H5692 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE August 2, 2012 

me, and he said these words in January 

of 2011: 

Over the years, a parade of lobbyists has 

rigged the Tax Code to benefit particular 

companies and industries. Those with accountants and lawyers to work the system 

can end up paying no taxes at all, but the 

rest are hit with one of the highest corporate 

tax rates in the world. 

President Obama said that, and he 

followed it with this: 

It makes no sense, and it has to change. 

Hitting job creators in America with 

the highest tax rate in the world 

‘‘makes no sense, and it has to 

change.’’ 

This was January of 2011, 1 month 

after December, 2010, when the President signed the tax package for 2 years 

that the House passed today. I ask the 

Speaker, where is the contention 

today? This is the same proposal that 

was passed 2 years ago when the President acknowledged the challenges facing our job creators and said ‘‘it has to 

change.’’ 

We have a bigger plan for fundamental reform that changes the debate 

in Washington forever, but right now, 

we are about the business of stopping 

the largest tax increase in American 

history from destroying jobs in this 

country beginning in January of next 

year. The President acknowledges it 

and said it had to change. 

Right here behind me in January, 

2011, he says this: 

So tonight, I’m asking Democrats and Republicans to simplify the system, get rid of 

the loopholes, level the playing field, and use 

the savings to lower the corporate tax rate 

for the first time in 25 years without adding 

to our deficit. It can be done. 

It can be done, says President 

Obama—and he’s right. Our Ways and 

Means Committee has held more hearings on fundamental tax reform than 

any other Ways and Means Committee 

in my lifetime. We are talking about 

those fundamental reforms that the 

President has asked to talk about. And 

this week, this week, Mr. Speaker, we 

passed a framework that gives expedited procedures. 

We all know how things get slowed 

down in Washington, D.C. We all know 

how easy it is for somebody to latch on 

to something and stop it from passing 

because they want to stand in the way 

of progress. We passed expedited procedures to do exactly what the President 

has asked us to do. This is not Republican politics. This is not partisan politics. This is folks coming together to 

try to save what is a fragile economy 

today. Is it the strongest economy in 

the world? You’d better believe it. Is 

tomorrow going to be brighter than 

today in America? You’d better believe 

it. But not by holding our tongues, not 

by sitting on our hands, and not by 

fighting amongst ourselves about who 

gets the credit. 

Mr. Speaker, I don’t care. I’ve got a 

fundamental tax reform bill that I believe solves this problem. You can call 

it anything you want to. Call it the 

Democratic plan to save America. It 

doesn’t matter to me. We don’t care 

who gets the credit. We care about 

solving the problem. And that’s what 

our President charged us to do. 

He goes on, January, 2011, 10 feet behind me: 

We measure progress by the success of our 

people, by the jobs they can find and the 

quality of those jobs, by the prospects of a 

small businessowner who dreams of turning 

a good idea into a thriving enterprise. 

My colleagues here are trying to 

raise taxes on 50 percent of all the income those small businessowners 

make. The job creators in this country 

are faced with the largest tax increase 

in American history. Our President has 

asked us not to do that. He goes on to 

say this: 

By the opportunities for a better life that 

we pass on to our children, that’s the project 

the American people want us to get to work 

on together. 

And we did. We passed our plan for 

fundamental tax reform together in a 

bipartisan way this week. 

Talking about the agreement that 

the President passed and signed in December of 2010, the very same agreement that we’re trying to pass today, 

he said this: 

We did that in December. Thanks to the 

tax cuts we passed, Americans’ paychecks 

are bigger, and these steps taken by Republicans and Democrats will grow the economy 

and add to more than 1 million private sector jobs this year. 

Did you remember my saying the 

President was going to back up, that 

this proposal was going to create 1 million private sector jobs? He said it in 

January, add to more than 1 million 

private sector jobs created last year. 

I’ll close with this, Mr. Speaker. 

That was 10 feet behind me January 

2011. Ten feet behind me January 20, 

2012, the President said this: 

We have a huge opportunity at this moment to bring manufacturing back to America, but we have to seize it. We have to seize 

it. 

I bolded this so everybody could see 

it, Mr. Speaker. We should start with 

our Tax Code. Right now, companies 

get tax breaks for moving jobs and 

profits overseas, meanwhile companies 

that choose to stay in America get hit 

with one of the highest tax rates in the 

world. It makes no sense. Everyone 

knows it. So let’s change it. 

Mr. Speaker, that’s the bill the 

House passed this week. The bill the 

Senate passed this week continues to 

punish those small businessowners and 

continues to reward those companies 

that do their businesses overseas. 

Don’t let an election year get in the 

way of doing what’s right. The President called for it, the Ways and Means 

Committee delivered it, the House has 

passed it, and we can do it. I call on my 

colleagues on the other side of the aisle 

to believe as I believe, that tomorrow 

can be better than today. 

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back 

the balance of my time. 

IRAN’S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. 

KELLY). Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 5, 2011, the 

gentleman from Arizona (Mr. FRANKS) 

is recognized for 32 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. 

Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the previous gentleman 

here. His comments were very compelling to me. 

Mr. Speaker, before I begin my comments tonight, let me just sincerely 

say that I hold in my heart this privilege of being a Member of the American family and this United States 

Congress to be a priceless gift of God. 

And I would ask that my comments tonight would be heard in that context, 

and I would even dare to hope, Mr. 

Speaker, that you and the Members of 

this body might grant me a modicum 

of understanding befitting the conviction and the gravity that give impulse 

to the statements that I make tonight. 

Mr. Speaker, the very first responsibility of human government is to protect its people. Many times during the 

nearly 4 years of the Obama administration, I have stood on this floor and 

have called upon this administration to 

address the grave threat posed by 

Iran’s nuclear program. 

When I first began calling for Iran to 

be referred to the Security Council, 

they possessed only 157 centrifuges, Mr. 

Speaker. But tonight, Iran possesses 

more than 9,000. And tonight I stand 

here with such a sense of urgency that 

I find it difficult to articulate, Mr. 

Speaker. I believe we may be facing the 

very last window this world will ever 

have before it becomes too late to prevent jihad from becoming armed with 

nuclear weapons and shattering the 

peace and security of human freedom 

as we have known it. 

Because this administration has delayed and sent ambiguous messages to 

Iran and the world, as of approximately 

3 months ago, Iran reached the point 

where it now possesses all the components necessary to become a nucleararmed nation. 

Mr. Speaker, Iran has the knowledge, 

the technical expertise, the equipment, 

everything necessary to build a nuclear 

warhead. They need no new technology, no new personnel, no new parts 

or resources of any kind from anyone. 

All they need now is time and lack of 

intervention. 

Mr. Speaker, if Iran is allowed to 

gain nuclear weapons, it will unequivocally transform the landscape of 

human freedom as we have known it 

throughout the world. The world’s primary financier of terrorism will be 

armed with nuclear warheads. A desperate arms race will rage across the 

entire Middle East. Israel will be in 

range of nuclear missiles in the hands 

of a jihadist enemy who despises them, 

is dedicated to their complete annihilation and capable of obliterating their 

entire nation in 15 minutes. 


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b 1830 

America and our allies will then face 

an enemy with the ultimate asymmetric capability of a nuclear-generated high-altitude electromagnetic 

pulse potentially capable of devastating our electric grid and the 

civilizational architecture it sustains. 

Jihadists the world over will have access to nuclear weapons, and the 

world’s children, Mr. Speaker, will 

have forever etched in their memory 

that moment in history when this government allowed the hellish shadow of 

nuclear jihad to fall across their future. 

For almost 4 years, Mr. Speaker, we 

have witnessed the same weakness, naivete, vacillation, ambiguity, and delusional policy toward radical jihadists 

in Iran that once allowed them to hold 

56 American hostages for 444 days during the Carter administration. That 

failed approach, that failed understanding now saturates nearly every 

policy corner of the Obama administration as Iran seeks to gain a nuclear 

grip on America’s throat. 

As always, any credible threat should 

be evaluated by whether an enemy possesses both the intention and the capacity to inflict harm. The despotic regime now governing Iran has been explicitly clear in its intention toward 

the United States. Official military parades in Iran have, for years, routinely 

featured a litany of slogans calling for 

death to Israel, death to America. 

President Ahmadinejad was speaking 

to the whole world when he said: 

And you, for your part, if you would like to 

have good relations with the Iranian nation 

in the future, recognize the Iranian nation’s 

greatness and bow down before the greatness 

of the Iranian nation and surrender. If you 

don’t accept to do this, the Iranian nation 

will later force you to surrender and bow 

down. 

Does that sound like someone who 

thinks he knows something that we 

don’t? 

Ahmadinejad also said: 

Israel is about to die and will soon be 

erased from the geographical season. 

Then he added: 

The time for the fall of the satanic power 

of the United States has come, and the 

countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started. 

Iranian Basij Commander Naqdi said: 

As long as America exists, we will not rest. 

We must create the environment for the destruction of America. 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has consistently denied the existence of the Holocaust, Mr. Speaker, calling it a myth 

or a fabrication. And in the same 

breath, he threatens to make it happen 

again by repeatedly calling for the destruction of the Jewish State, for 

Israel to be ‘‘wiped off the map.’’ He 

has said, point blank: 

The wave of the Islamist revolution will 

soon reach the entire world. Anybody who 

recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the 

Islamic nation’s fury. 

And just today, Mr. Speaker, just 

today, Ahmadinejad called for the annihilation of Israel again. 

Mr. Speaker, the Pentagon estimates 

that hundreds of U.S. soldiers have 

died, as many as three and four of our 

casualties, as a result of Iran supplying 

terrorists in Iraq with weapons such as 

highly sophisticated explosive form 

penetrators designed to destroy American armor and vehicles. What possesses us to believe that they would 

not do the same with nuclear weapons? 

Former Joint Chief of Staff Admiral 

Mike Mullen said: 

My worst nightmare is terrorists with nuclear weapons. Not only do I know that they 

are trying to get them, but I know they will 

use them. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu called Iran: 

the major terrorist-sponsoring state of our 

time. Tehran could give those nuclear weapons to terrorists, or give them a nuclear umbrella that would bring terrorism beyond our 

wildest dreams. 

Mr. Speaker, can we allow a man like 

Ahmadinejad, leading the world’s most 

dangerous regime, to be able to disseminate nuclear weapons to terrorists 

and to have his finger on the button 

that could launch nuclear missiles targeting our families and our children? 

And how do we negotiate with a nuclear Iran, as Senator Obama suggested, when their jihadist ideology 

considers Armageddon a good thing? 

Mr. Speaker, even without nuclear 

weapons, the Iranian regime has remained relentless and undeterred in its 

efforts to harm America, Israel, and 

Western interests. In October of last 

year, our intelligence interdicted an 

Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi 

Arabian Ambassador and to detonate 

bombs at both the Saudi Arabian and 

the Israeli Embassies right here in 

Washington, D.C. Tapes in American 

possession show that the Iranians were 

unconcerned with ‘‘collateral damage.’’ 

Now, Mr. Speaker, translated, that 

means dead Americans. It also means 

that Iran has no fear whatsoever of the 

Obama administration. 

And now, in recent days, we have 

learned that Iran was behind another 

barbaric attack, a terrorist attack on 

innocent civilians, when its terrorist 

proxy, Hezbollah, bombed a Bulgarian 

bus, killing five innocent Israeli citizens and killing a pregnant woman and 

including dozens more. Imagine how 

emboldened Iran will become if they 

are allowed to come into possession of 

nuclear weapons. 

Specifically, Mr. Speaker, imagine 

for a moment the scenario of 

Hezbollah, one of Iran’s terrorist proxies, gaining possession of just two nuclear warheads and bringing them 

across the border into the United 

States concealed, say, in bales of marijuana—this shows you that they can 

get them in—when transporting them 

into the heart of two different crowded 

unnamed cities and then calling and 

telling the White House exactly when 

and where the first one will be detonated, and then following through 60 

seconds later. 

Then imagine them, Mr. Speaker, 

calling the White House back and making demands, which, if they’re not met, 

would mean that the second warhead 

would also be detonated in a different 

unnamed American city. The entire 

United States would be held hostage by 

terrorist monsters, Mr. Speaker. 

Or imagine if those same terrorists 

acquired two small cargo ships carrying mobile launchers with SCUD 

missiles from Iran’s existing arsenal 

and used them to launch those two 

warheads in a coordinated and devastating high-altitude electromagnetic 

pulse attack over the homeland of the 

United States. 

Well, the fact is, Mr. Speaker, that 

Iran is pursuing the means whereby 

they could assist groups like Hezbollah 

to do exactly these kinds of horrifying 

things. The only components they lack 

to proceed are the nuclear warheads. 

Mr. Speaker, there is no longer a single rational defense for the argument 

that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons capability. 

So let me say this, and pray that the 

Members of this body and pray that the 

President and this Nation understand. 

If Iran gains nuclear weapons, they will 

give them to terrorists the world over. 

And still, as the centrifuges in Iran are 

spinning, the Obama administration is 

fiddling, and many of the Members of 

this body stand by and contemplate. 

Have we lost our minds? 

Mr. Speaker, President Obama has 

allowed Iran to rope-a-dope this administration in so-called peace talks that 

have burned the clock for nearly 4 

years of his Presidency. The President 

has made stern warnings and then 

backed down every time. We’ve endured five rounds of peace talks, five 

different proposals, six different United 

Nations resolutions, and more than a 

dozen sets of economic sanctions. 

The House just voted yesterday on 

another Iran sanctions bill that was so 

weakened and watered down by Mr. 

Obama and his supporters in the Senate that it is now barely worth the 

paper it’s written upon. The administration’s focus has been on sanctions, 

and weak sanctions at that, Mr. Speaker. And even then, Mr. Obama has 

granted waivers to further weaken the 

sanctions already in place. 

Now, I wonder if this administration 

has considered the fact that we have 

had economic sanctions against North 

Korea for over 60 years, and in recent 

decades we have sanctioned them nearly into starvation. And yet during that 

time, they have tested nuclear warheads twice. And it’s a genie that we 

cannot put back in the bottle, Mr. 

Speaker. 

President Ahmadinejad has said of 

economic sanctions: 

If they want to continue with that path of 

sanctions, we will not be harmed. They can 

issue resolutions for 100 years. 

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei 

said Iran’s nuclear policies would not 

change, no matter the pressure. He 

said: 

With God’s help, and without paying attention to propaganda, Iran’s nuclear course 


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H5694 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE August 2, 2012 

should continually remain firmly and seriously. Pressures, sanctions, and assassinations will bear no fruit. No obstacles can 

stop Iran’s nuclear work. 

b 1840 

Mr. Obama’s own Director of National Intelligence was asked by the 

Senate Intelligence Committee whether sanctions had any effect on the 

course of Iran’s nuclear program. The 

answer was simple, Mr. Speaker, ‘‘No, 

none whatsoever.’’ 

I’ve said many times, starting long 

ago, that we should have pursued truly 

effective sanctions, dissident support, 

regime change, and political pressures 

to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state. But without the 

conviction in the minds of the Iranian 

leadership that military intervention 

will occur if they continue to develop 

nuclear weapons, none of these other 

approaches will change their minds. 

Our greatest hope to prevent military 

action against Iran was to make sure 

their leaders understood that the free 

world would respond militarily before 

we allowed them to threaten it with 

nuclear weapons. 

Unfortunately, Iran’s radical leaders 

concluded that Barack Obama simply 

lacked the understanding or the resolve to use military action to prevent 

their nuclear weapons development. 

And why would they conclude anything 

else, Mr. Speaker? Even now, the stated goal of the Obama sanctions policy 

is simply to get Iran back to the negotiating table where they can waste 

even more time and gain even more 

valuable advances. And if we do get 

them back to the negotiating table, 

Mr. Speaker, what compromise can we 

seek—maybe that Iran keeps only a 

small number of nuclear weapons? No, 

Mr. Speaker. If Iran is hell-bent on getting nuclear weapons, there is no diplomatic solution. 

In the popular revolt in Iran in 2009, 

the President could have assisted the 

dissidents and the peace-loving, decent 

people of Iran, of which there are so 

many, to overthrow their oppressors in 

the Iranian regime—or at least he 

could have spoken up on their behalf 

when they were out dying in the 

streets to try to bring about regime 

change, which, if they had been successful, could have changed all of this 

equation. But the President left them 

twisting in the wind. 

To call Mr. Obama a bystander in all 

of this is to be charitable. The truth is, 

Mr. Speaker, he has been nowhere to be 

found. Many congressional Republicans 

have written and pleaded with this 

President numerous times on this vital 

issue to absolutely no avail. 

The truth is that this President has 

waited too long. He has waited so long 

that the equation now before us has no 

good answer. His policies have only 

helped Iran accelerate their nuclear 

program. Iran is now tripling its uranium output, moving enrichment facilities deep under a mountain near 

Qom and restraining the IAEA from 

even inspecting weaponization facilities. 

Maybe now it is becoming clear why 

Israel is so very concerned, because for 

them, a nuclear Iran is not just an academic question—it calls into question 

their very survival—and the Obama administration has now placed Israel into 

an almost impossible circumstance. 

Israel has watched this President resist 

an Israeli strike on nuclear facilities in 

Iran more than he has resisted a nuclear Iran. Israel has listened to Mr. 

Obama openly criticize Israel more for 

building homes in their capital city 

than he has openly criticized Mahmoud 

Ahmadinejad for building nuclear 

weapons with which to threaten the entire free world. In fact, they have 

watched this administration systematically scrub references that Jerusalem is even the capital of Israel. 

Consequently, I believe Israel has 

known for some time that they can no 

longer trust the Obama administration 

to act in their best interest. 

They know that Mr. Obama has waited so long that if Israel acts now to defend their own nation—and all of us incidentally—that they will suffer a far 

more damaging response from the radical regimes that surround them than 

they otherwise would have. Israel 

knows that, if they wait much longer 

to attack, the Iranian nuclear facilities 

may well be beyond their conventional 

military capability. Israel desperately 

needs America and her greater ability 

to attack heavily fortified targets. 

They need us, Mr. Speaker, but they 

will act without us if they must. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu said simply and clearly, 

‘‘One thing I’ll never compromise on, 

and that is Israel’s security . . . When 

it comes to Israel’s survival, we must 

always remain the masters of our 

fate.’’ 

So what is this administration’s 

present strategy? ‘‘We’re trying to 

make the decision to attack as hard as 

possible for Israel.’’ The most disgraceful part of it is President Obama’s 

threat to withhold resupply from Israel 

to pressure them into his brand of inaction. 

So let me just see if I have this 

straight, Mr. Speaker. The President 

says, according to his own State Department, that the world’s greatest 

supporter of terrorism, a self-avowed 

enemy of America, with an advancing 

nuclear weapons program, has committed to destroy us and Israel and 

that the President’s goal is to prevent 

Israel—our best and most committed 

friend and national ally on this Earth— 

from defending themselves. Did I get 

that right? 

Mr. Speaker, that’s why Israel will 

never trust this President with their 

national survival. 

You see, Israel knows the very inconvenient truth that, when it comes to a 

nuclear Iran, if we are to prevent, we 

must preempt. They know that the 

choice with Iran is no longer a choice 

between the way the world is now and 

the way the world might be after a 

military strike to prevent them from 

gaining nuclear weapons. Rather, the 

choice now is between what the world 

will be like after a preventative military strike on Iran or what the world 

will be like after Iran gains nuclear 

weapons. 

So, Mr. Speaker, we should not deceive ourselves. When the head of 

Israeli intelligence tells the prime minister that Iran is entering into that 

‘‘zone of immunity’’ where Israel will 

no longer have the conventional capacity to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, Israel will act. 

They will act knowing that many in 

the world will condemn them. They 

will act knowing that they will be 

blamed for any radiation releases from 

Iran’s nuclear facilities that might result. They will act knowing that thousands of Iranian, Hamas, and Hezbollah 

rockets and missiles will fall upon the 

cities of their tiny nation in retaliation. They will act knowing that it is 

now extremely difficult for them to 

succeed. 

But, Mr. Speaker, Israel will act because they are students of history, and 

they will not be made to walk silently 

into the gas chambers again. 

They will act because they know that 

whatever the consequences for their actions will be that they will pale in significance compared to what the consequences would be for them and for 

the whole world if the jihadist Government of Iran were to gain nuclear 

weapons. 

And, if and when they do act, the 

Obama administration will owe an 

apology to the whole world for ignoring 

this grave reality for so long, but Israel 

will especially deserve an apology—an 

apology from this administration for 

leaving them with no choice but to act 

on behalf of all of us. 

Mr. Speaker, now, with all of the 

things I’ve said tonight, there seems to 

be a profound new irony upon us. This 

administration finally seems to recognize that they have, indeed, waited too 

long. This administration is finally realizing that Israel can no longer stand 

around and wait. It is also beginning to 

understand if Israel is forced to strike 

Iran’s nuclear facilities alone or if Iran 

tests a nuclear weapon before the November 6 election, that the American 

people and the world will damn the 

Obama administration for their breathtaking vacillation. Under such scenarios, the administration very likely 

sees the chances for Mr. Obama to be 

reelected as virtually zero. 

So it has occurred to me, Mr. Speaker, that the Obama administration may 

have at last found sufficient rationale 

to move decisively against Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The President 

knows that, in times of military action, the American people often rally 

around their President. Consequently, 

in spite of the fact that it has blatantly ignored the national security 

implications of Iran’s nuclear program, 

it will now not surprise me at all if this 

administration launches an attack on 


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Iran’s nuclear facilities before the November elections to protect itself politically, even if it is done in concert 

with Israel to make it appear less politically motivated. 

While I believe the American people 

will see such an action for what it is, if 

a Presidential campaign will finally 

motivate this administration to get serious about our national security and 

Iran’s nuclear program, then so be it, 

Mr. Speaker. It would still be far better 

for the administration to do that than 

to stand idly by and force the tiny 

state of Israel, our closest friend and 

ally on this Earth, to undertake such a 

monumental task alone, with all the 

odds against them and facing such 

crushing consequences whether they 

succeed or fail. 

But it didn’t have to be this way. 

There was a time when Iran’s nuclear 

weapons ambitions could have been arrested with far less cost. 

b 1850 

The President has waited too long. 

Mr. Speaker, President Ronald 

Reagan gave an address in 1983 when 

the world faced a similar threat in the 

growing strength and nuclear ambition 

of the Soviet Union. Mr. Reagan said: 

I urge you to beware the temptation to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive 

impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the 

arms race a giant misunderstanding and 

thereby remove yourself from the struggle 

between right and wrong, good and evil. 

Mr. Speaker, there were those in 1938 

who deemed the ambitions of Adolf 

Hitler and the Third Reich a giant misunderstanding. The free nations of the 

world once had opportunity to address 

the insidious rise of the Nazi ideology 

in its formative years when it could 

have been dispatched without great 

cost, but they delayed, and the result 

was atomic bombs falling on cities, 50 

million people dead worldwide, and the 

swastika shadow nearly plunging the 

planet into Cimmerian night. 

Mr. Speaker, let the world’s free people resolve once and for all, for the 

sake of our children and for future generations, that we of this generation 

will not stand by and watch a similar 

dark chapter of history be repeated on 

our watch. 

God help this administration to wake 

up, and God help us all as Americans to 

be awake in this destiny year for our 

beloved country. 

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance 

of my time. 

f 

THE FISCAL PATH FORWARD 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from North 

Carolina (Mr. PRICE) is recognized for 

60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. 

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. 

Speaker, in recent weeks, every Member of Congress has heard from a broad 

range of interests: education leaders, 

State and local officials, defense contractors, small businesses, people concerned about the devastating impact of 

the looming sequestration spending 

cuts. Each of these groups, indeed, all 

of our constituents, deserve an honest 

accounting. How did we get in this predicament, and how can we get out of it 

in a way that accelerates our economic 

recovery and restores our fiscal health? 

Our situation results from the failure 

of the so-called ‘‘supercommittee’’ established in the wake of the debt ceiling crisis manufactured by Republicans 

last summer to come up with a deficit 

reduction plan. Instead, we’re faced 

with across-the-board cuts that would 

indiscriminately slash more than 8 percent from every national security and 

domestic account. Cutting with a meat 

axe instead of a scalpel is the most 

dangerous way imaginable to set fiscal 

policy. These cuts would come on top 

of the more targeted, but nonetheless 

significant, $917 billion in cuts and 

spending caps that the administration 

and Congress have already locked in. 

In the case of defense spending, these 

earlier cuts were a result of a careful, 

strategic review by the administration, 

and they’ll save nearly half a trillion 

dollars over the next 10 years. As for 

domestic investments in education, infrastructure, research, and innovation, 

these cuts have already gone too far, 

slowing the recovery, and putting at 

risk our ability to compete in the global marketplace. 

The House Republicans’ first order of 

business in the 112th Congress was to 

precipitate an unnecessary, confidenceshaking, government shutdown crisis 

to extract domestic spending cuts. 

From there, they moved to the needless months-long debt ceiling crisis, 

during much of which consumer confidence plummeted, and the economy 

posted 2011’s four slowest months of job 

growth. 

By undermining confidence in the 

economy and withholding countercyclical investments that would boost 

the recovery and prompt future 

growth, Republicans have provided a 

case study in how not to make macroeconomic policy. Yet they want to do 

more of the same. According to the 

Economic Policy Institute, House Republicans approved a 2013 budget that 

would put 4.1 million people out of 

work by cutting investments in our future. 

At root, Republicans are proposing a 

brand of European-style austerity, the 

same policy that has tipped many 

economies back into recession. Interestingly, with sequestration now looming and pressure from defense contractors mounting, a substantial portion of 

the Republican caucus on both sides of 

the Capitol has belatedly become 

aware of the concept of macroeconomics. All of the sudden, they’re 

talking macroeconomics. You might 

call it ‘‘defense Keynesianism,’’ the belief that only defense spending creates 

jobs, and that cutting it would result 

in job losses. In fact, the same argument applies equally to domestic investments in education and research 

and infrastructure, a truth Republicans 

have found it convenient to ignore. 

The Republicans, by the way, can 

only thank themselves for the deep defense cuts in sequestration. One can 

easily imagine an alternative sequestration approach, triggering a tax surcharge, in addition to less severe cuts 

to defense and domestic spending. But 

as was the case during these repeated 

unnecessary crises, Republican dogmatism kept revenue off the table. 

It’s clear sequestration would devastate our defense, education, infrastructure, and research sectors, undermining our economy over the near and 

long term. It would also hobble critical 

functions from air traffic control to 

meat inspection and Social Security 

claims processing. It can’t be resolved 

in isolation or through half measures. 

Yet Republicans are now proposing 

staving off the impact of sequestration 

on defense alone, and they pay for it by 

again targeting health care for low-income women and children, food and nutrition assistance, and other safety net 

programs for the poorest Americans, in 

addition to locking in a 2 percent Medicare cut. Their plan would victimize 

the most vulnerable, it would hinder 

job creation, and jeopardize our ability 

to compete. 

Mr. Speaker, there’s a better way. 

The impending fiscal cliff, which includes both sequestration and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, offers an 

opportunity for all Members of Congress to set the talking points aside 

and act in our country’s best interest. 

I know we can chart a course to fiscal 

balance because we’ve done it before. 

In the budget agreements of 1990 and 

1993, which set the stage for 4 years of 

budget surpluses, the formula was fiscal discipline on all fronts. 

No area of spending can be sacrosanct. We should focus our limited 

dollars on boosting the recovery and 

making critical investments in our future because the most effective means 

of deficit reduction is a growing economy. As in the 1990s, revenue must be 

part of the solution. The President has 

already proposed a sensible plan allowing the Bush-era tax breaks to expire 

on income over $250,000 a year. Extravagant tax breaks for various special interests must be ended. The revenue raised could be used to pay down 

the deficit and to help fund the investments in education, research, infrastructure, and innovation that are critical to economic growth. 

Most Americans agree with this comprehensive approach, but most Republicans still hide behind their anti-tax 

pledges. Their insistence that no additional revenue ever be raised, for example, by ending tax loopholes for oil 

companies or asking millionaires to return to their Clinton-era tax rates, is 

still the largest obstacle to a sensible 

budget compromise in Washington. As 

we approach the fiscal cliff, that fever 

has got to break. We must find our way 


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