[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 136 (Friday, October 4, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H6235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RETURNING AMERICA'S COMPETITIVE EDGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Rice) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, we are all concerned about 
the 800,000 Federal employees who have been furloughed for 3 days in 
the government shutdown. We can argue back and forth about who caused 
the shutdown, but the fact is that 800,000 people have been furloughed, 
and it could stretch into a week or two.
  While we need to work hard to get these people back to work as soon 
as possible, we must remember that according to the Congressional 
Budget Office, ObamaCare is costing us 800,000 jobs permanently. We are 
not talking about working people being furloughed for a few days. We 
are talking about the permanent loss of 800,000 American jobs because 
of this job-killing health care law. Where is the outrage over that?
  You see, the fact is the President and my friends across the aisle 
like to say that they are for the working man. They are for American 
jobs. But if you pay attention just a little bit, their actions belie 
their rhetoric. The truth is they are not the party of the working man; 
they are not the party of jobs. My friends across the aisle are the 
party of Big Government and more regulation. They believe the American 
people cannot be trusted to make their own decisions, like how to 
invest their money or whether to buy health insurance. They know better 
than the American citizen. They want to make your decisions for you, to 
take care of you. ObamaCare is just the latest job-killing iteration of 
their Big Government expansion.
  You see, it is only common sense. You don't have to be a genius to 
understand it. Big Government and Big Regulation do not grow the 
economy; they stifle the economy. They don't create jobs; they kill 
jobs. We have 7.3 percent unemployment right now, anemic growth four 
years after the recession ended; 15 percent unemployment among those 
under 25; 50 percent of recent college graduates are either unemployed 
or underemployed. I have got three sons who are recent college 
graduates. They have lived it. We are failing our young people.
  Remember, Mr. Speaker, that the Democrats held the Presidency, the 
Senate, and the House for 2 years and out of that came ObamaCare and 
Dodd-Frank, two of the biggest government-expanding job-killing laws to 
be enacted in decades. It is no accident that the economy remains weak. 
It is no accident that unemployment rates are so high. And now when the 
Republican House asks simply for a conference, they won't even sit down 
to discuss it. They refuse to accept anything but the status quo. What 
is the status quo? Record deficits, high unemployment, and anemic 
economic growth. I guess with a record like that I wouldn't want to sit 
down and discuss it either.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't think anybody here wanted the government to shut 
down, but perhaps it is good that we have come to this point. Maybe the 
government shutdown will be a catalyst that brings us together to make 
some hard decisions. We have got to stop thinking on six-month time 
horizons and create long-term certainty if we want our economy to 
thrive.
  Tax reform, deficit reduction, entitlement reform--these are issues 
that everyone knows must be faced to push our economy forward and to 
return America's competitive edge. If we could resolve just a couple of 
these issues, we would lift a cloud of uncertainty, our economy would 
grow again, and all Americans would benefit.
  Nobody wanted this shutdown, but let's take lemons and make lemonade. 
Let's use this crisis to come together for once and resolve some of 
these fundamental issues. These are the issues we were sent here to 
face. I plead with the Senate and the President to rethink your hard-
line no-negotiation stance. America is counting on us.

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