Fourth Quarterly Report of the Freshman Republicans

Floor Speech

FOURTH QUARTERLY REPORT OF THE FRESHMEN REPUBLICANS -- (House of Representatives - December 18, 2007)

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Mr. WALBERG. Thank you, Congressman McCarthy.

Mr. Speaker, I guess I would express my desires to have Mr. McCarthy campaign for me next time with those type of words.

And you read them very well, just as I wrote them for you.

It is, indeed, a privilege to be with Members of Congress, in this case 13. We call ourselves the Lucky 13. But we are 13 with ideas, 13 Members who came to Congress, the only freshmen Republicans to come from across the Nation, and every one of us came with conservative principles that said we believe America can do it better. We believe that individual Americans, as we have discussed already, have ideas and abilities that if allowed to be generated and to be creative, they can succeed. We represent them, and what a privilege it is for me personally to represent the good people of the Seventh District of Michigan, a State that is going through very, very difficult times right now because of the lack of leadership, the lack of understanding that when you take more of the resources, more of the liberty away from individual citizens, you frustrate not only the economy which Michigan is suffering through right now, extremely, but you also take away the creative juices that expand the ability and opportunity to do the things that were defined in our Declaration of Independence, promoting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or property.

That is something that I believe this freshman class of Republicans want to return to, the American solutions from American people committed to doing the best for themselves, their families, and the future of America's wealth.

I am interested, as you might expect, my friend from California, I am interested in a key issue to Michigan, known as the Motor Capital of the World for many, many years with the Big Three in the auto industry, with transportation on our mind and under our fingernails, hardworking people of Michigan who made the world run on four wheels and sometimes two, a great heritage that we have that pertains to energy and pertains to how we use it.

I appreciate the words of my good friend from Tennessee on the issue of the bill that we just passed today which could be considered the ``no energy'' energy bill. The latest shot, Mr. Speaker, in the Democrat's war on American jobs is this so-called energy bill that was on the floor today, this bill that we have been waiting for quite some time, yet it has no new net energy in it. And there is no way we can tax ourselves to energy independence. Congress can't tax our way to providing a greater supply of energy in America, and we can't just add more government regulations on industry and expect that we will have more energy in the pipeline. It doesn't work that way.

Mr. Speaker, I support American energy solutions, starting with expanding domestic supplies, and, two, lowering costs for U.S. consumers and for U.S. manufacturers, which use one-third of our Nation's energy.

Access to competitively priced energy helps U.S. communities and citizens compete in the global economy and preserves high-paying jobs here and at home.

If enacted, this bill that we passed, this bill will result in higher energy costs, few energy supplies, a weakened domestic energy industry and more job losses for U.S. factory workers, including my factory workers in Michigan. U.S. manufacturers already face a 31.7 percent cost disadvantage when compared to our major trading partners. By increasing the cost of energy, this bill will drive the cost even higher, putting quality American jobs at risk, and I resent that.

Mr. Speaker, I am strongly concerned about the absence of any meaningful provisions to expand domestic energy supplies. I remain committed to proposals that enhance U.S. energy security and production through increased production of all types of energy: improved conservation and efficiency, yes; more research on technology and alternative energy; increased access to domestic sources with continued environmental protections and improved distribution.

I support and have sponsored legislation to foster biodiesel technology. I have cosponsored legislation that would allow us to produce nuclear power. Other countries are doing very well right now with limited waste products that come off of it that can't be used.

I have also supported legislative initiatives that would increase our exploration in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf for clean power through natural gas, clean coal technology and other things. And yet today, in this piece of legislation where we had the opportunity, there was no energy.

So let me cut to the chase here and talk about the specifics of what this energyless energy legislation will do. In Michigan, it will kill jobs, as well as other places in the United States. It creates a confusing set of CAFE mandates. I don't call them standards. These are mandates based upon just human reasoning that says let's put at 35 miles per gallon fleetwide average. These mandates have the goal of dictating to our families, farmers, and small business owners what we can and can't drive, what we can use for commerce and industry. Some aspects are controlled by the National Highway Transportation Agency, specifically fuel efficiency mandates, but this could collide with EPA regulations, tail pipe emissions, which could create an unpredictable set of regulatory mandates.

It gives advantages to foreign car companies such as Volkswagen and Kia who don't make trucks, minivans or SUVs. We are not opposed to their cars, but we are not comparing apples to apples in these CAFE mandates.

We can do more to encourage energy conservation by allowing more clean diesel technology in cars and trucks, which the Federal Government has discouraged for decades. New diesel technology is clean and efficient and it is quiet. It has been effective in Europe for a long time, and we need to move it here.

These are issues that I am concerned with not simply because my State has been impacted very negatively by it. It will cost jobs and it will cost futures for my people, for my family, and it is a further intrusion into the freedoms and creativity that American citizens so deserve.

I appreciate the chance to espouse on some of these issues tonight. I know my colleagues have things to say about these issues. But more importantly, the American public needs to speak and we need to say we are interested in American solutions, not just political posturing that does nothing except serve political purposes that ultimately diminish the power and the control and the liberty of our American citizens.

So thanks for this time this evening, and I look forward to communicating further as time is available.

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Mr. WALBERG. Absolutely. I appreciate you bringing it up, and I appreciate my good friend from Ohio for endorsing legislation that I've offered, and to have you as co-sponsors on it as well, that would make permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that have blessed this Nation and its taxpayers well and have allowed this economy to grow at a steady pace for the longest time in history.

Again, to say to the family farmer who is able to survive in this economy, by the sound effort, good work, creativity, doing what it takes to compete, and then to say that because they have succeeded, when they pass on that family farm, as it is a real business, and some of it's not a small business anymore, that they will be dinged for their responsibility, as opposed to applauded for what they've carried on for the family.

That again brings me back to a broken record on energy as well, because when you're talking to the family farmers who have to use energy to produce food, and the resources from petroleum and otherwise producing fertilizer and all of those costs going up, we've got further tax problems for the citizens of the United States. Bottom line, this energy-less energy bill will not lower gas prices for American families; it will not help American families or farmers dealing with heating costs and drying costs in their granaries this winter.

This no-energy bill doesn't include anything to increase domestic energy production. It does, however, and I'm sure you'll all be glad to hear that what was left in this was a $240 tax credit, and we all like tax credits, tax incentives. But this is a tax credit, $240 tax credit that we're going to provide every 15 minutes for people who regularly ride their bikes to work for the
purchase, repair, or storage of their bicycles.

Now, my wife and I enjoy mountain biking. We have two bikes. I have a Harley Davidson motorcycle, two wheels, that I enjoy riding. I have a fuel efficient 30 mile per gallon family car that I use for getting around my district. But I also have a three-quarter ton pickup that I use for hauling my trailer, or last Sunday, in fact, in Michigan, hauling three people out of snow-covered ditches. That couldn't have been done by a Prius, my motorcycle, my bicycle or even my 30-mile-per-gallon car.

Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Will the gentleman yield? I just wanted to bring up a point. I represent in the Fourth Congressional District we have Airstream, some of the finest trailers in the world that people use to go camping. It's a wonderful, wonderful product. And you talk about the CAFE standards in this bill which would arbitrarily, some government-mandated standard that fleets would have to meet. It's tough. It's difficult to pull an Airstream with a Volkswagen. I mean, you need something bigger. And that's why we have to approach this. We all want to do things, but we've got to approach it in a reasonable way when we're thinking about the impact it's going to have on our economy, and as you point out on our districts and on our ag community as well. So I appreciate the gentleman yielding.

Mr. WALBERG. I appreciate you adding that because that's practical advice and a good example. The American public has grown to associate with our lifestyle all sorts of conveniences that we shouldn't feel embarrassed about. You ought to use them appropriately. We have all sorts of opportunities that other people in other parts of the world would long for. But it's come as a result of ingenuity, creativity, hard work, effort, saving, risk all of that revolved around responsibility so that people can enjoy that Airstream trailer or can use that pickup truck to transport goods and supplies on the farm and to do good deeds of pulling people out of ditches and the snow-covered roads that we had this past weekend.

Nonetheless, we, as legislators here in the U.S. Congress, have the privileged opportunity of allowing that to expand and thus bless the world, 25 percent of the world's population here, with over 85 percent of charitable resources that we give to the rest of the world. That is unique.

And for that reason, I think that true conservative effort that says we will avoid responsibility and we encourage people to be further responsible, and we don't let government step in the way with taxes or energy-less energy bills that says things that don't work is the way to go. So thank you again for giving me the opportunity.

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