[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10162-10163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          OFFICIAL TRUTH SQUAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren of California). Under 
the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized for the remaining time before 
midnight as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to take these few short 
moments and bring a little more positive perspective, a brighter 
outlook, and hopefully a little more unifying message than we have just 
heard and, frankly, than we often hear in the United States House 
Chamber, especially by some of my good friends from the other side of 
the aisle.
  We call this the Official Truth Squad. I thank the leadership and the 
conference for allowing me to come and share a few words tonight.
  The Official Truth Squad grew out of a frustration on the part of the 
freshmen class of the Republican Conference. We all were elected in 
2004, 24 strong, now 26 of us here in the United States House of 
Representatives. After a relatively few number of months, we grew 
frustrated with the fact that there was a lot of misinformation and a 
lot of distortion and a lot of frankly deception that was going on 
here. And so what we wanted to do was to put together a group of folks 
that would come to the House floor and try as best we could to provide 
some truth, some facts to the situations that we address here in the 
United States House of Representatives.
  We have just gotten back, Mr. Speaker, from a week at home, a 
district work period, over the Memorial Day week. I heard from 
constituent after constituent about two big issues. One was illegal 
immigration, obviously the largest issue we have to deal with as a 
Nation right now. But the second one in meeting after meeting after 
meeting with constituent after constituent all across my district on 
the north side of Atlanta was people asking why on earth is Congress so 
divided. Why is it so partisan? Why do you have the kind of sniping 
that goes on? And I am loathe to answer that question because it is so 
difficult to understand why there are many in this Chamber who are not 
interested in working positively or productively together. It just 
boggles my mind.
  These are not Democrat problems or Republican problems, Mr. Speaker; 
these are American problems. And American problems deserve a united 
Congress working together.
  So what you have just heard in the last 15 minutes is an individual 
who will tell you that, quote, ``this is a Republican Congress 
problem.'' Well, Mr. Speaker, we do better if we work together. The 
fact is that it is extremely difficult to get anything moving forward 
positively in Congress without the support of many different folks. And 
so we work better when we work together.
  What you hear so often is what I call the politics of division. The 
politics of division is so destructive, they do a disservice to every 
single one of us in this Nation.
  I tried to put some words to the consequences of the politics of 
division, and I think I have found a quote. I have shared it with you 
before, Mr. Speaker, and it comes from the Reverend William Boetcker, 
who was a philosopher and leader around the time of the late 19th 
century and early 20th century. He described what he said was a social 
philosophy and he attributed it to Abraham Lincoln. Nobody can actually 
determine whether President Lincoln actually said these words, but 
Reverend Boetcker talked about them, and I think they crystallize and 
capture my concern, my suspicion about what the consequences are of 
this politics of division that is so destructive.

                              {time}  2350

  He said, ``You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. 
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You can't help 
the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer, you cannot encourage 
the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred, and you cannot help 
the poor by destroying the rich.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, that kind of crystallizes, I think, what is a 
unifying American philosophy. It is a philosophy that would serve us 
extremely well here in the United States House of Representatives.
  How often do you hear people just castigate out individuals who are 
more wealthy than others, destroying the rich in an effort to build up 
the poor. It doesn't work that way, Mr. Speaker. It doesn't work that 
way. Our system never has. Our system never has done that.
  And so the Official Truth Squad tries to bring some credibility and 
truth to these discussions. We have adopted a motto which is a quote 
from a wonderful United States Senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 
the State of New York. And this quote, I think, makes it so that 
everybody has to be held accountable. And what Senator Moynihan said is 
that everyone is entitled to their opinion. And they are, and opinions 
are here in the countless number. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, 
but they're not entitled to their own facts. Everyone's entitled to 
their opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts, which is 
why it is so, frankly, troubling, Mr. Speaker, that

[[Page 10163]]

the Blue Dog group gets up here night after night, week after week and 
talks about how they want to be fiscally responsible.
  You know, we used to say that folks who were politicians that said 
one thing at home and did something different in Washington weren't 
being responsive to their constituents. Well, the Blue Dogs have 
perfected the art of saying one thing in Washington and doing another 
thing in Washington. And we will use some facts, Mr. Speaker. Here are 
some facts. You want to talk about facts? During the fiscal year 2006 
budget, this was the plan of the Blue Dogs and the Democrats. Instead 
of being responsible about spending, they offered programs that would 
have spent 21.5 more billion dollars. You didn't hear that from folks 
on the other side of the aisle. That is the truth, Mr. Speaker. That is 
the truth.
  How many in new taxes? $54 billion in new taxes. Talk to me now about 
what the truth is and what is being proposed and what is being said in 
Washington and what is being voted on in Washington and what is being 
said back home.
  How many mandatory savings? The Republican conference, all on their 
own, in a very difficult way, because we got no cooperation from folks 
who will tell you one thing at home, in fact, they will tell you one 
thing, that same thing in Washington, but they will do exactly the 
opposite. We gained $40 billion this savings with the Deficit Reduction 
Act.
  Earlier this year, how much mandatory savings on the part of the 
other side? Zero. Zero, Mr. Speaker. That is the truth. That is a fact. 
That is not opinion. That is a fact.
  The bills that they brought forward, the Blue Dogs, my good colleague 
just before me, talked about wanting a balanced budget. We have given 
them an opportunity to vote on a balanced budget. In fact, we did so 
just 3 or 4 weeks ago here on the floor of the House of 
Representatives. Not a single one of those 37 Blue Dogs voted in favor 
of that balanced budget. Not one.
  They talk about making certain that you pay as you go, that you only 
pay for programs that you have the money for. We have offered that on 
the floor of the House, Mr. Speaker. We do not get the support of the 
Blue Dogs.
  They talk about having a rainy day fund. Doesn't it make wonderful 
sense to have a rainy day fund because we know year after year after 
year we will have emergencies like Katrina or other emergencies. There 
is an average of $20 billion annually where there are emergencies that 
need Federal money during the course of any given year on average. $20 
billion.
  So what does the Republican Congress propose that we are being 
accused of doing? In fact, what we do propose is a rainy day fund in 
the budget that we just adopted for fiscal year 2007. How many Members 
of the Blue Dog, how many of those 37 Blue Dogs voted in favor of that 
rainy day fund? Mr. Speaker, not one. Not one. Same number that we got 
when we talk about the mandatory savings. Zero. Not one of them support 
it.
  I want to talk about a little positive information about this economy 
because you won't, you may not hear about it on the nightly news. You 
may not read about it in your newspapers. You certainly won't hear 
about it from some folks who want to make certain that they practice 
this politics of division and this politics of deception.
  Did you see the new job figures, Mr. Speaker, last month, the month 
of May? 75,000 new jobs created. And this economy, over the past 12 
months has created 1.9 million new jobs. 1.9 million new jobs. More 
than 5.3 million new jobs since August of 2003.
  The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.6 percent, lower than the 
average of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
  Mr. Speaker, a picture oftentimes says it so much better than any of 
us can, so let me see if I can show you the picture of that kind of job 
growth that we have seen over the past 3 years. Here it is on a graph. 
Here we are in January 2002 with unemployment up at about 5.7 to 8 
percent. Here is the job growth at that time. And then on the bottom, 
we have the number of months going by. We haven't even gotten to this 
month. But earlier this year, what has happened to the unemployment 
rate? It has gone down, Mr. Speaker. What's happened to the job growth? 
It has gone up significantly. Again, 5.3 million new jobs since August 
of 2003.
  So the curious individual, the individual who wanted to solve 
problems and work positively and productively on behalf of the American 
people would say well, what happened when this seemed to change, when 
unemployment rates began to go down, when the job growth began to go 
up? What happened? What occurred there?
  Well, lo and behold, Mr. Speaker, you know what happened. We had tax 
decreases, appropriate tax decreases, responsible tax decreases. By 
making certain that Americans got to keep more of their own money, and 
when you allow Americans to keep more of their own money, what happens? 
They spend it and they save it in wise ways and then the economy 
flourishes. So because of the tax policies of this Congress, of this 
Congress, and this administration, we have seen increasing job growth 
and decreasing unemployment.
  What else about the economy is going on? Revised reports show the 
fastest real gross domestic product growth in over 2\1/2\ years in the 
first quarter. Real GDP growth grew at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in 
the first quarter. Productivity increased at an annual rate of 3.7 
percent in the first quarter. Hourly compensation, real hourly 
compensation rose at a 3.2 annual percentage rate in the first quarter. 
Personal income increased at an annual rate of 6.7 percent in April. 
Since January of 2001, real after tax income has risen by 12.9 percent. 
Why, Mr. Speaker? Because of tax policies, appropriate responsible tax 
policies put in place by this Congress, this administration, this 
leadership. And oftentimes, in spite of what you hear at home, and in 
spite of what you hear by my friends on the other side of the aisle, 
oftentimes, more often than not, frankly, without a single individual 
helping on that side of the aisle.
  In fact, they come down and they say these tax decreases, the tax 
reductions will destroy the economy, will throw people out on the 
streets. But, Mr. Speaker, you know what happens. What happens is that 
unemployment goes down, job growth goes up, and in fact, sometimes they 
will even say that at 1 minute and then they will vote for the same 
thing that they just said was awful, just said was awful just a moment 
before that.
  Mr. Speaker, truth is so doggone important in the public discourse. 
Remember, you can have your own opinions, but you are not welcome to 
your own facts. You have got to talk about facts. And that is why the 
Official Truth Squad takes the opportunity as often as possible to come 
down here and talk about facts, talk about facts with the American 
people because the politics of division again, does a disservice to 
every single American.
  Mr. Speaker, we live in a glorious Nation, a wonderful Nation, a 
Nation that is still seen by men and women around the world as a beacon 
of liberty and a repository of hope. I am proud to serve in the United 
States House of Representatives and to have the opportunity to share a 
positive, productive perspective and vision with my colleagues, and I 
hope that we can be joined by more and more colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle as we work to solve the incredible challenges that we have 
before us as a Nation. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.

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