[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 66 (Tuesday, April 24, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3497-H3499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A GOOD DEAL, A BETTER DEAL, AND A RAW DEAL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back here on the floor
to talk about a good deal, a better deal, and a raw deal. But before I
get into a discussion about how we can move this Nation forward and how
our colleagues on the other side are really taking us in the wrong
direction, I want to put this up for us to take a look at.
I suspect I caught your attention having it upside down. I did that
on purpose.
I often start these discussions with this. It is from FDR, one of his
great speeches. He said: ``The test of our progress is not whether we
add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we
provide enough for those who have too little.''
I keep coming to this because it is a statement of values. It is a
statement of direction. It is a statement of what I believe we should
be doing as Members of Congress and as leaders of this Nation.
``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the
abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for
those who have too little.''
My Democratic colleagues and I take this to heart, and we try to
structure our policies, our programs, and the direction in which we
want our country to go along this line, to make sure that those in our
Nation, those in our community, those in our States, and even within
our families, that they have enough--enough of the wealth of this
Nation so that they can enjoy the fruits of their work, so that as they
labor that 8 hours or 10 hours or 12 hours a day that they put in, it
provides them with enough income so that they can have what we learned
from our Founding Fathers: happiness.
That is not where we are today. That is not what is happening today.
Yes, the economy is moving. Yes, the unemployment rate is down. But
this Congress has just passed a monumental tax scam back in December,
presumably to grow the economy, and when you look at that, it is not a
better deal, which is what we Democrats want for America. We want a
better deal, one in which healthcare costs come under control, where
prescription drugs can be available, where we have a real
infrastructure program that actually will build the sanitation systems,
the water systems, dealing with those communities like those in
Michigan that have contaminated water and those in my State of
California where the wells go dry--and if they are not dry, those wells
are contaminated.
{time} 1945
We want a better deal for America so that the minimum wage actually
provides sufficient income so that a family cannot only survive, but be
able to pay the rent, be able to educate their kids, be able to put
food on the table, and maybe even have a vacation.
We want a better deal for America. We want a country that is
internationally competitive. We want a better deal for America's
mariners, not where the maritime industry continues to decline as it
has for the last 20, 30 years, but rather where it is built up.
Legislation such as I proposed that would require that a certain
percentage, a small percentage, of the natural gas, one of our vital
natural resources; and our oil, another vital natural resource, that it
be shipped overseas on American ships with American sailors, who can
continue to provide the necessary support for our military so that our
shipyards can build those LNG container ships as well as the oil ships.
We want a better deal for America. That is what we are here for.
There are so many things. How about an education? Why should it be that
here in America the Federal Government provides student loans, not at
the lowest possible interest rate, which would be the borrowing rate
for the Federal Government plus maybe one-half of a percent for
administrative purposes, but oh, no, our Federal Government charges
maybe twice as much as what the Federal Government could actually
borrow money for. So the markup is like 100 percent.
That is a raw deal for America. And we tried to change that with
policy changes that would allow for the refinancing of student loans.
We want a better deal for those students as they come out of school,
not burdened by heavy debt, but, rather, able to start a family, buy a
car, buy a home, start a small business. But oh, no, somehow our
Republican colleagues won't consider refinancing student loans.
Americans are able to refinance their homes, but not their student
loans. Something is wrong here. We want a better deal for America.
There are so many policies.
We want a strong, capable military, but we also want a smart
military. We want a government that will protect us from cyber hacking.
Look what has happened to America. We basically have allowed the
Russians to hack into our energy systems, into our power grids. That is
not a good deal for America. So where is the Federal Government
stopping that? What action has the President taken to protect our
electorate, to protect our policies?
There is one raw deal after another--when we offer a better deal, an
active Federal Government that will protect us in cybersecurity. That
is what we want. We can't get it. We can't do that now because our
Republican colleagues are controlling the House. What they offered us
was a tax scam that is leading to one raw deal after another raw deal.
Let's understand exactly what has happened here with this tax policy.
Perhaps we could see it best here. In the tax scam, the GOP gives to
the rich and makes every other American pay for it. They do it in just
three easy steps.
First of all, they cut taxes for the rich. I don't know what you have
heard about this tax deal that passed with great fanfare just before
Christmas and the President went down to Mar-a-Lago just after he
signed it. He talked to all of his rich buddies and said: I have made
you so much more wealthy. Indeed, he did--$1.5 trillion-plus, plus more
than that. Tax cuts, who got them? Eighty-three percent of all of that
money went to American corporations and to the top 1 percent--$1
trillion and more. It is a raw deal for Americans--a tax scam of
unprecedented proportions, foisted upon the American public as though
somehow it would be good for them. That is step one.
They said this tax bill will pay for itself. The essence of trickle-
down economics is what it was. And so what is the next thing that
happens? Well, when they passed this bill, there wasn't a deficit hawk
to be found on the Republican side of this House. Not one word did I
hear from the deficit hawks as they ramped through this tax scam
without one public hearing here in the House of Representatives. No
accountant came in, no tax lawyer came in on a public hearing. Slam,
bang, done. It was done--done in for Americans.
Oh, the deficit hawks weren't exterminated. They are not an
endangered species. They just simply migrated out of town. Guess what?
They are back. The deficit hawks are back, and they are back with a
vengeance. They are back with a plan that will rip the guts out of
programs that Americans depend upon: Social Security,
[[Page H3498]]
Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps. Oh, yes, they are back, because they
exploded the deficit.
They exploded the deficit. We will have close to a $1 trillion
deficit this year. It started at $440 billion before the great tax scam
and now added on to it. Next year--let's just take a look.
People say: Oh, you are just a politician. You are just up here
talking. Here is some real news, not fake news. Real news. And this
comes from--well, let's see, ``Republican tax cuts to fuel historic
deficits: CBO,'' reported by Reuters, April, 2018.
``Deficit to top $1 trillion per year by 2020, CBO says,'' reported
in The Washington Post, April 9, 2018.
``CBO: GOP policies add nearly $1.6 trillion to deficit,'' Axios,
April 9, 2018.
Here is one in The Wall Street Journal: ``. . . wider than previously
expected budget deficits and a mostly temporary spurt in economic
growth.'' Real news, not fake news.
So the deficit has exploded and so the deficit hawks return to town,
and what do they want? Well, now they demand big cuts--big, beautiful
cuts to: Medicare, nearly $1 trillion; Social Security, half a
trillion; education; Medicaid. That is what the deficit hawks want
because they have come to understand that their big, beautiful tax scam
really is sending this country into a huge deficit for years to come.
So here is what they propose to do: Republicans will cut Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for their tax scam. Says who?
Says the Speaker of the House. ``Ryan says Republicans to target
welfare, Medicare, Medicaid spending in 2018,'' his words reported in
The Washington Post, December 6, 2017.
``Top Republicans are already talking about cutting Medicare and
Social Security next,'' reported by Vox news, December 20, 2017.
``House GOP Budget Plan Cuts Medicare and Social Security,'' The
Atlantic.
``Trump Proposes to Cut Medicare and Spend Big on Wall, Defense''--
his budget. You heard some of my colleagues talk about this earlier.
So what did the tax scam bring us? A raw deal--a raw deal for
millions upon millions of Americans.
We want to do it better. We want a better deal for Americans. We can
control prescription drugs if we had the votes. We could allow the
Federal Government to negotiate prices for drugs given to or provided
for Medicare recipients, Medicaid recipients, and others. We could do
it. It is a simple law.
We can do an expansion. We can maintain the expansion of the
Affordable Care Act so that some 16 million, 18 million Americans could
stay on Medicaid around the country. In California, 3.5 million
Americans are potentially going to lose their healthcare insurance if
the Republicans have their way with Medicaid cuts.
That is a lot of people. That is a lot of families that are not going
to have insurance. The majority of children now born in California and
in many other States are on Medicaid. We call it Medi-Cal in
California. So what of them? What of those children? What kind of a
healthy start will they have?
Speaking of Healthy Start, it was one of the programs that the
President proposed be cut. What sense does that make? All so that the
tax scam can give $1.5 trillion to American corporations and to the 1
percent. Trickle-down economics--oh, they said it works. Really? They
say it works. Does it really work?
Well, let's take an example. I talked a moment ago about drugs. The
most expensive illnesses in this Nation are dementia and Alzheimer's.
One dollar out of every $5 spent by Medicare today is spent for that.
And as the baby boomer population grows and a percentage of our
population grows into their later years, Alzheimer's is going to bust
the bank.
One of the great American drug companies, Pfizer, had a major
Alzheimer's research program underway to look for that miracle drug to
understand what Alzheimer's is all about, how the brain works or
doesn't work. So they received a $3 billion or $4 billion tax reduction
in the GOP tax scam. They immediately turned around, terminated the
Alzheimer's research program that they were conducting, and spent the
money on stock buybacks and increased dividends.
Do you know what that does? A stock buyback will increase the price
per share because there are fewer shares outstanding. Do you know who
benefits? You got it: the corporation executives, because their pay is
based upon an increase in the value of the stock--not in more and
better drugs, not in hiring more people, not in more research, but only
by manipulating the price of the stock earnings per share.
That is what the tax scam did, and it is repeated all across this
country. Oh, I know, they promised a one-time bonus, not an increase
over the years in the salaries and the wages paid to workers, but a
one-time bonus. Less than 13 percent of the reduced tax benefit to
corporations has gone to pay for salaries and wages.
{time} 2000
That is what the tax scam did. It is the ultimate trickle down. The
Democrats want a better deal for America. We have had enough raw deals.
We know that there is a possibility should our proposals on
infrastructure be taken seriously by our Republican majority: programs
such as Peter DeFazio's A Penny for Progress, with serious
infrastructure, over time putting 16 million people to work; programs
such as I proposed dealing with the export of natural gas and oil and
that it be on American ships--not all of it, just a small percentage of
it. We could build 50 to 100 ships and put mariners to work and, at the
same time, provide the necessary ocean transport for our military.
We need real Make It In America policies, not something soft and
fluffy, but real, strong Make It In America policies, so if we are
going to spend your taxpayer dollars, those taxpayer dollars would be
spent on goods and services made in America.
How many years have I been talking about Make It In America policies?
Through our efforts, we were able to increase, a little bit, the
percentage of made in America for the highway dollars. We are not where
we ought to be. We ought to bump that up to 80, 90, 100 percent so that
we can really manufacture once again in America.
All the talk of the President doesn't deal with this unless you write
a law that says your tax dollars will be spent on American-made
equipment and services, not on stuff imported from China. No.
We are going to continue to push the Make It In America policy as one
of the elements of a better deal, a real deal, and not a raw deal. You
are going to hear a lot about this in the days to come. You will hear a
lot about this in the days to come because we believe Franklin Delano
Roosevelt when he said the test of our progress is not when we add more
to the abundance of those who have much.
The test of progress is an F grade given to the President and to the
GOP, to my Republican colleagues, when they passed the great tax scam
of 2017 and gave a trillion dollars-plus to the superwealthy, to the
Wall Street bankers, and to America's big, wealthy corporations that
had so much gas they didn't know what to do with it before there was a
tax cut. So they give it back to Wall Street.
The test of our progress is not when we add more to the abundance of
those who have much--and here is where we are as Democrats--it is
whether we provide enough. It is for those young mothers out there who
need maternity care and who will deliver a baby on the Medicaid
programs across this Nation. Those are the people we care about.
We want young men and women to have a good education. I am sure the
superwealthy can take care of themselves. They don't need a Pell grant.
They don't need more. But I will tell you that a child who, let's say,
is 16, 17, ready to go to college and his father is earning a minimum
wage, there is no way that family can support that kid in college. He
will take out a loan and the Federal Government will rip him off with
an interest rate twice what the Federal Government can borrow money
for.
The test of our progress is what we do for those who have too little.
That is our mantra. That is how we see a better deal for Americans. FDR
was right. We will work to see that it happens in America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
[[Page H3499]]
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