Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this bill, to express support for a National Foster Parents' Day.

Today, there are more than 500,000 children in foster care nationwide.

Most of these children come from extremely troubled homes, and compared to the other children, they are more likely to suffer educationally, socially, and emotionally.

This is an issue that is very close to my heart. Over the years, my husband Marcus and I have cared for 23 foster children.

I know from experience that foster parents have to work diligently with local, State, and Federal agencies as well as within their homes to respond to each child's individual needs.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Representative Boyda for bringing attention to the foster care system, and I encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, last Saturday, 7,000 Minnesotans stood on the steps of the St. Paul capitol in our State for the purpose of standing for freedom. It was a beautiful, sunny, ebullient Saturday morning, and 7,000 hardworking Minnesotans took their time away from their families and away from their work to stand on the steps of our State capitol to say: Enough is enough, stop raising my taxes.

The last vote I took in this body prior to our recess had the Democrats calling for the largest tax increase in American history and the largest spending increase in American history.

The people in Minnesota, Mr. Speaker, asked me to come back to this body to fight for their freedom and to fight for the ability to hold on to more of their hardworking income, and that is exactly what we intend to do.

Madam Speaker, the morning of September 11, 2001, I was a Minnesota State senator meeting

with a group of local educators at a Perkins Restaurant in Woodbury, Minnesota. Because you can't find a babysitter at 7 o'clock in the morning, I had my three daughters with me at the restaurant when I learned of the attacks. After that meeting, I dropped our girls off at school and then, together with millions of Americans, in horror I watched my television as the terror unfolded. Thousands of innocent Americans were targeted for death that morning by an evil regime of radical jihadists. Then came the challenge of explaining to our children the magnitude of the tragedy that had just befallen our Nation. As a mother, I can tell you it was one the most difficult conversations that I have ever had.

September 11 galvanized Americans. We knew without a doubt that we had an enemy, but America fought back, united. We were attacked on September 11, but the radical Islamic jihadists declared war on innocent Americans long before that morning and, chillingly, that war continues even today. Their brand of evil chooses to kill the greatest number of innocent civilians. They are a cruel enemy. They are unwavering in their resolve to seek the total annihilation of the United States of America and of our freedoms, and of our Western allies especially. They seek to destroy our friend, the State of Israel.

Today, Iraq is the central front in this war, and that is according to the radical Islamists themselves. Some in this Chamber may want to deny that fact. However, it is the jihadists who chose Iraq as the central front in the war on terror. It wasn't the United States. And we fight them on their turf. Al-Zawahiri has said many times that Iraq is one of the crucial fields in the Islamist war. The radical Islamists know that they cannot beat us with guns and with bullets alone. They can only beat us in one way, and that is if they crumple the resolve of America to fight and to win this war.

To American soldiers, I want to say to you specifically tonight, know that many of us here in the United States Congress support you and your mission. We pray for you. We love you. We appreciate you and your sacrifices on behalf of our freedoms. It is because of your bravery that we will defeat the radical jihadists. Surrender is not an option, not if our goal is the maintenance of freedom.

It is very telling, I think, that the resolution that we are debating this evening only states what those on the other side of the aisle oppose. After all these hours of debate, the American people have yet to hear a plan from the Democrats for victory in this war against terror.

I believe, and you, our troops, know that victory against the evil people who want to kill Americans transcends politics. Victory in this war means that no mother will have to explain to their children the death of thousands of innocent Americans.

American soldiers, please know that many of us in this Congress stand strong in our resolve to support you and our fight to preserve America's freedoms. On my watch, I pledge to you during this, my term in Congress, that I will stand for you, and I will vote to preserve America's freedom.

And I want to say to you this evening that it is American soldiers, Minnesotans, who are in the National Guard. It is members of the Minnesota National Guard who make up over 10 percent of this increase in troops. Minnesota is supplying over 10 percent of those troops.

I had the brigadier general of the Minnesota Guard in my office yesterday, and I asked him, What is the morale? What is the message that these troops want me to know? And he said, They want you to know that they stand ready to fight, and their morale is high.

I say thank you to the Minnesota National Guard. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your bravery. I will stand with you. Just as the Minnesotans who stood first in line in the battle to fight for our Union, it is Minnesota who is standing strong in this battle to fight. It is the battle of our time, the balance of our generation, and I stand with you.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to let all of our troops serving overseas know that America supports you. Eliminating or cutting funding for our men and women who wear the uniform of the United States is not a recipe for ensuring stability in the Middle East; in fact, it is a recipe for demoralization, and it is irresponsible in its proposal. I urge all Members to support our troops and oppose any effort to cut off or restrict funding for American troops in harm's way, whether in Iraq, in Afghanistan, or elsewhere in the global war on terror.

It is imperative that we fully support those who are on the front lines fighting the war on terror. America thanks you, our brave men and women in uniform.

Madam Speaker, on the first day that Republicans took control of the Congress in 1995, one of their very first actions was to establish a rule that required a supermajority, or three-fifths vote, to raise taxes. This was a good thing, Madam Speaker. On the very first day of Congress in 2007, however, the Democrats established new rules in this Chamber to make it easier to raise taxes with a simple majority vote.

And now, after just 2 weeks in power, the Democrats, our colleagues, have already passed legislation today to raise taxes. What is worse, the taxes that are collected under this new bill will not be going toward deficit reduction or toward paying down the Federal debt. The money is going to be set aside in a special account for more spending.

In Minnesota, we had a phrase when we were in session. We said, hold on to your wallets. And we can say that to the American people right now.

As a Federal tax litigation attorney myself, as a small business owner with my husband Marcus, and as a mother to Lucas, Harrison, Elisa, Caroline, and Sophia, and our 23 foster children, I can tell you as a parent the best way to grow an economy, the best way to raise more jobs is not to raise taxes but to let people, families, keep more of their hard-earned money.

In 2003, tax relief was passed, and the great thing is that 7.2 million jobs were created. In fact, our economy has been adding jobs for 40 straight months. The unemployment rate is incredibly low, at 4.5 percent, well below the average of the last 40 years.

Nowhere are the results more evident, Madam Speaker, than in my home State of Minnesota, which has closed out the calendar year with 54,000 more jobs than at the end of 2005, the strongest job growth since 1999. Our State's annual job growth rate of 2 percent has outpaced the national rate of 1.4 percent. Our unemployment rate is the envy of the Nation, phenomenally low at 4.2 percent.

Meanwhile, tax revenues are absolutely surging into the Treasury. Guess what? Federal receipts rose 14 percent in 2005, 11 percent in 2006, and they kept rising by 9 percent the first 2 months of 2007. These are the highest consecutive revenue increases in the past 25 years.

America, did you hear that? The highest revenue increases in the past 25 years. They come on the heels of the largest tax relief measures in American history.

And the budget deficit, in turn, has fallen $165 billion over 2 years. And just as the economy is gaining tremendous momentum, now, unfortunately, my Democrat colleagues are saying, this is the time to raise taxes.

Madam Speaker, I have learned very quickly in the few days I have been here in Washington, D.C., that facts don't always get in the way of people's opinions here in this fair city. But it is hard to dispute 3 years of unparalleled prosperity.

It is important that we recognize what tax relief does for the average American. It gives us money, a chance to grow a business, a chance to raise our kids while growing the economy and raising a lot more jobs in the process.

I urge my colleagues here in this Chamber, my esteemed colleagues who I have come to respect, to reject new taxes. Instead, let's do this. Let's work to make the tax reduction rates permanent now, while we can, and continue to reduce the overall tax burden.

The American people deserve our best, and the colleagues here are the best from across the country. Let's do that for the American people.