[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3740-3747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE COUNTDOWN CREW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Davis) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, we return again for the fifth 
consecutive leadership hour with the Countdown Crew.
  I would like to welcome all of you here tonight who are watching from 
home. We have been surprised at the tremendous amount of response that 
we have received talking about the reality of tax policy, of small 
business policy and the impact that it has on the lives of ordinary 
citizens in this Nation.
  In fact, the feedback has gotten so great that we have received 
hundreds and hundreds of calls, e-mails from around the country.
  What we would like to do is invite you to become part of the 
Countdown Crew, as we are only 1,416 days from one of the largest tax 
increases in American history. We have a Web site. We would encourage 
you to e-mail with questions, with comments, your perspective on ways 
to make life better for working families to create jobs and to 
strengthen small business, which creates 88 percent of the jobs in the 
United States.
  If you look behind me, our e-mail 
address is here. It is [email protected]. And we would 
invite your comments and your feedback, and also invite you to share 
your stories of why the tax cuts of the last several years have made a 
difference for you, why a more relaxed and more structured regulatory 
process that focuses on sound science versus on politics allows 
businesses to work to create jobs, to create opportunity to create a 
future for our children and our grandchildren.
  And there is a reason for this. In the election on November 7, so 
much of the emotion and so much of the focus had to do with issues 
related to the national security policy in the Middle East. But one 
thing that was forgotten in that time was something else that was voted 
for by the American people.
  All of the tax cuts that have created 7 million jobs, that have 
created record revenues to the U.S. Treasury actually are on time 
lines. And they have to be extended by the House, and they sunset at 
the end of 2010. And without a President to advocate those policies, 
without a House of Representatives and a Senate that is going to pass 
those policies, all of the tax cuts that have created millions of jobs, 
that have created these record revenues in time of war are going to 
end. And that means that in 1,416 days, the average working family in 
the United States of America will experience a tax increase of $2,098. 
And that translates across every sector of America.
  And the one thing I think that often gets lost, and I will speak as a 
former small business owner myself, is the fact that small businesses 
create 88 percent of all new jobs. Those are companies with under 500 
employees. These are companies that pay health benefits, that do 
research and development, that open new doors.
  The tax revenues that are generated from those businesses and those 
employees are what fund the infrastructure of our communities. They pay 
for our teachers; they pay for our public safety. They contribute to 
our national defense.
  And one saying, I think, that is important for all of us to remember 
is, the focus that we need to have is not to raise taxes but it is to 
create taxpayers. And the way that we can create taxpayers is give 
those who create the jobs more resources to invest in the economy, 
allow working families to keep more of what they own so they can save 
it and build a nest egg for the future that will ultimately lead to the 
growth that we have experienced.
  We have got several distinguished gentlemen tonight. Before the 
gentleman from Oklahoma begins, I would like to recognize the 
leadership of Congressman Bill Shuster from Pennsylvania who has been 
the principal architect of the Countdown Crew.
  Remember, if you would like to 
contact us, that is [email protected] if you have a question 
for any of the Members participating tonight or would like to share 
your own story of how being allowed to keep more your own money, more 
of your own resources has helped to create a future for you.
  But before I share some stories about some friends back in Kentucky 
who started and created jobs that are affecting not only our region and 
our economy, but also the defense of this Nation, I would like to 
recognize Congressman Sullivan, the gentleman from Oklahoma, to share 
his perspective on this.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Thank you, Congressman Davis. And I want to thank you 
for doing this tonight.
  I also want to thank Congressman Bill Shuster from Pennsylvania for 
the Countdown Crew. Tax relief is very important to the American 
people, the American families, American business. And we are about 
ready to embark on the largest tax increase in the history of this 
country, and it is going to be very detrimental to our economy.
  And I can remember when I got to Congress just a short time ago, 
almost 5 years ago. Congressman Shuster came in a little bit before me. 
And since that time, with some of the tax relief measures that have 
been put in place, we have seen just 167,000 jobs were created in 
December alone. Payroll, nonfarm payroll employment increased.
  Since August 2003, more than 7.2 million jobs have been created. 
Workers are finding jobs faster.
  I remember when I came to Congress back in 2002, one of the votes 
that I had to make, along with others, was to extend unemployment 
benefits. And we don't have to do that now, in large part, because of 
the tax relief measures that have been put in place.
  A lot of people think that we need to keep taxing and taxing and 
taxing our way to prosperity. And that is wrong.
  And my friends on the left, the liberals on the left, think that this 
money belongs to them, it belongs here in Washington with the 
politicians. And that is not where it belongs.

                              {time}  2000

  It belongs to the people who earn the money in the first place, 
working families, small business people. And how does that apply to 
somebody, let us say, that lives in Oklahoma, a small businessman or 
woman? Well, I will tell you how it applies to them. When I go around 
my district, one of the biggest things I hear about are complaints from 
small- to medium-sized business people, and small- to medium-sized 
business people employ 85 percent of the people in our economy. They 
either work for, own, or operate small- to medium-sized businesses. And 
if we allow a small business to keep more of their money, what are they 
going to do with it? Well, they are going to hire more people to work. 
It is going to create jobs, which it has done. They are going to buy 
equipment to expand their business, and that money is going to bounce 
around the economy, that dynamic economic effect of that money bouncing 
around the economy, and it is going to find its way back to Washington 
anyway, but we get to do things with it before it does.

[[Page 3741]]

  One of the things too, Congressman Davis, that I hear about a lot is 
small business people are really complaining right now about providing 
health insurance for their employees. Either they have to go to their 
employees and say, hey, I can't cover you anymore or they have to 
lessen the benefit to the employee or they have to make the employee 
pay more of their health care cost. Now, if we provide tax relief to 
them, they are able to use that money to provide health insurance for 
their employees. The Democrats, if they allow this tax increase to take 
place, we are going to have more uninsured people in this country.
  Tax relief has been used many, many times. I remember last week or 
the week before that, Congressman Shuster talked about how tax relief 
was used when John F. Kennedy was President, a member of the other side 
of the aisle. And it works. He used tax relief, reducing all marginal 
rates. Also Ronald Reagan proposed tax relief, and it was wildly 
successful. We had a roaring economy. Tax relief is used by other 
countries in economic slow times to get out of that. It is one of the 
economic tools that are used.
  We have to realize too that Washington is getting too big. Government 
is too big. It is unaccountable. There is runaway spending here in 
Washington. There is no accountability, no light of day on the 
budgetary process. People talk about the budget like it is a 
complicated thing here in Washington. Well, heck, a chimpanzee could do 
the budget here in Washington. You get what you spent last year; you 
try to get more money. You want $10 million, you ask for $1 billion and 
you get $10 million more, and you spend that and that goes to your 
baseline for the next year.
  Instead of throwing money at all these supposed problems around here, 
we need to find the problems first and scrutinize the spending here in 
Washington, D.C. And we certainly don't need to free up more money for 
the politicians in Washington, D.C. to spend by allowing massive tax 
increases to occur.
  So I really commend you for doing this countdown, the Countdown Crew. 
I want to commend Congressman Shuster for all he has done, Congressman 
Davis, Jack Kingston from Georgia. This is very important. And when I 
go around my district, even in Oklahoma, we are hearing a lot of things 
about what you guys are doing on this Countdown Crew. People do not 
want to see these tax increases occur. I talked to someone the other 
day that said, I am afraid that our child tax credit will go away, from 
$1,000 to $600. That will be critical. I have four kids. It is going to 
affect me. It is going to affect a lot of people. And that is what we 
are dealing with, people. And we want them to keep the money that they 
worked so hard to earn in their pockets, not here in Washington.
  And, again, I want to thank you for having me here.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Thank you very much, Congressman Sullivan.
  I think it is so important what he highlighted here when he mentioned 
four children. My wife Pat and I have six children. For families what 
this translates into, just the loss of the child tax credit alone for a 
family of four is $2,000. That could be a semester of college tuition. 
It could be an investment in savings. There is an opportunity cost that 
comes with that that has real effects. And when that money is in the 
economy, it is creating jobs.
  And I would like to take a moment and share one small business story 
that is close to home about an environment that creates opportunity. 
You may have heard me say this before: The role of government is not to 
create jobs. Government doesn't create jobs by itself. What government 
does should be to create a framework that empowers people to create 
jobs, to create opportunity, and to protect that opportunity we pass to 
future generations.
  We have seen tremendous change that has taken place in our region, 
the Fourth District of Kentucky. And specifically in the northern part 
of that district, right across the river from Cincinnati or, as we like 
to say, the greater northern Kentucky area, we are seeing economic 
explosions in great numbers in a variety of industries. In particular, 
a group of far-seeing businessmen wanted to change the view of our 
community, joined with community leaders. And they worked with Northern 
Kentucky University, first with President Jim Votruba, and talked about 
the need for bringing high-technology jobs and creating a climate for 
high-technology jobs. Dr. Votruba recruited an information technology 
professional named Bob Farrel, who is an entrepreneur, a great success 
in the business world, but also a teacher and a mentor. They 
collaborated in turn with the chamber of commerce, with local 
government, with State government, and created a zone in downtown 
Covington, Kentucky, on Madison Street, called the Madison E Zone. And 
into that came some friends of mine to build on the foundation that was 
given to them, those boundaries in which they could create opportunity.
  Three men, Kevin Moore, Norm Desmairis, and Greg Harmeyer, I know all 
three of them. I have watched what they have done professionally with 
their business. I have watched how they have grown from a very small 
company to create many, many jobs; how they left one facility and had 
to move down the street to an even larger facility. And they are the 
true ideal of the American entrepreneur, a small business person who 
starts with a vision, pursues that vision, and wants to bring about 
change. And what Kevin and Norm and Greg have all done with their 
business that is remarkable in information technology is they have 
provided needed services in the preservation of knowledge and improving 
the efficiency of systems, helping the employees of other job-creating 
companies to be more effective and more competitive in this global 
economy. And where it comes home full circle is the idea of working 
with the university in conjunction with the Department of Defense and 
the Department of the Air Force to help preserve knowledge and help 
strengthen the information technology systems of our Armed Forces, of 
our national security establishment.
  What is exciting about this is tier one with Greg and Norm and Kevin 
represent hundreds of small businesses that are creating thousands and 
thousands of jobs around the country. And what they shared with me, and 
Kevin shared with me tonight, is that these tax increases are going to 
hurt their ability to provide for health care, as Congressman Sullivan 
pointed out. It is going to hurt their ability to make needed 
investments in equipment. It is going to hurt their ability to compete 
effectively. And I believe it is better to let them keep more of what 
they have earned because that is going to be recycled into the economy 
to create more jobs.
  And the model we are following, as Solomon said in the Bible, there 
is nothing new under the sun, was the same model that birthed Silicon 
Valley. There were intellectual partnerships and entrepreneurial 
partnerships with Stanford University that led to the greatest 
explosion of technology and research in the history of modern man. It 
changed the life of virtually every citizen in this Nation, provided us 
with technologies and tools and improved a way of life that had never 
been known before. And now we stand with an opportunity to build that 
type of a future right in Kentucky. As my colleague, Congressman Hal 
Rogers down in the Fifth District, likes to say, representing eastern 
Kentucky, we may not have Silicon Valley but if we have the right 
economic policy and the right focus on research and the right focus on 
developing our young people and especially the right focus on creating 
an environment to stimulate small business, we may not have Silicon 
Valley but we can have Silicon Hollow. We can make a difference that 
provides not only for the next generation that follows us but to keep 
this Nation competitive in the long run.
  And we stand at a crossroads right now. As we mentioned before, in 
1,419 days, the average working family in this country is going to see 
a tax increase of $2,098. Money that has created 7 million jobs will be 
taken out of the economy. And what we need to do is look at policies 
that are proactive, that make a difference.

[[Page 3742]]

  One colleague who is here with us tonight who also came out of the 
small business world, who has been in Congress for a long time, who 
understands both the political side, but most important to me is that 
he has created jobs, has made a payroll, and he has helped other people 
deal with these benefits and understand this importance, and that is my 
friend Congressman Jack Kingston from Savannah, Georgia, and I would 
like him to share some of his perspective.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  First of all, I want the record to show that Mr. Sullivan has four 
kids and you commented that you have six kids. Are you saying that he 
does not have a commitment? Is that is what is going on here? The rest 
of us are getting by with one or two kids. Actually, I have four. But I 
wanted to say you two families are doing your share for the economy.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I would have to say, Congressman Kingston, 
that based on these tax increases that are coming and these regressive 
policies that will begin to take effect in 1,419 days, I would say that 
my six children will become my retirement plan.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Well, I will tell you what. Also, you and I know people 
across America will lose that family tax deduction for the children, 
which is very important.
  But I wanted to get into the perspective of a business person, but 
the way I explain tax increases to school kids, it seems that maybe it 
should apply to some of these bureaucrats here in Washington, D.C. But 
yesterday I was speaking to a group called the People to People 
Exchange, a student ambassador program. And I asked for a volunteer. A 
young lady who had a job, a young girl who was, I guess, in about the 
ninth grade named Tracy, she works at Holton's Restaurant in Midway, 
Georgia. Tracy makes $5.50 an hour. So I got her up in front of the 
class, and this was an extracurricular thing. They were actually 
meeting on a Sunday afternoon. And I said, Okay, Tracy, so you work for 
2 hours, $5.50 an hour. After those 2 hours, you bring home $11. And 
she looked at me like, You really are stupid in Washington, you know I 
don't do that.
  I said, How much do you bring home?
  She said, Well, it is about nine something.
  So I said, Okay. Let us just say for 2 hours' work you bring home $9 
and you send $2 to me in Washington. Now, what do I do with that tax 
money?
  And, of course, these students know you pay for schools, you pay for 
roads, you pay for our military. And, Mr. Davis, you know Midway. You 
probably have eaten at Holton's Restaurant. It is right down from Fort 
Stewart, where you were stationed. Have you eaten there?
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I have been in Midway many times going between 
Fort Rutger and the Hunter Army Airfield.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Well, they have a good fish and shrimp platter that is 
waiting just for you. It has got your name on it.
  Anyway, I said to Tracy, Okay, for the $2 that we get from you that 
goes to the soldiers at Fort Stewart, goes to the schools, to the 
building, to the teachers, goes to the roads, goes to the police 
officers, you are okay with those things because we all agree we need 
them?
  And she says, Yes, sir.
  And I said, Okay. Now, if you know I could do it for $1.50, would you 
want that extra 50 cents or would you let me have it? Because, you 
know, if I had that extra 50 cents from you, I could spend money. I 
could go out and maybe improve some health care and take care of some 
farm programs. And who knows? I might even get a little bit more of the 
Federal Government dollars down to our part of the State.
  She didn't like that idea. She felt like she could manage her 50 
cents better than we could in Washington, D.C. And I serve on the 
Appropriations Committee, and I have to say for a high school girl, she 
is certainly accurate. She can manage her money better than we can 
manage her money. And yet we have this attitude in Washington that if 
something is going to happen, government has to be the one to initiate 
it. So we want the whole $2.
  And the interesting thing that you have already underscored night 
after night is that if we let her keep that extra 50 cents, taking less 
of her $2 in taxes, what is she going to do? She and all the other 
millions of Tracys and millions of other people like the six Davis kids 
who will one day be working, they would go out and they might buy more 
hamburgers, more shoes, more clothes, more tires, more dryers, more 
washing machines, go out to eat more. And when they do, small 
businesses react by expanding. They increase their inventory. Then they 
have to have more people to sell their inventory; so they hire more 
people. Less people are on welfare. More people are paying taxes. And 
so the money comes into Washington, D.C. Small businesses win. People 
who are working win. And the government, at the end of the day, gets 
more revenue. That has been the case now with George Bush, Ronald 
Reagan, and John F. Kennedy.
  Tax cuts, giving the people the right to keep more of their own hard-
earned money actually brings in more revenue. Therefore, to let these 
tax breaks end and increase taxes on small businesses and on families 
across America is an absurd policy. And we have got to get folks 
motivated to realize that this is something that is going to happen 
unless people back home start raising Cain about it.
  So I am glad you are doing what you are doing. And I wanted to yield 
back because I know we have some other speakers here, but I thank you 
for your leadership on it.

                              {time}  2015

  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I appreciate that, Congressman Kingston. It 
just highlights all the more what you point out, that in 1,419 days, 
that every working family in America is going to have a $2,000 tax 
increase. We think about where that money could go and what it is doing 
in the economy.
  Just for those who might be joining us tonight, we are the Countdown 
Crew. We meet the first night of every vote and talk about issues that 
make a difference to creating jobs, that make a difference to our 
pocketbook, for working families, for small business owners that create 
the preponderance of our jobs.
  We would like for you to join with us, to communicate your stories, 
to share your experiences. You can contact us at 
[email protected]. We are standing by to hear those stories 
right now. And I just want to thank again Bill Shuster's vision to want 
to execute this program.
  As we get ever nearer to those tax increases, we have had Members 
that are coming to the floor that haven't been politicians their whole 
life, that have had what I would like to say are real jobs, who have 
been out there, who know what it is like to have to make a profit.
  I know what it is like to make that decision to go without a paycheck 
to make sure that employee health benefits are paid. And I am not 
saying that to impress anybody, simply to point out to you, that is a 
common decision that many small business owners face, making sure that 
our employees are taken care of. And when taxes are raised, that takes 
away even more of that flexibility to meet employee and family needs, 
but also it takes dollars out of the economy or dollars out of the 
potential of those businesses to create jobs.
  One Member who is joining us here tonight who I think has lived a 
great success story in small business with her husband is Congresswoman 
Thelma Drake from Peninsula, Virginia. She represents the Norfolk area.
  The thing that is very exciting about her story that is very 
consistent with other small business owners who have gotten to taste 
that piece of the American Dream and all the families that have worked 
with them or have been benefited by them, is her story coming up as a 
Realtor, seeing many, many facets of the economy and the impact of 
these income tax policies, of regressive policies against small 
business, and yet at the same time the positive impact by allowing 
people to keep more of what they earn. It has created

[[Page 3743]]

record revenues, as Congressman Kingston mentioned.
  Among all the doom and gloom stories, one thing that I would share is 
that many times when we talk about our global economy, there is a great 
fear of competing on that global stage. If we compete on a level 
playing field, the American worker, the American entrepreneurial and 
creative genius is going to win. But when we talk about competing with 
countries like China, an emerging superpower, one thing that I would 
point out is that just in less than 3 years, the U.S. has added to its 
economy, the increase in our economic output has been $2.2 trillion. 
That is bigger than the entire economy of China.
  Folks, if we create taxpayers instead of raising taxes, that growth 
will continue and our children and grandchildren will have the 
opportunity to compete.
  I would like to recognize the gentlewoman from Virginia to share her 
perspective on this.
  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman for that 
and thank him for his commitment to telling America how important it is 
that we keep our tax cuts that are in place and the very positive 
results that have taken place from the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Those 
are real savings that are helping Americans today. At the end of 2006, 
that tax relief that Americans got to keep in their pockets was valued 
at $1.1 trillion. That is a lot of money for families, for small 
businesses.
  You mentioned my experience as a Realtor. I want to tell you, when I 
was new in the real estate business, I couldn't figure out how to put 
more time in the day, how do I do all the things that I needed to do. 
It took me just a while to realize there is no more time in the day, 
and there are only seven days in the week, and the only answer for me 
was to hire other people to do the things that I didn't have the time 
to do.
  What that meant for me in my little real estate business was I became 
an employer. All of a sudden I was paying payroll taxes on employees, 
as well as paying double for myself as a self-employed individual in 
the real estate industry. At the end of each year, when I would look at 
a really good year and sell a lot of real estate, I would say, I am 
really not making any money for as hard as I am working because so much 
is going to the Federal Treasury in the way of taxes. So I appreciate 
that in 2001, when the tax cuts were put into place that we reduced 
those income tax rates to Americans.
  I think a lot of people don't realize that today we have a 10 percent 
tax rate for our lowest payers, down from 15 percent. That is slated to 
expire in 2011 if we don't act then and keep that in place. Our other 
rates dropped by 3 to 4 points, not the full 5 points for our lowest-
income Americans.
  I have heard you talking in here tonight about your children. I have 
two children and I have four grandchildren. When I was ran for office, 
because it was something I felt I needed to do, but not something that 
had always been a goal of mine, the way I made myself do that every day 
is I took a picture of my granddaughter, who was then under 2 years 
old, taped it to the dash of my car, and every time I got in the car I 
said, Caity, I am doing this for you.
  I stand here today now as a Member of Congress and say Caity, and the 
other three, because there are three more now, I am doing this for you. 
Because if we want to leave our children the America that we have 
enjoyed, we have got to make sure that our tax policy supports our 
economy, that it grows our revenues and it allows Americans to be the 
ones to decide how they are spending their money.
  One of the big changes in growing revenues for our country, of 
course, is the capital gains tax, which has been reduced from 25 
percent to 15 percent. As a Realtor, before coming to Congress, I can't 
tell you how many times I would hear from people, I can't sell that 
rental property because I can't pay that capital gains tax. But in 
2003, when that was dropped by 10 percent, that made a lot of 
difference for people, and people were allowed to take assets and free 
them up and not be looking at such an overburden of taxes in order to 
do that.
  We have talked about it. Congressman Kingston has mentioned President 
Kennedy. I wrote a quote of his down that I thought I would share 
tonight with America. This is from President Kennedy. He said: ``An 
economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough 
revenue to balance our budget, just as it will never produce enough 
jobs or enough profits.''
  That is the from the 1960s. Here we are in 2007 still having the same 
discussion and still trying to point out to America that when you keep 
your own money, that you spend it, you save it, you create jobs, you 
create wealth for yourself.
  We have heard a lot about taxing the wealthy and how we should do 
more of that. But what people don't realize is by allowing people to 
grow their own wealth, we do raise taxes on the wealthy. They have 
actually risen 39 percent. Our income taxes are up 8.8 percent on 
personal income tax, while corporate income taxes are now up 22.2 
percent. What better way is there to raise revenue than allowing people 
to be successful and spend their own money the way they see fit?
  I am dismayed by two actions that were taken by this Congress in the 
very early days. There is a three-fifths majority that is needed to 
raise taxes. However, by a simple majority vote of this body, we now 
have a simple majority vote that is able to waive that. America needs 
to watch what this body does, and they need to hold us accountable.
  The other thing that this Congress did in those early hours is pass 
something that is called PAYGO. It sounds very good, and Virginia is 
actually a pay-as-you-go State. We are not allowed to have a deficit in 
our budget. So it sounds good to everyone, until you stop and realize 
what it means.
  What that means is when these taxes are ready to begin expiring, that 
in order to keep them in place, that other taxes either have to be 
raised or spending cuts have to take place to offset them. That doesn't 
take into consideration at all the positive impact we have seen of 
reducing taxes. It only looks at things on the surface.
  It is like the philosophy that is out there that if we are bringing 
in a lot of money today with tax policy, let's raise it just a little 
bit and we will get more. It is actually the opposite that takes place. 
I believe our responsibility is to grow our economy. Our responsibility 
is to have a tax policy that grows revenues for us and makes sure that 
we have the economy and the future for our children and our 
grandchildren.
  I thank you for letting me join you today.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I thank you, Congresswoman Drake, for being 
with us this evening. I think one thing I would like to recognize is 
that Thelma and her husband are real people who started and ran a real 
business that created real jobs and a real future for many others.
  If you are just joining us, we are the Countdown Crew. We are 
counting down 1,419 days to one of the largest tax increases in 
American history if Congress does not take action to make sure that the 
tax cuts, the benefits that have made such a difference for so many in 
this country by allowing people to keep more of what they earn, are 
extended and hopefully made permanent.
  I would just like to point out if you would like to communicate with 
us, we are the countdowncrew@
mail.house.gov. If you have questions or would like to share your story 
of how being able to keep more of your own money, of your hard-earned 
resources has benefited you, how it has helped you build a future, we 
would love to hear from you.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Davis, if the gentleman will yield, I was 
wondering, I was listening to Mrs. Drake talk about something she went 
over. I think we need to maybe get a good explanation here in terms of 
Congress voting on a simple majority now. Maybe you could explain that, 
because under the Republicans it was required to have, was it a three-
fifths majority?

[[Page 3744]]


  Mrs. DRAKE. A three-fifths vote in order to raise taxes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. That was in place for 10 or 12 years under Republican 
leadership. So now the Democrats on their first day changed it from 
three-fifths required to raise taxes on working people to what?
  Mrs. DRAKE. What the rules that were changed were is that by a simple 
majority vote you can waive that three-fifths vote. I have not seen 
that written anywhere. Everyone that I have told about this back at 
home is shocked. Their eyes get big. I think they felt safe to think it 
would take a three-fifths supermajority vote to raise taxes in America, 
and they are very distressed to hear it. That is why I wanted to 
mention it tonight, because so few people know that that took place in 
the opening of this session in our House rules. I think that is unfair, 
and I think America should know it, and I think America should watch 
what we do.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Thanks.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I appreciate you pointing that out. That was 
one of those surprises that I think affected a lot of people or that 
will affect a lot of people in the months and the years ahead. The 
reason for that 60 percent or three-fifths majority was to make sure 
that it was clearly the will of the American people to raise taxes 
instead of cutting spending, that people would be accountable.
  In effect, what we were doing was something similar in line to the 
way the Senate works, with their rules of cloture to end debate. They 
have to have a 60-vote supermajority. Certainly, over there that would 
be absolutely necessary for any type of a measure that would raise 
taxes or lower them. In the same vein, I think it was right for us to 
have that in this body, because in 1,419 days we will be raising taxes.
  The one thing that we all believe in the Countdown Crew is that the 
goal of the government should not be to create new taxes, but to create 
taxpayers. We want to cut taxes, allow people to keep more of what they 
earn. And that is why we have had 7 million new jobs created and record 
revenues into the Federal Treasury, because the economy is working. 
Even in a time of war, it continues to grow, and it is incredible that 
we are able to compete so effectively in a global economy. We need to 
allow people to keep their resources to build that future for their 
children and grandchildren.
  With that, I would like to recognize another real person who helped 
run a real business creating jobs out in the economy before he came to 
Congress, and that is our leader of the Countdown Crew, Congressman 
Bill Shuster from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SHUSTER. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky. I appreciate your 
leadership down there on the floor, and I appreciate everybody that has 
been here tonight. As always, with those of us down here on the 
Countdown Crew, we all come from business backgrounds, most of us, if 
not all of us, small business backgrounds. I ran a business that 
employed between 30 and 40 people. And many, many Americans, small 
business owners, know just how difficult it is to meet payroll every 
month, to pay your bills.
  There are many people here in Congress that talk about the escalating 
costs of health care and how difficult it is. But there aren't that 
many, there are few that are in Congress that have experienced that, 
like Mr. Davis has, I know Mr. Kingston or Thelma Drake or myself. We 
saw it happen year after year, and it is something that we are all 
concerned about. It is something that we all want to make sure we find 
an answer to, seeing that health care costs don't continue to climb.
  But the answer is not to raise taxes. That works just the opposite. 
And I am very, very concerned that the American people are not aware, 
that was one of the reasons that getting together with Mr. Davis and 
Mr. Kingston and Mrs. Drake and others, we came up with this idea to 
talk about the countdown to the tax increase, because we are concerned 
about it, and because the Democrat majority does not have to do 
anything.

                              {time}  2030

  They have to run out the clock, and if they run out the clock on 1419 
days, there is going to be the largest tax increase in American 
history, over $200 billion. That does not occur all at one shot. It is 
going to occur over the next 4 years.
  In 2008, there are certain tax cuts will expire; in 2009, 2010; and 
then January 1, 2011, all the tax cuts put in place will have expired, 
and we will see our taxes go up considerably.
  If you are at home thinking about what your tax liability is going to 
be in the future, you need to realize that the Democrat majority, as 
Mrs. Drake and Mr. Kingston pointed out and discussed about the 
difference between the three-fifths and the simple majority, the 
Democrats changed those rules in the very first days of the Congress so 
that they can raise your taxes.
  The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from New 
York, said before the election that he did not know of any of the Bush 
tax cuts that he thought were worthy of continuing or extending.
  So they have made it quite clear from their leadership, to the fact 
they changed the rules, that they intend to raise taxes. Why they keep 
talking about the deficits and deficit spending, and that is the answer 
to it, well, I believe just the opposite. It is not the answer to it.
  If you look at the revenues in 2006 to the Federal Government, they 
increased by 9.7 percent in 2006. The deficit is down 50 percent of 
where we projected it to be in 2005. The 2006 deficit is down 50 
percent as to where we project it to be, and why is that? That is 
because the revenues are coming into the Federal Government in 
significant numbers.
  In 2005, there was an over 14 percent increase in revenues. That is 
because the economy is growing. That is because the Republican majority 
tried to hold the line on spending. We did not do enough. We need to do 
more, but the worst thing to do is to put a halt, put a hurdle on this 
economy, put a bump in the road to stop this economy from growing.
  As many have said tonight, talked about the facts, the numbers, in 
December alone, there were 167,000 jobs created in this country; in 
January, 111,000 jobs. To date, over the last 4 years, there have been 
7.3 million jobs created in America, and those are due to allowing the 
American people and small businesses to keep more of their hard-earned 
dollars in their own pockets so that they can go out and buy new 
things, whether it is a washer and dryer or whether it is a downpayment 
on a new car or saving money for college, putting that money away, 
$2,000 at a clip; and that is what the average American with a family 
of four and making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year, if these tax 
cuts are not extended, they are going to be hit with about a $2,000, 
$2,200 tax increase. If you take that money, $2,000 a year, and put it 
in a bank account at 5 percent interest over 10 years that grows to 
$30,000. That is a nice downpayment on a house. That is a nice 
downpayment on your kid's education. It is your money. It should not be 
sent to Washington. We want to keep it out there in the families of 
America and the small business of America.
  As I said more of those numbers, we are at 4.6 percent unemployment, 
and it is the lowest rate on average over the last 4 decades. Cutting 
taxes drive this economy in a positive way. And others have said here 
tonight, and just to remind people that we are not the first to use tax 
cuts to move this economy forward, Ronald Reagan did it in the 1980s, 
and this economy grew by leaps and bounds. And President John F. 
Kennedy did it in the 1960s, cut taxes to spur this economy on, and 
that is what we need to do.
  As I said, there are millions of Americans out there today that are 
depending on these tax rates to stay low. There are millions of small 
businesses which are the backbone of this economy that are counting on 
us keeping these tax cuts in place. There are millions of small 
businesses and farmers in this country hoping that we will extend the 
death tax so that they can

[[Page 3745]]

plan for their future, so they can do the financial planning necessary 
because the alternative is it will expire at the end of 2010. The 
alternative is, if you cannot plan properly for expansion, for the 
future, you certainly do not want to die so that your family gets that 
tax, the tax break that we put in place.
  So this is extremely important, as I said, to Americans across the 
spectrum, across this Nation from Arizona to Pennsylvania to Washington 
to Florida. I know millions of Americans, actually 10.6 Americans, low-
income Americans, that are not paying taxes at all today because of the 
tax cuts we put into place in 2001 and 2003.
  As we have been talking about for the last month this countdown to 
the tax increase, 1,419, dies, if Mr. Davis will put that chart back 
up, not the chart but our e-mail address. We have the 
CountdownC[email protected]. We would love to hear from across this 
country how Americans have utilized these tax cuts, whether it is the 
child tax credit, whether it is the accelerated depreciation or any of 
the decreases in the marginal income tax rates. If you have utilized 
the Tax Code in a positive way, we want to hear about that. We want to 
be able to talk about that on the House floor.
  One story that I have, back in central Pennsylvania, Dr. Greg Pyle is 
the president of Oil Surgery Associates. His practices are in Bedford 
County and Blair County, Pennsylvania, which are in the Ninth 
Congressional District of Pennsylvania. He has seen steady growth over 
the past 10 years, some of the most impressive growth being in small 
Bedford County. It is about 45,000. According to Dr. Pyle, medical 
practices usually plateau financially from 5 to 8 years. However, Dr. 
Pyle's medical partnership, which has been in business for 12 years, 
has seen some of its greatest growth just in the past couple of years. 
He attributes that directly to the reduction in taxes and that people 
have more money in their pocket that they can come in and utilize his 
services that he provides to them in central Pennsylvania.
  Again, we have many, many other stories, but I just want at this 
point to yield back to my good friend from Kentucky (Mr. Davis).
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I thank you, Congressman Shuster. For those of 
you who are watching, if you would like to share your perspective, your 
view, join us via e-mail at CountdownC[email protected], and remember 
that in 1,419 days, there is a bill arriving.
  I would put it to you in a question like this. If you knew or you 
suddenly went to the mailbox and opened the box up and there was a bill 
for $2,100 and it was due immediately, that is what is coming if these 
tax cuts are not extended and made permanent.
  Despite the fact of the economic improvement in this Nation, the 
Democratic Congress is committed to raise taxes. The last time they 
raised taxes was 25 days ago in the energy industry that has an effect 
on virtually every job in America, and now we are looking at a wide 
variety of taxes.
  Facts are stubborn things. The success of Republican tax relief 
initiatives are undeniable. That is the reason that Congressman Shuster 
and I and the Countdown Crew like to say we want to create taxpayers, 
not raise taxes. We want to create taxpayers, not create new taxes 
because the job creators who are out there are real people, like Jack 
Kingston who was in the insurance industry; Thelma Drake from Virginia 
now who was a Realtor; Bill Shuster who worked in the automotive 
support industry. I worked in the manufacturing industry, and all of us 
saw firsthand the impact of government policies that were often well 
meant by folks that passed these laws, but they never worked out in 
that environment to understand the impact that it had on the pocketbook 
of working Americans.
  As we stand here tonight for the seventh week since the Democrats 
took control of Congress, I am pleased to report one thing, though, is 
that the Democrats have come to the realization that some facts just 
cannot be ignored.
  This week, the House will vote on H.R. 976, and that is the Small 
Business Tax Relief Act of 2007. This bipartisan legislation extends 
critical tax provisions for small business owners and paves the way for 
the House and the Senate to come to agreement on raising the minimum 
wage from $5.15 cents to $7.25.
  I know you supported this measure, Mr. Shuster, and so did I, but we 
realize also how important this provision can be for young people just 
starting out, for working families, and I am glad that the Democrats 
have realized how important some of the tax incentives are to keeping 
our businesses growing and creating new jobs, but we cannot stop here. 
We have got to make this and all the other tax relief provisions 
permanent that affect individual families, because real people who hold 
real jobs out in the real world, not here in the halls of Congress, are 
the ones that pay those taxes, that foot that bill like that $2,098 
bill that is going to be arriving in 2 years, in the very near future, 
if these tax policies are not extended, if they are not continued for 
the great benefit that they have brought forward.
  I would like to highlight some tax provisions that need to be made 
permanent. First of all, the $1,000 child tax credit reverts to $500. 
For a family of four, that is $2,000. In my case, my wife Pat and I 
have six children. That is $3,000. It goes on and on, affecting people 
right in their pocketbook.
  That $500 difference is not $500 that is going for a corporate jet or 
some rich and famous lifestyle for people who were seen in the tabloid 
shows on TV. That $500 tax credit goes to real people who live in the 
real world. They are spending that on their children and investing that 
in their children's future. I believe we need to allow them to keep 
more of what they earned because they are going to spend it in a way 
that is going to benefit their children and their children's children.
  Congresswoman Drake mentioned earlier the 10 percent tax bracket. 
Contrary to some of the spin in the media, the truth of the matter is 
that the tax burdens have been pushed upward. It is those with more 
that are paying more now with the structure of these cuts. Millions of 
people have been taken off the tax rolls, and in fact, the 10 percent 
bracket was created specifically as a transition for lower-income 
earners so their tax burden would not be that high, that they would be 
able to keep more of what they earn to be sure they meet their basic 
necessities. That 10 percent bracket will disappear when those tax cuts 
expire in 2010 without action from Congress and from the Senate and 
from the President of the United States.
  I would mention in a light moment that Kentucky is the home of 
Kentucky Fried Chicken. We were meeting with KFC franchisees from all 
around the country that came into Washington last week to give their 
small business ownership perspective, what they do in the food service 
industry, and they talked unceasingly about the benefits of tax 
policies that help working families, that help them as small business 
owners that made sure that they could keep the dollars in their 
community, creating jobs in their community instead of sending it to 
bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
  One thing that they brought up that was very important and really 
affects any capital-intensive business that they wished for was the 
continuation of the 15-year accelerated depreciation for improvements 
on new construction of restaurant buildings. Under old law, we are 
looking at a 30-year depreciation schedule, and when you think about 
the food service industry, as competitive as it is with new fads and 
themes to be able to meet the needs of the consumer, 30 years is quite 
a long time, and I can think of a difference in my lifetime.
  These business owners, these men and women who were creating 
thousands and thousands of jobs around the United States, asked to not 
have their tax burden eliminated, but simply to have it structured in 
such a way that they could compete more effectively.
  They understand the importance of creating taxpayers versus taxes 
because those dollars, creating jobs, will come back into the economy, 
and as we

[[Page 3746]]

have seen with record revenues to the Federal Government, by cutting 
taxes we have improved revenue.
  The Republican-led Congress had acted and extended these important 
tax relief provisions to 2007, but we need to make them permanent.
  I would like to defer now to my colleague from Pennsylvania to share 
some more of his perspective on this issue.
  Mr. SHUSTER. I appreciate that. You made a very important point about 
the minimum wage. I think you and I both voted at the end of the last 
Congress to increase the minimum wage, but it failed in the Senate. It 
was not able to get through in the Senate.
  What is happening here today is that our friends on the other side, 
they stand up on the House floor and claim that they have raised the 
minimum wage when, in fact, all they have done is pass it in the House. 
It is not law yet. It takes both bodies to pass it.
  Thank goodness for the United States Senate. They are putting back in 
those tax cuts for small business. They are absolutely critical for 
small businesses.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Just as an aside, if the gentleman would 
yield, I am becoming a much bigger fan of the policies and rules of the 
U.S. Senate since November 8.
  Mr. SHUSTER. I agree with you on that.
  There is a small amusement park in my district, Lakelawn Park, and I 
was talking to the general manager of Lakelawn Park, and he told me the 
increase in the minimum wage is going to cost him between $130,000 to 
$150,000 to the bottom line, and what they employ are mainly high 
school kids in the summertime to run those rides. He said that kids 
starting out at minimum wage, if they had been there for a period of 
time they certainly make more than that.

                              {time}  2045

  But without any kind of tax decrease or other kind of tax benefit, 
that is going to cost them $130,000. It is going to cause him to hire 
less kids to work in the summer because he is not going to be able to 
afford that kind of hit to his bottom line. So we passed it here in the 
House, we know, and unfortunately the national news media, unlike in 
1995 when the Republicans took control, I remember it well. The first 
100 days, every time the Republicans would pass something the national 
news media was quick to point out, Well, they haven't done anything 
yet, they just passed the House.
  And that is all that happened here in the first 100 hours, is we 
passed the House. Minimum wage has not gone up. It will go up with 
probably a lot of Republican votes if the Senate comes through with the 
tax measures that they proposed. And I know the House, Johnny-come-
lately to the tax cut for small businesses, we are going to hopefully 
pass something here this week to offer some of those tax cuts, but not 
near enough what small businesses need. Our small business owners are 
out there every day creating jobs, meeting payrolls, working long 
hours, and giving back to the community.
  The community I come from, when you look at who are the people that 
are contributing to the charities and the different civic 
organizations, it is the small business owner, giving back to its 
community to make it a better place to live. So I think it is so 
important that we put tax breaks in, we make the ones permanent that we 
passed in 2001 and 2003.
  And I just have another story of a small business owner from my 
district, Greg Rothman with RSR Realty in Cumberland County, 
Pennsylvania, which is Carlisle, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania. He has seen a massive increase in his business due to the 
economic policies that were put in place over the last several years. 
The lower tax burden has trickled down, and houses are being sold and 
houses are being built, more attractive for the consumers to buy 
throughout Pennsylvania, and especially in central Pennsylvania in 
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and employment rate is about 3.3, 3.4, 
4 percent, one of the lowest in the State.
  Reductions in capital gains tax have allowed many empty nesters to 
enter the housing market to buy homes, to improve what they are living 
in, or downsize into nicer places. It has helped his realty business 
grow. And since becoming a partner in RSR realty in 1999, Greg has seen 
it grow from 20 Realtors to 60, which is an increase of 40 jobs in 
about the past 7 or 8 years. And it is these economic policies that we 
have put in place that have caused this to happen; and Greg said that 
he has seen the highest sales volume since he has entered the industry.
  And I think that is important to tell those kinds of stories. Those 
are real people; those are real jobs. And I want to remind people that 
we would like to hear those kinds of stories; we want to hear from all 
across America. At the [email protected], you can send us in 
that story, your success story, and how you utilized those tax cuts 
that have been put in place in the early 2000s and why we need to keep 
them in place. So we would love to hear stories from business people, 
small, medium-sized, and large all around the country. We certainly 
would appreciate that.
  At this time I will yield back to the gentleman from Kentucky.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I thank the gentleman and point out that we in 
the Countdown Crew can be contacted at [email protected]. 
The stories that we tell are about real people who are creating real 
jobs and live in the real world, and they understand the real effects 
of the policies that are generated here in Washington, that create 
value, that create a future, and those that create impediment and 
create barriers to growth.
  I think of my friend George Hammond who runs Hammond Automotive. He 
started in Covington, Kentucky, years ago, and he invested in his 
business the great benefits that have come from the tax cuts that were 
passed by the Republican Congress, allowing the American people to keep 
more of what they own, have benefited him and his employees and family. 
His business has grown. In fact, he opened a new outlet, a new store in 
Burlington, Kentucky, to reach even more people and to create even more 
jobs.
  It is like my friend Don Salyers who runs a river transport operation 
in Ashland, Kentucky, giving opportunity for creating more jobs and a 
future for that community that is in economic transition.
  This week we are going to vote for a tax incentive package that will 
help to keep the American economy strong by extending tax policies that 
we passed in prior Congresses. We owe it to our families and this 
Nation, to our working families, to small business owners, and 
ultimately to the health of the economy to allow people to keep more of 
what they earn. We need to do more that creates that future and creates 
taxpayers, instead of raising taxes.
  One thing that I would like to comment on here tonight is the 
extension of the work opportunity tax credit. Small business owners, 
especially those that have to take somebody and intensively train them 
to bring them into that workplace, into that small business to make 
them into a taxpayer need incentives and opportunities. For example, we 
have many people who have had some challenges in life, that may have 
lived life on the edge, may be going through a transition in life, and 
we want to give them that opportunity. But the way to do that is not to 
mandate that. The way to do that is not simply to set aside the 
taxpayers' dollars with no stewardship or oversight, but is to allow 
the market and the economy to work by providing accountability for 
those small business owners on the frontline, and also the opportunity 
and the incentive to make an investment. And what the work opportunity 
tax credit does is it incentivizes small business owners to hire 
higher-risk employees, and the goal again is creating taxpayers.
  What are some examples of this? Dealing with high-risk youth. My 
wife, Pat, and I worked with Youth on the Edge for over 20 years before 
I came to Congress. And the one thing that I can say is there are many 
young people that need a vision; they need a new start to overcome 
mistakes that were

[[Page 3747]]

made earlier, some wrong assumptions they had about their environment, 
oftentimes the consequences of poor decisions that they made.
  On first blush, a business owner could be hard pressed to want to 
make that investment. But what this tax credit does is gives an offset 
to that business owner to make that investment, to reduce the risk, to 
give somebody a chance. That is the kind of framework, the kind of 
regulation that government should give that allows the market to work, 
to bring out the best in people, and ultimately strengthen our economy 
in the long term.
  You know, as I close tonight before yielding to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania for his final words, our mission in the Countdown Crew is 
to do two things: first, it is to let the American people know that in 
1,419 days, a $2,100 bill is going to arrive in the mail to basically 
every taxpayer in the United States when the tax cuts that have 
produced so much will be repealed automatically, when they sunset. We 
need to allow people to keep more of what they earn. We have seen the 
great benefits that come to the economy from that.
  The other thing that we do in the Countdown Crew is we want to 
highlight the positive impact of policies that allow people to control 
their own lives. The government doesn't create jobs; all it can do is 
create a framework and environment that either empowers people or 
restrains them and holds them back. And what we want to do is join with 
you and the Countdown Crew, and you can contact us at 
[email protected] to get the American people's story here in 
the House of Representatives so that the Congress will know, and compel 
the Congress to act, to allow the small business owners who create the 
bulk of jobs in this country to keep more of what they earn, to invest 
it in their employees, to allow working families to keep more of what 
they earn and invest it in their employees; so that in 1,490 days we 
can continue creating opportunities rather than stopping something that 
has been a great benefit.
  With that, I will yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania to close.
  Mr. SHUSTER. I appreciate that. And I think the point you made is 
worth repeating, because I know you and I believe this and many of our 
colleagues believe this, especially on this side of the aisle, that 
government doesn't create jobs. We can only create an environment to 
give people the opportunity to create jobs, small entrepreneurs and 
business people across this country. And our fiscal problems in this 
country, our financial problems with the government, isn't that the 
government taxes too little. It is that we spend entirely too much. And 
I know the coming weeks, I know especially the new Members of Congress 
are going to be put to the test to stand up and be accounted for, 
because there are many people who say that America voted for a change 
in November, and they did.
  But I know there is nobody in the Ninth Congressional District and 
nobody that I have come across as I travel this country that wanted to 
change from a lower tax system to higher taxes. Nobody wants to do 
that. And our goal is, in the Countdown Crew, to make the American 
people aware that the Democrats don't have to do anything; they can run 
out the clock, and on January 1, 2011, they will have the largest tax 
increase in American history, over $200 billion. And I believe it is 
our duty to make sure that we are talking about it so that the American 
people know what the majority intends to do by changing the rules on 
their first couple of days of Congress from a three-fifths majority to 
a simple majority to raise taxes, they have made it a lot easier to 
raise taxes.
  They put PAYGO into place which only deals with new spending, and it 
really does nothing to address the deficits we have today. So PAYGO 
really should be TAXGO, because that is what the American people are 
going to see.
  So, again, we urge you to e-mail us at [email protected], 
because we want to hear your stories about how you have put those tax 
cuts into use to create jobs and make America a more prosperous place.

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