[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2603-2604]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DO NOT RAISE TAXES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I was talking to my good friend 
on the other side of the aisle, a Democrat, Greg Meeks, and Greg said 
that if we would raise taxes, put taxes on the table, that he would be 
willing to put cuts and entitlements and other things on the table in 
an equal measure; and I told him that there was no way that we could 
raise taxes enough to offset the things that really needed to be dealt 
with.
  We have got to control spending. We have got to cut spending. We have 
got to look at the entitlements and the rules and regulations that we 
have to live by and make dramatic changes in government if we're going 
to balance the budget.
  This year, we have reached over $15 trillion in debt--$15 trillion. 
That kind of goes right past most people because they can't imagine 
what a trillion dollars is. But $15 trillion, just to put it in 
perspective, it took the Presidencies of George Washington all the way 
to Bill Clinton to amass the same amount of debt that President Obama 
has racked up in 32 months.
  Now, think about that: from George Washington to Bill Clinton, the 
amount of money in debt that we've added has been reached in 32 months 
by President Obama.
  We have to get control of spending. It's absolutely essential. 
Otherwise, we'll be in the same shape as many of those countries in 
Europe, like Greece.
  The President's solution to the burgeoning problem is to increase 
taxes, as I said. So I went through the amount of taxes it would take 
and what we would have to do to reach the goals that the President 
talks about.
  Now, if you raise the taxes on everybody that makes over $250,000 to 
100 percent--in other words, you take every dime that they make, 100 
percent, above $250,000--that would yield about $1.4 trillion, and that 
would keep government running for 141 days. So if we took all the money 
that people make over $250,000, you would still only run government for 
less than half a year.
  If you gave the $400 billion of profits that was reaped by the 
Fortune 500 companies and gave them the same 100 percent tax treatment, 
you could add another 40 days to the amount of time that we could run 
the government.
  So taxing is not going to solve the problem.
  Now, Herbert Hoover, when he was President, decided--a Republican--
that the way to help stop the economic tragedy that was about to occur 
was to raise taxes on businesses and individuals, and what happened? We 
ended up with the greatest depression in the history of this country.
  Now, President Obama said the one thing that you don't want to do 
during a time of recession is raise taxes, and yet that's what he's 
advocating and my Democrat colleagues are advocating right now: raise 
taxes during a time of economic recession.
  When people talk about unemployment in this country, they say, well, 
now it's 8.2 percent. But if you look at the people who dropped off the 
unemployment rolls and those who are underemployed, the unemployment 
rate is probably closer to 15 percent. So the figures we are getting 
from the administration are really not that accurate.
  It's extremely important that the administration, and my Democrat 
colleagues here in the House and especially in the Senate, take a hard 
look at where we're going. The projections are over the next 10 years 
we're going to increase the deficit by at least $1 trillion a year. We 
cannot afford that. This country will go completely bankrupt. You'll 
see inflation that you won't believe.
  Right now the Fed is printing money to cover the expenditures that 
we're incurring day after day after day. That money they're using, 
they're buying bonds with it, Treasury bonds. So that money is not 
actually being seen in circulation. But the fact is that we're 
increasing the debt by printing money at the Fed on a daily basis. In 
Europe, the European Central Bank is doing the same thing with the 
euro. This country and the rest of the world is heading toward an 
inflationary problem that's going to be unbelievable.
  Now, people say in this country right now we haven't seen any 
inflation. If you look at the figures that are coming out from the 
administration, inflation last year went up about 1 to 2 percent, but 
they're including in that figure all the new technologies that are 
taking place. They're not going to the grocery store.
  I went to the grocery store last week and bought four apples at a 
cost of almost $5. Three tomatoes cost almost $5. If you go to the gas 
pump today--and my colleague from Indiana (Mr. Pence) talked about that 
just a few minutes ago. If you go to the gas pump today, it's almost $4 
for a gallon of gas. So the inflation rate on staples, on things that 
we use on a daily basis is probably well over 10 percent, maybe even 
higher than that.
  We don't know, but the administration says it's only 1 to 2 percent. 
Talk to the wives and husbands of people that are really strapped for 
cash right now, and you will find that it's costing them a great deal 
more than that on a daily basis for gasoline, food, clothes, and 
everything else.
  It's extremely important that we get control of spending. This is not 
the

[[Page 2604]]

time to raise taxes. The President has said that himself, especially 
back in 2008 and 2009. Yet now they are taking a different tack and 
saying we need to raise taxes.

                              {time}  1200

  That would be like throwing gasoline on a fire. We should not be 
raising taxes. We should be addressing the spending side of the ledger; 
and if we do that, we will get this country back on the right track.
  I just got back from Europe. I took a codel over there to Brussels to 
meet with the finance people in the European Union to find out where 
they are heading, and they're heading in a very difficult direction 
right now. If Greece goes belly up, it's very likely that you're going 
to see other countries go belly up. And we have investments in money 
market funds and bonds that we've purchased in those countries. And if 
those countries default, it's going to affect the United States as 
well. So we need to get our house in order so that we don't end up in 
the same bailiwick that Europe is in right now that could cause severe 
economic problems in this country.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I'll end by saying it's important to get control of 
spending. This is not the time to raise taxes. A poll was taken 
recently by the Politico magazine here on Capitol Hill, and 75 percent 
of the people in this country that were polled said not to raise taxes. 
So the people get it. I just hope that the White House will.
  The United States still finds itself in a spending driven debt 
crisis.
  The National Debt has now surpassed an unprecedented $15 trillion 
dollars.
  House Republicans approved a budget that would have put a stop to 
spending money that we don't have as well as cutting $6.2 Trillion 
Dollars more than the President's budget. The Democrats blocked it.
  The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is now officially over 100 percent 
(approx. 110 percent at the end of 2011).
  To put the severity of this crisis into perspective, it took from the 
presidencies of George Washington to Bill Clinton to amass the same 
amount of debt that President Obama has racked up in the past 32 
months.
  The President's solution to the burgeoning problem his 
Administration's reckless behavior has caused? Increase Taxes.
  The Problem, according to the President is simply that the most 
successful among us simply aren't paying their fair share . . .
  This sentiment has most recently manifested itself in the President's 
proposed budget, in which he has increased taxes to the tune of $1.5 
Trillion Dollars.
  The simple reality of the situation is that this is nothing more than 
campaign rhetoric, employed in hopes of fomenting class warfare and 
dividing the American people.
  ``You cannot tax your way into prosperity.''
  We learned this after the 1929 stock market crash when Herbert 
Hoover, a Republican, signed legislation to sharply increase taxes on 
businesses, who were seen as the catalyst for the market crash.
  Hoover's draconian tax increases, fueled by a similar populist outcry 
heard today, ultimately served as the first salvo in a series of policy 
missteps that would ultimately lead to the Great Depression of the 
1930's.
  Keep In Mind That:
  Even If Congress imposed a 100 percent tax, taking all earnings above 
$250,000 per year, it would yield $1.4 Trillion Dollars. That would 
keep the government running for 141 days.
  The problem is there are 224 more days left in the year.
  If we gave the $400 Billion Dollars of profits reaped by the Fortune 
500 the 100 percent tax treatment . . . We Could fund the Government 
for another 40 days.
  It was not too long ago that President Obama himself was quoted as 
saying, ``You do not raise taxes during a recession.''
  If only he had the resolve to heed his own advice.
  The American people also believe that the course of action taken by 
Hoover and endorsed by Obama is not the right way forward.
  In a recent poll in The Hill Newspaper, 75 percent of American's 
polled felt that, the ``most appropriate top tax rate for families 
earning $250,000 or more'' is 30 percent or less. This would be 5 
percent less than what this income group currently pays.
  This is in stark contrast to the 40 percent tax rate that Obama and 
like-minded Democrats in the Congress have called for to enact in 2013.
  When one couples this with the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts . . . 
We are creating an environment where the entire tax code as we know it 
will cease to exist.
  If we continue in this vein, in 2013:
  The 8 out of 10 businesses in America that file taxes as individuals 
will see their tax rate go to 44.8 percent.
  This will effectively kill what little growth our embattled economy 
has left.
  Despite the top marginal tax rate varying between 35 percent and 91 
percent since 1960, Federal tax collections have been between 15 and 20 
percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product every year since 1960.
  From this we can infer whether taxes are high or low, people make 
adjustments in their economic behavior so as to keep the government tax 
take at 15 to 20 percent of the GDP.
  History has proven unequivocally that tax rates have always had a 
greater impact on economic growth than they do on Federal revenues.
  It is no longer good enough to kick the can down the road and make 
this the next Congresses' or next President's problem.
  Unless we wish to bring the problems of Europe to our shores it is 
incumbent on us to champion responsible spending restraint; a repaired 
safety net; reforms that ensure real health and retirement security; 
and a simplified tax code oriented toward economic growth.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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