Date: 2009-03-17
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. just a few moments ago the President of the United States made a press statement in which he outlined parts of his budget and then challenged the Republicans. or those who might oppose his budget. to come up with alternatives. Well. let me say in the spirit of St. Patrick. as a great descendant of the Irish aisle. I accept that challenge. I accept that challenge on behalf of my colleagues on this side of the aisle. but also on behalf of my constituents. When I was home this weekend. I heard from many of them. In fact. I continued to hear from them on the plane ride back from Sacramento here to Dulles Airport. They said. please tell the President this: Lets get our priorities straight. Fix the financial system first. Get the economy working right. Then we will talk about yonr other ideas. So I would say to the President. the better idea that I have from my constituents back home is set your sights on righting the financial institutions in America. Now. what we have heard from the President by and large is well. it is somebody elses fault. It was the fault of the previous administration. And there may be some truth to that.. But lets remember. for instance. with AIG it was Treasury Secretary Geithner who nekotiated that deal with AIG. It was this administration that allowed something like $30 billion to go to AIG just recently without any strings attached. Lets focus on the situation we have with respect to our financial institutions first. The President tells us we have to do all these other things first. Well. as Warren Buffett said the other day. he doesnt think Franklin Delano Roosevelt said on the day after Pearl Harbor. "What a great opportunity for us to expand government. We shouldnt let this crisis be wasted." Lets not listen to some around the President who say that a crisis like this gives us a great opportunity to do all of the things we have wanted to do with respect to government. Lets get down to the basics. So lets talk about the budget that the President has presented to us. It increases spending by $1 trillion over the next decade. It includes an additional $250 billion placeholder for another financial bailout. It likely leads to a 12 percent increase in discretionary spending. It permanently expands. makes larger. the Federal Government by nearly 3 percent of the gross domestic product over prerecession levels. In other words. the answer to big government and big spending and big taxing and big borrowing. is more big government. big spending. big taxes and big borrowing. It raises taxes on all Americans by $1.4 trillion over the next decade. It raises taxes on 3.2 million taxpayers by an average of $300.000 over the next decade. The President said look. he is going to raise taxes on the rich. but 95 percent of Americans are going to get a better deal. Well. guess what? His capandtrade plan. if adopted. is a capandtax plan. He calls it capandtrade. It actually is capandtax. because it increases the cost of anything basically produced by fossil fuels in America. That means your air conditioning. that means your heating. that means your transportation. That means it is going to be placed into the cost of food being developed. of food being delivered to us. It is going to wipe out any suggested tax relief that the average family gets. and more. And the average family uses these things as a higher percentage of these income than do the rich. therefore they will be disproportionately impacted. So. Madam Speaker. lets look at what the President has presented. I love his melodious tones as he explains to us he is not for more spending. he is not for more taxes. he is not for more borrowing. he is not for expansion of entitlement programs. But his budget does precisely all of those things. It is a net increase in taxes on every American: It is an increase in spending. It is an increase in borrowing on my children and my grandchildren and every.ones children and grandchildren. It is the greatest transfer of wealth from one generation to another in the history of the United States. Madam Speaker. you dont have to dislike a President of the United States personally. you dont have to dislike what he is trying to do. to dislike his. policies. particularly if they undercut the very promises he is making. if they undercut the very things he says we want to do. We stand ready to join him. We �tand ready to join him in meeting the goals that he sets up. But. Madam Speaker. this budget taxes too much. spends too much. borrows too much. It is in fact a repudiation. of the very goals he has established.