[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9611]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. We've seen some pretty miserable employment numbers 
recently, but the real unemployment rate is actually about twice what 
you read in the paper. It's closer to 18 percent, with discouraged 
workers and people who are underemployed.
  Now, can we look to Washington for solutions? On the Republican side 
of the aisle, the answer is simple: more tax cuts. That will put people 
back to work. Let's see, for 10 years now, we've been living under the 
Bush tax cuts; and we've had the worst job creation for the last decade 
since World War II.
  Now, it doesn't seem to be working too well, but it is all based on 
the theory of trickle-down. But I think at this point, the American 
people have been trickled on so much, particularly those who are 
unemployed and looking for work, that they'd like an umbrella and 
they'd like a little shelter from these nonsensical policies.
  Can we look to the White House? Well, unfortunately, things aren't a 
lot better down at the White House. They went along with the 
Republicans on quite a bit of these tax cuts. Forty percent of the so-
called stimulus was tax cuts. Seven percent--one-sixth of that--was 
invested in infrastructure. And guess what, that investment at one-
sixth the cost of the tax cuts put a heck of a lot more people to work, 
investment in building things and in the future of our country, as 
opposed to debt-driven consumption-driven tax cuts.
  Last December, the President caved, went along with extending the 
Bush tax cuts, and we've still got miserable job creation. Oh, wow, 
that's a surprise. Now they've floated a balloon. The White House has a 
great new idea. Let's continue the Social Security tax holiday. That 
was added to the Bush tax cuts in December. That's created a lot of 
jobs. Sure, working families can use an extra $15 a week. But what 
about the 20 million people who are unemployed? They don't get any of 
that. And how much of that $15 a week, how many jobs does that create? 
But the White House thinks we should extend that, and maybe we should 
give it on the employer side too.
  So here's the way it will work: we don't have the money. We're going 
to cut the Social Security tax again. We have to make the trust fund 
whole. So we'll borrow $200 billion from China that we'll put into the 
Social Security trust fund, and that's going to put America back to 
work. What a great idea. Wait a minute, how about we take that $200 
billion the White House wants to borrow to extend the Social Security 
tax holiday and we invest it into real things, the Nation's crumbling 
infrastructure?
  We have 20 percent unemployment in the construction industry, and it 
isn't just construction workers who go to work when we rebuild our 
infrastructure. We have Buy America requirements. They're all American 
jobs, and everything that goes into every job is made in America. If 
it's a transit system, you've got engineers; you've got software; 
you've got high-tech manufacturing. If it's a bridge, you've got steel; 
you've got concrete; you've got engineering design; you've got 
construction workers. If it's a highway, the same thing.
  Take that money, take that $200 billion they want to borrow and give 
a Social Security tax holiday. Instead, invest it in the future of this 
country and things that will serve our country for 100 years, make us 
more productive, more efficient, and you can look your grandkids in the 
eye 15, 20, 30 years from today and say, Yes, that's right, we borrowed 
that money; and you are still paying the bill.
  If you give it for a Social Security tax holiday, he is going to say, 
Granddad, what did you spend that $17 on that week? Because I am paying 
the bill. But how about if Granddad can say, We built that bridge; we 
built that transit system; we rebuilt our national transportation 
system. We put millions to work and, guess what, that system will serve 
you for another 100 years.
  That's an investment versus consumption. Everybody around here is 
just into consumption. We need to invest in the future of our country.

                          ____________________