[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 170 (Tuesday, December 3, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H7430-H7433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE AMERICAN DREAM
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Messer). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from California (Mr.
Garamendi) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity today to talk
about some things that are really important to America. I want to start
really with this quote by Franklin Delano Roosevelt which kind of talks
about where I am coming from and where I think we ought to be going as
a Nation right now. I will try to explain this in a few moments, and
then move on to really deal with this problem that we have in our
Nation of income inequality, lost opportunity, or the absence of
opportunity.
FDR said:
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the
abundance of those who have much, it is rather whether we
provide enough for those who have too little.
In America today, there are many, many Americans that have far too
little. One out of four children in America goes to bed hungry at
night. Unemployment remains at a peak level, somewhere north of 7-8
percent. Real unemployment, that is, the unemployment of people who
would like to work more, would like to have a full-time job, remains
very, very high. What can we do about it?
Well, we can think about the great American ideal, the American
Dream. This gentleman pretty well laid it out. This is Bill Clinton
talking about the American Dream. He said:
If you work hard and play by the rules, you have the
freedom and the opportunity to pursue your dreams and leave
your kids a country where they can chase theirs.
So between these two Presidents, I think we lay out a philosophy that
is well worth our attention: make sure those who have little have an
opportunity, that we pay attention to their needs, and that we make
sure that the American Dream is always in place.
Let's talk about that dream. How about the dream of going to college,
college education. The ideal is college education is open to everyone.
In reality, in 2007, one-half of the children from wealthy households
completed college. Only 9 percent of the children from low-income
households completed college. This gap is widening and has continued to
widen since 2007, and obviously since 1989. The American Dream.
How about this dream: FDR also talked about the four freedoms and one
of them had to do with freedom from want. Part of the American Dream,
it has been denied. As a result of the Great Recession, in 2010, a
total of 46.2 million Americans were below the poverty level, the
highest number of 52 years. The American Dream denied.
When we talk about the American Dream and we talk about what
Roosevelt said about those who have much versus those who have little,
so what is going on in America? In America today, income inequality is
growing. The ideal is you work hard, you will do okay. In reality, the
U.S. ranks 93 in the world in income inequality, behind Great Britain,
Australia, Nigeria, Argentina, and Japan. The American Dream: you work
hard, you will do okay. The reality: income inequality in the United
States is greater than the income inequality in Nigeria. Yes, it is.
So what are we going to do?
Well, here is what we are doing. Since the Great Recession, the
recovery has been slow. We Democrats have some answers on what to do
about that recovery, and we will get to that in a few moments, but I
think we need to understand what has happened in the last 5 years.
We have seen the economy grow. Every quarter since 2009, the economy
has grown. The private sector economy has grown. Where did that wealth
go? Where did the wealth of this Nation go? Well, 95 percent of the
wealth generated in this Nation since 2009 has gone to the top 1
percent of Americans. The remaining 99 percent have had to split what
was left. During the Clinton economy, it was reversed. The top 1
percent took 45 percent, and the bottom 99 percent took the remaining.
So 1 percent took 95 percent, 99 percent were left with 5 percent.
Income inequality: What do we do about it? How do we achieve the
goals of President Clinton when he talked about the American Dream? How
do we achieve the goals of FDR when he talked about our purpose, not to
provide more for those who have great but to provide for those who have
little? How can we do it?
Well, one way we can do it is a long American tradition dating back
to George Washington. In his first year in office, George Washington
called upon Alexander Hamilton, his Treasury Secretary, to figure out
how to grow the American economy. They were interested in
manufacturing. The United States was basically exporting raw materials
to Great Britain. George Washington wanted to build the American
economy. So he said, Alex, give me a plan. So Alexander Hamilton came
back a few months later with a plan, an economic development plan,
based on manufacturing, and in that economic development plan, he said
we need to do about a dozen things.
{time} 1515
He said we need to build the infrastructure of the United States. He
said we need to build the canals, the roads, and the ports. He said we
needed to protect American manufacturing, so make sure that there are
proper duties and tariffs on imported goods so that they would not
overcome American manufacturers but, rather, level the playing field so
that American manufacturers would have a shot. He said we needed to
also make sure that we had good international trade agreements and use
the American taxpayer money to buy American manufactured goods. It is
all there. So for those who want to pay attention to the Founding
Fathers, they ought to pay attention to what George Washington and
Alexander Hamilton talked about in the first days of the first
administration of this wonderful democracy we call America.
Let's talk for a moment about infrastructure. Let's talk about those
roads that George Washington described, Alexander Hamilton talked and
wrote about in his report. Where are we with our infrastructure today?
Joining me today is my colleague from Oregon, who has been working on
the infrastructure issue now for more than a decade. He understands the
problems that we have in our transportation systems and has a proposal.
I now yield to Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. I deeply appreciate the gentleman from California
yielding time to me, and I appreciate his leadership in focusing on
where the economy is and where it needs to go.
I think it is important to look back in time because you are
absolutely right, that from the founding of the Republic,
infrastructure loomed large. In the Constitution, there is a provision
for postal roads. And 8 years after the plan that was developed by
Alexander Hamilton for President Washington, there was the Gallatin
plan that was developed for President Jefferson by his Secretary of the
Treasury, Albert Gallatin. It had a vision for what would happen for
that next American century.
Throughout that time, infrastructure has been one thing that has
brought Americans together. It is something that really didn't have a
partisan tinge. Yes, Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican President,
actually, on the anniversary, the centennial of the Gallatin plan, had
his own vision for what we would do with inland waterways and
reforestation, redeveloping America. His cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, a
Democrat, likewise helped plant the seeds that ultimately grew into the
Interstate Freeway Act, signed into law and funded by President
Eisenhower. And 150 years ago, there was the Transcontinental Railroad
Act with a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln.
This infrastructure agenda is something that has made America great.
It produced the finest infrastructure in the world. Until the last
quarter century, America had the best airlines, roads, freeways,
bridges, passenger and freight rail systems anywhere in the world.
Unfortunately, we have not kept pace with our responsibility. We have
not raised the gas tax for the last 20 years. That was part of the
Clinton
[[Page H7431]]
plan in 1993 that helped kick off an unparalleled 8 years of economic
prosperity.
We face a situation now where the bottom is about to fall out of
transportation funding. We have not heeded the call of other bipartisan
commissions for Republican and Democratic Presidents alike to provide
the transportation resources that would enable us to have a robust
reauthorization of the transportation bill. In fact, the best the last
Congress could do was a short-term 27-month extension that was kind of
kept together by chewing gum and bailing wire, and that funding runs
out in less than 10 months. What that means is that, by October 1 next
year, transportation funding for roads will drop 92 percent if we just
rely on the cash flow that goes into the depleted highway trust fund.
Transit funding is eliminated. Over the course of the next 10 years, we
will see a 30 percent reduction in already inadequate funding for the
Federal partnership.
We kept this afloat by transferring $55 billion of general fund
borrowed money. We were able to get a little bit of infrastructure in
the Recovery Act. And the last Congress did a little budget magic in
terms of changing some provisions for pension funds that resulted in an
uptick in general fund revenue that we used, transferred, to sort of
get us through the next 10 months. But it is not adequate. It is not
the signal the private sector needs. It is not the signal that our
partners in State and local government need to be able to undertake the
significant projects that will make a difference.
If we really care about putting people to work, the fastest way to
create hundreds of thousands of family-wage jobs is to adequately fund
our infrastructure, family-wage jobs in every State in the Union that
will start in a matter of months.
If we care about American competitiveness, we will invest in
infrastructure so that we can compete with the developments that are
taking place around the world. If we care about the health of our
communities, we will invest to deal with problems of deteriorating
roads and bridges, problems of fraying infrastructure, inadequate
transit, not having safe conditions for our children to bike and walk
safely to school.
While the discussion takes place about the budget deficit and this
fiscal cliff or another, I think it is time that we ought to look at
the infrastructure deficit and the transportation cliff that we face in
less than 10 months. Tomorrow, I will be introducing some legislation,
and I am pleased that I will be joined by leaders from labor, the
Chamber of Commerce, construction, the professions of engineering,
local government, a wide array of people who are willing to step up and
join Congress to try and more realistically solve this problem.
I can't say how much, Mr. Garamendi, I appreciate your tireless
advocacy for rebuilding and renewing America, for dealing with
manufacturing here, for putting Americans back to work at a time of,
sadly, too persistent long-term unemployment, and particularly in the
building and construction trades and with regard to architects and
engineers where we have seen people just literally decimated. I
appreciate your strong voice and advocacy and look forward to working
with you as we go forward, hopefully, in this Congress, that we don't
dodge our responsibility any further.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Blumenauer, there is no doubt that you are taking
up the responsibility. You have been a leader for many years on this
issue of transportation, how we can fund it, what we must do.
I guess I knew, but I didn't realize it was coming so quickly, that
we would fall off the transportation cliff, that the next fiscal year,
10 months from now, the transportation programs funded by the Federal
Government simply run out of money. Isn't it 90 percent or more of the
funding that will be gone? Did I understand that correctly?
Mr. BLUMENAUER. If we rely simply on current cash flow in the next
fiscal year, we will see a 92 percent reduction in highway funding, and
the transit budget will be zeroed out. And over the next 10 years, with
the current revenue level, we will see a 30 percent reduction below the
current inadequate levels.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Just before we came on the floor to talk about this
issue of inequality in America and how we might deal with it, we heard
our colleagues from the State of New York talk about the tragic transit
accident that occurred. In listening to them, a couple of the Members
talked about the need for rail improvement, upgrading the rail system
in New York. If I am to hear you correctly, unless we provide
additional revenue in the transportation funding program, there will be
no money to upgrade the rail systems in New York or anywhere else
around the United States.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. We do not have a current revenue stream that is
adequate for rail modernization. Simple. We had some additional money,
again, in the Recovery Act. Although modest by international standards,
it was a significant shot in the arm; but as you pointed out, that is
running out.
What is interesting is that I had an opportunity, a few years ago on
a trip to China, to ride their high-speed trains. In 2009, there were
no high-speed trains in China. Next year, they will carry more
passenger traffic than the entire American aviation system.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Amazing.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. This can be done. Other countries are doing it. I was
referring here just to the surface transportation fees, but there are
certainly needs for rail modernization and safety. And, frankly, what
is underground is in worse condition than what we see on the surface.
We leak more water in America than we drink. Every day, it is the
equivalent of 6 billion gallons of water, enough to fill Olympic-sized
swimming pools, 9,000 of them, from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh.
I deeply appreciate your courtesy in permitting me to share a few
minutes with you on the floor this evening. I deeply appreciate your
unstinting advocacy for making it in America, for doing it right,
putting our families back to work, strengthening the economy, and
making our communities more livable, our families safer, healthier, and
more economically sound.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Blumenauer, you are bringing about a very
important piece of legislation that will help us finance the systems
that we need to build.
We talk about immediate jobs. In talking about those immediate jobs,
for every dollar that we would invest in transportation infrastructure,
you get $1.59 of economic growth immediately back.
Mr. Blumenauer, I know you have to go. You have another meeting.
Thank you very much for bringing this critical issue to our attention.
Now let me carry on for a few seconds about the infrastructure issue.
If we make that critical investment, if we follow the leadership of
Mr. Blumenauer, where we actually collect the money that is needed for
our systems and put those dollars to work in America, several very
important things will happen in the American economy.
First of all, you lay down the foundation for immediate and future
economic growth. You cannot grow the economy if you cannot move goods,
services, and people across the Nation. In my State of California, we
understand what gridlock is. We have got gridlock here in Congress.
That is political gridlock. In California, when you are talking about
gridlock, you are talking about sitting on a freeway and going nowhere;
you are talking about the shipments of goods in and out of the ports
that are delayed because they cannot get to the rail systems. They
cannot get to the highways of America because of gridlock at the ports.
We have an enormous necessity to lay in place the transportation
infrastructure that can then allow the American economy to grow. That
is point one.
Point two is, in doing that infrastructure improvement, if we use the
American taxpayer dollars--in this case, collected from the excise tax
on gasoline and fuel--if we use that money to buy American-made
equipment, we generate an additional economic growth model, and that is
the reestablishment of the American manufacturing system.
{time} 1530
Twenty years ago we had about somewhere between 19 and 20 million
Americans in manufacturing making all kind of things, from Caterpillar
[[Page H7432]]
bulldozers and graders and loaders, to farm equipment, to airplanes,
and technology systems from computers and the like. That was 20 years
ago.
Today there is just over 11 million in the manufacturing sector. We
have lost 9 million manufacturing jobs in America. Those are the heart
and soul of the American middle class. That is where a mother or a
father could get a job, provide the income for their family, buy a
home, buy the car, the boat, take the vacation, send their kids to
college.
That was where the American middle class found its foundation. It has
been decimated by a number of policies that were enacted by previous
Congresses and by a lack of attention all across this Nation to the
foundational imperative of manufacturing.
So we have been talking here for more than 2\1/2\ years now about a
Make It In America agenda. If we are going to finance our
transportation systems, then add to that a clause that says, the
material, the bridges, the steel, the concrete, the equipment, will be
American-made. It will be made in America.
In doing so, we can go right back to Alexander Hamilton and George
Washington, who wrote the first economic development plan for this
Nation, and said use the American taxpayer money to support American
industries.
Hey, I am with Alex and George. They were correct. Use our taxpayer
money to support American businesses, buy American, make it in America.
It works. Let me give you an example. In Sacramento, California, near
my district, is a manufacturing plant that was expanded, actually
doubled in size in the last 2 years. It was doubled in size to build
electric locomotives for Amtrak on the east coast corridor, between
Washington, DC, and Boston.
About 80 new locomotives are going to be built in Sacramento,
California because, in the stimulus bill, the Recovery Act, somebody,
probably a staffer, maybe a Senator, maybe a Member of Congress, wrote
in one sentence and said, this 700-plus million dollars for the
locomotives will be spent on American-made equipment, 100 percent
American-made.
American companies looked at that, shrugged their shoulders. A German
company, Siemens, said, oh, $700 million contract, we can do it.
Siemens took their light rail manufacturing plant in Sacramento, took
that contract, doubled the size of their plant, doubled the size of
their workforce, and is now building 100 percent American-made
locomotives in Sacramento, California. Where 100 years ago they used to
build locomotives, now they are doing it again.
Why?
Because somebody went all the way back to the very first President,
took something that he said, and it was, we are going to spend American
taxpayer money on American-made goods, in this case, American-made
locomotives.
Think about it. Think about the potential. Think about the potential
if we were to really invest in infrastructure, if we were to follow Mr.
Blumenauer's piece of legislation, take the money, invest in the roads,
invest in our freeways, rebuild the bridges, of which more than 6,000
are about to fall down or could fall down in the United States.
Repair, rebuild, expand, allow the foundation of economic growth to
grow, and use that taxpayer money for American jobs, buying American-
made equipment.
Think of the possibilities. Think of the possibilities. Think back to
where we started this conversation, about Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
that it is our task not to add more to those who have much, but,
rather, to add to those who have little.
Those men and women in the construction trades that have lost their
job, where unemployment is well over 30, 40 percent, think about them
being able to get that middle class job building the infrastructure.
Think about the manufacturers out there, the small businesses, the
large businesses, the supply train that Siemens has set up all across
this Nation to provide the electronics, to provide the electric motors
and all of the steel, that huge supply train.
Think about what could be done if we put in place policies today,
here in the United States Congress, to build our infrastructure, to use
our taxpayer money for American jobs; that unemployed individual that
is now on food stamps, perhaps on a welfare check, getting a job in
that manufacturing sector that is providing that tool that is going to
be used on that locomotive.
Think about that unemployed family, that construction worker, the
operating engineer who has been sitting on the sidelines, surviving on
food stamps and on assistance, able to go back to work, sitting on that
Caterpillar tractor that is manufactured in America, providing the
income necessary for his family and providing the taxes necessary for
the growth of this Nation's ability to reduce its deficit.
It is possible. We can do this. We can rebuild America. We can
compete with anybody. There is no other culture in the world that is so
entrepreneurial, so driven to succeed.
But here we are, 435 of us, caught up in a gridlock where we can't do
anything, where the transportation bill languishes, where the farm bill
languishes, so that our farmers don't know what to plant next year.
This has got to end. We have got to stop this.
We need to think back on those giants of America's past. George
Washington told Alexander Hamilton, give me a manufacturing program for
the United States, an economic development program.
Alexander Hamilton came back; we need to build ports, roads, canals.
We need to protect American industry with wise laws and trade laws. We
need to have a tax policy that encourages investment, and we need to
make sure that we are using the tax money to buy American-made.
Think back on Jefferson, who told his Treasury Secretary, give me a
plan for the next century, the 1800s, an economic development plan.
Teddy Roosevelt, and then Franklin Roosevelt, Eisenhower, men of
vision, leaders of vision that were willing to step forward, willing to
use the resources of this Nation, collecting those resources and
dispensing those resources across the Nation to build the foundation
for economic growth.
The Make It In America agenda is available to us today. That agenda
is a trade policy that protects American industry, not a free trade
that gives it away, but a fair trade policy that protects American
industry; a tax policy that encourages economic growth here in the
United States, that rewards corporations for bringing it home, and ends
tax breaks for corporations that ship the jobs offshore, an energy
policy that utilizes the great energy capacity of this Nation,
everything from conservation and wind and solar and, indeed, the
petroleum products.
We need that energy policy in place today so that the wind industry
in the United States, which is a huge industry in my district, can
count on tomorrow's tax policy, which will end in less than a year, so
they are not building.
When we give a tax credit for solar, and when we give a tax credit
for wind, or to the oil industry, we tell them, you only get that tax
credit when you buy American-made solar panels, wind turbines and the
like, because, after all, you are using American taxpayer money.
We need a labor policy so that we can re-educate those men and women
who will no longer have a job in an industry that is no longer in
existence. We need to make sure that labor has a fair shot, and in the
labor policy we absolutely must raise the minimum wage. That holds up
the floor, and deals with the issue of poverty in America.
Education, research, infrastructure. This is the Make It In America
agenda. This is the agenda that we can grow jobs in America. This is
the agenda that can address the American Dream.
This is the agenda that goes back to what Franklin Delano Roosevelt
said when he talked about freedom from want. Freedom from want means
that you must be able to get a decent job in America to support
yourself and your family, so that the working men and women of America
have a shot at the generation of wealth that this country can produce.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said it is our task not to provide more for
those who have much, but to provide for those who have little. So when
you find that the policies of America have allowed this kind of wealth
distribution to take place over the last 5 years, you know that those
policies need to change. Those policies have to change.
When 1 percent of the American population is able to gather 95
percent of
[[Page H7433]]
the wealth generated in this Nation between 2009 and 2012, something is
terribly wrong with the policies of this Nation. That is what happened.
That is what Americans have labored for, so that 95 percent of the
wealth generated by the men and women who work in America winds up in
the hands of 1 percent of this population.
We have got some policy problems. We have to deal with this.
If you believe what Bill Clinton said about the American Dream, being
able to provide for your family, being able to provide that education,
being able to make things better not only for yourself but for the next
generation, then this kind of issue has to be dealt with.
This is a fundamental economic problem. The growth of this economy is
dependent upon the ability of the American workers to have an income so
that they can pursue their dream, and when the wealth winds up with
this kind of a skewed situation, the 95 percent are not able to become
the consumers to buy the home, to buy the car, to develop the
opportunities that they need for their family.
How can we deal with this?
Well, one way we heard about today. We heard from Mr. Blumenauer
about the necessity of building our transportation system so that the
foundation for economic growth is in place, the transportation system.
We need to do that, and doing so will put Americans back to work with
those good, middle class jobs for working American families.
We need to put in place a Make It In America policy. Trade, taxes,
energy, labor, education, research infrastructure, that is our agenda.
That is our agenda for growth in America.
It is also our agenda for dealing with the deficit. You want to deal
with the deficit, put Americans back to work. Watch that tax money come
into the coffers of this Nation's treasury. It will happen.
But you keep a large percentage of Americans out of work, you keep
them at low wages, and you keep them unemployed, you are not going to
able to deal with the deficit. Go back to work Americans--and you deal
with the deficit.
{time} 1545
How do you do that? Infrastructure, trade policy, make sure your tax
policy is in place that encourages economic growth and investment and
all the rest.
We can do this. We can do this. We are America. We have done this in
the past. We have had leaders in the past that have talked about these
things and done them. We have had a Congress in the past that has
listened to their own leadership, to those among their caucuses that
said, Let's get on with it. Let's build for the future. Those leaders
are here--not at this moment, but they are here on this floor day after
day. They know. They understand, If you want to deal with the deficit,
put Americans back to work. If you want to deal with the American
Dream, give them a good job. Raise the minimum wage so that every
working person at least can provide food on their table and shelter for
themselves and their families. It is all possible.
This isn't something new to America. This is what America has done
before. And this is our job. This is our job. The Congress of the
United States, the Senate, the administration, that is what we are here
for. That is our job.
Mr. Speaker, before I yield back, first I have got to talk about one
other thing, and that is another challenge that we face, and that
challenge is about climate change. This is real, folks. This is not
something that a bunch of scientists have dreamed up. This is a very,
very real issue for this world. Many of the policies we talk about here
can directly go to the issue of climate change.
I represent 200 miles of the Sacramento River Valley, from the very
beginning of the Sacramento River at the beginning of the San Francisco
Bay, 200 miles up, past the city of Sacramento, past the cities of Yuba
City, Marysville, all the way to Chico. It is an area that is one of
the most flood-prone areas in America.
Climate change is going to increase rainfall--maybe not the total
rainfall throughout the year, but the incidence of extraordinary, heavy
downpours will increase.
Not too many people want to ascribe the recent typhoon in the
Philippines to climate change, but there is ever-increasing evidence
that extreme storms are a result of climate change. And it figures:
more heat, more moisture, more storms, more precipitation--it is all
there.
So as we go forward, dealing with these issues of economic
development, of infrastructure, we need to keep in mind the issue of
climate change and its immediate effect: droughts in some areas, where
there weren't droughts before; floods in other areas, where there is a
need to put in the infrastructure.
In the case of my district, the infrastructure of levees. My
constituents are at risk. My constituents need the Federal Government
to pass a Water Resources Development Act that provides the foundation
and the authorization for levee improvements, and they need the
appropriations. They need the money.
It is our task to keep America safe, whether that is from some
military threat from somewhere in the world or from some natural
threat, for example, extreme storms, extreme flooding, making sure the
infrastructure, the levees, and the protections for our citizens are in
place.
I want us to deal with that; and as we put together the Water
Resources Development Act, where I have the privilege of being on the
conference committee, we intend to do our best to make sure that the
authorization for those projects necessary for water development, as
well as flood protection, are in place. And then we must go about the
task of finding a way to pay for it.
Mr. Blumenauer is introducing a bill tomorrow to find a way to pay
for the transportation systems. We need to do the same for the water
infrastructure systems. We cannot neglect this task. It is our job.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________