Providing for Consideration of H. Con. Res. 96, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget fr Fiscal Year 2015, and Providing for Proceedings During the Period from April 11, 2014, through April 25, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, I recognize why we are here and so do Members of this body, and the reason why is because, if you look at the pathway of the Democratic Party, which is what our colleagues are arguing for today, it is a pathway not only to destruction, but insolvency for the United States of America, up to and including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and our ability to pay for the things that this great Nation needs.

Last night in the Rules Committee, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall), who is our representative to the Budget Committee, spent hours not only in understanding, talking, and debating these issues, but in making sure that he brought back a product that was worthy of the sale to the American people by the House of Representatives today.

The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall) is taking time to describe how, really, there are two different pathways that we could go down. Now, I am aware that we also made in order five other opportunities, opportunities where there are groups of people, Members who came to the Rules Committee upstairs, talked forthrightly about what was in their bills, and they were very proud of saying they wanted to raise taxes by trillions of dollars; they wanted to blame the ills and woes on a balanced budget and America doing something that was about solvency and a good future.

Here, we are on the floor today to talk about the pathways. One pathway where we can sustain what we do is called the Ryan budget. The chairman of the Budget Committee, Paul Ryan, thoughtfully and carefully--I think artfully--came and spoke about how we need to make sure that we continue to grow jobs in this country.

The alternative to that was higher taxes and putting more off on the American people to not only have to work harder for what they would earn, but less take-home pay.

We argued forthrightly about putting us on a pathway with our budget to where we could look at the energy resources of America, providing us with those opportunities to develop jobs and more revenue for the country.

Our friends on the Democratic side want to tax oil by billions of dollars, raising the price of energy. We forthrightly understand this, and we get it. We have seen energy prices double at the pump by President Obama and the Democrat leadership. We have seen food double in price.

No wonder it is difficult for average Americans to make ends meet. We have seen the Democrat Party, through their budget and through the actual laws that they have passed, diminish not only hours of work--which was the debate of the last few weeks about whether we would diminish the 40-hour workweek in favor of a 30-hour workweek.

There are two different pathways, two different directions we could go, taxing and spending, blaming people who have jobs, blaming millionaires and billionaires for the woes of America.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would submit to you today that it is the people who are innovative and creative and do well in life that create jobs and opportunities for this country, but they will quit doing so if we really tax them out of existence, if we do what the Democrats want to do and move to the pathway that means that America does not have a brighter future.

We will do exactly what we have seen is happening in Greece, in Iceland, and in France, where the brightest and the best of those people have given up on their countries because they cannot make a go of it.

Quite honestly, the Republican Party is proud of what we are doing. We are talking about how important it is to be careful and cautious, to make sure we can sustain what we do, to make sure that our promise to America's seniors on Medicare and Social Security is taken care of, not to go and make promises that we know we cannot fulfill.

On the other side, they turn right around and say: let's just go tax business, let's go tax energy, let's go tax people, those rich people.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you kill the goose that lays the golden egg. I have worked hard and never missed a day of work in 36 years.

I am not one of those people that they want to pick on, but I say thank goodness that we have entrepreneurs in our country who have chosen to make America home, who have chosen to employ American workers, and what the Democrat Party wants to do with their budget is to throw us all out of work and make us beholden to them.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, I recognize that I need to hold some classes up at the Rules Committee so that Members have a better opportunity to understand more about the rules of the House and about how we operate on the floor. The facts of the case are very simple.

The Rules Committee last night made in order anything that was a complete substitute or an opportunity to have their bill heard last night. We do not take on what might be one single issue or literally an amendment.

The process that we are trying to follow here today is one that is happening because, for 4 years, the Democratic Party had the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, and the President of the United States, and they did not do for 4 years what they are asking us to do today. And all these shiny objects swirling around do not fool the American people. They want to raise taxes, raise spending, and blame someone rather than coming to the table and working together.

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