[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18992]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               MAKING A DIFFERENCE BY FIXING THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Gibbs) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GIBBS. Madam Speaker, in about 3 weeks I will mark the 
anniversary of my first year in Congress. I ran for Congress because I 
thought I could make a difference. I was concerned about the direction 
this country was headed and, like many of my colleagues, we thought we 
could make a difference, and we are making a difference. But we are 
frustrated because still, almost a year later, the economy is still in 
stagnation and many American families are suffering.
  The way we fix the economy, in my opinion, is we've got to restore 
confidence; and the way we do that is we energize the American people. 
We reinsert American innovation, entrepreneurship, and the American 
spirit.
  There's four key areas I think to restore that confidence. One is 
we've got to cut this deficit spending. We've got to get our spending 
under control. We passed a budget here in the House that cut almost $6 
trillion over 10 years.
  Unfortunately, the United States Senate hasn't passed a budget in 
over 900-plus days. That's not the way to get our fiscal house in 
order.
  Additionally, when we passed our budget, we also put Medicare on a 
firm reform plan so it's here for the future.
  Number two, we need to have commonsense regulatory reform. Right now, 
in our $15 trillion economy, it's been reported that regulations are 
costing our economy $1.75 trillion annually. The Obama administration, 
by their own admission, has over 200 new regulations in the pipeline 
that will cost over $100 billion annually, and that's by their own 
admission, so I hate to think how much more it could be.
  This week, hopefully, we're going to pass a regulatory reform bill 
called the REINS Act, whereby any new proposal that's going to cost our 
economy over $100 million by a Federal agency would have to come back 
for an up-down vote by the United States Congress. I think that puts 
accountability on our Federal agencies.
  Number three, we need to pass some tax reform. Unfortunately, in 
12\1/2\ months we're going to see the largest--under current law--the 
largest tax increase in American history. That is not the proper way to 
go. That puts a cloud over the certainty and providing confidence for 
our businesses to want to grow their businesses knowing that they're 
looking at the largest tax increase in American history.
  Fourth, we need an energy policy that encourages the development of 
resources here in our country. We're exporting almost $1 trillion a 
year and many, many jobs overseas for energy. We don't need to be doing 
that.
  We've passed, on a bipartisan basis, our jobs plan. We currently have 
25 bills that we've passed on a bipartisan basis that would restore 
confidence and get this economy moving in the regulatory reform areas 
and the budget.
  I want to highlight the one at the top of the list, H.R. 872. That's 
a bill that I brought to this floor in March that passed by a 
bipartisan supermajority, nearly 300 votes. The thing that I don't 
understand that's very frustrating to me, that bill, as with the other 
24 bills, have gone over to the United States Senate and they're 
stacking up like cord wood. They haven't been acted on.
  I think the American people deserve to have a full, open debate on 
the floor of the United States Senate on these bills and vote on them. 
They deserve that. And that's our jobs plan. And it's a jobs plan that 
moves us forward.
  I cannot implore enough that we need to have action on these bills 
that will restore confidence and grow our economy. The future of our 
kids, the future of our country, our national security is at stake; and 
we must pass the jobs plan.
  Spending more money and growing government is not the answer. The 
answer is commonsense regulatory reform, tax reform, balanced budget, 
and an energy policy that develops and creates jobs here in America and 
moves us towards national security and prosperity.

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