Date: 2016-09-08
Speaker: TOM PRICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

I thank the gentleman. and let me add my voice to the echo and chorus of those who are commending him for his work on the FairTax. This is incredibly important. And the gentleman is right. I have the privilege of chairing the Budget Committee. which is sometimes a blessing. sometimes a curse. But you put your finger on the thing that I want to talk about today because the FairTax. as you well know. our current tax system is punishing all the things that we say that we want. So we want hard work. we want success. we want entrepreneurship. we want savings. we want investment. we want all those things that people talk about that. They say: Why are we not getting those things that allow for that growth that has to happen? And one of the reasons. I believeand I know you do. toois because our current tax system punishes each and every one them. Every one of those things that we say we want. our tax system punishes. So people make their equation and they say: Well. should I do this? Well. no. I am taxed more if I do that. I am taxed more if I work hard. I am taxed more if I succeed. I am taxed more if I hire more people. on and on and on. So when you look at where we are. from a growth standpoint. which is incredibly important because we cant tax our way out of the challenge that we have got. We cant even cut spending to the degree that we need to to get out of the challenge that we have from a fiscal standpoint. We need to grow the economy. And the growth rate that we have had over the last 40 to 50 years in this Nation. average growth rate has been about 3.2 percent. Your constituents and my constituents and people all across this great country know that over the past 6 months we have seen a growth rate of 1 percent. and over the past 8 years we have seen a growth rate in the neighborhood of 2 percent. So we have had a 33 to 65 percent reduction in the level of growth in this country. What does that mean to folks back home? It means the jobs arent being created. It means that there is parttime work instead of fulltime work. It means that you have a son or a daughter that graduates from college and they cant find a job in the endeavor that they have chosen. All these things that make it so that the economy is tamped down. harmed by our current system. So the FairTax does all sorts of wonderful things. but one of the things that it does that would just reinvigorate and enlighten this economy is to incentivize the things that we say that we want: incentivizing savings. incentivize investment. incentivize hard work. incentivize entrepreneurship. incentivize risktaking. Incentivize individuals who are out there trying to build a better mouse trap and we are going to reward them for trying to build that better mouse trap. So I am enthusiastic about H.R. 25. enthusiastic about the support that you have continued to generate for this. I want to commend John Linder. who is a dear friend of yours and mine. and the work that he did to begin this project. I know that we will ultimately get to this point of a FairTax. of a consumption tax. because it is the right thing to do and it is the only thing that we can do that actually solves many of the challenges that we have got. So let me commend you for what you are doing. God bless you. It is a wonderful. wonderful work. And if you keep at it and we keep at it. I know that the American people will ensure that they invigorate men and women in this Chamber so that they support this commonsense. logical. exciting solution to the challenges that we face from a fiscal standpoint.