Positive Solutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I thank my good friend for coordinating this hour tonight, very important hour. This is about real solutions, not the types of policies we've seen over these past 19 months which has grown the size of government--bloated the size of government, actually. We have increased the deficit to the point that what we have is a legacy of debt. There is not a generation, I don't think, that ever wants to have it so that--we always want to leave this country better than what we found it, to pass it on to our children and our grandchildren. Yet with the trend that we have been on from the leadership, or the lack of leadership, from my colleagues across the aisle in terms of the taxing, the spending, the borrowing, what we have today for the generations to follow us is just a tremendous legacy of debt.

I think the data that just recently came out showed the deficit pushing $14 trillion, $14 trillion. But you know what? There are better ways. We've been working on these. These are not new ideas. We've had bills that we have introduced. Unfortunately, the Speaker has control over what bills get to the floor. We have many solutions. What I call is, as opposed to Big Government solutions which we've been seeing, we've been working on smart government solutions, those that truly stimulate the economy--or would stimulate the economy if we were able to get moving on those.

Many of those have to do with who the true economic engine is in this country, and frankly that economic engine is small business. There are over 20 million small businesses in this country. These are the folks who take risk. They're the ones that work 6, 7 days a week; they're putting in those 16- and 17-hour days. Many times they do that without taking a dollar back for themselves. They keep reinvesting in their companies. They're growing jobs. They've got that American Dream, and they are trying to live that dream. Unfortunately, what we've seen in the past 19 months is this government, the Obama administration and Speaker Pelosi, just crushing those dreams.

On back home, I describe it as, if the economy is a football game, there are yellow flags flying everywhere for piling on the backs of small businesses. Actually, a former colleague here, Dick Armey, I understand once described it--it was a great description, I repeat it often--that if the economy is a horse race, and of course the economy is the horse and government is the jockey, at whatever point the jockey becomes larger than the horse, you know you've got problems. And that's what we have today.

We've been working on things and looking at trying to reduce the costs for small businesses, and it has been very challenging to do in the 111th Congress with the folks that we have here.

To start out with, I'll share one bill that I have that I've been working on, which I introduced some time ago. It was to allow individuals--entrepreneurs--who have this vision, who have this American dream, to be able to take some money and to be able to put that money into a tax-deferred savings account. It allows them to do that on a regular basis and to build that amount of money up. You know, they've got the dream. They've got the idea. They know what they want to do. When they've accumulated enough of the tax-deferred savings, they can use that money to purchase maybe physical property, maybe the resources, equipment or capital they need to start that business and to be able to stimulate a new business that grows jobs.

That is just one of, obviously, I think, thousands of ideas that we've been working on as Republicans. You know, we are often accused of being the party of ``no,'' N-O. Well, that's a partial truth, actually. There are a lot of half-truths around Capitol Hill. The fact is we are the party of ``know,'' K-N-O-W. More importantly than that, we are listening to the American people.

I thank my colleague for really emphasizing tonight America Speaking Out and the fact that we are here as public servants.

We are here to work for the American people. That means we want to have a dialogue. That means we want to be communicating with the people we work for. So America Speaking Out is just a great program that has allowed Americans from coast to coast to be able to do that. That, to me, is so important. I look forward to it.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Well, I thank my good friend. And I want to come back to one word I think that really describes what is suppressing jobs, what is killing jobs, what is keeping jobs from being created. And that is uncertainty. Uncertainty is the direct result of all the policies we've seen piled upon the American economy in the past 19 months. And you know, as I travel around in my district, just like you do, you talk with the job creators, you talk with the people who take the risks, that every year take their profits--and no, that's not a bad word, that's a good word. That's how we've grown and built this wonderful Nation, on the backs of entrepreneurs and small business men and women.

And they take their profits and they reinvest them back in their company. And they add a product line or they build a new site. They hire people. Well, they're not doing that right now. They're sitting on the sidelines. And that's a direct result of just all the terrible policies that have been crushing our small businesses.

When I think over this past 19 months, and I'm in my first term here, you know how many times taxes have been raised? Now, we're looking at the largest tax increase ever that's looming. And we should talk more about that. But we should not lose sight of the fact that taxes have already been raised tremendously on these job creators, these small businesses.

Now, my colleagues across the other side will say, well, we only taxed the wealthy, those folks who made somewhere around $200,000 or more a year. And you know, where I come from, yeah, that's a lot of money. Absolutely. But when you really drill down and you look at who those people are, 60 percent of those folks are small business owners whose small businesses are organized as a limited liability corporation or an S corporation. They pay their taxes as individuals. And out of that maybe $200,000, if they are lucky, that they generate, they're paying a payroll, they're employing people, they're providing family-sustaining jobs. And, you know, I've lost count of how many times they've raised taxes on those folks since January 2009. It's crushing.

And you talked about the largest tax increase ever. And this has been my fear all along, that 2009 was a really tough year. 2010's a tough year. But it's been--you know, there's almost like an anesthesia that, Doc, that's been applied. You know, all this government money's been thrown at people so it makes folks feel a little bit better because unemployment went down. But as my good friend from Texas noted, a lot of those were temporary government sector jobs that drove down unemployment nationally for a short time. Never went down much less than 10 percent, but it took the edge off.

Well, my greatest fear is in January 2011 we're going right off the cliff. Because that's when these new taxes, these new regulations--we've tripled the size of the Environmental Protection Agency, although around home I refer to them as the Excessive Punishment Agency. You

know, all that takes effect beginning January of 2011. And then you put on top of that the things that you've talked about, the largest tax increase ever, $3.8 trillion. What will that be? Well, we are going to see the marriage penalty is going to return. The child tax credit's going to be halved. The death tax, which I think is just double taxation at the least. We put a tax on somebody's death.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Let's stop there for a second. You're talking about the marriage tax. Now, those are the people, the wealthy married people or is that all married people? That's everyone, right?

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. That's everybody.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. And now the individuals with children are the ones getting the penalty here, the ones who are the wealthy, or is it everyone who has children?

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. It's everyone.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. It is everyone. So the fact that they stood over here, what, 40 minutes ago and said, oh, these are tax cuts for the middle class, that's not the case. The largest tax increase in the history of this Nation will occur in 5 months. But we have a bill that we've introduced, and I am sure y'all have cosponsored it, I cosponsored it, to block that, to block that tax increase, and to allow the taxes to remain at the level they are today. And of course we would want to see them lowered. But it's not a tax cut. We're just saying, hey, keep it at the level it is. Don't raise them. Because that's what they are doing. They're raising taxes.

Let me finish this balance the checkbook thing real quick, and we'll talk about confidence in a minute. So balance the checkbook. Republicans, we're saying let's cut spending. Let's stop this excessive spending that's going on here in Washington. We can do that by repealing the unused portions of the stimulus bill. They talk about how great it's been, the grand fanfare of the stimulus, when in fact a third of it hasn't even been spent, which means, again, it's not working.

We need to end the bailouts. And then of course the big one, repeal ObamaCare, which is a nearly $600 billion tax increase on all Americans and businesses all over the United States.

Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Billion, right, that's nine zeroes.

Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. In regard to America Speaking Out, the poster--if you don't mind, Mr. Speaker, have the gentleman put that America Speaking Out poster back up so our colleagues can take a good look at it. I was just, as I stood here, thinking about our colleagues from the majority side of the aisle who had the previous hour. There was a Member from Ohio, there was a Member from Wisconsin, and there was a Member from California.

And I will just bet you, Mr. Speaker, if the folks in those great States will take the opportunity of going on that Web site, www.AmericaSpeakingOutÐ.com, and input what their concerns are, it would probably mirror what is on that poster that Representative Graves has presented to our colleagues this evening in regard to balance the checkbook, cut spending, repeal the stimulus, $862 billion. Indeed, the Representative from Wisconsin said that wasn't enough spending; we need to spend more.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. This is what Americans are saying right here. Americans did not go to AmericaSpeakingOut.com--and this is nonpartisan, it's confidential--Americans did not go to that Web site and say increase spending. They did not say increase the stimulus and do another one. They did not say continue the bailouts or keep ObamaCare. They actually said stop all this stuff. Stop it. That was America speaking out right here.

Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield, I would say that the gentleman is absolute, Mr. Speaker, right on target. And he said a key word. And that is that this is a nonpartisan Web site. Yes, it is created by the Republican minority for all of America to let us know, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, independents, libertarians, whatever. Let them have the opportunity to tell us, and let's have a bubble-up-from-the-bottom contract with America, not a top-down driven government-knows-better-than-anybody-else kind of plan that it seems the Democratic majority is heck bent and determined to force on the American people, just as they tried to force a year-and-a-half ago cap-and-trade, an energy policy that was run amok, that would result in probably $1,500 minimum a year per family in increased energy costs.

And then of course they come right back after that with this ObamaCare that Representative Graves is talking about. He mentioned the $600 billion worth of increased taxes to pay for it.

What he didn't mention was the additional $525 billion cut to the Medicare program, which we all know, all four of us know, is $75 trillion of unfunded liability over the next 50 years, and you're going to gut it 12 percent a year and then have the unmitigated gall, Mr. Speaker, to spend taxpayer money and send out these brochures, these glossy, fancy Medicare brochures assuring seniors that it's going to be better for them to cut their programs 12 percent a year and Medicare Advantage 18 percent a year.

I think the American people know better, and I think that the folks in Wisconsin, the folks in Ohio, and the folks in California are going to let those three Representatives know and give them a sure earful when they get back to their districts come August recess.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey. You are absolutely right.

Now, let me summarize. We've been talking about solutions here tonight. First one we were talking about was job creation. Certainty was mentioned by Mr. Thompson there. Uncertainty being the problem; certainty being the solution. So some certainty would be let's pass this legislation that blocks the largest tax increase in the history of our Nation. Let's get some of this regulation out of the way. Let's empower the small business owners and just embrace and ignite that entrepreneurial spirit. The solutions to job creation.

The second component we were talking about is the spending and balancing the budget. It's time to cut spending. Let's say enough is enough here in Washington. All of America, all businesses, all State, all local governments are cutting spending, whereas here we are, we're raising spending. But we've even gone a step further, taken a bold step and said, we've got a plan to balance the budget here for the Federal Government.

And now the third category, which I think really involved the American people last year, not in a positive way because they weren't engaged in the process, because it was a process that was behind closed doors, but it raised the awareness of the abuse of the process and the abuse of the rules and abuse of the system right here, and that was health care.

As we've talked about America Speaking Out, repealing ObamaCare was one of the top items mentioned or indicated out of the--what did we say, nearly 12,000 respondents, 12,000 specific ideas and 600,000 votes cast for different ideas. We've got an interesting chart here, and this will be the debut I believe of it publicly to show the health care plan as passed, the health care plan as passed.

It was approached or presented as a plan that was patient friendly, right? Isn't that what it's called, the Patient Protection Act? This is the ObamaCare health care plan in a schematic of what occurred out of the 2,000 pages of legislation. They're still today figuring out that portions of it were in there that they never expected or knew were in there, including new additional taxes.

But let me point out as we discuss this, and I know, Doctor, you've probably got a lot of insight into it because we do have an alternative plan. We had one then, it was presented then, but it's still in committee right now.

But let me point out to those watching. Here's the physician at this point. Here's the patient down here at this point, and all of this government is in between. How is that better for the American patient, for the young boy
that's needing care? How is this better for that young single mom who's just trying to get care for her child? This is not better. This is a mess, a governmental nightmare right here, and this is as it's passed and has been signed into law, the Obama health care plan.

Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, this is absolutely astounding. I have seen that chart before, not maybe in quite such a vivid highlight and outline, but Mr. Speaker, my degree is in chemistry. And when I first saw Representative Graves put that chart up for all of our colleagues to see, I thought that was the periodic table. Really, it took me back to my chemistry days and the periodic table of the elements. It's probably changed some now because it has been a long time since I attended Georgia Tech and got that BS in chemistry, but this is more complex than the periodic table.

And I'm sure the gentleman from Ranger will agree with me, it's something like 130 new Federal agencies that were created by this mess, all between the doctor and the patient. Maybe my colleague will point out where the doctor is on that chart and where the patient is.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. You're right. This is the doctor. There's the patient. You would think the patient and doctor would be in the center, right? That should be the center of this diagram, but it is not. It is this newly empowered Secretary of the Health and Human

Services that is in the center of which all of this spirals off of, and all of this is documented and all the code sections are outlined on here how it was created, and it indicates new mandates, new taxes, new programs, new processes. All of this is in this new health care plan that is going to be a mess for Americans right here.

The great thing is, though, that as we stand before America tonight, we don't stand here without an alternative, without another idea. We come before America boldly with another alternative, and the first step, in my opinion, is we have to defund this mess. Let's just put the brakes on it. We don't need another, what, $600 billion in new taxes. We need to defund this, and we have introduced legislation that is H.R. 5882, which each of you are probably cosponsors of and I'm the sponsor of the legislation to just defund it altogether, and let's start over because the process was broken. The policy is flawed.

Let's get a patient-centered, patient-driven health care plan in place of which we've got good alternatives. Would you like to share a little bit about the proposal that's out there, or do you have some ideas yourself?

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for looking at this. What a nightmare this is. I spent 28 years managing a rural hospital, and what I see there, when I look at that chart is not the periodic table. I see bankruptcy for hospitals, physicians, health care providers.

I mean, my health care career goes back to the beginning of the 1980s, and I am a proud survivor of the first prospective payment system, diagnostic related groups that were rolled into hospitals all across the Nation. I was there in the 1980s. I was there in the 1990s for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA.

HIPAA would just be one of those circles on that chart, but let me tell you the experience of health care, and it's health care everywhere, but it really hits hard in rural health care and underserved urban areas.

The bureaucracy that was required to implement HIPAA in the 1990s was tremendous. It took dollars from actually providing what I thought was compassionate and cost-effective care, and you had to hire clerical staff, you had to hire compliance individuals, you had to hire people that never saw a patient, never did anything to directly touch that life of somebody that was facing life-changing disease and disability in the health care work that I was privileged to participate in for 30 years.

You take that experience of HIPAA in the 1990s and now multiply that by the complexity of that chart. You know we have worked hard, I know Dr. Gingrey has, all health care professionals work very hard to make sure that health care is patient-centered. It's about the patient. And this is not about the patient. This obviously is government. This is not patient-centered health care. This is government-centered health care, and there's many different proposals out there.

Let me just touch on two of those because I think it's very important that as we show the negative impacts of this, that we show the alternatives, the things we are working on that are better solutions, what I like to call smart government solutions.

Going back to July of 2009 when we introduced the Putting Patients First Act. That's an act that addresses people with preexisting conditions and makes sure they're able to purchase affordable health care insurance. It's about providing greater access to care. It was about bringing down the cost of health care for all Americans. It was about preserving and even increasing the innovation quality of health care that comes out of this country and certainly about preserving that important decisionmaking relationship between the patient and physician, not allowing the government or bureaucrat to do that.

Putting Patients First Act, I encourage people to check that act out. You know what, it doesn't raise taxes a dollar. No cuts to Medicare, and yet it achieves all the things it needs to achieve.

You know that's the kind of thing, when we repeal this, that's what we need to replace it with. And I would tell you there are things we need to surgically repair right now, because I don't expect that President Obama--I would expect a veto on any general repeal any time soon, so we need to surgically repair, certainly working with an eye to repeal.

And I am sure all my colleagues on the floor here are also cosponsors of H.R. 5141. It goes right back and it deals with the health care bill, but the impact's directly on small businesses.

Under the ObamaCare plan, every small business, for every exchange of business, a vendor, a contractor, just buying resources, anything more than $600, they are required to file a 1099 form today under the ObamaCare plan. For some businesses, that's thousands of 1099 forms. We are talking more clerical staff. We are talking more overhead cost. We are talking about complying with bureaucracy that is just raising the cost on small businesses.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of H.R. 5141. It puts an end to what I call death by a thousand paper cuts. And that is where health care buries small businesses, in paperwork.

That's another example of a Republican, smart government solution that we have put forward and it has been introduced. It's out there and, frankly, it would be good for America.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. You are absolutely right. So you presented a solution. H.R. 3400 would be the Empowering Patients First Act. We have talked about deauthorizing the funding for this mess here, and you talk about surgically removing some items here. I mean, this is a mess.

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. It's going to be a whole lot of surgery, though.

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. You wonder why this component would be in a health care proposal. The IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, is part of a health care plan; although, I think we all know that the American people do not want to have to go through this maze in order to get their health care taken care of here in the United States.

We have a couple of opportunities. One, H.R. 5882, for those whom are viewing this tonight, could encourage their Members to sign on to, and that would not allow any funds to be authorized or spent towards this here. Then there is the Repeal It proposal that repeals this altogether, and there are two of those out there. There is a letter or petition to have one voted on here on the floor, and that's H.R. 4972, by Mr. King. That's the Repeal It legislation.

Then you have spoken about the alternative, the replacement. So you have defund it, repeal it, and then replace it with H.R. 3400, which is a free market, capitalistic solution to health care for Americans to allow them to be empowered, empowering them.

Would you like to add some more to this? I know we are getting close here before we need to stop sharing the truth here.

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