[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4226-4231]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, my name is Keith Ellison. I claim the time 
on behalf of the Progressive Caucus. I want to thank you, Mr. Speaker, 
for providing the time so that we can share our views and opinions 
about the world we live in and about the importance of Congress' being 
responsive to the American people.
  Tonight, I am here on behalf of the Progressive Caucus. The 
Congressional Progressive Caucus is a caucus in the United States 
Congress, 83-member-strong, who can be counted on to stand up for peace 
as opposed to war, who can be counted on to stand up for working and 
middle class people and economic justice and a fair distribution of our 
Nation's resources, who can be counted on to stand up for civil and 
human rights, who believe that color, culture, sexual orientation, and 
things like this are not important as they relate to the

[[Page 4227]]

worth or merit of a human being, and we can be counted on to stand up 
for these ideas that make our country great.
  In fact, for every great movement in our country, whether it has been 
the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, whether it has 
been the right to expand the vote to 18-year-olds, whether it has been 
the fight to end slavery or to support the rights of working people on 
the job, including our public employees so imperiled today, it has been 
Progressives who have made these struggles. It has been conservatives 
who have always fought progress. They fought against ending slavery. 
They fought against integration. They fought against women's rights. 
Always the conservatives have been the ones against moving our country 
forward, and they are today again.
  So we are the Progressive Caucus, and we are proud to be Members of 
this Congress. We are proud to be able to stand up and articulate a 
people-focused, American-focused agenda that we know and believe is 
going to be to the benefit of the American people. We are the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus, and we are very pleased to be Members 
of the Congress, standing up for the American people.
  Tonight, I am here to talk about the Progressive message.

                              {time}  1930

  The Progressive message. The message that we are going to share 
tonight is protecting the American Dream. Protecting the American 
Dream, stopping corporate tax cheats, and having a sane budget. That's 
what we want to talk about tonight, protecting the American Dream.
  What is the American Dream? The American Dream is the dream, not the 
fantasy, but the dream that if you work hard and you live life by the 
rules, that you will be able to be successful in America; that you will 
be able to get a job, go to school; that if you live long enough and 
are blessed to do so, that you will be able to retire with Social 
Security and Medicare; that your children and grandchildren will be 
able to get a quality education at a public school if they want to; and 
that, no matter what color they are or what culture they are or what 
religion they are, they are welcomed, because Americans are Americans 
are Americans. That's the American Dream.
  This is a dream shared by people who go back 14 generations in 
America, like my family does, or people who are brand-new arrivals in 
America, the newest person who just got their green card or just got 
their citizenship, sworn in and just got naturalized yesterday. The 
American Dream. This is the dream we are talking about.
  Now, I believe that the conservatives in this body have another kind 
of dream. Their dream, based on the policies that they pursue, is to 
get the rights of workers away from them. They are all applauding what 
happened in Wisconsin so that in the workforce and workplace you have 
got no democracy; you have no say-so on what happens to you. They want 
to have us working for China wages. They want us competing with the 
people in the Third World, and they want to drive wages down so that we 
can be price competitive with people who basically don't make anything.
  They want to have a Tax Code that allows the richest of the richest 
to keep their money and not contribute to society, and push the 
expenses of society onto the working and middle class people. They 
envision a society where you have a tiny elite and a vast number of 
Americans who are desperate and will work for anything, because they 
will have gotten rid of the social safety net that we as a society come 
together and put in place. They want to get rid of LIHEAP, which is 
home heating oil; get rid of Pell Grants, which help our students from 
moderate and low incomes have a chance to get ahead; get rid of 
foreclosure mitigation programs so that Americans could try to keep 
their homes; get rid of all this stuff that helps people and just say, 
Yeah, you can work, but you had better work for whatever the big boss 
pays you, and you can't have a union. And if you are lucky enough to be 
among the top 1 percent, then life is going to be good.
  This is the Progressive message. That is what we are here to talk 
about today, the American Dream. But the dream I am talking about is 
rooted in the Pledge of Allegiance.
  I have got to confess to you, Mr. Speaker, I love coming here to say 
the Pledge of Allegiance. Whenever I am privileged enough to be able to 
be on the House Floor at 10 a.m. or 12, whenever we open, I always feel 
good about saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I teach it to my children, 
the Pledge of Allegiance. And my favorite part of it--and of course I 
love the whole thing. But my favorite part of it is when we say, 
``liberty and justice for all.'' I love that part of it. ``For all.''
  Now see, the conservatives in this body, they like to talk about 
liberty. And then when they are talking about liberty, they are not 
talking about a woman's right to choose, because that is liberty. They 
are not talking about the freedom of worship to be Muslim, Christian, 
Jewish, Baha'i. No religion at all. They don't believe in that. They 
believe only one way to seek the Divine, and they get more radical with 
it every single day. They don't believe in liberties like that. They 
don't believe you should be able to say whatever you want to say. They 
don't necessarily believe in the liberties that I am talking about.
  They believe in property rights. That's the liberty they are talking 
about. They mean that you ought to be able to own as much as you want. 
And if you can buy the whole State of Texas, Oklahoma or Minnesota and 
you have got the money for it, you ought to be able to do it. That is 
what they are talking about. They are talking about property.
  Now, I believe in property rights, too. I am a very firm believer 
that you ought to own your home, you ought to own your business. You 
ought to be able to have some things that are yours, and they are not 
for the government to control. I share that belief with them, not to 
the extreme they believe it, but I do believe that there is an 
important role for property rights. I also believe that there is a 
right for personal liberties, too, and they are not so hot about that.
  But it seems like they end the whole discussion after ``and justice 
for all.'' They are okay with the liberty part as long as it is 
property rights, but they are against the ``and justice for all'' 
because it is the ``and justice,'' not ``or justice.'' ``And justice.''
  Justice has to do with treating people equally--all colors, all 
cultures, all faiths. Justice means that you marry who you want to 
marry in America. It is not the government's business. Justice means 
treating people with fairness. That is what it means. Justice in the 
economic sphere means that all of us have to share the burden of 
expense of this great country of ours and that none of us can reap all 
the goodies of being in America but don't have to pay anything when it 
comes to footing the bill. That is justice.
  Now, this last part, in some ways, is the best part, ``for all.'' For 
everyone. Last week, we had some hearings in the Homeland Security 
Committee where one particular religious group was pointed out for 
persecution, actually. That was a sad day. For all, though. America is 
about for all. For everybody. All Americans of whatever faith group, of 
whatever color, of whatever, rural or urban, straight, gay. All of us. 
Liberty and justice for all. It ought to make you feel good.
  And when you think about liberty, this means you can do what you want 
to do. My conservative friends think it only means property, but it 
really means property or personal liberty. Justice means we treat 
people fairly in America. You have got a right to a fair trial. Even if 
you are accused of a crime, we can't take your liberty or your justice 
away or your money until it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 
Justice.
  We have the Fourth Amendment that says the government has to have a 
reasonable basis and has to get a warrant before they go snooping on 
you. That is justice. Justice, the right to a lawyer. These things are 
important. And we don't give up on justice. Even if you are a person 
accused of something really bad and it looks like you really did

[[Page 4228]]

it, still you get justice in this America I love so much. And it is for 
all. Everybody. We have no exceptions.
  It seems like some of my friends on the conservative side of this 
body would have ``and liberty and justice for all except gays, Muslims, 
and immigrants.'' That is what it seems like their opinion is. That is 
how they behave anyway.
  Anyway, I am just going to leave that up there for a moment because I 
am going to refer to it. But I want to say, the fact is that Democrats 
aren't afraid to stand up for the middle class. We are not afraid to 
say that Americans, if you want, if you are ready to work hard, ought 
to be able to get a piece of that American Dream. If you are ready to 
study hard, we ought to do something to make sure that you can go to 
school and get a quality education. And the government, the American 
Government has a role, a certain responsibility to make sure that is 
there for you.
  One of the big debates we are having in Congress now, Mr. Speaker, is 
simply this: On the one side, we have people on this side of the aisle, 
and they are under the impression that the government can't do anything 
for you, shouldn't do anything to help you out.

                              {time}  1940

  On the other side, we believe in mixed government. Yes, the 
government should be there for you, but you should be able to do--I 
mean, of course you have liberty and you have the private sector and 
the mixture with the public sector together. They say the private 
sector. We say private and public sector. This is the debate going on 
in Congress right now.
  When I think about the things that we worked on today, they wanted to 
get rid of all the foreclosure mitigation programs. In America, 4 
million foreclosures, and perhaps 7 million before it is all done, and 
we literally voted on the House floor today that all those people can 
just let the market deal with their problem. That is it.
  Now, we didn't let the market deal with its problems when they came 
here and asked for $700 billion for Wall Street. We didn't let the 
market deal with them. They get some socialism when they are in a jam.
  But really, when that bailout happened to those banks and Republicans 
voted for it, Democrats too--I voted for it, full disclosure--what 
happened is we said, Look, you have been irresponsible. You have done 
the wrong thing. You are like a person who has been smoking cigarettes 
in bed. You are like a person who has been drinking and got busted, and 
you are in jail.
  And like that person who smoked in bed, your house burned down. But I 
can't run out and lecture you about how smoking in bed is wrong. I have 
got to go get some water and put the fire out, because the fire you 
started can burn my house down if I don't do something.
  And just like that friend who got drunk and was out, you call me up 
at 2 o'clock in the morning and say, Man, I am really wasted. Yes, I am 
going to tell you off and tell you how wrong you are, but I am going to 
get up out of bed, and I am going to pick you up because I don't want 
you to get in the car and hurt yourself or hurt somebody else.
  So, yes, I voted for the bailout. I voted for the bailout because, if 
Wall Street went down, it was going to take all the rest of us with it.
  But the point is, under the Bush administration, they asked us to 
step up, and they asked all of America. This is a representative 
democracy. We represent our districts. And they asked the American 
people, through us as their representatives, to say, Could you please 
help Wall Street out? They were very irresponsible, but if we don't 
help them, we are all going to suffer. So can you help them?
  And the American people, through us, their representatives, came up 
with the majority that said, Okay, we will help. We don't want to go 
through this again. We want our money back. We have rules we are going 
to impose, but we are going to help. And today, guess what? We pretty 
much are going to get all that money back.
  But when the American people needed a hand, as soon as the Republican 
caucus got in the majority, they started tearing down all the 
foreclosure mitigation programs. This is a sad day, and it is wrong. It 
is morally reprehensible, and I am sad they did it. I fought against 
it. I voted against it every time I could. But we go by the rules, and 
the rules are the majority decides. There is another election coming 
up, Mr. Speaker.
  Anyway, there are two things that should be pointed out about the 
Republican caucus. They say two things, two things that don't make much 
sense. Well, they say a lot of things that don't make much sense, but 
they say two things in particular. One is that they are fighting for 
jobs. They are not fighting for jobs, because if they were fighting for 
jobs, you would see them introduce at least one jobs bill. We have been 
here for 11 weeks. They have introduced exactly zero job bills. None.
  I know people listening, Mr. Speaker, might think, well, maybe. I am 
sure they introduced at least one or two. No. Check it. None. They have 
introduced none. Absolutely none. They have introduced no bills for 
jobs. In fact, they introduced these spending cuts that are going to 
cut jobs.
  We showed today the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which they 
cut and voted to eliminate today, offered 100,000 jobs across America. 
One of those people was looking forward to that job so they could put 
groceries on the table, pay their rent, take care of business. But we 
cut that program out, and they are all fine with that.
  The budget they introduced, H.R. 1--that bill--experts, even 
conservative economists, say, will cut 700,000 jobs. They are not even 
embarrassed about it. It is amazing.
  Then they also say we've got to cut it. We've got to cut it because--
you know what?--We have got this enormous debt, and we don't want to 
put this debt--and they always say this, they always say this--on our 
children and grandchildren. They always say it. You know what they are 
about to say once they start saying it. We are broke. We can't put this 
debt on our children and grandchildren.
  You know what? America is not broke. America is the biggest economy 
in the world. As a matter of fact, this economy is three times bigger 
than the Chinese economy. You wouldn't know that listening to them, 
because they are always running around like Chicken Little. Oh, my god, 
the sky is falling. The sky falling. America has got doom and gloom.
  Well, I don't believe America is doom and gloom. I believe the best 
days of this country are yet to come. I think we have got to stop all 
this crying, and we have to understand that we have to grow ourselves 
out this deficit, not just cut everything so that we get rid of the 
social safety net that people rely on in order to climb up the ladder 
to the middle class. That is right, Mr. Speaker. We can't allow that to 
happen.
  We have got to say that there are two things that Republicans say but 
are wrong. They are, one, not about jobs, because if they were, they 
would have introduced at least one jobs bill. They are not about 
cutting the deficit, because if they were, they wouldn't have forced 
President Obama into this bargain where they basically extended tax 
cuts for the richest, extended all of the tax cuts, which cost this 
country $858 billion. And they forced him into that bargain all so that 
we could extend unemployment benefits for people who have been out of 
work because of Republican mismanagement of the economy.
  This is the reality. They say they are about the deficit. When we try 
to do anything to get some more revenue in, they are against it. They 
want to extend tax cuts for the richest Americans, and they are letting 
$858 billion go right out the door. If we had just let those tax cuts 
expire, it would have gone down to the rates when Bill Clinton was in 
office. And, do you know what? We had a booming economy then, because 
Democrats are just better at managing money than the Republicans are.
  During the Bush years, we had slow job growth. We had very abysmal 
job growth. Middle class people had flat

[[Page 4229]]

pay. We didn't have any increases. Of course, rich people had huge 
growth. They had precipitous growth in their income. It is amazing how 
much income the rich got during the Bush administration.
  I will never forget that, at a big fundraiser that George Bush was 
having, he was talking to a body of people where there was an $800 a 
plate dinner, and the President said, ``Some people call you the elite. 
I call you my base.'' You know what? He wasn't lying when he said that, 
and he went into office and he took care of those people too.
  So, they are not really about deficits, because if we didn't extend 
any of the tax cuts, we would eliminate the deficit in 4 years. I am 
for that. I will sign up for that. If we did not extend any of the tax 
cuts and if we let them all expire, the deficit would be wiped out in 4 
years. But you know the Republicans aren't serious about deficit 
reduction, so they would never do that.
  So they are not serious about jobs. They are not serious about 
deficit reduction. I will tell you what they are serious about. They 
are absolutely serious about giving the richest Americans as much as 
they possibly can. That is what they are serious about. They are 
serious about giving the richest Americans as much as they can, and 
they are serious about taking and depriving lower income and working 
class Americans of a social safety net. They are serious about those 
two things, but they are not serious about jobs or deficit reduction.
  But we in the Progressive Caucus are serious about liberty and 
justice for all. I really like this board, so I hate to take it down, 
but I will put it back up.
  Now, I just said that the Republicans, conservatives, are absolutely 
not really about deficit reduction. They are really about cutting out 
the social safety net, cutting out aid for students, cutting out aid 
for poor people who need heat in our northern climates. They are for 
that kind of stuff. And they are for cutting out Head Start.
  What they do is they extend these Bush tax cuts, and then they say, 
Oh, we don't have any money. And then they say the only way we can 
solve the deficit is through cuts. So you, grandma, you sonny boy who 
is in school, you little kid who is in Head Start, all of you guys are 
out of luck.

                              {time}  1950

  But that doesn't happen to some people.
  Now here's a board, Mr. Speaker. And this board is what I call an 
interesting board. This board has on it Bank of America, General 
Electric, Citigroup, ExxonMobil, Wells Fargo. Mr. Speaker, in my pocket 
right now, I have $25. That's what I've got in my pocket. I went to the 
ATM today because I need a little bit of money. That's all I got.
  Mr. Speaker, I got more money in my pocket than all of these 
companies paid in taxes. Mr. Speaker, I got $25 in my pocket, and it's 
$25 more than Bank of America, General Electric, Citigroup, ExxonMobil, 
and Wells Fargo altogether paid in taxes. I need you to look this up, 
Mr. Speaker. I need you to investigate this. You might think, Oh, 
that's just a politician talking. I'm telling you. And I will back this 
up. They didn't pay any taxes.
  And guess what? The Republican caucus is telling us that the students 
can't have any Pell Grants, that we can't afford a foreclosure 
mitigation program. They're telling us that we've got to cut Head 
Start, and we've got to cut home heating assistance. They're telling us 
that we've got to cut the basics that people rely on. We've got to cut 
research programs. We've got to cut programs that are going to help us 
investigate new scientific breakthroughs. But these guys don't want to 
pay. You don't want to pay anything?
  Wait a minute, Bank of America. Wait a minute, GE. Aren't you guys 
proud to be American companies? Didn't you guys benefit from being here 
in the United States? Don't you feel good about being here in the 
United States of America, the greatest country in the world, where 
you're free to pursue profit all you want? All we want to do is ask you 
to do a little something for people who are still trying to climb the 
ladder. And, apparently, the Republicans say, Don't worry about it, 
guys. You don't have to pay anything. Oh, my goodness. This is really 
quite amazing.
  Mr. Speaker, this board here is a challenge to all these companies 
and any other ones--the big ones that didn't pay any taxes. It's a 
challenge. It's a challenge to support tax policy to help America. It's 
a challenge to support the policy of ``and liberty and justice for 
all.'' They benefit from being here. They're protected by our Nation's 
fighting men and women in our military. They're protected by local 
police. If any one of their members gets injured or hurt or sick on the 
job, the emergency medical services come to their rescue.
  They drive their big trucks and probably put more wear and tear on 
our roads than the regular citizens do. They use as much water as 
anybody else, sometimes even pollute it. In their cafeterias, they rely 
on the meat that's going to be served to be inspected by our government 
agencies.
  Yet they don't want to pay nothing. And the sad thing about it is 
they probably wouldn't mind paying, but the Republican caucus insists 
that they pay nothing. Look at it, Mr. Speaker. They didn't pay. But on 
April 15, me and you are going to pay. We're going to pay big time. But 
guess what? Those companies didn't pay.
  Also, it's not just corporations. It's individuals. I have no problem 
with Mr. Trump. I'm sure he's a nice person. Doesn't really seem like 
it on television, but he probably is. That's probably just an act. And 
I'm sure Ms. Hilton is a nice person, too. I've got nothing against 
them personally at all. Nothing bad to say about them. But I don't 
think they need a tax break. I don't think they need a tax break. I 
think they should pay their fair shares. I think the billionaires 
should pay their fair share.
  As we are in the middle of a mighty budget battle, Mr. Speaker, I 
think patriotic Americans should say, We need a progressive Tax Code 
that asks the most privileged of all of us to pony it up, too. If 
you're going to ask Mildred, who bangs it out nine hours a day at a 
diner on $9 an hour for money for taxes; if you're going to ask 
teachers and cops, firefighters, and EMTs to bang it out and pay up on 
April 15, I think Donald Trump and Paris Hilton should pay up, too.
  Now, I don't have any problem with these people. I hope nobody thinks 
that this is a personal attack on them. It's not. It's just the 
statement that in all your houses that you own--both of them probably 
have many--somebody has got to heat them houses, somebody has got to 
protect those houses if somebody breaks in them. Somebody has got to 
come put the fire out should, heaven forbid, it should ever happen. The 
road has got to be built; the sewer lines have got to be maintained and 
put out there.
  That's the government. That's our American Government. And I just 
think these good folks here ought to feel good about writing a check so 
that the cops and the teachers can stay on the job; so that the kids 
who need a Pell Grant can get it; so that the kids who are in Head 
Start can have a program; so that there can be home heating assistance 
for our seniors. I would just think that they would do that. And I hope 
that they do. Again, nothing personal.
  Mr. Speaker, I've looked at the Republican program, and I've looked 
at it carefully. I ask myself about their program, and I say to myself, 
Mr. Speaker, you know what? I don't want to just say their program is 
this or that; I want to look at what their program is and see what is 
actually there. And then after we can see what is there, then we can 
determine what actually their program is.
  We can't go by what they just say, because they say, Oh, we just want 
to take the debt off of our children and grandchildren. Oh, we just 
want to get rid of this debt, or we don't have any money. None of that 
is true. But what is true? I think it's important to really dig into 
what's actually true, and I think it's important for us to really try 
to figure out what their program is based on their behavior.
  So what I have come up with is the plan for a Republican recession. 
This is

[[Page 4230]]

their plan. They want a permanent tax break for billionaires at the 
expense of working families. I'm sure these billionaires are nice 
people. In fact, you don't see too many billionaires down here saying, 
Hey, I need more money, Keith. We hear the Republicans saying that, who 
are supposed to be elected by the people. Which people?
  The second thing is put BP, British Petroleum, in charge of our 
energy policy because the last speaker got up, going on and on about 
BP. I would check the facts. But here's a fact that you don't need to 
check, but you should. Leaders in their caucus--leaders on the Energy 
and Commerce Committee and their caucus--accuse President Obama of 
doing a shakedown of BP when you have to clean up the oil spill in the 
gulf, and now we have Members attacking him. That's an interesting fact 
right there. I found that quite remarkable.
  Anyway, put Goldman Sachs in charge of our economic policy. Put 
insurance companies between you and your doctor. They always are 
saying, Oh, government takeover. They want to repeal health care, the 
Affordable Care Act, which will put you back at the whim of an 
insurance company bureaucrat. At least the government you can vote on. 
You can't vote on the insurance company. That's a privately held 
company.
  Bonuses for CEOs who ship American jobs oversees. Privatize Social 
Security. Oh, yes, they did. Raise the retirement age. Gut Medicare. 
And some of them have even stood for repeal of the 14th Amendment and 
the 17th Amendment.
  This is a Republican plan. This is what they stand for. This is what 
they're about. This is what they believe in. I think that they should 
be proud and come down here and claim it and say, Yeah, we are for the 
very rich. We're not for you working class people. Because that's their 
program. That's what they stand for.

                              {time}  2000

  The conservative position is to call for tax cuts and deregulation 
because they believe that will unleash the competitive economy. Tax 
cuts and deregulation resulted in the worst financial disaster since 
the Great Depression. But even though we've seen massive drops in home 
values, we've seen 8.9 percent unemployment, the longest unemployment 
since the Great Depression, even though we've seen so much economic 
devastation, they're back here right now calling for the same old 
thing. It's crazy, it's amazing, and it's actually quite scary.
  But we stand for the American Dream. We stand for liberty and justice 
for all. Folks, unless you actually live by it, it's just words. You've 
got to put meaning into these words in order for them to really make a 
difference. Liberty and justice for all. Shared prosperity. Shared 
costs. Not just one or the other.
  Bank of America, as I said, didn't pay a single penny in Federal 
income tax in 2009.
  Despite receiving billions from the Federal Government every single 
year in taxpayer giveaways, Boeing didn't pay a dime in U.S. Federal 
corporate income tax in 2008, 2009 or 2010.
  Citigroup, deferred income taxes for the third quarter in 2010, 
amounted to a grand total of zero. At the same time, Citigroup has 
continued to pay its staff lavishly. A gentleman by the name of John 
Havens, head of Citigroup's investment bank, is expected to be the 
bank's highest paid executive for the second year in a row. He got $9.5 
million. Citigroup is a big TARP recipient, by the way.
  ExxonMobil, Big Oil tax dodgers, used offshore subsidiaries in the 
Caribbean to pay their fair share. Although ExxonMobil paid $15 billion 
in taxes in 2009, not a single penny of it went to the American 
Treasury. This is the same year that the company overtook Wal-Mart in 
the Fortune 500. Meanwhile, total compensation of ExxonMobil's CEO was 
$29 million.
  General Electric, 2009, the world's largest corporation, filed more 
than 7,000 tax returns and still didn't pay anything to America's 
government. GE managed to do this with the aid of a rigged Tax Code 
that essentially subsidizes companies for losing money. With the aid of 
Republicans in Congress whose campaigns they financed, they exploit our 
Tax Code to avoid paying their fair share.
  And who do Republicans blame? The middle class. Republicans blame 
public employees, who are really America's everyday heroes. Public 
employees are America's everyday heroes. Think about it. If somebody 
breaks into your house, who are you going to call? A public employee, 
who's going to help apprehend the people who stole your stuff, known as 
a police officer.
  If your house starts burning, who are you going to call? A public 
employee, also known as a firefighter. If your kid wants to go to 
school, public school, who's staying after working on that algebra, 
working on that geometry, making sure that kid gets that lesson, who 
believes in that child's ability to learn. Who's doing that? Teachers.
  Heaven forbid, you get a heart attack or a stroke and you need an 
emergency medical technician. Who's that? A public employee. These 
public employees, who have been viciously slandered in Wisconsin and in 
other places, they don't deserve that. They're hardworking people and 
they help us every single day. When we are running out of burning 
buildings, they are running into them, and I think they deserve better 
than what they've been getting. That goes for Federal employees, too. 
These are the people who inspect our water, who take care of our 
national forests and our parks. These are people who make our 
government run. I think they do a pretty good job.
  In order for them to have a decent life, in order for them to do 
well, in order for them to be able to prosper--to hear the Republicans 
talk, you'd think that being a government employee, a public employee, 
a person who's an American hero, who takes care of us every single day, 
you'd think that they're just the ones living lavishly and getting too 
much. They've got nothing to say about these bonuses. You ever hear 
anything on the Republican side of the aisle talk about how it's 
ridiculous for the CEO of ExxonMobil to be making $29 million a year? 
You don't hear that. You don't hear that.
  But I think that it's time for those folks, those millionaires and 
billionaires, to start ponying up. That's why today I was happy to join 
Jan Schakowsky and several other Progressive Caucus members to 
introduce the Fairness in Taxation Act. During these times, 
millionaires and billionaires should be giving in charity, not getting 
charity. They should be giving in charity, not getting charity. The 
middle class is shrinking and deficits are rising because Republicans 
are giving a pass to the special interests who aren't paying their fair 
share. It's time to put that money in the hands of people who work for 
a living. The Fairness in Taxation Act is part of a plan to level the 
playing field.
  According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of March 2, 2011, 
with 81 percent of support, the most popular way to reduce the deficit 
is by placing a surtax on Federal income taxes for those who make more 
than a million a year. And if you don't think there's plenty of people 
who make more than a million a year, you'd be surprised to know that if 
we taxed them, it would raise about $78 billion.
  It's time for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share. 
The middle class is disappearing, and it's no accident. Over the last 
30 years, there has been the most dramatic and deliberate 
redistribution of wealth from the middle class up to the millionaires 
and billionaires. Not since 1928, right before the Great Depression, 
has income inequality in this country been this ridiculous. Wages have 
stagnated for middle and lower income families, despite enormous gains 
in productivity, meaning that we're making more within the same amount 
of time, because they're working us harder and we're just doing more. 
We've got technology and we're just pretty good at what we do.
  Where did the money go? Where did the extra money go? The money went 
to the richest 1 percent which owns 34 percent of the Nation's wealth, 
more

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than the entire bottom 90 percent who owns just 29 percent of the 
country's wealth. The top one-tenth of 1 percent, I'm talking about the 
richest of the rich, now makes an average of $27 million per household. 
The average income for the bottom 90 percent of Americans is $31,000 a 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, a lot of people who tune into C-SPAN make $31,000 a 
year. They have relatives and friends who make $31,000 a year. You 
might be a brand new teacher making $31,000 a year. You might be a 
brand new cop making $31,000 a year. But the top one-hundredth of 1 
percent makes $27 million a year on average. They can't pay anything. 
They don't want to pay to help Head Start. They don't want to pay to 
help Pell Grants. It's a shame. I would think that they would pony up 
and want to do the right thing.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to say that it is always a pleasure 
to come before the House for the Special Order for the Progressive 
Caucus, but tonight I just want to leave one thought, and that one 
thought is liberty and justice for all. No exceptions. Everybody.

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