[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Speaker, I have read President Obama's American Jobs 
Act. It is 155 pages and single spaced. I encourage the American people 
to read it too.
  Unfortunately, President Obama's American Jobs Act does not address 
the underlying structural issues with the American economy. In fact, in 
my judgment, it destroys more long-term jobs than it claims to create.
  Some history is in order. In November 2006, America's unemployment 
rate was 4.5 percent. That's right, 4.5 percent--less than half today's 
rate.
  In November 2006, Democrats captured Congress and gave us House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
  In November 2008, President Obama was elected. For 2 years, Democrats 
completely controlled America's economic policy. The result: Between 
November 2006 and November 2010, 7 million American jobs were lost. 
America's excellent November 2006 4.5 percent unemployment rate 
deteriorated to 6.8 percent by November of 2008 and degenerated further 
to 9.8 percent by November 2010.

                              {time}  1030

  For almost 5 years, America's job creators have been hammered by job-
killing policies. America's job creators are reeling from ObamaCare 
costs. America's job creators are shell-shocked by a job-killing 
National Labor Relations Board that sues to kill South Carolina jobs 
because South Carolina dares to be a right-to-work State in which 
workers cannot be forced to join a union.
  Obama's job-killing 10 percent tax increase awaits job creators in 
2013.
  Obama's EPA repeatedly imposes new, costly environmental regulations 
that risk plant closings and kill jobs.
  Obama's three consecutive trillion-dollar deficits threaten America 
with insolvency and bankruptcy and frighten job creators into inaction. 
In 5 short years, President Obama and his congressional allies have 
replaced a pro-free enterprise, job-friendly environment that created 6 
million jobs between 2003 and 2006 with class warfare, demonization of 
job creators, socialist feel-good policies that don't work, and 7 
million lost jobs between 2006 and 2010.
  Mr. Speaker, Obama's so-called jobs bill creates ``one and done'' 
short-term jobs that will evaporate the moment Obama has blown through 
another $450 billion in borrowed money. In exchange for ``one and 
done'' jobs, Obama kills real jobs.
  First, Obama raises taxes on America's domestic oil industry, which 
increases production costs, drives up domestic oil prices, reduces 
demand for domestically produced oil, thereby destroying domestic oil 
industry jobs.
  Obama's higher oil taxes force price increases for gasoline, heating 
oil, and plastics. These higher prices in turn drive up manufacturing 
costs in America, make America less competitive, and kill jobs across 
our entire economy.
  Second, and incredibly, Obama gives civil rights status to unemployed 
people, empowering them to file costly EEOC complaints and Federal 
lawsuits against employers for discrimination any time an employer does 
not hire an unemployed person. Millions of frivolous EEOC complaints 
and lawsuits will drive up the cost of doing business in America which, 
in turn, kills business and destroys American jobs.
  Third, Obama raises taxes on charitable contributions to churches, 
synagogues, mosques, the Red Cross, United Way, and other charitable 
institutions. Higher taxes mean fewer charitable contributions, which 
kills religious and charitable institution jobs. Obama does not have a 
jobs bill; Obama has a kill-jobs bill that encourages jobs to relocate 
overseas.
  Mr. Speaker, America's economy has serious structural issues that 
Presidential Band-Aids and makeup won't fix and can't hide. President 
Obama's kill-jobs bill must be defeated because it is poorly thought 
out, bad economic policy, and costs American jobs. President Obama's 
kill-jobs bill is a political document, not an economic document. It 
gets an ``A'' for class warfare politics and an ``F'' for job creation.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge defeat of President Obama's kill-jobs bill. It 
must be killed before even more damage is done to America's economy.

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