Mr. Speaker, tonight for the American public, we are going to hold the fourth quarterly report of the newly elected freshmen Republicans giving an update of what has gone on here on the floor. As the Sun begins to set on our first year in…
Mr. Speaker, tonight for the American public, we are going to hold the fourth quarterly report of the newly elected freshmen Republicans giving an update of what has gone on here on the floor. As the Sun begins to set on our first year in Congress, this is really the appropriate time to talk about it. This week we are bringing up what they call the omnibus bill, because we have 13 appropriation bills, but this Congress has only been able to get one through.
So what are they doing this week, at the last hour, at the last moments because Christmas is coming and people want to go home? They are throwing them all into one great big ball and putting them before the American people.
Now, when we flew back here, like we do each and every week, when I got here on Monday, I quickly found 34.4 pounds of pieces of paper of the omnibus bill and was told that in a few short hours we were going to go to a vote.
Well, tonight we want to tell the American people that we want to bring a little transparency to their government. We want to show them exactly what is going on here. And I will tell you this, the American people should know, Mr. Speaker, that this government is not small. This government is $2.9 trillion. Now, just think for a moment. That is just the amount of money that this government spends. Now, if you compare that to economies, not just to what other countries spend in their government, but to their economy and what they produce, what their governments spend it on, ours would be the third largest in the world. Of course, the United States economy is the largest, and there would be Japan, but we would be larger than Germany. We would be larger than China with all the money they spend in government and all that they produce as you look at the different products that they make. We would be larger than the United Kingdom, larger than France, and larger than Italy.
When you think about that and you think about the deficit that we have, isn't there a place that we can find the fraud, the waste and the abuse and eliminate it? And that is what these 13 freshmen who have been newly elected a year ago have been about to do.
Now, tonight, we are going to start out talking with different members of the freshman class. It is an honor to look at the different members that we have. Our first individual that we have comes from the State of Minnesota, the Sixth District, Representative Michele Bachmann from Stillwater, Minnesota.
I would like to yield time to Michele.
I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota, Mrs. Bachmann, because she said it right, that this alternative minimum tax is going to hit a lot of Americans. And it is not about a revenue crisis here in Washington, DC.; it is really a spending crisis. We set a new record that more money has come into this Treasury than ever before, but more money is going out.
This Congress has a couple other historical facts with this year. This is the longest a Congress has ever gone without approving 13 appropriation bills. This is a Congress that has not been effective from that date. And I will tell you from the 13 freshman Republicans that got elected all at the same time, we talked about accountability. We talked about changing the way Congress goes about it, that we bring transparency back home. And in that omnibus bill that was before us, those 34 pounds of paper, there were 9,000 earmarks; 9,000 earmarks. Think for one moment. Did the American public get to debate them? Did they get to see them? Did the power of the idea win at the end of the day down here?
And you wonder as you are sitting back at home, Mr. Speaker, with the American people, maybe they don't qualify this year to pay the alternative minimum tax. Will they be affected still? I will tell you, if you are a taxpayer and you get a refund from the IRS and you try to send that in early, get your taxes done early so you can get that money back, and maybe you are going to take your kids to Disneyland, maybe you are going to put a little money a way for a kid's college, or maybe you are going to put money away for yourself for retirement, you know what? You are not going to get it back very soon. The IRS has already said because this Congress has not acted, this majority has not taken it up and solved the problem, because of that, we are going to wait 7 extra weeks. They have to reprogram, even if an action is taken here tomorrow on this floor, and that is the concern I have.
When you think about this budget, $2.9 trillion. People at home say, You are talking trillion, you are talking billion, what does that mean? Let's take it down just one step. It is 1,000 billion for every trillion. Just think for a moment, just $1 billion. It is Christmastime. If someone were to give you $1 billion and you went and said, I am going to spend $1,000 a day. I am going to go on a shopping spree each and every day. How long it will take you to spend $1 billion? 2,740 years. A billion minutes ago the year was 104 A.D. and the Roman Empire was flourishing; yet the Federal Government spent $1 billion in the last 3\1/2\ hours. That is what is going on that the American people need to know about.
To continue on, we have some more freshmen here with us tonight. From eastern Tennessee, we have Representative David Davis from Johnson City. Let me tell you a little bit about David Davis. He sits on the Committee on Education and Labor, Homeland Security and on Small Business, because he has been a small businessman. He knows how to run a business, how to earn money, how to employ individuals and how to grow the economy.
But I will tell you, he is a Representative that never loses sight of where he represents in eastern Tennessee. Just last week he opened up his house to all of his constituents. He welcomed them over for a little time of cheer during the holiday season. And you had about 500 people through your house, and you said at the end of the time it was nice, because you had the hardwood floors and you had it all cleaned up.
But we are very proud of the representation you give and how you reach out to your constituents, and I yield the time to David Davis.
I thank the gentleman from Tennessee. He has done a tremendous job here, and I appreciate your comments. Because when we all sat on this Chamber's floors and we listened for the first time the pride of having the first woman elected Speaker, her comment and her words were: partnership, not partisanship. And we looked forward to that day that we would sit down, we would debate the ideas, and we would actually change the way that this body works, and no longer would congressional Members just slip something into the bill so it would pass and no other Member was able to see it or debate it. But we soon learned that did not change.
You know, the President of the United States stood in these Chambers and gave the State of the Union speech, and he challenged this Congress to cut their earmarks in half. Now, that would mean there would only be about 6,700 earmarks inside the bill. There were 9,000. We heard the majority side say: we had to put another 230 in from the last time you even were able to look at these just to get Members to vote for it. That is not the way the American people want legislation produced. They want to see it in a committee, they want to see it debated, they want to see the power of the idea actually win.
What are these earmarks about? Well, these earmarks are probably the worst things you have ever seen. We used to have a former chairman of the Ways and Means, Bill Thomas. And when he retired, he took all his papers, it is an historical time, on what he was able to accomplish in his 6 years as chairman and his 28 years in Congress, and he gave it to the junior college in Bakersfield, California. We have a new chairman of Ways and Means, and he had been there only about 6 months, now it is almost a year. Within 1 year, he had already put $2 million into the Health and Human Service appropriation to build a library named after himself, to build a very nice office for himself in the style of a Presidential library of like Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter. Those two libraries were built with private funds.
But, you know, I take a great deal of pride of the Republican freshmen, because all 13 voted ``no.'' The majority in the majority party all defended him; came down with an amendment to say, let's strip that $2 million, we have a deficit. The college didn't even ask for it. That individual actually came to the floor, defended it, and said he deserved it, he worked here so long. We said, well, you named it after yourself. Should we put something in and name it after ourselves? No, no, you wouldn't deserve it. But that, the Building a Monument to Me? The idea that it is not the taxpayers' money? That is what has gone on. That is what is going wrong here. And that is why tonight we are talking about the transparency. We are talking about what is going on.
Our next speaker tonight comes from the State of Ohio, the Fourth District. And I will tell you, the impact that he has had on this floor in less than a year is tremendous. If we had just taken his amendment on each and every appropriation bill that he would put forward, the American taxpayers would have saved $20 billion. $20 billion. But each and every time, the majority party twisted the arms of each and every one of their Members to make sure that it wouldn't pass. But he did not give up, and he continues to fight that call and be able to move us forward.
So I yield to Representative Jim Jordan, who is the only freshman Republican who serves on the Committee of Judiciary, Committee on House Oversight and Reform, and the Committee on Small Business. Congressman Jordan.
Well, I appreciate my good friend from Ohio. The gentleman brings up a good point. The article the gentleman cited said if the Federal Government was a public business, that our stock would be dropping. Well, if you look at the poll ratings, that is exactly what has taken place.
We have set a new record in this Congress with this new majority with the lowest congressional approval rating ever. This new majority has set a new record of being the least effective; 13 appropriation bills, 1 year to get them done, and only got one through. Twelve have not gone through. So they compiled them all and laid them on the floor. This is the longest any Congress has ever gone. And the only reason that the omnibus bill is going to pass now is a deadline.
The American public does not believe that their government should work based upon deadlines; it should work based upon ideas and accountability. We have been in office about a year now. As that sun begins to set, I have thought about what could improve this House. The House really is the leader of the free world. I have come to the conclusion there are two things this House needs. Number one, we need accountability. Number two, we need adult supervision to get the job done.
I will tell you that is what tonight is about. Our next speaker comes from the Seventh District of Michigan representing Battle Creek, Jackson and Adrian. His name is Representative Tim Walberg. He serves on the Committees of Agriculture and Education
and Labor. And let me tell you how hard this individual works.
I caught him this morning. He was up working on constituent services. He is now on the floor. There are times he is over in the hospital visiting troops. I told him we were going to be speaking on the floor tonight. He said, Let me see. I am going to be in my office and I am going to put on a teletown hall to my district. He is calling thousands of people in their home, and they are going to question their Congressman.
So when I talk about this place needs accountability, I will tell you that the Seventh District of Michigan is getting that accountability from morning to night, that Tim Walberg is hard on the job, working fast and making sure that accountability is coming back home.
I yield to my friend from the Seventh District of Michigan, Tim Walberg.
I thank the gentleman from the Seventh District of Michigan.
When we came to this floor, I like many of you sat here and dreamt about the day we put people before politics. You watched TV, and you didn't want a red or blue country; you wanted it red, white and blue. When we come to this floor, we put on our American hat, not our Republican, not our Democrat hat. But the one thing, we haven't found the partnership here; we found the partisanship. We found bills that were coming up for political gain, not to be debated on the floor, not to be debated in committee. And I will tell you when you think about that, that is not the way to run this House, and the American people have said so when you saw the poll numbers.
Tonight is about bringing about accountability and talking to those Members who are home in their houses and wondering about what they are going
to be able to do for Christmas and what they are seeing on the floor of this Congress. This new majority has put in the largest tax increase in American history.
You know, the IRS Federal codes have 1.6 million words. That is 380 times the number of words in the U.S. Constitution. When our Founding Fathers said what would it take to run this country, they were able to do it in much fewer words and regulations.
I think tonight as we sit and talk, and we sat and debated on this floor, I look to my good friend from eastern Tennessee to talk a little bit about the earmarks and the abuses that have come forward that the people back in eastern Tennessee would say that is not the way they run their household.
You make a very good point, and I will tell you, you talk about these earmarks. That just means the majority party goes out and tries to raise more money, raises the taxes. And one of the leaders to stop that, because you see how many taxes you pay and what really comes from the leadership that continues in Ohio, Congressman Jim Jordan.
Well, I appreciate that, Congressman, because you made a very good point, because that wasn't the only Member that sat there and put an earmark in. We had a bill come through here talking about the Defense, went over to the Senate, came back. We had an individual that was in the leadership of the Democratic Party, all a sudden there was $1 million in there for a golf course in his district. And we asked, well, why did you need to put $1 million in the Defense bill for a golf course there? They said because all they had was tennis courts. They needed golf as well.
Do the American people really believe they need their taxes raised so some Member could put in a golf course and never even be debated in committee, never even have to withstand the ability to have accountability to look at it transparently? I mean, that's the frustration we see.
And I know my good friend from Michigan, Mr. Walberg, when he sat there and worked on the farm bill, he looked time and time again at those family farms that say when they want to pass on to the next generation, he looked at this new majority, what they did, that they were going to raise the inheritance tax to 55 percent. You know what would happen to those family farms back home.
Well, I thank the gentleman, and I thank all the freshmen that have been able to join us tonight, because really tonight was about bringing accountability and maybe some adult supervision because I think that's what the American public wants to see here in Congress, see that we are able to provide more free time, not take up more of your time to earn more taxes for the American Government.
I'll tell you tonight we're probably going to turn out the lights here in Congress in the next couple of days. But as those freshmen coming from the Republican Party, we all pledged that we would work in a bipartisan manner. We're eager to do that. We have a desire to do that, not to be a red and blue State but be the red, white and blue country. And we challenge the majority party here to change from the last year. It doesn't have to end a year from now as poorly as it ended this year. It doesn't have to end with the failure in setting new records, with the approval ratings so low with the lack of bills coming through, nothing but earmarks to try to get a bill through. It could actually end with common sense, with pride and, really, to be able to move it forward.
I'll tell the American people, I might get at times a little depressed sitting on this floor, but if anyone ever comes back to Washington, DC, I'd ask you to look up your Congresswoman or your Congressman and have them give you a tour because the greatest city in the world is right here and the greatest monument is this building, and the best monument inside this building are the stairs.
I will tell you, those stairs are made of marble. When you walk on those stairs those stairs are worn out from the feet that have walked before. And every day that I come over I take the stairs to go up the one flight just so I can walk on those stairs. And you know what? I get goose bumps each and every time I do it, because I believe that regardless of how big our challenges are, we will come together because the people before us and the challenges before us were much greater than we're facing today, that they came together. And if we can learn one thing through those stairs of marble it's that each and every one you take one step at a time. And I think we need to take one step, each at a time to come a little closer into the middle and find some common ground.
So I thank you for the time you have been with us tonight, and God bless.