[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 4, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H1550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              A GOVERNMENT THAT GOVERNS LEAST GOVERNS BEST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, in his State of the Union address last week, 
the President described an economy in which income inequality has 
deepened and upward mobility has stalled. Unfortunately, in many 
respects, he is right. The poor are worse off today than we were when 
President Obama took office. Nearly 7 million more Americans live in 
poverty today as compared to 2008.
  A record 47 million Americans receive food stamps, 13 million more 
than when President Obama assumed office. Median household income has 
fallen over $2,000 in the last 4 years. Seventy-six percent of 
Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and the percentage of working-age 
people actually in the workforce has dropped to the lowest rates in 35 
years. A full 92 million Americans are not part of the labor force. 
They are either unemployed or not even actively looking for work. They 
are so frustrated with the Obama economy, they have just given up. When 
taking into account marginally attached workers--workers who are 
unemployed but want a job and workers who have part-time jobs who want 
full-time jobs--the jobless rate today is over 13 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, 5 years after this President took office, the state of 
the Union is not strong. But instead of admitting that his policies 
have failed, the President offered more Big Government and more class 
warfare. But, Mr. Speaker, a lack of government isn't the problem, and 
class warfare isn't a solution. The President says we need to raise the 
minimum wage and extend emergency unemployment insurance yet again, for 
the 13th time in his administration.
  We should stop thinking small in this country. We are Americans. We 
should think big. We don't need minimum wages; we need maximum wages. 
We don't need more unemployment insurance and government dependency; we 
need jobs and self-sufficiency. The best way to combat income 
inequality, to restore upward mobility in the American Dream and create 
a healthy economy is for Washington to get out of the way, whether in 
the doctor's office, in the job market, or at the gas pump.
  That means replacing ObamaCare with patient-centered reforms that 
will lower the cost of health care without growing government. It means 
cutting wasteful spending and making reforms to put the Nation on a 
path towards a balanced budget. It means comprehensive tax reform that 
rewards work, saving, and investment and allows individuals, families, 
and businesses to keep more of what they earn. It means rolling back 
provisions of Dodd-Frank that allow bureaucrats to take away choices, 
financial services, and products and limit access to credit and take 
those away from the American people. It means unleashing the energy 
potential of the United States by ending the war on coal and approving, 
immediately, the Keystone pipeline. And it means giving the poor a hand 
up rather than a handout, giving them a job instead of a government 
check, and giving them the skills they need to escape dependency so 
that they can achieve their God-given potential.
  We can do all this. We can restore the American Dream, and we can 
restore opportunity and economic growth. And I stand ready to work to 
get America back on track.

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