[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13596]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, ``THE SINGLE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENT TO JOB 
                                GROWTH''

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Broun) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. A legendary Georgia businessman recently called 
the Obama administration ``the single biggest impediment to job 
growth.''
  That same man, Mr. Bernie Marcus, also says the business that he 
founded would have never succeeded if he were trying to start it today. 
Home Depot, his Georgia-based company, currently has more than 2,200 
stores all across the United States. They support more than 300,000 
American jobs, and they generated $68 billion in revenue just last 
year.
  Now, imagine the impact on our country if companies that start out 
like Home Depot--which started as an individual store--or other small 
businesses weren't able to flourish. That is what the Obama 
administration is trying to do to the American Dream today. By creating 
a huge bill with ObamaCare and a failed stimulus bill and by piling 
thousands of new government regulations onto the backs of small 
businesses, it is no wonder that job creators are afraid to expand and 
hire new people.
  And so, after 2\1/2\ years of growing the Federal Government and $4.5 
trillion in spending later, the Obama administration has given us 
another proposal of the same old failed policies. Unfortunately, their 
latest solution to our 9 percent unemployment rate comes with a price 
tag of almost a half trillion dollars, money that we just simply do not 
have. So to pay for the American Jobs Act, as I like to call it 
``stimulus part II,'' our Democrat leaders want to hike taxes on 
families and job creators.
  We've been down this road before. The stimulus did not work 2 years 
ago, and it will not work today. Hiking taxes in the middle of a 
recession will make our economy worse, not better. When will this 
administration learn that more of the same just simply isn't good 
enough anymore? Jobs will come when government gets out of the way--by 
getting rid of ObamaCare, by stopping the reckless spending here in 
Washington and the threat of higher taxes, and by ending the 
uncertainty in the marketplace.

                              {time}  1030

  Congress needs to pass my jobs bill, which would immediately and 
permanently lower the corporate tax rate to zero, and it will 
permanently lower the capital gains tax to zero. This will stimulate 
our small businesses so that they can do what they do best, grow, 
expand and to thrive.
  In the words of Mr. Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, ``It's time to 
stand up and fight.''
  The free enterprise system has made this country what it is today, 
and we must have policy that makes it prosper.

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