[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13464-13471]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICA'S ECONOMY IS STRUGGLING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

[[Page 13465]]


  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, America's economy is struggling. 
Despite all of the spending and promises out of Washington, a lot of 
average Americans, more than 15 million, are wondering where are the 
jobs, because they don't have one.
  This Democrat Congress and this White House promised a lot to these 
workers and to the American taxpayer if they would just give them a 
blank check, if they could just write money like there was no tomorrow, 
that they, Washington, would know best how to get this economy back on 
track.
  Unfortunately, the reality of the past 16 months since the stimulus 
bill passed has unfortunately been much less than what was promised.
  The Obama administration likes to tout right now, they call this 
``the summer of recovery,'' but you don't see them touting. Because 
what their original promises were for that $862 billion--more than a 
trillion dollars, when you add the interest to it, the taxpayers will 
actually have to pay back. The reality is that the Obama 
administration, the Democrats in Washington, failed on all three key 
promises to the American people about its economy.
  They said our first promise is if you will pass this stimulus, the 
unemployment rate would remain below 8 percent. They said nonfarm 
payroll employment, that's most workers, would increase to 137.6 
million by the end of this year. And then finally they said if you pass 
our stimulus bill, 90 percent of payroll jobs created would be in the 
private sector.
  Well, let's look at the reality. It's been 16 months, a lot of the 
stimulus has been spent, not all, but a lot of it. So 16 months later, 
what do we see?
  The Obama forecast was supposed to be at this point, almost 7.5 
percent. Today it's actually 9.5 percent. That's a little lower than 
it's been. The reason it's lower: 650,000 Americans last month just 
gave up, gave up looking for work, gave up hope looking for work.
  So that employment rate went down, not because the economy is getting 
better, but people have given up hope that they will get a job, 16 
months after this magical stimulus bill was passed, so the actual 
versus the forecast is very sad.

                              {time}  1940

  Second promise, that the stimulus would raise employment, jobs in 
America, 137 million. This is where we're at right here, as stagnant as 
can be. In fact, right now, congressional Democrats and the White 
House, they are 7 million jobs short of where they promised they would 
be by the end of the year, 7 million jobs short. The economy has never 
created 7 million jobs in 6 months before. Short on promise number two, 
failed by a wide margin.
  And here I think is the reason. I think this sums up why the stimulus 
failed, why so many Americans are disappointed with the Obama 
administration. I think the last poll was 13 percent of Americans 
believe the stimulus helped them in any way, 90 percent of Americans 
believe this economy is in bad shape, and almost three-fourths don't 
believe it's going to get better any time soon. So, so much for 
restoring consumer confidence in America's economy. And this is the 
real reason why, promise number three.
  Remember, promise number one, below 8 percent, didn't come close; 
promise number two, we would have 137 million jobs by the end of this 
year, 7 million short. This is promise number three, that 90 percent of 
all the new jobs created by the stimulus would come from the private 
sector, not from government. They would come from small businesses back 
home along Main Street, the same small business and private sector jobs 
that have always brought America out of a deep recession.
  Well, here's the actuality: Since the stimulus passed 16 months ago, 
hundreds of billions of dollars of money spent and wasted in America, 
guess what's happened? The only sector that has grown--the Federal 
Government. The Federal Government has added 400,000 government 
workers. How about the private sector? How about our small businesses 
in every State across America? Lost almost 3.3 million jobs. Federal 
Government workers grew. State government came down a little, but they 
pumped a lot of stimulus money into more government workers. The 
private sector, the businesses that bring us out of the recession, lost 
3.3 million jobs. That's why this economy is so subpar.
  America is blessed. We are, I think, genetically predisposed to 
bouncing back from tough economic times. We hate to be in recession. 
But not this time. This recession, unfortunately, is continuing, not 
from a statistical sense, but from a jobs sense. It is one-third as 
strong a recovery as the Reagan recovery, and we can talk about that in 
a minute. But here's the reason why.
  Washington has poured all this money into government workers and 
wasteful stimulus spending and they expect the economy to just jump-
start. As they said, it will jump-start and consumer confidence will 
grow. The opposite has happened. Consumers, families are holding on to 
their money. They're frightened by the dangerous levels of debt in this 
country. They're frightened by $13 trillion of national debt America 
owes in publicly held debt. And businesses are frightened these days.
  As one of the Secretaries of Labor here in Washington said: 
Businesses aren't adding jobs because they're waiting to see what 
government can do for them; businesses aren't adding jobs because 
they're frightened by what government will do to them. They see an 
environment in Washington, proposals that dramatically increase taxes, 
increase regulation, increase their health care costs, increase their 
energy costs, that broaden government, expand regulation into almost 
every nook and cranny of this economy. And they look at that and they 
say, No, you know, we're going to delay rehiring people we laid off, 
hiring new ones. We're going to delay that critical investment 
decision, that expansion decision, the decision to buy that new piece 
of equipment because we don't want to be punished by Washington for 
adding jobs. We don't want to be punished if we go out and hire that 
new worker or buy that new piece of equipment. And that uncertainty, 
unfortunately, is an anchor around our economic recession. And that 
uncertainty means that American businesses are holding on to almost $2 
trillion of cash, $2 trillion, normally enough to, again, start 
bringing us out of this recession. They're not willing to do that.
  They're frightened by this White House. They're frightened by 
Washington, DC. They look at what's happening in Congress and these 
wild proposals, extreme, ideologically driven agendas, and they're 
saying, We're going to play it safe and stand pat with their money. 
Consumers are doing it because of the debt, businesses because of these 
terrible antibusiness, antijob, growth-killing proposals coming out of 
Washington, DC.
  We've seen this before. We've seen this before. Economists refer to 
this phenomenon as ``regime uncertainty.'' What I would call it is a 
rational expectation. Families know America is so deep in debt, 
someone's got to pay it back. You can't tax the wealthy just to pay 
that back. You can double everyone's taxes in America. Double them this 
year, we would still be running a deficit.
  You can't tax away this problem. But businesses and families are 
worried that's exactly what's going to happen. Middle class, small 
businesses will end up shouldering a bigger and bigger burden of 
government. That means less money in their paycheck. They know that. 
Rationally, they expect it, so they're holding back. Businesses are 
doing the same.
  We saw this before as President Franklin Roosevelt's contradictory 
and rapidly shifting economic policies delayed recovery from the Great 
Depression. The U.S. was the last country to recover from the Great 
Depression.
  Today, unfortunately, this White House, this Washington is following 
the same formula of spending, of uncertainty, of poor governance, poor 
decisions, and at times, as we saw in the gulf, sheer incompetence. But 
again,

[[Page 13466]]

businesses look at what they see out of the White House--higher taxes, 
new laws, the entrepreneurs who are frightened to hire. That's why--
back to this chart. That's why the Federal Government is the only 
sector that has grown. And whenever there are government jobs, they 
only last as long as that money keeps coming out of your paycheck. But 
in the private sector, when a business creates a job, when a local 
company hires a worker, buys that new piece of manufacturing equipment, 
those economic benefits multiply across the community. But 
unfortunately, private sector in America lost over 3 million jobs.
  Don't take my word for it. The National Federation of Independent 
Businesses recently surveyed a number of their small business owners, 
and here's what they said: U.S. economy faces hurricane-force headwinds 
and the government is at the center of the storm, making an economic 
recovery very difficult. This is small businesses.
  By the way, I am Congressman Kevin Brady. I represent the Eighth 
District of Texas. It's a great area--11 counties from the Louisiana 
border through east Texas and down through Montgomery County and the 
Woodlands. I'm the fourth senior Republican on the Ways and Means 
Committee, the ranking Republican on the Trade Subcommittee, and the 
ranking House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.
  So we've been studying these businesses and these economic numbers 
for some time. And what the NFIB, the small independent businesses has 
said, in addition, Either policymakers have no idea how to help the 
economy or they are intentionally committing it to unsustainable 
expenditure growth and deficits so large there will be no alternative 
but to raise taxes, a slow suicide for a dynamic economy. Just what I 
said, the National Federation of Independent Businesses has confirmed 
that it is the hurricane-force winds coming out of Washington, DC, 
that's holding this economy back.
  They go on to say this: With an unemployment rate of nearly 10 
percent, the President travels the country touting the health care bill 
that few like, selling wealth redistribution and the need for more 
taxes. What should ordinary citizens and small business owners expect 
from all this? A growing and more dynamic economy? Not likely. Taxing 
success is a terrible path to growth and real investment. And adding to 
the misery and pessimism, massive government deficits threaten future 
capital availability for the private sector.
  So our independent businesses along Main Street say just what those 
of us who have been in business before say: It is Washington that's 
holding back this economic recovery. It's the White House that's 
holding back this economic recovery with this very extreme agenda.
  I'm going to yield in a moment to another Texan, one of our more 
studious members of the Joint Economic Committee, from Texas, Dr. 
Michael Burgess, but I want to take this quote from the Business 
Roundtable, because, while the NFIB represents tens of thousands of 
independent businesses, Business Roundtable represents businesses from 
every sector in America who are selling here in the United States, 
competing around the world to sell American as well.
  And here's what the Business Roundtable just said: Many regulations 
and legislation, both existing and proposed, exacerbate the uncertainty 
created by today's volatile economic environment. Virtually every new 
regulation has an impact on recovery, competitiveness, and job 
creation. Often that impact is negative. On an individual basis, most 
businesses can cope with each new regulation, but the collective impact 
on the economy is enormous and often harmful. And with the massive new 
health care law--this is from the Business Roundtable--with the massive 
new health care law and financial reform legislation looming, companies 
are more worried than ever about the impact new regulations and 
legislation will have on their operations and their bottom line. Not 
knowing what to expect from these pending regulations, businesses are 
acting cautiously to forestall any negative impact. These actions are 
squelching economic growth and job creation as companies are forced to 
freeze investment and hiring until they understand how they will be 
affected by these new mandates.

                              {time}  1950

  So, despite hundreds of billions of dollars of spending and despite 
all this government intervention and expansion of government, the 
American economy is stalled because businesses--those job creators who 
bring us out of recessions--are frightened by Washington and these 
policies. They don't want to be pushed. They are holding onto almost $2 
trillion of cash, and that capital is what would fuel our economic 
recovery. So Washington and the White House is the single largest 
obstacle to America's getting back on its economic feet.
  Joining me tonight is a Congressman from Texas who serves on the 
Energy and Commerce Committee. He is one of the leading Republicans 
there, but he also serves with me on the Joint Economic Committee. He 
focuses not just on health care but on businesses along Main Street.
  I would yield to the honorable Congressman from Texas, from the Fort 
Worth area, Dr. Michael Burgess.
  Mr. BURGESS. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Of course, the gentleman is correct. You know, I believe in the 
American economy. I believe in the ability of the American people to 
recover this economy. I don't think that the United States House of 
Representatives, the Senate and the White House combined can keep this 
economy down forever, but they can give it a good shot at keeping it 
down longer than it needs to be; and, we all know, because of the 
prolonged effect of joblessness, the economy is having a tougher time 
recovering.
  The gentleman said it so well as to the reason small- and medium-
sized businesses are reluctant to add jobs right now, and I know you 
see the same thing in your district that I'm seeing in my district. 
Some things look like they're picking up a little bit--parking lots are 
a little fuller--but when you talk to the small business people and ask 
them, Are you doing a little bit better this year? they answer, Yeah, 
maybe a little bit.
  Do you think you might add a job soon? Might you be able to take 
someone else into your business?
  Well, I might, but I don't know what you're going to do to me in this 
health care bill. I still haven't figured it out. I have no idea what 
this financial regulatory scheme that you've passed is going to do to 
me. I sure can't afford the tax increases that you're going to be 
delivering at the end of this year. So, no, I don't think I can add a 
job and that, if you further do something with energy prices, I know 
that the future is just too uncertain, so I'll just stand pat right 
now. I'm doing okay, but I'm not going to be adding any jobs.
  Well, that may be one or two jobs at a single business at a strip 
mall shopping center; but extrapolated across the larger economy, those 
are the jobs that should be fueling our recovery, and the activities 
here in Washington, DC, are what are having the dampening effect on 
that.
  Now, today's Wall Street Journal had kind of an interesting lead 
editorial on the editorial page, appropriately titled, ``Stimulating 
Unemployment.'' It's kind of a novel approach as to how you might 
attack a problem of the economy.
  According to the Wall Street Journal today, they talked about how 
Presidents typically invite Americans to appear at Rose Garden press 
conferences to trumpet a policy success; but yesterday, we saw what may 
have been a first. President Obama introduced three Americans--an 
autoworker, a fitness center employee and a woman in real estate--who 
have been out of work for so long that they underscore the failure of 
his entire economic program.
  Going on, they say, But Mr. Obama was nonetheless obliged to concede 
that 18 months after his $862 billion stimulus there are still five job 
seekers for every job opening and that 2.5 million Americans will soon 
run out of unemployment benefits. Only last week, Vice President Joe 
Biden was hailing

[[Page 13467]]

the stimulus for saving or creating 3 million jobs. This week, the 
White House says we need even more stimulus in the form of jobless 
checks to make up for the jobs his original stimulus spending did not 
create.
  Here is an interesting issue. Of course, we hear over and over and 
over again how it's the Republicans who are obstructing the extension 
of unemployment insurance benefits; but realistically, there is still 
money left in that stimulus bill. Since the stimulus has been such a 
failure in creating jobs and since the money is available to pay for 
those unemployment benefits, that seems like a reasonable suggestion. I 
get calls in the office all day long that, yes, that is a reasonable 
suggestion. Why don't we proceed with that? Instead, we continue to 
pass bills where this money is just simply going to be added to the 
deficit.
  If the money weren't just sitting there, languishing in the stimulus 
bill, then maybe you could see their point; but realistically, the 
money is there. It should be used to offset the extension of 
unemployment benefits because one thing that we do know is that there 
is a consequence for borrowing these vast sums of money. We know that 
expanding the deficit to the $1.4 trillion or $1.6 trillion that we are 
going to see this year is ultimately money which is going to have to be 
borrowed; and because that money will ultimately have to be borrowed, 
it could raise the interest rate and could, subsequently, have an 
effect on inflation.
  So why not do the sensible thing and spend the money that you have 
already allocated in the stimulus bill, which isn't doing anyone any 
good anyway? If you need to extend unemployment insurance, that would 
be the correct place to do it.
  I have some other points that I'd like to share, but I'll yield back 
to the gentleman and hear his thoughts on that.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, I'd like to follow up on your point about 
unemployment benefits.
  The Republicans support helping people when they're down on their 
luck. There is no question about it. There has been extension after 
extension. Our point and our principle on this whole issue has been 
don't make matters worse for people by adding to the debt, by adding to 
the uncertainty about the economy, by frightening more consumers into 
saving more of their money. You pay for this bill.
  Our point was, White House, congressional Democrats, you haven't even 
spent one half of that stimulus money yet. You know, some of it has 
been allocated, but you still have nearly half of it left.
  Rather than waste it on what you've wasted it on, I want to talk for 
a second about our just creating government jobs. Why don't we pay for 
the unemployment benefits with that money? Let's start just stimulating 
private sector jobs. Again, we've lost more than 3 million since the 
stimulus took effect.
  Dr. Burgess, you know, people back home look at some of the wildly 
exaggerated claims from the stimulus. Do you remember all of the 
phantom congressional districts? This White House actually made up 
districts that don't exist today and credited them with certain job 
creations. Some of the examples of job creation were just wild--$1 
million for each pair of boots. That it created jobs is crazy. We can 
look at some of them, you know, from the stimulus money:
  $71,000 to the University of Wake Forest, of taxpayer funds, to study 
the effects of cocaine addiction on monkeys. The University of New York 
at Buffalo received $390,000 in stimulus funds to conduct a study on 
the relationship between drinking malt liquor beer and using marijuana. 
One hundred people were paid $45 a day or will be paid $45 a day for 3 
weeks by taxpayers to drink malt liquor to compare it with marijuana. 
Arizona State University received $500,000 to study the genetic 
difference between queen and worker ants. There was $3 million awarded 
for a turtle-crossing in Florida. There was $50,000 granted for a hand 
puppet.
  In the Midwest, Bloomington, Indiana, received $40,000 for 10 solar-
powered trash compactors, which reminds me that New York City received 
stimulus funds for a homeless program, and they said, Well, we didn't 
ask for this money. We don't have a homeless problem. The response from 
Washington was, Well, get creative.
  I don't know, does that mean get creative in creating homeless 
people?
  With the stimulus dollars, Florida, for example, used $8 million of 
their funds to pay off a backlog of people who had already completed 
work for the State. So they used it to pay their bills, creating zero 
net jobs. The National Science Foundation gave funding to North 
Carolina University for a dance draw, which involved students' 
attaching wireless mice to their chests and wrists and dancing to form 
abstract geometric shapes on a computer.
  So, when the President stands at the White House and says that we 
need help for the unemployed, Republicans agree. We want to stop 
wasting stimulus money.
  Help people who actually need help. Stop playing politics with them. 
Is money for mice, studying malt liquor beer and the hand puppets more 
important than helping people down on their luck? We don't think so.

                              {time}  2000

  We also don't think adding to this terrible deficit and making it 
tougher for consumers to have confidence in their country again helps 
either. I just wanted to expand on that point because I think it's a 
critical one for people watching tonight who really are wondering if 
Congress is functioning at all or listening at all. I honestly don't 
think this Congress is.
  I yield back to you, Dr. Burgess.
  Mr. BURGESS. I was just going to make the point--The Wall Street 
Journal editorial today talks about the five applicants for every job 
that is available. And you know, we had in our committee today in 
Energy and Commerce, we had yet another hearing on the oil spill down 
in the Gulf of Mexico. And once again, it came up about the issue of 
the Secretary of Interior proposing a moratorium on drilling in the 
Gulf of Mexico.
  Well, here we kind of reverse the situation. Here we can kill five 
jobs for the price of one. For every job that we destroy on the 
drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, five jobs that are also directly 
related to that activity in the gulf, five jobs are lost. So the 
moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico in a very real way is going to affect 
families all up and down the gulf, families that have already been hurt 
by this spill, already been hurt by the fact that the Federal 
Government did not exercise its due diligence and oversight in leasing 
that well to BP in the first place.
  BP, a foreign oil company that has one of the worst records as far as 
safety to be able to drill a well like this, with all kinds of passes 
and waivers on all of the NEPA regulations, wasn't required to put out 
a spill plan before they did this drilling.
  Well, now the poor people in the gulf, they've lost their shrimping, 
they've lost their fishing, they've lost their tourism, and now they're 
going to lose what's left of their economy because of the imposition of 
this moratorium. At a time when we should be tasked with creating jobs, 
a time when we should be getting out of the way of the private sector 
and let the productive sector of the American society do what it does 
best, and that's grow and prosper and create jobs. Instead, we're 
putting additional impediments up there that are going to make it even 
more difficult for an area of the United States that's been hard hit by 
hurricanes, and now hard hit by this gulf oil spill.
  And we are all grateful that the spill appears to be contained at the 
present time, but we all know this is not over. The cleanup is not 
over. The well is not yet shut in. They're facing some tough problems 
down there. And then we add to the problem by a moratorium that's ill-
advised. The President's own panel said there is no reason to do this. 
And yet the Secretary of the Interior just pushes ahead, and would not 
even provide us today with any of the data that was used, any of the 
risk data that was used to say that there must be a moratorium, or any 
of the economic data that was available to him, and presumably to the 
President, about what the effects of this moratorium would be.

[[Page 13468]]

  So here we are in the face of the worst recession, we got an area of 
the country that's really hurting, and let's see if we can't hurt 'em a 
little worse. It just makes no sense. I yield back to the gentleman 
from Texas.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. You raise great points. I would like to follow it 
up. I don't think this White House or Washington has a clue as to how 
damaging this drilling moratorium has been just on average American 
workers who are tied not just to the gulf, but energy production 
offshore that spreads out. I saw a study the other day, nearly all 50 
States, nearly every congressional district risks job losses as a 
result of this drilling moratorium.
  We're already seeing companies who are redeploying their rigs to 
Egypt, moving their investments out of the United States, to Brazil, 
West Africa, the Middle East. And those rigs won't be coming back any 
time soon. Typical rig in the gulf in deep water has 1,500 workers tied 
to it, a thousand or more vendors. When they leave the gulf they don't 
come back for years.
  So we already have businesses laying off workers, moving equipment, 
infrastructure outside the United States, already cutting their capital 
budget for future investment in the United States. And it doesn't take 
long before you have our energy infrastructure and headquarters leaving 
the United States as well. There are literally tens of thousands of 
workers tied directly to the gulf, more than 170,000 at immediate risk 
of this.
  And yet two thoughts: One, Monday the President was in front of the 
White House talking about playing politics with people's jobs. Playing 
politics with people's jobs. That's exactly what his drilling 
moratorium is doing along the Gulf of Mexico.
  And I find it frustrating, today I picked up--or actually went online 
and read The Houston Chronicle. And there it said the President is 
coming down to Texas, to Houston August 9 to raise money for his party. 
And I read that, realizing that we have had a standing invitation by 
letter to the President asking him to come down to Houston to meet 
face-to-face with these energy workers, the ones whose jobs he is 
killing right now, and explain to them his reasoning.
  Listen to these American workers, Democrat, Republican, independent, 
it doesn't matter, they are all ages, all ethnic categories, all income 
categories. They just want to work. And his moratorium is destroying 
their livelihood. We are still waiting for an answer for that 
invitation. But apparently he doesn't have time to talk to our workers 
or to sit down face-to-face with them because he's got to raise 
campaign cash.
  So we said today, we said Mr. President, can you give us an hour to 
meet with these workers? Can you give us 15 minutes? You know, do you 
have time at all for workers in Texas along the gulf who now they see 
their hopes of their small business, of putting their kids through 
college, of keeping their home dashed because of a poorly thought out 
drilling moratorium that is taking an environmental disaster in the 
gulf and creating an economic disaster for a lot of innocent families 
who had nothing to do with that spill.
  I know you sense that in Dallas-Fort Worth, as one business from 
Dallas told me. He said, what small business can survive without 6 
months of revenue? That's a great question, because the answer is not 
many. Not many at all. Maybe the big guys can. But they're going to be 
laying people off, they're not going to be buying from vendors. The 
damage is going to be wholesale.
  With that, I know you feel that pain in Dallas-Fort Worth, and I 
guess we are just frustrated that--I am at least--that the President 
won't at least listen to reason, come down and face our energy workers. 
Just have the courage to sit down with them. Give us an hour out of 
your busy campaign fundraising and tell them your reason.
  I yield to you, Dr. Burgess.
  Mr. BURGESS. Well, and it does get to your point of playing politics 
with people's jobs. I just want to say a couple of other things about 
the predominant Democratic agenda items that have been pushed through 
this House of Representatives largely on--well, in fact almost entirely 
on--party line votes. In fact, the only thing that has been bipartisan 
about these bills has been the opposition. The health care bill, 
financial regulatory bill, cap-and-trade, probably more Democratic 
votes against, and made it a truly bipartisan opposition, and very few 
Republican votes in favor.
  But Vice President Biden over the weekend, in talking on an interview 
on one of the Sunday shows, said, ``Look, these are gigantic packages 
to deal with the problem we inherited. The vast majority of the 
American people and a lot of people really involved don't even know 
what's inside the packages.'' I assume he's talking about people 
involved in, like, conference committees and people involved in 
congressional committees who actually wrote this legislation. Going 
back to quote then, ``People don't know a lot of what's going on in the 
Recovery Act. Understandably, because this has been so much stuff 
that's been flowing our way.''
  Well, Mr. Vice President, with all due respect, this is the problem. 
Because people don't know what's in this stuff, because no one bothered 
to take the time to bring along even public opinion while this stuff 
was done, as a consequence you've got people who are fearful of what is 
contained within this health care bill. We are now 3 months into it. 
The rules and regulations are being written in secret by the Department 
of Health and Human Services.
  And this new CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 
director that nobody knows, the most important man in the country that 
no one ever heard of, Donald Berwick, it's no wonder that people are of 
necessity concerned. They're concerned for their own survival because 
they don't know what the implications are for these big things that 
we've already passed. And yes, Mr. Vice President, people are confused 
by the stimulus bill because, as Mr. Brady pointed out, there's so much 
stuff in there that was absolutely unnecessary, had nothing to do with 
stimulating the economy.
  I remember one morning in our Joint Economic Committee where it was 
revealed that there were so many jobs created in Arizona's Ninth 
Congressional District. Well, that was news to everyone because 
Arizona's Ninth Congressional District hasn't even been created yet. It 
may in the reapportionment after the census, but right now it doesn't 
exist. They stop at number eight. So is it any wonder that people have 
lost faith with their government's ability to do the things necessary 
to help this economy recover?

                              {time}  2010

  It has certainly been educational to sit on that Joint Economic 
Committee to hear the testimony like we heard last week, all the happy 
talk coming from the administration that things are great, it's the 
recovery summer. I don't think so. Have you been out beyond the 
confines of Washington, DC to look at what's happening to real people 
and real people's lives?
  I know the gentleman has a number of facts and charts that he wants 
to share with us, so I will leave it to him at this point, but I did 
want to come and share with you some of the thoughts I had on this very 
important topic that I am so grateful that you brought up tonight.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. I thank you, Congressman Burgess, for joining us 
tonight on trying to get the economy going, and you are so right. This 
recovery is so subpar. Most Americans don't realize. I talked earlier 
about--we are predisposed, excited about bouncing out of recessions as 
fast as we can, but not this time.
  We took a look at recessions the country has gone through since the 
Great Depression, and the one that's closest to it, that had the most 
damage, happened in the early 1980s. And if you compare how President 
Obama's performance was--is today versus President Reagan's in 1982, 
1983, it's pretty stunning.
  The Reagan recovery, which had a higher unemployment rate to begin 
with, and if you look at three key areas, in the first three quarters 
after the recession ended under President

[[Page 13469]]

Reagan, his economy grew twice as fast as the Obama recovery. If you 
look at the number of jobs created, it isn't even close. The first year 
of the Reagan recovery, the United States added 3 million jobs. We've 
actually lost them under President Obama. And look at this chart. You 
can see what the job numbers are. Reagan continues to increase. Obama, 
even under the best scenario right now, it is a very slow, subpar, very 
stagnant type of economic recovery. And similarly, the unemployment 
rate fell by more than 2 points under President Reagan, while it's 
increased under President Obama.
  You ask what is the difference, and it's what Congressman Burgess 
talked about, two things. President Obama's decided Washington would 
create jobs. Washington knew best. They didn't put an economic stimulus 
together; they put a political stimulus together. And what it's 
produced is government jobs and no economic recovery.
  It's also balanced with--offset higher tax increases, higher energy 
costs, the fear of new health care costs, new regulations, taxes 
everywhere. So job creators aren't adding jobs.
  The Reagan recovery is just the opposite. He created certainty for 
this country. They lowered taxes. They spurred investment. They told 
businesses, if you create jobs, you can keep them. You won't be 
punished; you'll be rewarded. And what did the private sector do? It 
created jobs. It created jobs in America.
  Now what we're facing is a country at a time when we have 50 million 
workers, almost 50 million workers looking for jobs, many of them who, 
almost half, have been out of work for more than 6 months. That's the 
longest since they started keeping numbers.
  Those with a high school education struggle with, gosh, it's almost 
16, 17 percent unemployment. Certain ethnic categories have much, much 
higher unemployment rates than others, and it's because this President 
and this Congress, when faced with the choice between lowering taxes 
and creating small business jobs or spending, raising taxes, and 
creating government jobs, they chose the latter.
  And so America's recovery has stalled. It is subpar. It offers little 
hope to most people. It certainly hasn't, as the President claimed, 
jump-started the economy or restored consumer confidence. Just the 
opposite.
  We talk about taxes. We talked earlier about families so worried 
about this debt that this country has gotten just a staggering amount 
of debt under President Obama. In fact, when Republicans lost control 
of Congress, the annual debt to that year was about $160 million. Too 
high, in my view, and I think too high in most Americans' views. Now, 
within 3 years, that debt is almost eight times, almost nine times 
higher at $1.4 trillion. The Republicans' debts of a year are now the 
Democrats' debts of a month. Each and every month we're adding that 
equivalent, and that debt has exploded.
  And the cost, a great example. Right now, America's debt is more than 
60 percent of the size of our economy. That's in the yellow warning 
category. If we continue to move this direction, we will be at a 
hundred percent of the economy by the end of this decade. And it will 
skyrocket to an incredible, almost 10 times the size of our entire 
economy, everything we make and produce in America, by the year 2084 if 
we stay on this path.
  And that debt has real cost. It means we have a bigger government for 
families and workers to drag around on their back. Younger people will 
pay more out of their paycheck to haul, drag this economy around. It 
creates an anchor on America's prosperity. In fact, most economists 
tell us that when a country's debt gets to about 90 percent of the size 
of their economy of everything that they produce and create, when the 
debt gets to 90 percent, it drags down your economy substantially by 
about 1 percentage point. That doesn't sound like a lot, but what that 
means is, instead of America growing at 3 percent a year--good, steady, 
strong 3 percent a year--we grow at a more anemic 2 percent a year. So 
you really lose a third of your economic prosperity. It puts you in the 
category of Europe, which has had this Big Government mentality. 
They've had this anchor around their economy, and it's cost them.
  I took a look at the five most troubled countries in Europe. We've 
all been following Greece's problem with their debt, but also what they 
call the PIIGS, and it stands really for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, 
Greece, and Spain--the five most troubled European countries. If you 
look at their gross debt, the United States is right in the middle of 
them, of the five most troubled countries in Europe. If you look at the 
budget deficit as a percent of our economy, the United States ranks 
third worst as well. Third worst in gross debt, third worst in budget 
deficit, and we are on a bullet headed their direction.
  We're not necessarily in the same shape as Greece today, but we're on 
the trajectory, we're on the path. That's why we need to focus on 
education, America. Make sure people can say these things. We're on the 
path to calamity, financially, unless we change our ways.
  One thing I want to point to that Congressman Burgess talked about, 
people know taxes are coming. What's frightened a lot of job creators 
and I think a lot of just average families--certainly in Texas, in 
southeast Texas and east Texas that I represent--families tell me 
spending is out of control and it scares them. Small businesses, they 
look at all of these programs that House Democrats try to pass each 
week. They say that won't create jobs or customers. That just frightens 
people more. They know they're going to end up being taxed for it.
  And you look at there's taxes, proposed increased taxes on health 
care, Cadillac health care plans, on income for Americans, on capital 
gains, on dividends, on death taxes. There's all the private health 
insurance plans, pharmaceutical, medical device taxes, the cap-and-
trade legislation, which is just a tax on all of the energy you use in 
your home and in your vehicle. They're talking about now a VAT tax, a 
value-added tax, which would come on top of what we have today. The 
value-added tax, which has worked in European countries, added on top 
of everything we have, it's the politician's perfect tax. It's an ideal 
tax. It's hidden from the public. It sounds small, and people pay for 
it in everything they buy. It's hidden. It's a hidden tax. Politicians 
can play with it any way they choose, and the public rarely knows.
  And people look at that and they think the Bush tax cuts, which was 
so helpful for our economy and our middle class, the average Texas 
family would have to pay $3,000 more a year if those tax cuts go away, 
$3,000 more every year. I know in Washington that doesn't sound like a 
big deal, but for most families across America, that's a lot of money, 
especially right now. That's all their utility bills for the year, 
probably throw in this cable bill as well.
  I took a look at a study I saw the other day about how out-of-control 
spending burdens our youth. We all know how much our debt has increased 
over the last 3 years since Democrats took control of Congress, but 
just look at two things.

                              {time}  2020

  Just look at the impact of the 2008 and 2009 bailouts and stimulus. 
According to economist Dr. Edward Stringham of Trinity College, just 
the costs from those two events will cost the average 22-year-old 
coming out of college this year $145,000 over their working life. 
That's $280 a month, equivalent of a second car payment. That's the 
impact spending has on people, and that's just two spending bills. 
That's not the trillion and a half dollars of debt from last year and 
the year before that continue to pile up; and, again, we're $13 
trillion of spending and getting higher.
  I know the excuse in Washington is that it's Bush's fault. Everything 
is Bush's fault. America's not going all the way in the World Cup was 
Bush's fault, I think some people believe in Washington. But if you 
look at where the jobs have traded in America, you can see here is when 
Republicans fully

[[Page 13470]]

controlled Congress and added in their tenure 6.6 million jobs. Since 
Speaker Pelosi took the gavel, what we've seen is a loss of over 6 
million jobs. So almost every job Republicans created, Democrats have 
destroyed, and the reason this is going to get even worse is because 
this White House and this Congress is the most job-killing, anti-
business, anti-growth Congress perhaps in the history of the United 
States.
  We see this not just in tax increases and cap-and-trade and health 
care costs but wild provisions coming out of the House and, of course, 
now the drilling moratorium that is beginning to destroy jobs and lives 
and small businesses in the Gulf of Mexico. What's, I guess, perhaps 
most saddening is that along the gulf coast, many families in Louisiana 
and Alabama and Mississippi who are bearing the brunt of BP's oil spill 
and bearing the brunt of this administration's failure to contain the 
spill, they're the ones who are begging this President not to continue 
this drilling moratorium, allow our workers to go back to work because 
they know, as bad as the environmental damage has been, the drilling 
moratorium damage on their jobs and livelihood will add even more 
misery to their lives. We can't allow that to happen.
  Mr. President, I would ask you again, come down to Houston, meet with 
our energy workers, see whose lives and jobs you're destroying. Meet 
with our independent businesses. Meet with our mid-sized businesses. 
Meet with the companies that are out there in the gulf today wanting to 
go back to work, who don't want their rigs to go to other countries, 
who don't want the jobs to go to other countries, the equipment to go 
to other countries, our capital to go to other countries, and 
eventually our energy infrastructure to go around the rest of the world 
to the detriment of U.S. energy workers in America.
  Mr. President, while you're fund-raising in Houston, give us an hour 
to meet with our workers. Give us 15 minutes if you're so busy fund-
raising you can't spare the time for our workers, to sit down with 
them. We won't have press there. You pick the workers if you choose. 
Although, if I were you, I would ask the average Americans who are 
facing a job loss, so you can listen outside the Beltway, no 
TelePrompters, no big speeches, just listen to our energy workers and 
perhaps you will see just how damaging this drilling moratorium is and 
will be for America.
  What you will hear is that they are already suffering and people are 
being laid off. Businesses are contemplating not being able to survive 
and filing bankruptcy.
  What you will see is that energy prices will go up as a result of 
your moratorium because the Gulf of Mexico produces so much of the 
energy we use in America.
  What you will hear is that we are giving more power and more energy 
strength to countries outside the United States, some of whom can't 
stand anything that America stands for, and that we'll face an energy 
shortage in 2011, 2012 if this drilling moratorium continues.
  You will hear from shallow well operators who have drilled down in 
the Gulf of Mexico without an incident, but now what they find is they 
can't get a permit to continue working so they're facing layoffs of 
their workers and their financial struggles.
  In the deep water, which has drilled 14,000 wells around the world 
safely, but for the BP incident, you will see that one rig is already 
leaving for Egypt, others are planning to leave and won't be back 
anytime soon, years perhaps, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years. In the meantime 
what do our workers do? What do those small businesses do? What do the 
people who do manufacturing, who do oil field services and supplies 
throughout the country, who reach literally into every State and almost 
every congressional district in America, what do those businesses do?
  Mr. President, we're not asking much. We're asking you to help get 
this economy back on track. Take off the table the drilling moratorium, 
end it today. Take off the table cap-and-trade and the high energy 
prices that it will create. Take off the table the new regulations, the 
new taxes. Agree to extend the Bush tax cuts. Don't raise taxes on 
capital and dividend investment. Lower them to get this economy going. 
Reassure consumers that we have a path to balance the budget. Reassure 
businesses they won't be punished for hiring that new worker, bringing 
back that old worker or hiring that new one, buying that new piece of 
equipment. Listen to the businesses around you who are telling you that 
you are the problem, this Washington Congress is the problem, because 
of the uncertainty, because of the taxes, because of, again, the 
extreme ideological agenda that is holding our economy back.
  Mr. President, if you want to turn this chart around, if you want 
to--and we'll help Democrats in Congress. We'll help you lower taxes. 
We'll help you take these items off the table, if you will listen to 
our small businesses, listen to our energy workers, listen to our 
families, because right now most people in America believe this 
Washington is so arrogant, this Congress isn't listening, that they 
seem to know what's best for them, that they go any route, don't read 
any bill, rush massive measures through without any knowledge of what 
their impact is, and we learn months later that they're nothing like 
they were promised.
  So average families are listening tonight. Workers are desperate for 
jobs. Yet they see a Congress off on cap-and-trade and all sorts of 
schemes instead of encouraging the job creators to create more jobs.
  America cannot survive this job-killing agenda much longer. As strong 
as we are, as resilient as we are, as quick as we are to bounce back 
from recessions, it's not happening this time, and Washington is the 
obstacle.
  Look in the mirror, congressional Democrats. President Obama, 
respectfully, look in the mirror; and if you're serious about changing 
this economy, if you really want to answer where are the jobs, we'll 
help you create those jobs where they belong, not in the government but 
along Main Street in every State and every community in America.
  By the way, it isn't enough anymore--the world has changed--it's not 
enough to just buy American. We have to sell American. We have to sell 
our products and services all throughout the world. But when we try to 
do that, what we find is a lot of countries have an ``America need not 
apply'' sign. Mr. President, you're not doing enough to tear down those 
signs. Give us a chance to sell American goods and services. When we 
get a chance to compete, we win; we create jobs; we sell America 
successfully.
  But, unfortunately, this Congress for 3 years has taken off the table 
any opportunity to go out and compete; and while we've voluntarily 
benched ourselves, the Democrats in Congress have stopped trade, while 
the President took a time-out, now starting to step back I think a 
little more so, but while we voluntarily benched ourselves, other 
countries--China, Europe, Canada and others--are stepping right around 
us, cutting agreements that create jobs and sell their products. So 
U.S. farmers, U.S. businesses, U.S. manufacturers, U.S. service 
companies, U.S. workers find themselves at a disadvantage because this 
White House, this Congress are more interested in special interests 
than in the interests of our workers, of our economy, of our jobs.
  So, tonight, I would say respectfully to our Speaker of the House, 
the majority leader of the Senate, to President Obama: if you want an 
answer and a partner in creating jobs, Republicans are here. We have 
solutions and we're ready to fight for jobs, but we've got to tackle 
the debt. We've got to create incentives to create jobs.

                              {time}  2030

  We have got to stop frightening consumers, frightening workers. If we 
do that, America is capable of bouncing back and getting this economy 
on the right path again.
  Mr. President, work with us. Get America strong again.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

[[Page 13471]]



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