3% Withholding Repeal and Job Creation Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the McCain amendment, which is Jobs Through Growth Act. I do not think there is any question that the No. 1 solution to the deep financial hole in which we find ourselves in this country today is in economic growth. The fact is, we do find ourselves in a very deep financial hole. Within a day or two, or certainly within the next week, we will surpass the $15 trillion landmark in this country. That would be a problem, $15 trillion worth of debt, if our economy was $100 trillion large, but it is not. It is about $15 trillion large. So our debt-to-equity ratio has now reached 100 percent, which is a very dangerous metric.
In order to understand how that affects our economy I ask people to understand or think about how their own personal economy is affected if they are in debt, too deep into personal debt. The fact is, when you are in debt over your head you simply cannot increase your consumption because any extra money you have, just beyond the basics, is spent servicing that debt.
The exact same dynamic happens with our Nation. We find ourselves in way too much debt. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight. The last 3 years we added $4 trillion to our Nation's debt, and the prospect for this year is that we will add another $1 trillion. During President Obama's term we will have added $5 trillion to our Nation's debt. This scares consumers, and it scares business investors as well. We all recognize when the government gets into this much debt and spends so much money that it does not have, eventually it will have to take from all of us--either in the form of inflation or in the form of taxes.
We are simply not coming to grips with the problem. I like to put things into historical perspective as we talk about supposedly cutting our budgets. Ten years ago, in 2001, our Nation spent $1.9 trillion. This year we spent $3.6 trillion. We doubled spending in just 10 years. The debate in which we are engaged right now is whether, according to President Obama's budget, 10 years in the
future we will spend $5.7 trillion or, as the House budget calls for, $4.7 trillion.
Let's take a look at 10-year spending. In the last 10 years we spent $28 trillion. Again, the debate is whether in the next 10 years we spend $46 trillion, as President Obama budgeted, or whether we would spend only $40 trillion.
I don't care how we look at it, $40 or $46 trillion is not a cut in comparison to $28 trillion. Unfortunately, the supercommittee that is charged with finding $1.2 trillion worth of savings is at an impasse, and it is at an impasse because it looks like my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have walked out. I am afraid they simply do not want a deal because President Obama is already in reelection mode, and he does not want a result so he can run against a do-nothing Congress.
I am one Senator who came here willing to work with anybody willing to acknowledge the problem and who is willing to work with me, work with our side to seriously address the problem. That is exactly what the six Members, the Republicans on that committee, were trying to do.
We all recognize the No. 1 solution to our debt and deficit crisis is economic growth. What is holding back growth? It really is the high level of uncertainty, the lack of confidence. I say to a great extent that lack of confidence and high level of uncertainty was caused by President Obama's agenda. There is no doubt about it. He came into office in tough economic circumstances, but his policies have made the situation far worse. They have moved us 180 degrees in the wrong direction.
I mentioned the $15 trillion worth of debt. President Obama's budget would have added $12 trillion, but that understates the problem because we underestimate the cost of health care. That will add trillions of dollars as more employers drop coverage and people go on the exchanges at highly subsidized rates. The fact we are not achieving the projected growth rates in those budgets will add trillions. If we only average 2.5 percent growth, that will add $3 trillion to our debt and deficit over the next 10 years.
What do global investors, what do American investors take a look at when they look at the U.S. economy? If we are going to be investing in business, if we are going to grow our economy. If we look around the world and say where are there economies growing, it is not the United States. It is China, it is India, it is in places like Brazil. Strike 1.
Take a look at the tax environment and look at the United States, with one of the highest tax rates in the world, at 35 percent, and strike 2.
Then we look at the regulatory environment and we are going to realize, according to President Obama's own Small Business Administration, that the cost of complying with Federal regulations is $1.75 trillion. Think about that. Put that in perspective. That is a number that is larger than all but eight economies in the world. It is 12 percent the size of our economy. That is what we burden our job creators with each and every single year. Strike 3.
We need a growth agenda. We need to recognize that America needs to be an attractive place for business expansion and job creation. The Jobs Through Growth Act recognizes that and it utilizes pieces of legislation that are already available to actually address the problem. We need a credible plan to restrain the growth in government.
As I pointed out earlier, that is all we are doing. We are not cutting government, we are just restraining the growth in government. We absolutely need dramatic, significant tax reform. Our marginal tax rates are too high, our Tax Code is 70,000 pages long and costs $200 billion to $300 billion to comply with. We need to utilize our God-given natural resources in this country. We need an energy utilization policy that will create hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs over the next decade or two.
We need free trade. It must be fair, but we need to recognize as these billions of people around the world seek to improve their lives and develop their economies, it actually offers us a phenomenal market opportunity. We cannot be afraid of that. We need to embrace it. We need to understand that we do not have a choice whether we are going to compete in this world. We must compete, and we are certainly capable. We have the finest, most productive workers in the world.
Finally, we absolutely need regulatory reform. Part of the Jobs Through Growth Act is a bill I introduced a couple of months ago called the Regulation Moratorium and Jobs Preservation Act of 2011. It is a pretty simple bill. It basically says until our economy gets back on its feet again we will stop issuing new rules and new regulations that harm economic growth until the unemployment rate drops below the level it was when President Obama took office, which would be 7.8 percent. It is a reasonable proposal, one I hope can gain bipartisan support.
I have to believe every Member of Congress, like me, is visited daily by businesses in their district and in their State. They are coming to Washington and calling us on the phone and describing the harm that President Obama's regulatory agencies are inflicting on their ability to create jobs.
I urge all of my colleague to support the very sensible legislation, the Jobs Through Growth Act.
I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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