[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9612-9613]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES WE FACE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gohmert) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, as always, it's an honor to speak here in 
the House of Representatives.

[[Page 9613]]

  I heard Democratic friends mention earlier that what we need to do to 
get the economy going is start spending on infrastructure because our 
grandchildren will really appreciate the dollars that they have to pay 
years from now that we spent on infrastructure.
  The only thing is, that's exactly what our friends across the aisle 
were saying in January of 2009 when they wanted an $800 billion 
stimulus package that turned out to be maybe $900 billion or $1 
trillion. It was going to be for infrastructure. And many in the 
American public said, yeah, that's a good idea. It turned out that only 
around 6 percent or so, 6 to 7 percent may have been for 
infrastructure.
  Okay. Fooled us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
  The thing is, some of us weren't fooled even back then. We had 
already seen things that were said that would be done that were not 
done. So I voted against that so-called ``porkulus'' stimulus, or 
whatever you want to call it, bill. I voted against TARP because in 
America we're not supposed to just give one man $700 billion and say, 
go do whatever you want with all this money; we don't care, just fix 
things. Because he certainly didn't fix things, although he did engorge 
his buddies at Goldman Sachs.
  Nonetheless, we do face economic difficulties. And within the last 2 
weeks there were six of us, a bipartisan group, in Turkey. Their 
economy seems to be going very well, and we were seeing things growing 
and doing well in Istanbul. And they don't understand sarcasm very well 
and so, but I, nonetheless, said to some of their economic leaders, 
business leaders, so you must have had many huge stimulus packages to 
get the economy going. They looked at me like I was crazy because they 
don't understand sarcasm very well in another language I guess. But 
they spoke good English.
  Nonetheless, they didn't use stimulus packages. But they did say they 
had dropped their corporate tax rate that was much too high down to 20 
percent, and now businesses have been coming in. That works. It works 
whenever it's been tried.
  But let me get to another point. Credibility is always relevant. In 
my days as a judge and chief justice that was one of the rules of the 
court. Credibility is always an issue. It's always relevant. So when 
this country makes promises to people and doesn't keep them, or they're 
stupid promises to people we know will not keep their word to us, we 
lose credibility.
  We found out now that this administration is negotiating with the 
Taliban; basically, you know, just let us out. We're negotiating with 
the Taliban? Did Hoover negotiate with Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde?
  Did Robert Kennedy, as Attorney General, negotiate with the Mob?
  When people are involved and they're criminals and they're murderers 
and they're engaged in criminal activity and they've never kept a 
promise, do you really want to be making that deal?
  Now, I know it seems like we should have learned a lesson from the 
Clinton administration. When North Korea was trying to build nukes, the 
Clinton administration sends Madeleine Albright, and she comes in, hey, 
hey, how about dropping pursuing nuclear weapons? We'll build you a 
nuclear power plant if you'll just--you'll build us a nuclear power 
plant if we just tell you we won't pursue it? Sure, we'll tell you that 
all day long.

                              {time}  1230

  So they cut a deal. We built them a nuclear plant, and that has been 
used to develop nuclear weapons, just like anybody should have figured 
it would. When you deal with criminals, with lying thugs, you can't 
trust that agreement.
  For us to be negotiating with the Taliban is a blight on those who 
have given their lives there. I attended a funeral this weekend of Brad 
Gaudet, who went down in a helicopter accident on June 5. We owe those 
people who have given their lives fighting against those who want to 
destroy our way of life better than cutting a deal.
  Let's rearm the Northern Alliance, the people that originally 
defeated the Taliban--just give them the advisers, the trainers, all 
that they need, and let them whip the Taliban for us again. Let's not 
negotiate with Dillinger. It makes no sense and we lose credibility.

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