Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3854, Small Business Financing And Investment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman yielding me the time. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we've just heard our good friends from the Democratic Party talk about wanting to support small business. I think it's interesting that today this bill is all about making sure the government has money available to loan to small business because we want them to be successful, and yet this committee and this Congress, under the Democrat leadership, ignores the leading four or five different items that small business would say they need the most to be successful to grow, to expand, to continue employment, which is the backbone of the economy.

High taxes, depreciation--this next week the biggest killer of them all, after we pass this bill, the health care bill is going to come on the floor which will kill small business. President Obama's own numbers say 4.7 million jobs will be lost with the health care bill. It will tax small business. It will bring enormous rules and regulations, and yet here we are, talking about wanting to help small business today. If you really want to help, first of all, you ought to get out of the way; secondly, don't pass rules, regulation, laws, taxation that diminish small business.

So, with that said, I am delighted to be on the floor to talk about this Small Business Financing and Investment Act. In the Rules Committee, it was plain and simple that not allowing an open rule this year is where we continue. There is plenty of time for my friends on the other side of the aisle to allow for an open rule today to discuss the 42 amendments that were offered in the Rules Committee, of which only 16 were made in order.

I offered an amendment to the Rules Committee last night that was voted down by my Democrat colleagues. My amendment would have benefited small businesses by allowing them to choose the asset depreciation schedule that best suits their individual businesses. Today we have a depreciation schedule that is entirely formulated by the government, to the detriment of the free enterprise system and small businesses. The current system of asset depreciation inhibits economic growth. That's right. It forces companies to depreciate their assets over an arbitrary period of time. It competes against business, and certainly small business, by making sure the government gets their money first. Congress needs to create incentives for American businesses to reinvest in their companies, buy new equipment and hire more workers, not the opposite.

Small business employs about half of all Americans, and they are critical to our economic growth. But tax policies out of Washington by this Democratic Congress are making it harder and harder for them to do business. Also add in rules, regulations and a political agenda that will lose a net 10 million American jobs, most of them small business, just with the three biggest political agenda items that the Democratic Party has, 10 million American jobs lost, and that's the political agenda.

If this Democrat majority really wants to help small businesses, they would have allowed some commonsense amendments to come forth to the floor, by the way, amendments that small businesses ask for the most. I plan on using this opportunity to talk about our economy, the Nation's diminishing job numbers, the future of government mandates, and tax increases that will continue to stifle our economy and cut U.S. jobs. This is the Democratic Party's agenda, to kill the free enterprise system in America, and the starting blow is these three major political agendas that will lose a net 10 million American jobs.

Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration promised Americans that if Congress passed the stimulus package, that unemployment would not go above 8 percent, that it would create and save millions of jobs. Here we are 9 months later with a record 9.7 percent unemployment rate, the highest in 26 years, and more than 2 million Americans have lost their jobs since the stimulus package of $1.2 trillion.

What do we see from the White House? Lavish parties, trips to New York, just a whole lot of fun, everything but this President focusing on what any economist would say will create jobs in this country, what will keep the jobs that we have in this country. So my colleagues on the Democratic side continue to push their agenda that increases costs, increases taxes for individuals, while shrinking our Nation's workforce.

By the way, the Nation's workforce is called American jobs. By the way, those evil corporations that our friends, the Democrats, are after are called employers. Let's just put them at bay, and you will see no job employment.

In June, my friends on the other side of the aisle passed a cap-and-trade, or what is commonly called cap-and-tax, bill that will raise prices on energy, raise prices on goods, raise prices on services for every single hardworking American in this country. In my home State of Texas, the average household can now expect to spend more than $1,100 extra a year if this bill passes as a result of this legislation, and this legislation could diminish over 1.38 million manufacturing jobs.

In my book, manufacturing is small business. Just today congressional Democrats had a great big press conference that looked more like a victory lap to me, thinking that they're going to pass this bill that was 1,990 pages, a sweeping health care bill that effectively will continue to shrink the employer base. It will shrink the employer-based insurance market and force 114 million people into an unsustainable government-run program, a program where government bureaucrats will be choosing what doctors a patient can see and, further, what procedures will be paid for for that doctor.

This trillion-dollar package also raises taxes on individuals, it raises taxes on small businesses that do not participate in the government plan, and up to $800 billion will be spent, according to a model developed by the President's own economic adviser, and it will diminish between 4.7 and 5.5 million more American jobs, using the President's own figures. Most of those will come from small business.

Well, hold it. I thought we were here to help small

business today. But don't worry, next week we'll go ahead and pass a bill that will diminish between 4.7 and 5.5 million more American jobs. No wonder the American public can't figure out what's going on in Washington. One week we're saying, We're trying to help you, and the next week, I'm sorry about that, but somebody else's job is more important than yours.

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department reported that the Federal budget deficit reached a record $1.1417 trillion during the month of September. The Treasury Department also reported that the national debt reached $11.9 trillion. This means that since 2007, the Obama administration and this Democrat Congress have increased the Federal deficit by over $1.25 trillion and increased the national debt by over $3 trillion. When will it stop? No wonder we're losing small business jobs. No wonder we're losing American jobs. No wonder the American people are saying, What is going on in Washington, D.C.?

The Democratic majority is taxing, spending with more rules and regulations, and the jobs--let's get this right--are leaving. They're leaving this country, and they're going somewhere else. We aren't just losing the jobs. They're going somewhere else. We've asked this administration, we've asked this Democrat majority, Where are the jobs? Where are the jobs you promised? We've spent a lot of money. Where are the jobs?

In closing, Mr. Speaker, this legislation--yeah, I would offer some assistance to small business, but I believe there are more effective ways to assist them during the economic crisis. For instance, not growing the size of government just to give them, small business, a loan. We should be doing things to improve small business by expensing, by permanently repealing the death tax, by extending tax relief, by improving regulatory reform, by not adding a cap-and-trade bill, and by golly, for sure not next week trying out and then passing a health care bill which will diminish American jobs.

Mr. Speaker, we have a lot to say. There is a lot of time today, but what we want is for the American people to become engaged in what's going on in Washington, and I think they're watching.

I will be asking for a ``no'' vote on the previous question, a ``no'' vote on the rule.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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