[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 26396-26397]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAX CUTS GO TO LARGEST CORPORATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Brown) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we remember following the horrific 
events of September 11, several gas stations around the country raised 
their prices to $4, $5 and $6 a gallon. Most called that war 
profiteering, but the overwhelming majority of Americans came together. 
They gave blood and put out their flags. Many went to New York and the 
Pentagon to help. Thousands volunteered in their communities. School 
children collected pennies, nickels and dimes to send to the victims 
and families.
  Something else happened in Washington, D.C., not war profiteering in 
the simple sense of raising gas prices, but a more sophisticated kind 
of political profiteering. This Congress, lobbied hard by the President 
and the Republican leadership, first of all gave a huge multi-billion 
dollar bailout to the airlines, requiring nothing from the airline 
executives, providing nothing for airline security, doing nothing for 
airline safety. When many tried to include help in this bill for the 
100,000 airline workers who had lost their jobs, Republican majority 
leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) told us now is not the 
time, that extending government assistance to laid off workers ``was 
not commensurate with the American spirit.''
  Then President Bush and this Congress gave billions of dollars in tax 
cuts and subsidies and rebates to the largest corporations in the 
United States. A tax refund to IBM, for example, literally in the form 
of a check from the Federal Government for $1.4 billion, $1 billion to 
Ford, $900 million to General Motors, hundreds of millions of dollars 
to American and United Airlines, as if the bailout was not enough, and 
the list goes on and on and on.
  More recently, with unemployment creeping up to the highest 2-month 
increase we have seen in 21 years, with the anxiety that people have 
about their jobs, with LTV and Republic Technologies steelworkers and 
other

[[Page 26397]]

steel industry workers facing company bankruptcies, with hundreds of 
thousands of people losing their jobs, this Congress, at the behest of 
the Republican leadership, the President and America's largest 
corporations, this Congress passed something called Trade Promotion 
Authority, which simply will send more of our jobs to Latin America and 
more of our jobs to developing countries around the world.
  My dad used to talk about World War II and shared sacrifice, about 
war bonds and WAVES and WACs, about victory gardens and scrap metal 
drives. But this Republican Congress and this President do not know 
much about shared sacrifice. Instead, they demand tax cuts for IBM, 
General Electric and American Airlines, while doing absolutely nothing 
for 100,000 laid-off airline workers. Instead of shared sacrifice, this 
Republican Congress and this President demand of Congress that we pass 
Trade Promotion Authority while doing little to provide public 
investments for broken-down schools, while doing little to help starved 
public health infrastructure, while doing little to help our woefully 
inadequate rail system.
  Imagine, Mr. Speaker, if the President and the Republican Congress 
called on us, like FDR did in World War II, called on the Congress and 
the American people for shared sacrifice. Imagine if the President 
called on young, patriotic Americans to enlist in the Army or the Peace 
Corps, to enlist in the Navy or AmeriCorps, to enlist in the Air Force, 
or teach for America. That is what waving the American flag is all 
about.
  Imagine if the President said to his friends in the drug industry, no 
more special favors. We are not going to allow drug companies to charge 
American consumers and America's elderly more for prescription drugs 
than anywhere else in the world. Imagine. That is what waving the 
American flag is all about.
  Imagine if the President called on America to volunteer for Meals on 
Wheels or clean up their neighborhoods or to tutor children who are 
having difficulty keeping up. Imagine. That is what waving the American 
flag is all about.
  Imagine if the President would say to his friends in the oil 
business, we are going to wean ourselves off Middle Eastern oil. We are 
going to find a way to help Americans conserve and get better gas 
mileage. Imagine. That is what waving the American flag is all about.
  Instead of this Republican President and Republican leadership in 
this House bestowing tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, imagine if 
we helped those who needed it the most, laid-off workers, people 
without health insurance, children sentenced to inferior schools. 
Instead of the Republican President and the leadership in this Congress 
bestowing tax cuts on the largest corporations in the world in this 
country, imagine instead if they appealed to the best in America. 
Imagine.

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