[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9923-9924]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THANKING THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD FOR ITS LEADERSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Ryan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the National 
Labor Relations Board for moving in a direction with a recent proposed 
change that will actually strengthen a worker's ability in the United 
States to unite, to work within a system that has more transparency, 
that is fairer, that is streamlined so that we can return a little bit 
more power here in the United States of America to the worker.
  Representing a district in northeast Ohio and cities like Akron and 
Youngstown, and in a region that includes

[[Page 9924]]

Cleveland and Canton and is not too far from Pittsburgh, we have had a 
long, proud history in our region of a strong middle class that, in 
many ways, was provided by union representation, to bring some balance 
to an economic system, quite frankly, right now that is run by major 
global multinational interests that will do whatever is necessary to 
drive down wages for average workers.
  I love this economic theory that we hear many times from our friends 
on the other side that if the minimum wage just wasn't so high, if 
workers just weren't making as much money, that maybe the economy would 
start humming. Let's reduce taxes on the wealthiest people in the 
United States when they've had a boom for 20 years of an increase in 
income. But if we reduce wages for middle class people, that somehow 
this economy will just turn right around.
  And let me remind my friends on the other side, we are currently 
living under the President Bush tax system. If this tax system of 
cutting taxing for the wealthiest worked had created jobs, we wouldn't 
have the problems we have right now. Think about it. We are living 
under President Bush's tax system. This system, in '01 and '03, was 
supposed to lead to tremendous growth and job creation in the American 
economy. It hasn't worked. America works when we reinvest back into our 
people, when we make sure people are trained and educated.
  I am for a reduction in the corporate tax. We do need to keep 
business taxes low so that we can be more competitive. But when you 
start making hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars, 
like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, you've got to pay a little bit more 
in taxes. And we need that revenue so that we can rebuild our 
infrastructure in the United States, so that we can make college more 
affordable in the United States, so that average families in 
Youngstown, in Niles can send their kids to college to become 
engineers. That revenue can be used to make sure that every American 
has affordable health care, so that no family in the United States has 
to make a decision or stare at the ceiling when they are laying in bed 
at night, worrying about whether or not their children will have proper 
health care, or that if one of their kids gets sick, they may not be 
able to afford health care. That shouldn't happen in the United States 
of America.
  What the NLRB has done is said, Let's give more fairness, more 
transparency, a more streamlined process so that workers can unite 
together and have some little bit of leverage against the massive 
corporate interests. I've been down here 9 years now in this Congress, 
and it seems to me that whatever the oil industry wants, they get; 
whatever the insurance industry wants, they get; whatever the 
multinationals want, they get. And if we don't begin as a country to 
empower average people to make a good middle class wage, we are not 
going to be the America any of us want. We are going to be weaker.
  You want to talk about family values--these are family values. What 
the NLRB has done is move us closer to having some family values. So I 
rise today, Mr. Speaker, to say thank you to the leadership of the NLRB 
for some of these proposed changes. I hope they continue to move 
forward. And I hope this is just one small step where we, as a country, 
say, You know, the middle class is working, if we're manufacturing 
things in the United States, if we work together with a common cause, a 
common purpose, if we're healthy, if we're educated, everything else 
will take care of itself. That's the kind of country that this decision 
is moving us towards, and I would like to thank them.

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