Date: 2011-07-15
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Let me thank the gentleman from Florida. He has certainly awakened a number of issues and Members on his important discussion. and I wanted to join in his commentary. Mr. Speaker. we will be leaving shortly. and Im glad that we will be returning on Monday for very serious business. Many of us have been in meetings today. engaging in solutions rather than distractions as relates to the business of the American people. None of us have experienced. I believe. the attention to the issue of the budget as much as weve had that attention now from our constituents on. will the debt ceiling be raised? There has not been a time in these past couple of weeks that Ive gone home when businesspersons. students. seniors. working families have not asked the question: Will we get it done? I am an optimist. and Ive said to them. Yes. I expect that. In fact. Ive already gotten it done. I voted on the clean debt ceiling raise. or lift. some many weeks ago. and that was the right thing to do. The reason is that. over the last couple of decades. we have had 60plus increases in the debt ceiling. starting with Ronald Reagan. including Bush I and Bush II. President Clinton. and President Carter. Its interesting that. for some reason. the tension in this discussion has really gone beyond understanding. Let me be very clear. We have had such an intense couple of months that we have not had the opportunity. really. to engage as Members of Congress. Our committees have been fairly tense and rapid. Our schedules have been such that weve been here one week and gone the next. I know that there are new Members of the 87 members of the Republican Conference with whom I would have some things to agree on. and I would appreciate having that opportunity. but this is a time now. without the opportunity to get to know all of the members of the Republican Conference who are new. when we have to get to know each other around solving Americas problem. As I indicated. when a clean debt ceiling was put on the floor of the House. many Democrats voted for it. Democrats and Republicans were on the bipartisan SimpsonBowles committee. At one point in the discussion with President Obama. the leadership of the Republican House agreed to do the larger package of $4 trillion as relates to the debt ceiling: revenues and cuts. It makes sense. doesnt it? Thats what households do. They look at where they can bring down their budgets. but they also say. Now what can we do to increase that revenue? People who are unemployed want to increase revenue by getting a job. and so I dont fully comprehend why it is such a complicated process to participate in. What makes it difficult is we have leadership in the other bodythat is Republicanthat says their main job is to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012. I didnt hear that discussion from Democrats during my fellow Texans tenure as President. George Bush. There were policies that we disagreed with. including the Iraq war. but there was no concentrated. continuous effort and statement. "My main job here is to bring down President Bush." That was not the language that we used. So how did we get the leader of the minority in the Senate suggesting that his main job is to bring down the President of the United States? Thats what Mr. and Mrs. Jonesmom and popall over America dont understand. They dont understand it. We all take a pledge of oath. and we all have the same Constitution in our hands. We know that this body of lawmakers is looked upon as the most powerful lawmaking body in the world. We dont walk around with a lot of big shoulders. but that is how we are perceived. I happen to have been at the European Union. discussing the conditions in Greece and Portugal. They are far different from that in the United States. First of all. economists will tell us this country is not broke. that it has the ability to fix itself. Let us not cast out despair and desperation and frustration to the American people. We are Americansnot arrogant. but we are patriots. We can get this done. Why is there such a devastating attitude from my friends on the other side of the aisle that it is the end of the worldthe death knell? Those people who are looking forward to job creation and jobs are listening to this rancor. this discourse. and are saying to themselves. There is no hope. There is no hope. I agree with that. There has to be hope for the children of this country. There has to be hope for the young men and women that are on the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan and places around the world. There has to be hope. The reason why I know that there is hope is because my own industry. the energy industry. just created a program called Veterans to Jobs through the energy industry. Im asking them to create one for those who are 18 to 35. Businesses are still alive and well. The financial services or the banking entity must be involved in providing access to credit for our smaller businesses who are creating jobs. but we are alive and well. And so I believe what we should do is to go forward with a package that is reasonable. that lifts the debt ceiling. as we did for everyone else. I would vote for a clean debt ceiling. lift it up. and then begin to. with great common sense. plan our budget and our cuts. Mark Zandi has said that. an economist that has worked for a number of Republicans such as JOHN MCCAIN. former Presidential candidate. Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel? All economists will say you dont make immediate cuts in this fiscal year. you project them out. Just like a budget in households. they move out. They do what theyre going to do for the month of June and then for the month of July and then for the month of August. But. no. I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this President. only this one. only this one has received the kind of attacks and disagreements and inability to work. only this one. Read between the lines. What is different about this President that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our billssomething required by both statute and the 14th Amendment? Why isnt it addressed in the manner? Its all right to disagree or agree on the balanced budget amendment. Its all right to talk about how were going to appropriate. In fact. in this House. the Republicans are getting their way. gutting and cutting everything that we can find. Its all right to have that disagreement. That is the giveandtake of democracy. When you win. youre the majority. and if we cant find a way to agree together. then the majority wins. I understand that. but I do not understand what I think is the maligning and the maliciousness of this President. Why is he different? In my community. that is the question that we raise. In the minority community. that is the question that is being raised: Why is this President being treated so disrespectfully? Why has the debt limit been raised 60 times? Why does the leader of the Senate continually talk about his job is to bring the President down. to make sure he is unelected? Its 2011. Its not 2012. You need to play those politics in 2012. not now. And so we can move forward. You may disagree with me. I believe its important to preserve Medicare. Medicaid. and Social Security. lifelines for our community. And many of us believe that that will not dash the hopes and dreams of Americans to make sure that seniors and the disabled and those who are retired and those who need these resources. children who need Medicaid. its not unseemly to protect them in the course of our discussion on budget cuts. Its not unseemly to protect military families. Its not unseemly to be able to provide an increase in salaries for the young. if you will. enlisted man or woman who. on some occasions. have been on food stamps. So I am prepared to do the hard things that we did in 1997 when we had a budget resolution crafted by a divided government. if you will. and we produced a Childrens Health Insurance Program and a balanced budget without a balanced budget amendment. There are some fixes that we are still living with. such as the physician reimbursement that came about. As what happens when you do that. something has to be fixed. Were still suffering with the physician reimbursement which came about through the 1997 balanced budget. So balancing the budget on a balanced budget amendment is not all peaches and cream. It can truly be destructive. But I am willing. in the long range. with common sense. coming from Texas. to look seriously at how we can work together for cuts. but revenue enhancers. I just had a meeting with industry representatives this morningone of the industries that happens to be in the eye of the stormand there was a consensus saying we are prepared to look broadly at tax reform. We would like to give our ideas. I said. You deserve to give your ideas. as you deserve to let everyone know that were in the business of creating jobs. But we cannot do this in the background of the hostility. of the inappropriate treatment and behavior around President Barack Obama. So what are we prepared to support? I believe. again. that we can come together around a reasoned response. and that reasoned response. again. are revenues and cuts. And I believe that we can move this before August 2. We only have to be able to convince the new Members and the leadershipthe point man for the Republicansthat it is better to stand as a whole Nation than to bring us down. There are those who believe this is what will happen before August 2. And. frankly. it is a challenge. We have already lost $150 billion right now. Our colleagues need to know that. By all of this fooling around. were losing in the markets $150 billion to $200 billion. You want to know where the unemployment came from? Weve been creating jobs in the private sector. but its our States that have been laying off hundreds and hundreds of thousands upon thousands of public workersfire fighters. police. sanitation. teachers that we will never get back for our children. When they enter the fall classes. 35. 40. maybe 50 will be in a class. What kind of America is this? And what kind of an America would lay off the public sector employeeswhich. by the way. were the doors and opportunities that were opened to minority Americans. Large numbers of minorities are public sector employees. You are literally killing our community with the high number of unemployed. We are at double digits in the African American community. I frankly believe that. as an American. I should look out for all interests. and thats why I believe we should stop the tomfoolery and come together as Americans. And yes. I will have to make sacrifices. We have laid out our parametersmine are Medicare. Medicaid. and Social Securitybut what can we do together? And what can we do where the pain is distributed? And what can we do with the respect given to everyoneSpeaker. Majority Leader. minority leader. whip. leadership in the other body? How can we come as those entities. respect the bodies that they represent. and we who are Members of Congress represent our constituents in that respectful manner. and most of all. respect the Office of the Presidency and. as well. to respect this President. President Barack Obama. I hope someone will say that what it appears to be is not in fact accurate. but historically it seems to be nothing more. And I simply close in accounting for that attitude is the very visible debate. and in my memory. of the Affordable Care Act. And I have never seen the level of depicting of a President of the United States by Americans as I have seen during that debate. never seen it. I did not adhere to the burning in effigy of any President during the Iraq warat that point it was President Bush. The shoe throwing. I spoke vigorously against that. You do not disrespect our President. You agree or you disagree. but not in the way that I have seen. I simply close this afternoon by saying that it gives me a great sense of affectionId say pride. for lack of a better wordin what this country stands for. I believe that America can solve any problem that she puts her mind to. The tumultuous sixties is part of my history. a segregated America is part of my history. and during that time one felt. could we ever come through this? The bloodshed. the hanging. the brutality. But isnt it wonderful that a man by the name of Martin King rose along with others. too many to name. and carried the mantle of peace. the drum major for peace. and he came through all of the contentiousness and all of the conflict and raised his voice and said. "America can do better." And a President who I am most proud of by the name of Lyndon Baines Johnson used his political astuteness and crossed very difficult lines. the Dixiecrats and others in the United States Congress who couldnt imagine supporting any manner of civil rights legislation. Isnt that a miracle? What we thought we could not do. And that President. who I owe such a great debt of gratitude. that master of the political process. Lyndon Baines Johnson. the creator of the Great Society of which many of us now benefit from. Pell Grants and Medicare and housing. that person we call the President at that time orchestrated groups that possibly would never speak to each other and voted to change and move America forward. And so I ask the question: What makes President Obama different? I cannot imagine coming this far in my life and that of my childrens life and that of others to come to a point where we would use the uniqueness and the difference of this President to treat him differently. If that is not getting in our way. then there is no reason that we cannot come together and solve this problem. As some would say. this is not rocket science. It is voting for the right approach. and that approach is revenue and cuts. I will go home to my district and engage with anyone who desires to engage in these discussionswe see each other as we walk about and go about our dutiesand give them the sense of optimism that I have. As I do that. I will be in a meeting discussing why the North Forest Independent School District. one of the last remaining districts with a 70 percent plus African American population. has been closed by Governor Perry and the Texas Education Agency. Why? Seven thousand students and parents now looking as to what is their next step. Why is it closed? Is it because you underfunded them and didnt provide them with the resources? Is it because we have no interest in getting our hands into the mix and trying to help bring up the scores with teachers and salaries that can meet the needs of students who are in a property poor area? Ill go home and deal with that. In the course of dealing with that. Ill talk to those parents about hope. about the greatness of this Nation. and about the fact that were going to do our job. And. as well. Ill talk to them about the sense of pride and respect we have for the President that this Nation elected has come out of the history that I am very well aware of. We would hope that the same respect that was given to the first Irish Catholic President. the same respect and interest that has been given from any President that brings to bear a unique and valuable perspective. would be given to President of the United States. the American President. our President. He is no different from any other President that has served. I beg this House and I beg this Congress to treat him with the dignity that the office deserves. Get on with our work. get on with solving the problems for the American people. a vastly diverse and richly multicultural Nation. I am grateful for that. God bless this Congress. God bless this President. God bless the United States of America. We can do this job. I yield back the balance of my time.