Middle Class Tax Cut Act--Motion to Proceed--Continued
Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, it has been more than 30 years since I was in medical school, but I still remember the day my classmates and I stood to recite the Hippocratic Oath. That is an oath which has guided doctors for centuries. At its simplest, it can be boiled down to a single phrase: First, do no harm.
I was reminded of that last week when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the Senate Banking Committee, speaking about the approach Washington should take toward healing our sick economy. He said: Do no harm. Well, that is good advice for Senators and for Presidents, just as it is good advice for doctors. The problem is that we have a President in the White House and Democrats in Congress who don't believe it and don't act that way.
Day after day, as the President makes one policy decision after another, his policies do harm to the American economy and to the American people. Just look at how sick our economy has gotten since President Obama took office. The Federal Reserve projects that the gross domestic product will grow by as little as 1.6 percent this year. That is not nearly good enough to give us the healthy economy we need.
The other night, ``CBS Evening News'' opened with this summary: ``This is the worst economic recovery America has ever had.'' That is what they said--the worst.
Every other President has been able to bounce back from tough economic times. Not President Obama. Why is that? Why is our private sector economy sicker today than it was when the President took his oath of office? The Economist magazine put it this way. It gave a characterization of the President as someone ``who has regulated to death a private sector he neither likes nor understands.'' And I agree. Look at the President's own words. He said that while government bureaucrats were struggling, the private sector is doing just fine. Doing just fine? It has gotten worse. Because of President Obama's failed economic policies, more than 23 million Americans are now either unemployed or underemployed. I think those 23 million people would say to President Obama: Do no harm. We have now had 41 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent. Our economy created just 80,000 jobs last month--just 80,000 jobs. More people last month signed up for Social Security disability benefits than got a job. That is not doing just fine.
Look at what else the President said recently about small business owners. He said:
If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.
I know a lot of small business owners who would say they worked extremely hard to build their own businesses. Farmers and ranchers work from sunup to past sundown, and everyone in the family works to keep the operation going. The corner drycleaner is trying to keep his doors open in tough economic times. The florist is trying to avoid laying off another salesperson in the shop.
Where I live, in Casper, WY, most of the businesses we have are small businesses. They were started by men and women with dreams and with determination. These people aren't looking for a government handout, but they don't think their government should be hostile toward them. They work hard every day. They have worked hard to build their businesses and have tried to expand and create jobs in the community. President Obama doesn't seem to grasp that. That is why, instead of doing all he can to help small businesses, he is burying them under more regulations, under more redtape, and under threats of increased taxes.
Democrats here in Washington like to say they are in favor of creating jobs, but then they turn around and do the very things that hurt the people who create the jobs in this country. Washington has already put out more than 36,000 pages of new regulations just since January of this year. If small business owners could talk to the President, I think they would tell him they do not need more paperwork. They would tell him: Mr. President, do no harm.
The damage President Obama's policies have done to our economy so far is terrible, and it is likely to get worse. We know the President's policies are holding back our economy from the type of normal recovery we have had from other recessions in the past. Even worse, he is paying for his failed policies by piling an unprecedented amount of debt on future generations. Today, our national debt is $16 trillion. In just 3 1/2 years, President Obama has managed to waste more taxpayer money than any other President, in my opinion, in American history.
Previous Presidents understood the danger of spending more than we can afford. President John Kennedy said: Persistently large deficits would endanger our economic growth and our military and defense commitments abroad. President Kennedy made that statement 50 years ago--in 1962. At the time he made that statement 50 years ago, Washington's budget deficit that year was $7 billion. So we have gone from $7 billion 50 years ago to a projected deficit of $1,200 billion this year--from $7 billion to $1,200 billion.
That is 170 times greater. Has anything else increased that fast in the past 50 years in terms of expenses on anything--a daily newspaper or a bottle of Coke, which would have cost 10 cents in 1962? Using this multiplier of 170 times, that would be $17 today if it had increased at the same rate as our Nation's deficit. And gasoline was about 30 cents a gallon back then. It would have to be more than $50 a gallon today.
Look at it a different way. The share of Washington's total debt that is owed by every man woman and child in America today is almost $51,000. The President is saddling our children with debt to pay bills we can't afford for policies that don't work and for goals the American people don't support.
The President demonstrates no sincere interest in cutting government spending, even as the Federal Government has grown less efficient, less effective, and less accountable. The American people look at Washington's out- of-control spending and debt, and their message to President Obama is this: Please, Mr. President, stop doing harm.
Remember, President Obama has been quite clear. He doesn't respect small businesses, and he thinks the private sector is doing fine. He has increased redtape, increased bureaucracy, and he has mortgaged America's future to give taxpayer dollars to his campaign contributors--to companies such as Solyndra.
When he has borrowed all he can--lots of it from China--he still doesn't slow down his spending. He says he needs to raise taxes to spend even more. The President already raised taxes through his health care plan. He pushed through $ 1/2 trillion in taxes and fees. He pushed his individual mandate tax to force people to buy insurance. Now he is pushing again to impose massive new tax hikes on millions of successful families and small businesses.
The additional damage President Obama would do to our economy with his proposals to raise additional taxes would be enormous.
Now, that is not only my opinion; others agree. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young did a study of the President's plan and found it would wipe out 710,000 jobs. Middle-class workers who keep their jobs would see their wages go down. And 2.1 million business owners would be hit with higher taxes. That means less money left to expand and less money left to hire additional workers. Again, you can't be for jobs and against the people who create the jobs.
In short, as weak as our economic recovery has been these past 3 years--the worst ever, as reported in the news--the President's tax increases would make matters worse. Just look again at the difference between President Obama and a different Democratic President--John Kennedy. John Kennedy said:
The largest single barrier to full employment of our manpower and resources, and to a higher rate of economic growth, is the unrealistically heavy drag of Federal income taxes on private purchasing power, initiative, and incentive.
This lesson from President Kennedy is lost on President Obama. The only solution President Obama seems to see is to raise taxes and to raise them most on the very people and businesses we need to lead us to prosperity and economic recovery. Remember the words President Obama used when he was running for President in 2008. He said that even if his tax increases led to less revenue for the government--that is what he said, even if his tax increases led to less revenue for the government--he would raise taxes anyway as a matter of fairness. Fairness? Fairness? What about doing what is best for the country? As an orthopedic surgeon, when someone came to me with a broken leg, I would try to fix it. You don't break someone else's leg so the two people would then be equal and both would have broken legs. The President is promoting his vision of fairness over good common sense.
The American people know those who work hard and take risks should be free to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They should not have to suffer more angry attacks by the President and by Democrats in Washington. The American way should be to promote success, not to punish it.
President Obama should abandon his misguided agenda to replace the long-held American value of equal opportunity with the President's own desire for equal outcomes regardless of effort. Before he makes things even worse, he should stop and he should do no harm.
Finally, I would like to address one last issue where I think the Democrats in Congress and the White House need to reverse course. Our country faces what has been called a fiscal cliff. Unless Washington acts in January, taxes will increase across the board--not just on small businesses but on middle-class families and even low-income people. Republicans in the House have already voted to approve long-term spending cuts. This month they will vote to stop the tax increases. And Republicans have a plan to create a healthier economy by making our Tax Code simpler, flatter, and fairer for all Americans. What happens next is in the hands of the Democrats in the Senate.
Financial experts have warned that if Senate Democrats do not act by the end of this year, they could create a worldwide recession. This is very serious harm. Democrats appear to be ready to do it. The Senate Democratic leadership has made clear that they would let the country go over the fiscal cliff rather than compromise on tax hikes. President Obama recently said the same thing. He said that if Congress passes reasonable regulation that keeps tax rates where they are--even temporarily, he said, while we sort out long-term tax reform--he would veto that. He would raise everyone's taxes and risk another worldwide recession. I ask the President to look at what he is saying and stop threatening grave damage to America in reckless pursuit of his political agenda.
Mr. President, do no harm.
Those words that sum up the Hippocratic Oath ring true for so many people across America today, for people who believe, as Ronald Reagan said, that government should stand by our side, not ride on our back.
It is time for Washington to change direction, to lower taxes, not raise them; to reduce redtape, not increase it; to control our spending, not rack up more debt; to free the entrepreneurial spirit, not stifle it.
First, before all else, if we are to heal our sick economy, it is a time for Washington to do no harm.
I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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