[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE STATE OF OUR ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to 
address the House for a few moments.
  I think it's very appropriate for us to pause for a moment here and 
just reflect on where we are as a Nation and as a people when it comes 
to our economy and our financial House. This April 15, it's Tax Day. 
It's important that this House of Representatives be mindful of the 
difficulties that the American people are faced with.
  Madam Speaker, millions of American people and families are 
absolutely hanging on by their fingernails. They're on the verge of 
losing their homes. Many have already. And so much of it has been 
because of bad policies by their government. It is important for us to 
understand that, Madam Speaker, so much of this could possibly have 
been prevented had we moved quicker, had we made different policies.
  This is a very sobering time. Two major events happened today. One 
is, the American people, many are in line at post offices as we speak 
trying to meet the midnight deadline to pay their taxes. Others are 
struggling to do so. Others are having difficulty even beginning to 
comprehend the complexities, the complications of a tax code that even 
if they sat down to read it, it would take them over 1 year trying to 
read the tax code, let alone trying to understand it, just the volume 
of trying to read it.
  And Madam Speaker, we in Congress must take into consideration how 
difficult that is, the fact that the American people, many are not even 
taking the credits or getting the deductions that they should have 
because they don't understand it. Twenty-five percent of American 
families that are entitled to the Earned Income Tax Credit don't even 
get it because they don't understand how to do it.
  Last year, over 65 percent of American families had to get a private 
person from the outside to come help them with their taxes. That has 
increased up 25 percent, since just 10 years ago it was 40. And in 
1950, it was just 20 percent that did that. The complexity of our tax 
code is just out of whack. Many are gathered around the kitchen tables 
right now trying to find out how they're going to have ends meet.
  And Madam Speaker, the other phenomenal event in our economy that 
took place today was the merger of Delta Airlines and Northwest 
Airlines, making the largest airline company in the world. That is 
certainly room to celebrate, but it's very important that we be very 
mindful to both Delta and Northwest to understand the implications of 
that, to have the sensitivity that there are many thousands of families 
that are impacted, and that we do not use the word ``synergy'' to 
equate with a loss of jobs, but that there are no jobs lost.
  We in Congress must have the empathy of putting ourselves into the 
mindset of the American people, and we must show that we understand the 
difficulties that the American people are faced with; we understand the 
difficulties of knowing when they wake up the next morning, their car 
may be repossessed, they may have a foreclosure notice.
  Our policies must be, here in this House of Representatives going 
forward, to keep Americans in their homes, even if it means coming up 
with the policies and moving as fast as we can. If we could move with 
lickety-split speed to save Wall Street, Bear Stearns, and Madam 
Speaker, I believe that was the right thing to do because, had we not, 
global markets would have cascaded and we would have had an 
extraordinary world calamity in the financial markets, but just as 
aggressively as we moved with those policies that helped Wall Street 
and Bear Stearns, we must move to help our homeowners and our families.
  And then finally, Madam Speaker, the real elephant facing us in the 
room, the real looming threat economically and financially to this 
country is our overwhelming debt. Madam Speaker, it is staggering to 
look at the debt that we are in. Every dime we are spending is on 
borrowed money. And we have spent, Madam Speaker, as I conclude, in the 
last 5 or 6 years, more money from foreign governments than in the 
entire history of this country.
  Madam Speaker, that's the state of our economy. And it's very 
important that we reflect it from the perspective of the American 
people. And I thank you for this opportunity.

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