[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15771]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
                  THE TRUE MEANING OF THE FISCAL CLIFF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Ms. Hayworth) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, our work in Congress during these final 
weeks of 2012 is focused on the fiscal cliff. We're worried--and 
rightly so--about what it means to our economy, to our future, to the 
daily lives right now of hardworking Americans who are, in all too many 
cases, already struggling to make ends meet, like the mother in Carmel, 
New York, who told me her kids are going to have to limit their sports 
activities because she's having trouble finding the money to fill her 
gas tank a couple of times a week.
  I came to Congress 2 years ago to help that mom who is doing all she 
can just to get by. She cares for her family, she has a job, and she is 
a taxpayer. She is in the middle class, and she is being squeezed from 
all sides. She knows, even though she has to set and keep a budget, the 
Federal Government hasn't been able to do that, and that's why we're 
facing the fiscal cliff. The Federal Government has been spending her 
hard-earned tax dollars like water, running trillion-dollar deficits 
year after year. She is angry, and she has every right to be angry.
  So what are we going to do about it?
  Lately, we've heard a lot of talk about raising revenues but not 
nearly enough talk about bringing the Federal Government down to the 
right size, about matching spending to the resources we have, about 
balancing the Federal budget. Oh, we hear about a ``balanced 
approach,'' but that's just a way of saying we need to increase taxes. 
Actually, we don't need to increase taxes. The best thing we could do 
would be to not increase taxes.
  The best thing we can do to raise revenues is by making our economy 
as healthy and strong as it can be. That means we need to help our 
businesses grow and hire. That has become way too hard to do in the 
past couple of years. A businessman in Dutchess County, New York, told 
me that he's going to have to limit the number of employees he has to 
fewer than 50 so that he won't be subject to penalties under the 2010 
health law. So, right now, the Federal Government is keeping him from 
offering jobs. That hurts the people who need jobs and who would be 
happy to be on a payroll on which they would be putting their own 
contributions into Social Security and Medicare.
  Increasing taxes means less growth and fewer jobs, and that's not 
balanced. Three years ago, I made a pledge to oppose tax increases. I 
made that pledge to the citizens I serve and to no one else, and I made 
it because tax increases will hurt them. When Jen, the owner of La 
Petite Cuisine in Warwick, New York, tells me that the best thing I can 
do for her small business is to give her a break from high taxes, I 
believe her. I ran for Congress to help Jen and all the small business 
people like her, who are the engines of job creation. I ran for 
Congress to help all the people who need employers like Jen to hire 
them.
  These good people deserve better than temporary fixes that mean we 
lurch from one crisis to the next. They deserve a plan that solves our 
economic problems for the long term. They deserve a plan that goes 
beyond politics and shows a commitment to putting the Federal 
Government on a budget and on track to eliminate our crushing debt, 
that respects our citizens' rights to enjoy the fruits of their labors 
and to spend and save and invest as they see fit, which is the best way 
to grow the economy and add jobs, and that allows each of them, 
regardless of their station in life or where they live or their ethnic 
background or their gender, to use their energy, talent, and common 
sense as free people in a Nation that must remain the strongest in the 
world, which it simply cannot be if it is drowning in debt.
  I am here to fight for what is best for my constituents--every one of 
them--today and every day, in every single way I can. I am here to 
serve them and not any party or ideology. My constituents' future 
extends far beyond any election. They deserve that future to be as 
secure and prosperous as it can be, and it surely can be if we in 
Congress and the White House can have the courage to move forward 
together in a spirit of true cooperation. I stand ready to do that, and 
I stand with the people of the Hudson Valley.

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