[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        HOUSE REPUBLICANS ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the American people are hurting. Congress was 
right to take action to get this economy moving, but higher taxes and 
massive Federal spending is not the cure for what ails this economy. 
The American people know that, too. They know we cannot tax and spend 
and bail our way back to a growing economy.
  Raising taxes during a recession on almost every American is a 
prescription for economic decline. The stock market and other 
indicators are showing that.
  More than half of the Americans paying higher taxes under the 
Democrat plan are small business owners filing as individuals. Raising 
taxes on small businesses where a majority of Americans go to work 
every day will not put American families back to work. Raising utility 
rates on every household in America will place an undue burden on 
families struggling to make ends meet. Cutting deductions for 
charitable giving will harm higher education, scientific research, and 
religious organizations struggling to do good in our society.
  Democrats are on the side of more government and more taxes. House 
Republicans are on the side of the American people. And let me talk 
just a minute about that so-called stimulus bill which passed here a 
couple of weeks ago.
  We were told that the stimulus bill had to be passed, had to be 
passed immediately because it was going to create 3 to 4 million new 
jobs in this country. Now, some of us were skeptical about that from 
the very beginning, but we want to make sure that what is promised is 
kept.
  Now, I come from the State of North Carolina, Mr. Speaker, as you do. 
The State's motto in North Carolina is ``To Be Rather Than to Seem.'' I 
think it is a good motto for all of us to live by. And let me give an 
example of how the stimulus package is a package ``to seem'' rather 
than ``to be.''
  Here's a Democrat stimulus myth in the State of Montana. A press 
release from Senators Baucus and Tester claimed that $1.3 million in 
stimulus money would create 40 new jobs for the Flathead City County 
Health Department; sounds great, sounds like a good excuse for voting 
for a waste of money. But here's the reality; the money will simply 
provide another year of funding for the Department's community health 
center, which already has 10 full-time positions. The community health 
center plans to add only two more jobs--two, not 40. We need to be 
dealing with what is rather than what the Democrat majority and the 
President want the American people to believe.
  Let me say again, the budget, the stimulus, spend too much money. 
They tax too much--the largest tax increase in history. They borrow too 
much money--the highest level of borrowing ever. This is not the way to 
get our economy back on track. The Democrats are going in the wrong 
direction.
  House Republicans understand that the American people are hurting. We 
had an alternative plan that created twice as many jobs for half the 
cost, but it was summarily dismissed.
  Republicans aren't saying ``no'' to everything, we're presenting 
better alternatives, but the Democrat majority and the President want 
you to believe that all we're saying is no. That's not right. We're 
``being'' rather than ``seeming.''

                          ____________________