[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16144]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   MOVING THE AMERICAN DREAM FORWARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Woodall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, you probably get the same questions I get 
when I go back home. Those questions are from folks who came, they sat 
here in the gallery and they looked down on the House floor, and they 
thought: Golly, where is everybody? Where's everybody? I thought it was 
going to be full of 435 Members of Congress. But, of course, as you 
know, Mr. Speaker, in today's modern technology world, everybody's back 
in their office watching things on television. But I confess that 
sometimes during this morning-hour, I turn the volume down a little 
bit. I turn it down a little bit because sometimes we get into those 
divisive issues down here on the House floor. It gets my blood pressure 
up so much I think my head is going to explode first thing in the 
morning. I sometimes turn the volume down.
  But today I wanted to come down here and find those things that bring 
us together as opposed to divide us, because I really do believe that 
as we face the kind of economic challenges that we're facing in America 
today, there is more that unites this body than divides it. There's 
more that we can do together than we must fight about in order to move 
the American Dream forward.
  I have in my pocket a card. It's titled, ``The House Republican Jobs 
Plan,'' but I'd tell you it's an American jobs plan. I look down the 
items that we have brought forward in this Republican House, America's 
House, the things that they've been able to pass in the United States 
Senate, those things that have gone to the President's desk, and we are 
making progress, Mr. Speaker, on those things that unite us.
  Of course, we started the year off repealing the 1099 provision from 
the President's health care bill, that onerous provision that required 
new paperwork mandates on all of our small businesses, completely 
unworkable. We came together, the House and Senate, and the President 
repealed that.
  Last week, we came and we passed three new free trade agreements--
three new free trade agreements--for this Nation. Mr. Speaker, as you 
know, with every nation that America has a free trade agreement, we 
have a manufacturing surplus. Hear that, Mr. Speaker. With every nation 
with which we have a free trade agreement, we have a manufacturing 
trade surplus. We ship more American-made goods to those countries than 
we import. We have a trade deficit as a Nation, but a manufactured 
goods surplus with the nations with which we signed free trade 
agreements. Free trade agreements, good for America, good for jobs, 
good for trade, and we were able to move those across the President's 
desk with his signature last week--2 weeks ago now.
  And this week, we're going to bring two more bills to the floor, 
things that bring us together. You heard my colleague from Illinois 
talk about, earlier this morning, the 3 percent withholding, a bill 
that we passed to say we think there are lots of tax cheats going on 
out there among folks who contract with the government, so we're going 
to just withhold those taxes up front and make you get them back later 
on. Well, it turns out 3 percent withholding, our small businesses 
owners didn't even have a 3 percent margin.

                              {time}  1030

  If we had held all that money, they couldn't even pay the bills. 
They'd actually have to operate at a loss for the year and ask the 
government in April for their refund.
  The President's onboard with that repeal. I believe the House is 
going to be onboard with that repeal. The Senate is going to be onboard 
with that repeal. We're going to move that across the floor this week 
as well.
  Things that are bringing us together, Mr. Speaker, are common ground 
that we can cover to make it easier to create jobs in this country. 
Because I agree with my colleague, Mr. Rangel, the American Dream is 
that you can come here and do better tomorrow than you did today, that 
you can provide your kids with more opportunity than what you had. That 
is the American Dream.
  I don't worry that folks want to come to America. I worry about the 
one day that that dream has disappeared and folks don't want to come to 
America anymore. They'd rather take their big brain and their hard work 
ethic to China or to India or Brazil or Argentina. We must preserve 
America as the magnet of success, the magnet that attracts those that 
want to improve their lives and believe those opportunities exist here.
  Mr. Speaker, there's a commonality in all of those bills that we've 
passed and sent to the President's desk this year, and it's that these 
were things the government did to try to encourage compliance, to try 
to regulate, to try to require that small businesses operate 
differently, and what we found out is they didn't work. The 1099 
provision, free trade, those tariffs and duties that prevented that 
free trade, this 3 percent holding provision, what is the common 
ground, Mr. Speaker? Congress is doing too much in regulating. America 
is doing too much in regulating this country.
  I ran on that premise, Mr. Speaker. The challenge is we are not doing 
too little. The problem is that we are doing too much and burdening 
those small businesses.
  The former soviet bloc countries, Mr. Speaker, have learned from that 
example. They have flat tax rates, no exemptions, no exceptions, and 
their tax collections went up.
  Mr. Speaker, folks can't pay taxes if they don't have a job. You 
can't pay income taxes if you don't have a job. And you can't have a 
job if you don't have opportunity in your society.
  The Fair Tax, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 25, goes right to the heart of these 
jobs issues. Repealing those burdensome taxes, repealing those 
regulations, and making sure everybody gets a fair shake, because that 
is what America is all about.

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