[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10916-10918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        UNLEASHING OPPORTUNITIES

  Mr. SCOTT. It is indeed a humbling honor to serve the great people of 
South Carolina in the Senate. I am so grateful for the support I have 
received from South Carolinians.
  The success of the Palmetto State can be measured in many ways, but 
today, let me share the success of our economic engine. From insourcing 
jobs from other countries, jobs such as Otis Elevators in Florence, SC, 
or the high-tech boom that is happening throughout South Carolina, 
companies such as BMW in the upstate continue to expand. Michelin, in 
Anderson County expands. Continental Tires finds a home in Sumter, SC, 
and there are more than 5,000 new jobs on the coast of South Carolina 
because of Boeing. And let's not forget Aiken, SC, where Bridgestone 
has made a new home. South Carolina is and will continue to be a 
leading manufacturing engine for America.
  I stand before you today on the shoulders of two very amazing 
Americans. One has gone home to be with the Lord. The other is my hero, 
my mother, Frances Scott.
  Growing up in a single-parent household, my mother would have to work 
sometimes 16-hour days in order to keep me and my brother off of 
welfare. She wanted us to have a good example of someone who believed 
in hard work for us to follow.
  My mother used to tell me all the time that if you shoot for the Moon 
and you miss, you will be among the stars. But I didn't always listen 
to my mother. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I was 
drifting. Have you ever noticed that you don't really drift in the 
right direction? As a freshman in high school, I failed out. I failed 
world geography. I think I am the only U.S. Senator to fail civics. I 
also failed Spanish and English.
  When you fail Spanish and English, they don't call you bilingual. 
They call you bi-ignorant because you can't speak in any language.
  That's where I found myself. I found myself in a very strong and hard 
position, but good fortune strikes. I had two blessings. One was a 
mother who believes that sometimes love has to come at the end of the 
switch. For those of you who are not aware of what a switch is, it is a 
motivational apparatus, and it encouraged me a lot. I will say that, 
along with my mentor John Moniz, who came along at the right time--I 
was a sophomore--I found my way back on the path. John Moniz was a 
Chick-fil-A operator who made such a major impact in my life over the 
last three decades.
  John came along as I was a sophomore in high school, and he taught me 
some very, very valuable lessons. A couple of those lessons John 
started teaching me very early on were about being a business owner. 
John believed that you could literally think your way out of poverty. 
You didn't have to be an entertainer or an athlete, but you could 
become an entrepreneur. So John started teaching me some of the lessons 
of being a business owner. He said having a job is a good thing, but 
creating jobs is even better.
  John would teach me later that in earning an income, you have done 
well. But if you can learn to create a profit, you have done 
fantastically. He taught me some other lessons about individual 
responsibility. John once told me: If you don't like where you are, 
look in the mirror. Blame yourself. John was trying to teach me some 
very valuable lessons about individual responsibility.
  I learned very quickly from John that if you were a part of the 
problem, you were also part of the promise; that in fact if you saw 
yourself as a part of your obstacle, you may have found the key 
ingredient to your opportunities. It took a little time before the 
lessons of my mentor and the strong discipline of my mother started to 
germinate in my soul, but it finally did.

[[Page 10917]]

  After 4 years of having John as my mentor, something very tragic 
happened. At the young age of 38, John suddenly passed away. I remember 
the day before his funeral as though it were yesterday. I sat down and 
wrote out my mission statement: to positively impact the lives of a 
billion people with the message of hope and opportunity--hope being my 
faith in Christ Jesus and opportunity being the lessons of financial 
literacy and financial independence I learned from my mentor John 
Moniz.
  I decided to follow in the footsteps of my mentor John. I started my 
own business, and I learned very quickly the challenges of signing the 
front of the paycheck when you could not sign the back for yourself. 
Over the last two decades, as a business owner and as an elected 
official--whether it was as a member of the county council or a member 
of the South Carolina House of Representatives or being elected to the 
U.S. Congress--I have used as my foundation the lessons I learned from 
my mentor and my mother.
  During my time here in the Senate I will focus on a few key issues, 
including education, economic empowerment, and controlling our spending 
addiction. As a small business owner over the last 15 years I can tell 
you firsthand that our Tax Code is broken. With the highest corporate 
tax rate in all the world, and the taxing of small and family-owned 
businesses at an alarming rate, we will continue to produce a slow-
growth economy.
  The regulatory nightmare facing our small business owners today is 
only worsened by the ``Unaffordable Care Act,'' as my good friend 
Congressman Kucinich said yesterday.
  Further, with over 70,000 pages of new regulations in the last 5 
years, the compliance cost for small business is staggering. We do not 
simply need a delay in the employer mandate, we need a repeal of the 
employer mandate.
  On education, I can tell you as a poor kid, by the time I was in the 
fourth grade, I had already attended four schools. It is very difficult 
for us to fund the right school with the sometimes transient nature of 
poverty where you have to move a lot. I believe the system and the 
people closest to the child are in the best position to provide the 
highest quality of education for that child. So there is no way a 
bureaucrat in Washington, DC, can better educate a child in Lexington 
County than that child's parents and the teachers who are so involved 
in that education.
  We need a national debate on education. Parents need more choices so 
their kids will have a chance. So let's debate it. Let's debate charter 
schools, let's debate public school choice, private school choice, tax 
credits, home schools. Whatever it takes to improve our education 
system should be on the table for discussion.
  Let me close with this. If we create a competitive Tax Code and a 
fair, sensible regulatory environment, as well as a world-class 
education system, we will create the best economy known to man, as we 
have in times past. You see, the best and the brightest days are still 
ahead for America. Our strongest moments, our strongest stands, are 
still in our future. I believe in the greatness of America because I 
have experienced the goodness of her people. In America, an ordinary 
guy like me can be blessed with an extraordinary opportunity like this. 
Thank you, and God bless America.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I congratulate our good friend from 
South Carolina on his maiden speech and the opportunity, obviously, to 
learn more about his inspirational early life and the bilingual nature 
of his beginning and the way he interpreted those lessons both from his 
mother and from his mentor into the extraordinary success he has had 
both in the private sector and the public sector. I wish to say, on 
behalf of my colleagues, it is an honor to serve with him.
  Mr. SCOTT. I thank the Leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I want to join the Republican leader in 
expressing my appreciation of Senator Scott today, not just for his 
maiden speech but because we have new pages on the Senate floor and so 
it is their first time, and I see the bright eyes of these young people 
looking up to the Senator as he gives his maiden speech as he talks 
about the next generation.
  I was thinking a bit, because I saw an editorial the Senator had 
written published Sunday a week ago--``IRS targeting scandal shows need 
for reform''--and so I was happy to hear the Senator talking about some 
of the things happening there, because he talks about responsibility, 
accountability, and the kinds of things we heard in his maiden speech 
today. He writes in a concise way, also a courageous way, so I want to 
join the Republican leader in welcoming the new Senator and his 
comments, and I look forward to working with him for many years to 
come.
  I thank the Chair.
  Mr. SCOTT. I thank my colleague.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in congratulating our 
recently arrived colleague from South Carolina on his maiden speech. It 
strikes me we all want the same thing pretty much. We want an 
opportunity and we want to make sure our kids get the best quality 
education so they can compete in a global economy. But to be honest 
about it, we do have different approaches on how to achieve those 
goals, it strikes me, across the aisle.
  There are those who believe the government should play a bigger, more 
expansive role, and they have their own ideas and approach; and there 
are those of us who believe in limited government, and that that is 
most consistent with individual freedom and the opportunity to strive, 
to work hard, and to succeed. It is that notion of earned success. So 
we have a different approach, and I know the Senator from South 
Carolina agrees with that.
  I also believe the Senator from South Carolina has been a tremendous 
addition because of his background and his upbringing. Some people 
might say we don't need more lawyers in the Senate, and he certainly is 
not one of those, but he is somebody who has succeeded in the private 
sector, been marvelously successful now both in the House and here in 
the Senate. So it is great to have him as part of the Senate and 
contributing his unique perspective and being able to articulate as he 
does so well how small-government, limited-government principles apply 
to that concept of earned success that all of us want not only for 
ourselves but for our families as well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in complimenting 
the Senator from South Carolina, No. 1, because of his work ethic. I 
have the privilege of being the ranking Republican member of the 
committee that has maybe the broadest jurisdiction, the most diversity 
of any of our committees--Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions--and I 
have observed how hard Senator Scott has worked and how well prepared 
he has been in his first several months as a Senator. He has spoken out 
on labor issues, he has made a major contribution to the debate we had 
on whether we need a national school board or local control on 
elementary and secondary education. When other Senators are doing other 
things, he is right there at the committee hearings. So he has made a 
quiet, effective, principled, studious contribution to the Senate, in 
my experience, these first few months, and I am delighted to have him 
here.
  He has done so well I have invited him to come to Tennessee on Friday 
to speak to one of the largest gatherings we have annually in the 
State, and he has agreed to come, and we are grateful for that.
  Finally, I would compliment him on one other thing. Sometimes I like 
to tell stories about the person for whom I came to the Senate to 
work--Senator Howard Baker. When Senator Baker first came in 1967, I 
would say to the Senator from South Carolina, the Republican leader was 
his father-in-law Everett Dirksen. Senator Baker made his maiden 
speech, probably from a

[[Page 10918]]

back row about like Senator Scott is making his, and his father-in-law 
was sitting right where Senator McConnell sits, listening to the whole 
thing. It went on, and it went on, and it went on for nearly an hour. 
After it was over, Senator Dirksen came over to Senator Baker, and 
Senator Baker said to his father-in-law: Well, how did I do? Senator 
Dirksen, the Republican leader, said to the new Senator: Maybe, Howard, 
you should occasionally try to enjoy the luxury of an unexpressed 
thought.
  So I congratulate Senator Scott for his succinct maiden address. He 
is not only effective, studious, and diligent, he knows how to speak 
his words clearly and succinctly, and it is wonderful to see him.
  Mr. SCOTT. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Arkansas is recognized.

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