Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 4715, Clean Estuaries Act Of 2010, Waiving Requirement Of Clause 6(a) Of Rule Xiii With Respect To Consideration Of Certain Resolutions, And Providing For Consideration Of Motions To Suspend The Rules

Floor Speech

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me, and I want to associate myself with her remarks.

Mr. Speaker, my Republican friends talk about fiscal responsibility, and they talk about how we need to focus on the economy. Let's review the record here.

George Bush inherited from Bill Clinton a sound economy and a surplus. The Republicans came in. They basically eliminated the surplus, and they drove this economy into a ditch. What President Obama inherited was the worst economy since the Great Depression. That is what they did.

My friend from North Carolina wants to talk about arrogance. What about the arrogance of creating this enormous debt, of taking this surplus that they've inherited and just frittering it away and creating an all-time high, historic national debt? Where is the arrogance of that?

Tax cuts for rich people that weren't paid for. That went onto our debt.

Two wars we are fighting. None of it paid for and trillions of dollars onto our debt.

When they were voting for all of this stuff, there was no mention of the implications to average families.

A prescription drug bill not paid for. Hundreds of billions of dollars added to our debt.

Do you want to talk about arrogance? That's arrogance. That's what they gave us. They gave us the worst economy since the Great Depression. They drove this economy into the ditch, and now they're complaining about the size of the tow truck.

It is Tax Day. At this moment in our history, we have to clean up a mess. It's easy. It's fun to create a mess. When we were kids, it was always fun to mess things up. It wasn't so fun when our mothers told us, You've got to clean things up. We are cleaning things up. We are cleaning up their mess. I wish we didn't have to, but that's what they left us.

In terms of tax relief, we have the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It had tax cuts for average working families, tax incentives for businesses to create jobs by increasing bonus depreciation, by allowing small businesses to immediately write off new equipment purchases, and by providing a 5-year carryback for net operating losses. They had an opportunity to vote for that, and they voted ``no.'' They voted ``no.''

On health reform, there are tax credits to help families pay for health care coverage. The cost of health care has become obscene. There are tax credits for small businesses to help them offer coverage to their employees. What did they do? They voted ``no.''

There have been hiring incentives to restore employment, the so-called HIRE Act. There has been a payroll tax holiday for businesses that hire unemployed workers and retain them. How did they vote? ``No.'' They voted ``no'' on that.

The Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Act provides tax incentives to help spur investments in small businesses. They all talk about small businesses. How did they vote on that? ``No.''

There has been permanent estate tax relief that ensures that nearly all estates--99.8 percent--are exempt from taxes. How did they vote? ``No.'' On every measure that provides relief to average working families, they voted ``no.''

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Ms. PINGREE of Maine. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. McGOVERN. I am sorry. I say to my Republican friends that we are not trying to accommodate the Donald Trumps of the world and that we are not interested in providing more and more tax breaks, you know, to big corporations and to big financial institutions that created this mess on Wall Street. We have a different set of priorities, which is to help average working families get through this economic crisis that they created, and we are going to do that with or without their help.

So I am proud to stand with the President and with the leadership in this Congress to focus on working families.

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