[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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