[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5088]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               ADDRESSING FAILED ADMINISTRATION POLICIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Kingston) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the failed policies of the Obama 
administration continue to drag down the economy. The policies of 
stimulus programs, bailouts, crony capitalism, the Department of 
Justice investigating only what they choose worthy to be enforced, 
bowing to Saudi kings, going to China hat in hand asking for more money 
have brought down the economy.
  Indeed, the unemployment rate, which the administration says is 8.2 
percent, that's not accurate at all. They simply got it down that low 
by omitting a whole lot of unemployed people from the unemployment 
category. There's about 4 million people who have given up looking for 
a job, and the Obama administration doesn't even consider them as being 
unemployed.
  In my opinion, there are four things we can do to address this, and 
we need to do it on a bipartisan basis. I have reached out to the White 
House. I will continue to. And even in an election year, it's far more 
important to put America first and party second.
  The first thing we need to do is pass a budget. Right now, the 
national debt is over 100 percent of the gross domestic product, a $15 
trillion national debt and a $15 trillion economy. Indeed, we are on 
the road to Greece. For every dollar we spend, 40 cents is borrowed.
  The United States Senate, under Harry Reid, has not passed a budget 
in 3 years. That is the constitutional duty of the legislative branch 
of government. The House has done so. The House passes a budget. We had 
a great debate 2 weeks ago. We had a budget offered by the Democrats, 
one offered by the Progressive Caucus, one offered by the Congressional 
Black Caucus, one offered by the most conservative caucus, one offered 
by the Ryan Budget Committee. We had a great debate, and we passed a 
budget.
  Now, the Senate doesn't like that. I understand that. Footnote: we 
even offered the President's budget, which increases the debt $1.2 
trillion--another $1.2 trillion--and not a single vote from Nancy 
Pelosi to John Boehner, not one vote for the President's budget. The 
same thing happened in the Senate last year.
  But I understand the Senate doesn't like our budget. They don't like 
the President's budget. But where is your budget? You have got to pass 
it. And if you would pass a budget in the U.S. Senate, we can hammer 
out our differences between the House and Senate. Indeed, both parties 
will have to give; both bodies will compromise. That's always been the 
case. But it would send a huge international signal that America, the 
economic leader of the world, is serious about getting our hands on our 
debt. We are leading the way instead of falling to the demise of 
Greece, Spain, Portugal, and so many of the other troubled countries.
  So the first thing we need to do to change our economy around is to 
pass a budget.
  The second thing to do is to look at regulatory burden, which is 
stifling new jobs, and instead of government bureaucracies going to the 
small businesses with this ``I gotcha'' attitude--we know you hate 
people; we know you hate consumers; we know you want to pollute the 
air; we know you want to poison the food--maybe the Federal Government 
regulatory agencies should go into the small businesses and say: We 
recognize what you're doing right; we want to encourage it. And where 
you're doing wrong, we're going to discourage it; and if you don't 
address it, we will fine you. But don't go to every business in America 
assuming they're guilty of something besides creating jobs and 
delivering goods and services to people.
  So we need to ease up and find the balance in the regulatory burden.
  Thirdly, we need to drill our own oil, and we need to encourage the 
new technologies of horizontal drilling, fracking, and all the great 
promises that are out there. We need to look at the example of 
Williston, North Dakota, which has brought its oil production from 
200,000 barrels to 600,000 barrels in less than a year's period of 
time. Indeed, America could perhaps become an energy exporter. Not only 
would that be an economic boon, but the national security advantage of 
it would be an unbelievable sea change in the world stability today.
  Fourth and final, we need to have tax simplification. How many 
Americans within the sound of my voice fill out their own tax return? 
More and more people are turning to accountants and lawyers to figure 
out what the heck we owe Uncle Sam every April 15. And when you pay an 
accountant $300 or $400 or $500 or $1,000 to figure out what you owe 
Uncle Sam, that's a tax in itself. Businesses spend lots of time 
avoiding taxes. We need a tax system that's certain, that's clear, 
that's concise and fair so that everybody understands it and everybody 
pays their fair share. Indeed, tax simplification would help turn the 
economy around.
  So, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, Democrats and Republicans have the 
moment right now to change the economic direction of America by passing 
a good, solid budget; by having balanced regulatory reform; drilling 
our own oil and having a good energy policy; and, finally, tax 
simplification.

                          ____________________