Date: 2003-05-14
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. every time that I walk into this Chamber I am awed and I am overwhelmed. when you think of the history that has taken place here in this Chamber. in this hall. and the speeches that have also been proclaimed and stated within these walls. Tonight. Mr. Speaker. I heard some really eloquent speeches as well. some spectacularly eloquent speeches. some of them criticizing the job proposal that this House has passed. the job proposal plan that the President has proposed. I also heard. Mr. Speaker. some great examples of not letting the facts get in the way of the rhetoric. I have seen some wonderful examples here as to how to just disregard the facts and let us go forward with the rhetoric and hope that you can confuse people. Mr. Speaker.. But the American people. Mr. Speaker. are not easily confused. The Jobs and Growth Tax Act. which is really based on the jobs and growth plan that we passed last week. is a comprehensive approach to creating jobs. We heard criticism after criticism after criticism of that plan. but what you will notice is that not once. not once. was a proposal spoken about. an alternative proposal. that created jobs. No. They criticized the plan that creates jobs. and. in its stead. proposed absolutely nothing. Again. the American people witnessed that here tonight. Yet the plan that we passed provides. for example. tax relief to American families and immediately eliminates burdensome and unfair taxes that provided huge obstacles to economic growth and Job creation. The gentleman from Iowa worked awfully hard to get through this House a plan that will create over 1.2 million jobs throughout the entire country by the end of next year. This was a specific proposal. not rhetoric. That is a specific proposal that this House passed. It creates. as a matter of fact. 45.000 new jobs in the State of Florida that I represent. next year. 45.000 Jobs. Yet. Mr. Speaker. we heard no other proposal. just criticism. criticism of a plan that creates 1.2 million jobs. This plan that we passed that our dear friends in the minority love to criticize. and. yet. I repeat. have nothing to show other than criticism. this plan would put $550 billion in economic stimulus and job creation in this country. Then I heard something that I keep hearing time and time again. and it must be something that the Democratic Partys PR machine has told them to repeat time and time again. again regardless of the facts. They keep saying. oh. the plan that the House passed. the Presidents plan. cuts taxes on the rich. Let us again speak of the facts. I know that my dear friends on the Democratic side hate when you bring up the facts. They do not like the facts to be used. They do not want to permit the facts to confuse the rhetoric. But I think it is important to bring up some of those facts. The rich? Cut taxes on the rich? Twentythree million small business owners will benefit from tax rate cuts in order to stimulate job growth. 23 million small business owners .are going to have their taxes cut. Those are not the rich. those small business owners. Again. the facts. Mr. Speaker. The tax cut. for example. on dividend income and the capital gains tax cut will provide relief for the 50 percent of Americans who have invested in the stock market and 70 million Americans who own homes. Those are the facts. Yet what we have heard tonight. all the criticism. all the critiquing of the Presidents plan. of the plan we passed. with nothing else. no proposal. no alternative proposal. is just criticism based on innuendo. not based on the facts. Again. the Presidents job and growth plan. what we passed here in the House. will provide 1.2 million jobs next year. Those are the facts. not the rhetoric. The energy bill that the gentleman from Georgia spoke of here last week with me on the floor of this House will provide 750.000 new jobs. But yet both those initiatives our friends from the minority party object to. and they object to them but have no decent. good proposal. as opposed to what we have done. This is a good plan. because it does provide jobs. I was wondering. I see that the gentleman from Minnesota is here. and. Mr. Speaker. I would like to yield to the gentleman. Maybe he can try to shed some light on some of the facts. not on just empty rhetoric. some of the facts: why it is important that we do not just sit idly by and hope the economy gets better. why it is important to incentivize this economy. why it is important to go forward with the Presidents plan. with what this Congress passed. to make sure the millions of Americans can find good jobs. why it is important to not just sit back and pretend that things are okay. they are going to get better. and the solution is maybe to raise taxes. why it is important that we move forward. Mr. Speaker. maybe the gentleman can shed some light as to some of the rhetoric that has been heard before here tonight which does not conform with the facts.