Date: 2011-05-31
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the gentleman. It is my privilege to be able to join the gentleman from Rhode Island. a former mayor of one of our great cities. who understands when he looks at his constituents in city government that job creation and manufacturing churns the economy of local government as well. I am delighted to say to my friend from California. Texas is right with you. I dont think any State can reject the value of research. We have the Texas Medical Center. It has research in many different components. but they all come together to generate jobs and a better quality of life. And I am amazed at how astutely correct the gentlelady from Hawaii was on this whole idea of shipbuilding and the flags that ships fly under and the loss of income. But more importantly. most of us grew up. young as we are. with this country being the grand shipbuilder. We were proud of that. We loved those christenings. but. more importantly. to see those great ships. So I rise today to support you and to join also. if I might. with my colleague from Alabama. having had the opportunity to join her there in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. Let me say to her and to those who have lost so much in Alabama and throughout the areas surrounding Alabama. and certainly to our dear friends in Missouri. and the tragedy of such a high cost of life. let me say to them that we will never give up on helping you. My point is this: it is interesting that today we had an example of the lack of seriousness that my Republican friends have regarding job creation. No matter how we votedI voted "aye" on the debt relief. or the debt increasewe all know that our commitment is to save Medicare and Medicaid. and that it is also to generate revenue. How do we generate revenue? We put the punch back in manufacturing. We manufacture and we create jobs. How did FDR do it? He put people to work. Eventually. the government got out of putting people to work. and you saw this big manufacturing boomshipbuilding. building homes. We all remember the massive homebuilding that President Eisenhower engaged inmanufacturing. making a whole bunch of things. Let me tell you why this is so important and how sad I was that the debt relief was. in fact. a mockery. because. if you commemorated soldiers yesterday. let me tell you what the unemployment rate is for veterans: 7.7 percent. The unemployment rate for those Afghanistan veteransand I would include Iraqis 10.9 percent. How do you put these folks to work? You put a boost and a punch in manufacturing. You let these guys come back and use the skills that theyve gained in workingor soldiering. if you willin Iraq. in fighting for our freedom in Afghanistan and other places. You say to these guys. I dont just mourn the loss of your comrades on Memorial Day. I listen to the voices of your families and yourselves. When you come back. Ive got jobs for you. Let me tell you how you do it. because I am big on making things. Here we go. Here is one of our bills that we are very interested in. H.R. 613. We build airports. We refurbish airports. We make them better. We fix our highways. We build or we engage in highspeed railtrains. transitand we make it in America. Let me say this: we make sure that trains are made here in America. are assembled here in America. We go back to making the same trains that we had to make when everyone said. Go west. young man. Go west. young woman. Thats how Texas got here. Thats how California got here. So it saddens me that instead of spending the time today in looking at H.R. 1730. which will be discussed. or H.R. 613 or the research tax or the ability to give incentives for research or to help the Texas Medical Center or Silicon Valley. we did something that we didnt take seriouslythe need of America to pay her bills. Then. of course. what does it mean when we talk about "making it in America"? Boy. this is exciting to me. We begin to appreciate chemistry and physics because we are in the business of inventing and therefore of making. This picture shows research and what happens when you get through with research. It is extremely important that we. in essence. show the importance of what happens to Americans. They get to work. My point is that there are a lot of Americans who can be helped if we engage in job creation by making it in America. As we have all committed to do. I am beginning to go around to my district and am excited about all the manufacturers I am finding. Ill tell you. you just go around to say "thank you" to these manufacturers. "thank you" to whats happening. If we were to invest in America and make it in America. it would be a better deal not only for America and those Americans here but for our young people graduating from college and for our soldiers coming back. So I want to thank the gentleman for. I think. the right approach. which comes right after the mockery of a debt relief that was not serious. For those of us who believed it was important to be serious and who may have voted "aye." we really wanted to be discussing job creation. and we really wanted to be discussing having jobs. as well as providing for those who are ready to work. Lets see if we can get something done. so I join with the gentleman in working on these important issues. I close by simply saying: what an excitement to make ships again. to build the trains for highspeed rail. to make Americas infrastructure in such a way of using our manufactured products. What a way to put America back to work. I hope we will continue to press this issue. I believe the Democrats are going to be able to get this doneto make it in America. which will create more jobs for America and will generate the revenue that will really bring down the deficit.