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[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 117 (Thursday, August 2, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H5689-H5692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

             IT'S A SPENDING PROBLEM, NOT A REVENUE PROBLEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to my good friend 
from Virginia.

         Remembering the Fallen of the Chinook Helicopter Crash

  Mr. RIGELL. I thank my friend for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute, to honor, and to remember and 
celebrate the lives of American heroes. We're approaching a most 
sobering anniversary, August 6. This is the day 1 year ago when a 
Chinook helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, taking with it the lives of

[[Page H5690]]

so many, including five soldiers, three airmen, and 24 SEALs. It marks 
the most serious and heaviest loss of life for our SEAL community in 
their illustrious service to our country. Families across our Nation 
are hurting and will hurt not only on the anniversary but just as they 
remember their loved one.
  So it is with great humility and just deep appreciation to the 
families of the fallen, our Gold Star families, to pause for a moment 
to rise and to honor their loved one.
  Our colleague from Iowa, Steve King, entered into the Congressional 
Record a poem that was written specifically for this occasion. And I 
appreciate my colleague yielding just for the few minutes it will take 
to read the poem.

                              {time}  1800

  It is with a grateful heart that I read this poem, and I thank my 
colleague, Mr. King, for entering it into the Congressional Record. 
This is written from the vantage point of the following:

                               We Stood!

     We!
     WE STOOD!
     WE STOOD, so you can sleep!
     While, out across our Nation our Mothers now so weep!
     WE FOUGHT, so you can live!
     All in such blessed peace--that which our most selfless 
           sacrifice so gives!
     As all in such pain and heartache our families must now so 
           live!
     WE STOOD, so you could sleep!
     Upon that Bed of Freedom so very sweet!
     As to all of you, our promises WE Did So Keep!
     As it was all for you, our bodies Now So Sleep!
     So Sleep, all in such cold dark quiet graves so very deep!
     WE GAVE!
     All of Our Most Precious Lives!
     While, all of our Brothers In Arms did so weep . . . and not 
           ask why!
     As WE so raised our hands so way up high!
     And so swore to pledge our most precious lives!
     To Make A Stand!
     To Make A Difference With It All!
     As WE so gave That Last Full Measure While Standing Tall!
     As WE died and bled!
     To so keep all of our most solemn vows of honor, said!
     As why out across our Nation Our FAMILIES Now So Weep!
     All But For The Greater Good, WE so gave all we could!
     AS WE STOOD!
     As WE pray now to our Lord their fine souls to so keep!
     For THEY So Stood For What Was Right!
     All with their most brilliant souls so burning bright!
     As THEY died, all for that Old Red White and Blue this sight!
     As into that face of evil, THEY so marched off casting their 
           most heroic lights!
     To so go forth, all in such a most brilliant force to fight!
     For THEY'D, MUCH RATHER HAVE DIED FOR SOMETHING!
     THAN TO HAVE LIVED FOR NOTHING AT ALL!
     FOR STRENGTH IN HONOR!
     Was but THEIR most sacred battle cry . . . call!
     Because, moments . . . are all that WE so have!
     To Make A Difference!
     To Hear That Call!
     To Change The World!
     To go off so boldly with flags unfurled!
     Troops mount up, as Heaven calls!
     Move on! Move out!
     As there are 30 more new Angels, In The Army of Our Lord . . 
           .
     To fight that battle, who shall not pause!
     To so watch over us all!
     And then there comes a gentle rain, their tears will wash 
           down upon us so to remain!
     To ease our pain, so we won't have to cry anymore!
     As forever in our hearts YOUR most sacred names,
     WE will carry ALL!
     Because, YOU died so WE can sleep!
     Upon, That Bed of Freedom . . . YOUR Gift of Peace!
     As now WE LAY YOUR FINE BODIES down to rest, to sleep!
     BECAUSE YOU STOOD!
     Amen!

  Mr. Speaker, this very special poem is entered into the Congressional 
Record, and it was written by Albert Carey Caswell. I have the 
privilege of representing a wonderful district, Mr. Speaker, home of a 
lot of heroes. These are good men, and you'd never know how they serve 
and what they do. We are deeply grateful for their service and for all 
servicemembers across this great land.
  We stand with the families of the fallen, our Gold Star families, and 
we ask God to give them a special measure of comfort and peace on this 
anniversary.
  I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding to me.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate you being with us this 
afternoon and giving me the opportunity to come down here and talk 
about where we have been this week on Capitol Hill trying to find a 
pathway forward.
  Now, as with every decision we make, Mr. Speaker, as you know, you 
and I have been here for 18 months with a voting card in hand, trying 
to make those decisions for our constituents back home, trying to bring 
their voice to be heard on Capitol Hill, and we're facing one of those 
choices right here today.
  Which lane will we choose, Mr. Speaker?
  We proposed, passed today here in the House in a bipartisan way a 
proposal that will create 1 million new jobs. Now, I'm going to go on 
and bring out some other studies and where those jobs are coming from. 
But one of the folks we're going to hear from that's going to confirm 
the job-creation opportunities that exist in this proposal is going to 
be President Barack Obama because he will have stood about 10 feet 
behind me in a State of the Union address just 18 short months ago and 
advocated in favor of this job-creation proposal.
  I don't know what has changed in 18 months, Mr. Speaker, but what we 
saw here on the floor of the House today is our Democratic colleagues 
advocating for a different choice. A choice that Ernst & Young in an 
independent analysis of legislative proposals said will destroy 710,000 
jobs. It will lose the opportunity to employ 710,000 Americans. As we 
are hearing what is unquestionably the worst recession in my lifetime, 
and when presented with a choice between creating a million new jobs or 
losing 710,000 others, we are faced with a choice.
  The House made the right choice today, Mr. Speaker. The House chose 
to create 1 million new jobs. But just in the last 7 days, the Senate 
made the wrong choice. The Senate chose a path that study after study 
after study shows us results in failure. Why is that, Mr. Speaker? Why 
is that?
  What I have here, Mr. Speaker, is a chart you'll remember from our 
budget debate. I'm just so proud, I serve on the Budget Committee here 
in the House, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, we've brought two budgets to 
the floor. In the short 18 months that I've served here in Congress, 
we've brought two budgets to the floor that made tough decisions. Tough 
decisions.
  When you're running $1.4 trillion deficits, Mr. Speaker, and when 
you're trying to create jobs for a Nation that's hurting, when you're 
trying to prevent job-killing tax hikes from being imposed on American 
job creators, there're no easy decisions. They're tough decisions, and 
they have consequences.
  But this is what I learned in our budget debate. What I have here is 
a chart that shows tax revenue from 1947, just after World War II, all 
of the way out to 2077, about 130 years of tax revenue. And what we'll 
see, Mr. Speaker, is tax revenue that's actually come in represented by 
this green line, and then the tax revenue that's projected to come in. 
You'll see that's a flat line. It's taxes as a percent of GDP, and what 
we see is whether we operated America with some of the highest tax 
rates in history, and we've had 90 percent income tax rates in this 
country--90 percent income tax rates--or whether we operate America 
with the lowest income tax rates in this Nation's history, we bring in 
about the same amount of money either way.
  I know that's not intuitive. I could bring up chart after chart after 
chart that shows how it's true. I can show what happened in the Kennedy 
years when he cut those top marginal rates and more revenue came in. We 
can look at what happened in the Reagan years when we cut those top 
marginal rates and more revenue came in. And we can look at what 
happened in the Bush years when we cut those marginal rates and more 
revenue came in, over and over and over again.
  But rather than dwell on those charts, Mr. Speaker, I just want you 
to see that over time, revenue is relatively constant. Americans are 
willing to give the Federal Government about 18 percent of the size of 
the economy. And if the government asks for

[[Page H5691]]

more than that, Americans change their behavior so they don't have to 
give it.
  But the red line, Mr. Speaker, represents spending in this country, 
spending going back to just after World War II, going out to where we 
are here today and a projection forward based on current law. Based on 
current law, Mr. Speaker. Folks look at this chart and they see this 
giant red line, government spending as a percent of GDP as it threatens 
to consume all of American GDP, and they think: Golly, what in the 
world. Who are the crazy people proposing that we do that? Who are 
they?

                              {time}  1810

  Mr. Speaker, that's what happens if we do nothing. If we fail to 
proactively offer a solution, if we fail to confront the challenges 
that are facing this country with respect to spending, if we do not 
act, this is what we get. No President need sign a law to create this 
dangerous circumstance; the laws have already been signed.
  The question is: What are we going to do about it, Mr. Speaker? We 
don't have a taxation problem in this country in terms of needing to 
tax Americans more; we have a spending problem in this country in terms 
of the Federal Government needing to spend less.
  And just to put that in sharp relief, Mr. Speaker, I've reflected 
here in this green the path to prosperity. This is debt as a share of 
the economy. This is America's debt as a share of the economy.
  You remember when we had all hands on deck in World War II, when we 
were literally fighting for the future of the world, debt crested 100 
percent of GDP. We borrowed an amount equal to the entire size of the 
United States economy. Well, we're right back there today, Mr. Speaker, 
we will be over the next decade. And if we do nothing again, that 
spending will create a debt pattern that will completely consume not 
just all of the revenue, it will consume all of the wealth of this 
country.
  If we took everything from everybody, Mr. Speaker, if we confiscated 
every stock and every bond, if we confiscated every small business and 
every large business, if we took everybody's bank account and took 
everything out from under their mattress, if we sold everyone's car, 
everyone's home, we still wouldn't have enough money to pay for the 
promises that previous Congresses have made to America.
  It's a spending problem; it's not a revenue problem. But this green 
line, Mr. Speaker, represents the budget that you and I and our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle came together to pass. It's 
not about blaming folks. Did all of this red line come from previous 
Congresses before I got here? You better believe it. But it's not about 
finding out who was to blame in those previous 5 years, 10 years, 15 
years, 20 years; it's about finding out who's going to offer the 
solution to get us out of this mess. And you know who it is, Mr. 
Speaker? It's this freshman class that you and I have the great fortune 
of being a part of. It's the conservatives who have served in this 
Congess, calling out in the wilderness time and time again, the senior 
leaders of this conference, and this Congress who are going to come 
together and provide solutions.
  This green line represents not just a proposal that one man wrote, 
not just an idea that maybe 10 or 15 people agree on. This green line, 
this solution represents the budget that passed this United States 
House of Representatives in a bipartisan fashion.
  Don't let folks tell you it's hopeless, Mr. Speaker. Is it dire? Yes, 
it is. But we have proffered solutions, we have debated solutions, and 
we have passed, on the floor of this House, solutions. The problem is 
not that taxes are too low in this country; the problem is that 
spending is too high in this country, and we have offered solutions to 
that. That's been the debate on the floor of the House this week.
  Before I get into the debate that we've actually had this week, Mr. 
Speaker, I've brought a chart of who benefits from tax loopholes. Who 
benefits from tax loopholes? We talk a lot about tax loopholes.
  I'm a cosponsor of the Fair Tax, Mr. Speaker. I'm a big believer in 
the Fair Tax, the fundamental tax reform proposal. It has more sponsors 
than any other fundamental tax proposal in the House or in the Senate. 
It's H.R. 25 here in the House. It proposes that we turn our tax system 
on its head, to stop punishing people for what they've earned and begin 
to tax people based on what they spend.

  If you're going out and you're buying a brand new Mercedes, I don't 
care what kind of job you have, you can afford to pay the tax. If 
you're driving a used Ford Festiva, I don't care how much money you 
earn, you're plowing that money back into the economy instead of taking 
it out.
  This is what we see. Who benefits from tax loopholes? The bottom 20 
percent, Mr. Speaker, get next to nothing from tax loopholes. The 
bottom 40 percent, Mr. Speaker, you see, get nothing from tax 
loopholes. The bottom 60 percent, the bottom 80 percent get next to 
nothing in terms of tax loopholes. The top 20 percent, Mr. Speaker, 
that finally starts to show up on the chart. But it's the top 1 percent 
of all income earners who benefit the most from all the tax loopholes. 
In this case, it's just over $250,000 each.
  Now, why is that? I'm not picking on our top 1 percent. The top 1 
percent pays about 40 percent of all the income taxes in this country. 
The top 1 percent pays 40 percent of all the income taxes. The bottom 
50 percent pays zero. If the bottom 50 percent is paying zero, that 
means the top 50 percent has to pick up the whole tab. We pay more on 
the top 1 percent. So it only makes sense that if you have a 
complicated Tax Code that allows for lots of loopholes, exemptions, 
deductions, and carve-outs, those loopholes, exemptions, deductions, 
and carve-outs are going to benefit the people who are paying all the 
tax--top 1 percent paying all the tax, and so top 1 percent benefiting 
from all the loopholes.
  Why am I talking about those folks in the top 1 percent? Because I'm 
not picking on them. I admire them. I just want to make that clear. I 
admire them. I'm not one of them, but I aspire to be. I hope I come up 
with that next great idea like Bill Gates, like Steve Jobs. I hope that 
I do something that makes a difference for America. I hope that I'm one 
of those folks who owns a business back home that provides jobs for 
families, jobs for my neighbors, income that supports people's 
families. I want to be one of those guys. I don't demonize the 1 
percent. I admire folks who have gone from nothing but the power of 
their ideas and the sweat of their brow and created something. Golly, 
that's what America is to me. That's what it is.
  But there are some in this Congress, there are some down at 1600 
Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr. Speaker, who are intent on demonizing that 1 
percent. And what they have now today, this week on the floor of the 
House, has been a proposal to raise taxes on all of those job creators 
there in that category. Fully 50 percent of all of the income generated 
by small businesses is what my colleagues in the Senate, my colleagues 
here on the Democratic side of the House have proposed to raise taxes 
on. Those 50 percent of small business owners who are providing all the 
jobs, that's where my colleagues believe a major tax increase should be 
levied.
  Mr. Speaker, we have put forth a proposal--I'm just so proud--that 
says, rather than raising taxes on job creators, killing jobs--I showed 
my choice of two futures--why not introduce fundamental tax reform that 
eliminates those deductions and loopholes, those carve-outs and 
exemptions that all of America knows are in the Tax Code, that all of 
America would like to see eliminated. And if we know that eliminating 
those has the greatest impact on the highest of our income earners, why 
do we need a class warfare that's going on down here on the floor of 
the House?
  I say to my colleagues who want to demonize the top 1 percent, join 
me in eliminating deductions and carve-outs and loopholes and 
exemptions and you will raise taxes on that community, because those 
are the folks who benefit because those are the folks who pay the 
taxes.
  There's a better way. Mr. Speaker, that's not just some hardcore 
freshman Republican who is the sponsor of a fundamental tax reform bill 
talking.

                              {time}  1820

  The President of the United States, this President of the United 
States, stood not 10 feet behind me at this podium at that microphone 
right behind

[[Page H5692]]

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.

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