainty.
I talked to a restaurant owner in my district. He owns three
different bagel shops. He's actually going to have to sell one of them.
He's worried because he doesn't know how he's going to be able to
comply with the new health care plan. That's not the kind of certainty
that we're looking for.
So don't stop what's going good in this country--the manufacturing
renaissance, energy development, opportunity--and let's fix what's not
going great; let's fix what's going wrong in this country.
Mrs. ROBY. I wanted to share a few numbers with you.
Since the President took office in January 2009, the U-6 unemployment
rate has remained stuck at 14 percent. That's workers that are stuck in
part-time jobs, or they just have dropped out of the workforce
altogether. During that same time we've watched, as I mentioned
earlier, the national debt go from $9.8 trillion to $16.9 trillion; and
according to Gallup, 17.3 percent of Americans consider themselves
underemployed, which goes to your point.
The President also promised 1 million new manufacturing jobs by the
end of 2016, but factory employment has
[[Page H4848]]
continued to fall in 2013, where 4.3 million Americans have been out of
work for 6 weeks or more. The point is that we started this hour
talking about The Washington Post article where the President came out
and said that he is going to pivot back to jobs and the economy; and to
the gentleman from Colorado's point, he should have never left the
issue of jobs and the economy.
Here in the House, our majority has been working tirelessly, as the
gentleman from Illinois said, to bring the other side and say look, we
have these commonsense solutions. This is about my kids and yours. This
is about the future of this country. And we have an opportunity as
leaders here in Washington representing all of the people that we do
back home--and a responsibility at that--to do all that we can to
get the Federal Government out of the way so that people like your
constituent back home in Colorado with the bagel stores can open
another bagel store instead of having to worry about closing.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Let me just add really briefly to that.
You talk about our ideas and the fact that, you know, look, the
President can--the REINS Act, for instance, that makes sense, some of
those things.
I make a promise here today: if the President comes to the
Republicans and says, give me some ideas, and we give him ideas and he
takes them, I will not go out and say that is a victory for
Republicans.
So let's get the partisanship out of this and say it's time to not be
Republicans or Democrats about this; it's time to be Americans. Look,
Mr. Speaker, I would say that the President has made, in his mind, a
valiant attempt to save the economy. Unfortunately, I hate to say it,
it hasn't worked. So come to us. Let us give you some ideas. And if you
adopt our ideas, I--I personally--promise that I will not go out and
say that the Republican Party just rolled the President, or we just
rolled the Democrats, or anything like that. I will say America just
won because we've worked together to get some big things done.
Mr. GARDNER. That's exactly, at this time, what this country needs.
I'm working, in a bipartisan fashion, with a Democrat from Vermont,
Peter Welch, on an energy-efficiency measure. The President has also
talked about this kind of approach, using performance contracts to
create jobs, lower the amount of energy consumed by the United States
Government--the largest economy consumer in the country. But we do it
without government mandates; we do it without government subsidies. But
we're doing something that's going to create private sector jobs, save
the taxpayer dollars, and use less energy at the Federal level. The
President's doing this. We're doing this here.
These are the kinds of opportunities we have to work together that
are creating jobs, And they're not to bow down or to kowtow to a
certain element of an agenda. It's actually to move the country forward
by doing the right thing.
Mr. GRIFFITH of Virginia. I believe if we use our energy sources--
which I believe can be a bipartisan issue and it is in my part of the
world in central Appalachia--but if we use our energy resources, I am
convinced that the United States of America can remain the number one
economic Nation in the world well into the next century--recognizing
we've just started this one--well into the next century. But we have to
make sure that Washington doesn't get in the way and completely stop
that economic engine.
Mrs. ROBY. Well, I just want to thank all of my colleagues, Mr.
Speaker, for joining us to talk about these important issues.
As we will hear from the President in his next three speeches about
pivoting back to jobs and the economy, we here in the House remain
focused on jobs and the economy for all Americans families. But we are
also remaining focused on an all-of-the-above energy approach;
repealing ObamaCare so that I can make those decisions with my doctor
about what's best for me; a fairer, simpler Tax Code that we know will
help all Americans. We've got to ease burdens and regulations so that
businesses can create more jobs instead of having to worry about the
ones that they're going to lose.
This is about making life work for Americans. This is about easing
the pain that so many Americans are feeling because of this bloated
government that refuses to, first and foremost, admit that we have a
spending problem.
This is about refocusing our efforts here in the House and making
sure that we are remembering the people that sent us here, the families
that we've talked about tonight that we want to ensure that government
is not hurting, but government is getting out of the way so that they
can thrive in these United States of America.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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