[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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