Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, the American people continue to say in every opportunity that they can that they don't want a government takeover of health care. And all they get from the tone-deaf liberals that are running Congress is this latest attempt to ram the bill through. And now this latest proposal is the Slaughter solution where they're even going to try to run it through without an actual vote.

Now, maybe some of them have been around so long that they forget what Article I, section 7 of the Constitution says, but it actually takes a vote here in this House for any bill to pass. And I hope their bill doesn't pass, because we need health care reform. We need to lower the cost of health care, which their bill doesn't do. We need to address preexisting conditions. But we

don't want a government takeover of health care.

If you listen to the American people, what they're saying very loudly and clearly is scrap this bill. Let's go back to the table and start over again.

Now, Speaker Pelosi and her liberal lieutenants might run Congress, but the American people run this country, and their voices will be heard.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.

I rise in support of the resolution to impeach U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous, who is a judge representing the Eastern District of Louisiana. I want to thank Representatives Schiff of California, Goodlatte of Virginia, Chairman Conyers of Michigan, Ranking Member Smith of Texas, and the entire Judiciary Committee and task force for their diligent investigation and for keeping this a priority in your committee.

After I read through all four Articles of Impeachment, it is clear that the task force's findings warrant Judge Porteous' removal from the Federal bench. In order to remove the cloud that exists, we need to pass this resolution so the Eastern District of Louisiana can once again provide the citizens a justice system free from corruption.

It is important that we pass this resolution today and that the Senate takes this up in a time frame that doesn't allow Judge Porteous to return to the bench, as would be the case in September if no further action is taken. Passing this resolution will be yet another shot across the bow and a strong reminder to everyone in public office that we will not tolerate corruption and that we will maintain a zero tolerance policy against public corruption at every level of government.

Since Katrina, we've been vigilant against corruption at all levels of government in south Louisiana. From Members of Congress to our local levee boards, Louisiana is rebuilding the way our government works, and we have made a commitment to upholding a zero tolerance policy against public corruption at every level. This resolution reiterates that our commitment is not just in word but in tough action.

Following Hurricane Katrina, those of us who vowed to rebuild the New Orleans region both structurally and politically didn't just want to simply rebuild the same old broken system that existed before the storm. In fact, we committed to rebuild better. Part of that better New Orleans includes reforming the old, corrupt system of the past. Corruption might be a part of Louisiana's past, but it's no longer acceptable behavior for our future.

I urge my colleagues to pass this resolution and also urge the Senate to move swiftly in carrying out justice. A number of times I have urged Judge Porteous to resign from the bench, and I would still encourage him to do that. But short of that, Senate action in a swift timeframe is necessary. Help us usher in a new day in Louisiana.

Well, I want to thank my colleague from Missouri for hosting this and my other colleagues who are expressing leadership and really trying to make this last stand because we are at the last stand for health care, as the President continues to try to ram down the throats of the American people this government takeover. And here we are on the House floor as Speaker Pelosi is trying in the next week, possibly, to have a vote here on the House floor on a bill that the American people have said in every way possible that they don't want.

You had the elections, of course, in Virginia and New Jersey; and then you had the election in Massachusetts, of all places, where Scott Brown said, I'll be the 41st vote against health care, and he won. And even after that, this tone-deaf liberal leadership here in Congress is saying that they're going to continue to try to ram down this government takeover. What you're pointing out and my colleagues are pointing out are some incredibly important facts that I think the American people themselves have been seeing as they've been reading the bill, and this latest version is over 2,400 pages long.

But there's a couple of points in there, and I want to touch on one of them, and I know you have touched on a few others. Clearly there is over $500 billion in new taxes in this bill. There is over $500 billion in cuts to Medicare in this bill, things that would devastate medical care in this country as people know and enjoy it. We want to reform health care. We want to fix real problems to lower costs, to address preconditions. They don't want to do that. They want a government takeover.

But there are some other things in this bill that also show some of their real intentions. And the issue of abortion funding, taxpayer funding of abortion has been one of those at the core of, you know, who do you believe and what are the myths. And of course you've got Speaker Pelosi out there saying, Oh, don't worry. Abortion funding won't be in this bill.

There are two pieces of information I want to point out, and I think a lot of people have started to see all of this, but it really clarifies what's going on. This first letter I want to read a few sentences from is from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Catholic bishops, they don't have a vested interest in whether the Republican approach or the Democratic approach is moving forward. But they have two real concerns. One is, they don't want abortion funding, and they want a conscience clause protection. So I'm going to read a few quick sentences.

First on human life: ``Disappointingly, the Senate-passed bill in particular does not meet our moral criteria on life and conscience. Specifically, it violates the longstanding Federal policy against the use of Federal funds for elective abortions and health plans that include such abortions.'' It goes on to say: ``We believe legislation that fails to comply with this policy and precedent is not true health care reform and should be opposed until this fundamental problem is remedied.'' This is the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

And then one other I'm going to read for you is National Right to Life, a very respected organization, a bipartisan organization. National Right to Life also addresses the Senate language as it relates to taxpayer funding of abortion: ``Any House Member who votes for the Senate health bill is casting a career-defining pro-abortion vote.'' This is National Right to Life. And the final sentence I will read: ``The Senate health bill is a 2,407-page labyrinth strewn with the legislative equivalents of improvised explosive devices--disguised provisions that will result in Federal pro-abortion mandates and Federal subsidies for abortion.'' That's National Right to Life.

So as the American people are contemplating all of this, they're going to have to ask themselves, who do they believe as this information and misinformation is out there? Do they believe Speaker Pelosi who says, Don't worry, taxpayer funding of abortion is not in this 2,400-page bill? Or do they believe the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and National Right to Life who both clearly state that the Senate bill does contain taxpayer funding of

abortion? Yet one of just many big points of opposition we have to this government takeover of health care.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Cao, my colleague from New Orleans, for bringing the resolution. It's really a special time. If you have been in and around the city of New Orleans--and of course so many people have been focused on New Orleans in looking at the bad things that happened to our city after Hurricane Katrina. But we've had such an outpouring over the years of people who have been rooting for and pulling for the city to come back. I think what's been the most special thing about this past year with the Saints in their success that they've had on the football field is that it's really galvanized the city, but it's also galvanized the rest of the country.

I brought a football here, it has the Super Bowl logo, and it represents the fact that the Saints won the Super Bowl. And of course here we're today congratulating the Saints on winning the Super Bowl. But this victory was much more than a football game. Not only do I remember back during the years that my dad took me to Tulane Stadium when I was a little kid, and as my colleague, Congressman Cassidy, talked about some of those leaner years, I think it's the resilience of the team, but it really starts at the top.

We would be remiss if we didn't emphasize the importance to our community that the owner, Tom Benson, has meant. The fact that he bought the team back in the 1980s, but then the fact that even through some of those tough years, he made a dedication to excellence, that he was going to build a team--and he said it many times--that would win a Super Bowl. And there were a lot of people that wondered if that would ever happen. There were a lot of people that were crying in the city of New Orleans not only when the Saints won the NFC championship game, but when the Saints went to the Super Bowl and won the Super Bowl, because there were so many who just thought it never would happen. But it did happen.

I think the Times-Picayune, our local paper, said it best the morning after the Super Bowl victory. The headline was ``Amen'' because many people's prayers were answered. Of course, the Saints are named after the

saints. I think we had a lot of prayers from above, but those prayers were answered.

In a lot of ways, those prayers were answered by the organization that Tom Benson and his wife Gayle and his granddaughter Rita Benson LeBlanc and Dennis Lauscha and so many others with the Saints organization who made that commitment to build a world-class football team. And if you just go through and you look at some of the great talent that's been amassed now, you start with the coach, Sean Payton. He did one of the more unselfish acts of actually giving up some of his own salary to bring in a defensive coordinator who truly helped transform that defense into what so many people saw and admired on the field.

But I think that as I talk about a few of the players that I really want to feature and commend, it's not so much the acts that they did on the field because we saw what they did on the field, and it inspired people in the city of New Orleans. It inspired people all across the Nation. And Drew Brees winning the MVP and putting up record numbers and 32 completions, a Super Bowl record. And Garrett Hartley with three-for-three field goal attempts and three over 40 yards, setting a Super Bowl record.

And who can forget Tracy Porter's interception return for a touchdown? And of course the gutsy call that Sean Payton made to start the second half to do an onsides kick. All of those were great plays. But it's what the Saints have done off the field that has really formed a unique bond between the Saints and their fans, and it's something that we've seen after Katrina.

You know, for those of us who were in the Super Bowl that night in 2006 for the Atlanta Falcons game when they reopened the dome, when people said the Superdome would never open again; when many people said New Orleans would never have an NFL team again, in fact, when many people said that New Orleans wasn't going to come back, that really was one of those watershed moments that galvanized the city, and it told so many other people that they could come back, they could rebuild because the Saints came back. Since then, they've served as great role models off the field, and that's something important because we don't see that enough in sports.

But Sean Payton's got a Payton's Pay It Forward Foundation, and he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to do great things in the community, giving money to other organizations that do great things in the community. We've seen Drew Brees. And of course Drew Brees, he has gotten so many accolades on the field. But off the field, he has gotten accolades as well. His Brees Dream Foundation has donated $4.5 million to various causes throughout the city, done wonderful things, helped young kids. He was the 2006 Walter Payton Man of the Year, just an incredibly high-quality person who has gotten involved in the community.

I want to talk about Reggie Bush finally. Today, by the way, is Reggie Bush's birthday. Reggie Bush wears number 25 on the field, and today is his 25th birthday. So we want to say happy birthday to Reggie Bush. But through Reggie Bush's 619 Foundation, he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the community. And in fact, Tad Gormley Field, which is a field where many of the high schools in New Orleans play their football games, he donated $86,000 to rebuild that field after Katrina so that so many young people not only can look up to athletes as role models but also can have the opportunity to go and participate and learn about sports.

So it's been an incredible opportunity. We appreciate what the Saints have done on the field, but we also appreciate what Tom Benson and his leadership and the team have done off the field too.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week President Obama released his latest version of a government takeover of health care. And as you look at the details of his latest plan, it is not much different than the previous plans that the American people have continued to reject.

And while the American people are saying where are the jobs, and they want Congress to be focused on creating jobs, all that they get from this tone deaf liberal leadership is more government takeover, more taxes, and more policies that are running millions of jobs out of this country.

It is time that this liberal leadership start listening to the American people and work with those of us who have for months and months been saying we need to reduce the cost of health care, we need to address preexisting conditions, and we need to do common sense medical liability reform, and we need a focus on jobs instead of more taxes, more runaway spending, and more policies that are running jobs out of this country.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership standards on Congressionally directed project funding, I am submitting the following information regarding project funding I requested for Southeast Louisiana as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill.

Requesting Member: Congressman Steve Scalise

Bill Number: Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill

Account: Warfighter Sustainment Applied Research

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Tulane University

Address of Requesting Entity: 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118

Description of Request: I have secured $800,000 for Tulane University. It is my understanding that the funding is for Tulane University to work with Xavier University, ONR, and other Department of Defense partners on a biosensors and risk assessment technologies program. Biosensors developed through this program will provide real- time information about the threats from bioterrorism and environmental polluters, allowing DoD to respond more effectively and at less expense than other analytical methods. I certify that neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in this project.

I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding and for hosting this hour, because it is so important right now. As the American people are watching what is going on here in Washington, most people are saying they don't want a government takeover of health care. They want us to be focusing on creating jobs, which we should be doing, but instead you have got these meetings going on behind closed doors by Speaker Pelosi and her liberal lieutenants to try to have this government takeover of health care being forced down the people's throats.

The President said multiple times during the campaign that he would insist that these meetings be held in public, they be on C-SPAN so the American people could see it. And yet the President has totally gone back on his word. These meetings are behind closed doors. You know, ironically the President goes out publicly and he bashes big insurance companies, and then he goes behind closed doors and he cuts special sweetheart deals with insurance companies. He goes behind closed doors and first says Republicans don't have a plan, and yet when we submit our plan to him, he refuses to meet with us. He throws us out of the room.

The American people are tired of this. Because we should be doing the things that we have proposed to reduce the cost of health care. But instead, you have got these back room sweetheart deals, you have got these closed door meetings instead of the public transparency that we were promised.

And it is very unfortunate, because we are talking about one-sixth of our economy. We are talking about a government takeover bill that would literally throw millions of Americans off their health care. So I appreciate what you are doing.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Malia Cali, the 2009 High School Heisman Award winner. Malia is a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond, Louisiana, and is only the second winner in the history of the award from the State of Louisiana. She is a three-year All State selection in track and field, cross-country and soccer. Off the field, Malia founded ``Cleats for Kids,'' a non-profit organization that collects used cleats and distributes them to children in Nicaragua. As if her impressive athletic and community service achievements weren't enough, Malia also has the No. 1 academic ranking in her senior class.

The High School Heisman has been awarded to one male and one female student each year since 1994. The High School Heisman recognizes the Nation's most esteemed high school senior men and women for excellence in academics, athletics and community service. Malia's success both on and off the field is a testament to what can be accomplished with hard work, dedication, and a commitment to others.

It's easy to see why Malia Cali was selected over nearly 55,000 other entrants in this competition. Malia is truly deserving of this prestigious award. Her successes and achievements shine brightly on the State of Louisiana, and I am proud to highlight the accomplishments of Malia Cali here today.

I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada for yielding.

Madam Speaker, this is my congressional voting card. Unfortunately, some of the liberals running this Congress think that this is a credit card that has an unlimited balance. Today, they stand before us, trying to add another $290 billion of limit onto their credit cards because they have maxed out the previous at $12 trillion. The American people are saying enough is enough. They want us to cap the debt, and we need to.

We filed legislation that has over 70 cosponsors that would do just that--that would cap the debt and say now let's start paying it down. The first rule of hole says, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging. The American people are saying stop the massive spending. Stop adding to our debt. Stop throwing more and more spending and debt onto the backs of our children and our grandchildren. Let's rein in fiscal irresponsibility.

That's why we are opposing this legislation. We proposed responsible alternatives like the CAP the DEBT Act. Of course, they don't want to bring it up because all they want to do is walk around here, thinking that they're Santa Claus at Christmastime, borrowing more money and spending more money that we don't have.

I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding and the gentleman from Georgia for opening up this discussion.

Of course, what we are talking about and the reason this is so important is that many of the different world leaders are getting ready to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to start discussing a Kyoto II-type treaty--a treaty for many countries, including the United States, to literally change the way our entire manufacturing base operates.

Of course, here in Congress, we've been debating the proposal by Speaker Pelosi and others to codify that type of treaty in the form of the cap-and-trade national energy tax. They are trying to bring a national energy tax to our country to tax businesses, to tax not only businesses but also individuals in their household electricity use for using fossil fuels. It's all in the

name of stopping manmade global warming.

So what brings us to this debate that you are focusing on is the fact that we have found out recently through Climategate that the science that they are using is corrupt. In fact, behind much of the data that has been used to try to sell a cap-and-trade energy tax, that has been used to try to sell the Kyoto Treaty and now this new meeting in Copenhagen to have a Kyoto II-type agreement, all of it was based on corrupted data.

If you go back to former Vice President Al Gore, who said, The debate is over, he was trying to imply that all of the scientists are in agreement. Of course, as my colleague from Georgia pointed out, the scientists are not in agreement.

What is even worse is now we have found out and have uncovered this scandal where some of the scientists who have been collecting data through the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, which is the respected body worldwide on all of this data--it turns out, as the clearinghouse, they were actually corrupting the data that is being used.

In some of the examples through these emails, Phil Jones, who just resigned, said, I've just completed Mike's nature trick--he goes on--to hide the decline in temperatures.

We go back to the infamous hockey stick graph that Al Gore used in his film, ``An Inconvenient Truth.'' I guess the most inconvenient truth for the former Vice President is that these emails have now come out and have exposed the scandal.

If the gentleman from Texas will allow me, I want to read a few other of the emails. I know my colleague from Illinois earlier highlighted some of the other emails.

Yet, just to show how deep this is, first, Phil Jones in an email last year said, Mike, can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith regarding the AR4 data set? Keith will do likewise. He says, Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don't have his email address. We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.

So here he is talking about deleting data, deleting the emails which show that some of this manipulation and corruption of the data was going on. This is the person who is the director of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit. He is a scientist who should not only understand the importance of following the facts, of following the data, but who should also understand that, as others try to verify this data, that is something that he should be openly and freely willing to share.

Exactly.

They went to lengths to manipulate the data, and then they went to lengths to actually delete, to try to destroy the evidence, in essence--some of that data--as you know as the ranking member of Energy and Commerce and when we were having that debate here in committee and on the House floor on the cap-and-trade energy tax.

Many of the people who have been promoting that national energy tax-- Speaker Pelosi and her liberal attendants and others--are using that IPCC data to say, Look, we need to act quickly because the data shows. Of course, now we know that the data was corrupted.

Then he goes on--and we are all familiar in this country with the freedom of information. This administration came in saying they were going to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet you look at these emails further, and he says--this is an email--The freedom of information line we are all using is this. So he is telling this to some of the other scientists who were involved in this corruption. He says, The IPCC is exempt from any country's Freedom of Information Act. The sceptics have been told this. Even though we possibly hold relevant info, the IPCC is not part--and then he goes on to say--therefore, we don't have an obligation to pass it on.

So he is trying to lay out this groundwork so that he doesn't even have to turn over his data. This is, I think, before he destroyed it.

Then he says, If the Royal Meteorological Society is going to require authors to make all data available--raw data plus results from all intermediate calculations--he says, I will not submit any further papers to the RMS Journal.

This is Phil Jones--again, leading scientist--whose data is used by many of these people all throughout the world to try to pass Kyoto-type agreements in the cap-and-trade energy tax that's getting ready to be debated over in the Senate.

Yes, I will yield to the gentleman.

It is really frustrating because there are scientists who have different opinions, who have tried to present alternative data to this corrupt scientific data, and they have been blacklisted. In fact, I won't go into detail on this here, but that information will continue to come out. In some of the emails, they actually go on to describe how they are going to try to blacklist other scientists who try to propose data which shows something different than theirs--in fact, even saying that they are going to withhold some of their journal writings so that they won't even publish some of this information.

I go on to say this because they are trying to use this corrupt data, this corrupt scientific data, to pass not only a cap-and-trade energy tax which will run millions of jobs out of this country, but they are also trying to use it now in conjunction with the EPA and their latest ruling to try to literally threaten Congress by saying, Well, okay. If you don't pass cap-and-trade here in Congress, then the EPA will in a de facto way try to pass its own cap-and-trade by using these radical environmentalists in the EPA, again using the corrupt scientific data, to try to pass it even if Congress won't pass it because the American people have realized this will run millions of jobs out of our country.

Many groups, one being the National Association of Manufacturers, on the low end, says, We would lose 3 million jobs in our country if the cap-and-trade energy tax were passed, and every American family would pay over $1,000 more per year in higher electricity rates. All of this is based upon false scientific data that has been corrupted, and we know it from the Climategate emails.

I yield back.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Florida for his leadership on this.

Mr. Speaker, the American people across the country are asking, Where are the jobs? And all they see from this Democrat-controlled Congress is more bills that will actually kill jobs and run jobs out of the country. And make no mistake about it: the death tax will kill more jobs in this country.

To place a permanent 45 percent tax on death is immoral. Think about this: the small businesses in our country are hit the hardest. The actual job creators in this country are hit the hardest by the death tax. When a family member dies, the biggest decision they make after that death should not be about how they have to sell their family business because they can't afford to pay the taxes upon death. And that's what happens under this death tax. And here they have a bill to enshrine the tax at 45 percent.

Now, if anyone wonders where are the jobs, as the President is holding a jobs summit, while unemployment smashed through the 10 percent mark earlier this year, all they have to do is look at the policies President Obama keeps bringing up. It started with the stimulus bill that didn't create jobs and just added more debt to our children and grandchildren. And then they brought the policies like this energy tax, the cap-and-trade energy tax, and then the government takeover of health care. And here we are today debating a bill that is going to enshrine a 45 percent tax on death. And Speaker Pelosi wouldn't even allow us to bring an amendment to the floor that would repeal it.

There is a clear contrast between the two parties on this issue. When we are in the majority, we will repeal the death tax, and here they've got a bill that will enshrine it at 45 percent permanently.

Taxation without respiration should not be the law of the land.

Well, I want to thank my friends that are talking about this important subject because, you know, when I go home, people want to know the same things that you've been talking about. They want to know where are the jobs. They surely don't want the government getting involved in all of these areas of our lives that the government doesn't belong. And even more importantly, they don't want the government going off on these wild spending sprees, spending money that we don't have. And so they look at the record of this administration since President Obama came in in January, and they recognize that right after President Obama came in, he had this great idea that he was going to have this stimulus bill. And he said, we're going to make sure that unemployment doesn't go over 8 percent.

And the chart that you show that shows the lofty goals, the lofty promises. And in fact, those of us who actually want to fix the real problems, want to solve the problems in our country, we met with the President. We said, Mr. President, we've got some ideas on how to create jobs, because we agree, our economy should be focusing on creating jobs. And we actually laid out a recovery plan that the Congressional Budget Office scored that would create way more jobs than they projected to score and a whole lot less money than they were projecting to spend.

Of course the President discarded our ideas. He went around the country telling people that we were just the party of ``no,'' failed to mention that we actually had a solid plan that is still as solid today. So he just put his blinders on and said, We don't want Republicans. We just want to go on a wild spending spree. Unfortunately, the President got his way.

And Speaker Pelosi rammed the bill through the House, Harry Reid rammed the bill through the Senate, and they spent $787 billion of our children and grandchildren's money--money that we don't have--claiming we need to do this because this was going to stop unemployment from reaching 8 percent and it was going to create 3 million jobs.

And then he stood here, right behind you, here on this House floor, right at that podium I'm looking at right there. President Obama said, We're going to track every dime, and Joe Biden, Vice President Joe Biden is going to be in charge of tracking every dime because nobody messes with Joe. That is what the President said. Nobody messes with Joe.

And so of course, we decide to take President Obama up on his claims, and as Americans for months and months later, after they then came with a budget that doubled the national debt in 5 years, and then they turned around with another bill called the cap-and-trade energy tax, a national tax on energy.

Then they came back with this government takeover of health care that they're still pursuing. All of this, running jobs out of our country at a time when Americans want us to be creating jobs.

And so now that unemployment has exceeded 10 percent, people are not only asking where are the jobs, they're saying, What did you do with all of that money that you spent.

And so we started digging in deeper, and what we found out is, as you were talking about, we found out in Louisiana, there were more jobs created in Louisiana's Eighth Congressional District, according to the White House, by the stimulus bill than were created in my First Congressional District that I represent.

So if you lived in the Eighth Congressional District and you're hearing all of these jobs that were created with taxpayer money that we don't have, that was borrowed from our children and grandchildren, you might be going, Well, I want to see what those jobs were. Of course people in Louisiana know, there is no Eighth Congressional District because we have seven congressional districts. So we dug deeper and we found out there were 15 different congressional districts in Louisiana that they were claiming they created jobs in using stimulus money.

I'm not really sure.

And we did a little digging, and in fact, our local newspaper did some digging as well. They called the White House. First of all, they said, Okay,

White House, you're claiming that you have got all of this transparency. Joe Biden is hunting out for every dime that's out there; how is it that you can have jobs being shown that you're creating in districts that don't exist? And the first thing the White House said is, We're not certifying the accuracy of the information.

So first, in January, they were going to be the most transparent administration ever. Now, 10 months later, billions and billions of dollars of borrowed money is going out the door. Nobody knows what it was spent on. They claimed to have created jobs in districts that don't exist, and the best they can say is, We're not certifying the accuracy of the information.

We're going to get to that because I think we've got some enlightenment we're going to shine on it.

So then they actually followed up, and they asked the White House, Well, how is it if you're not certifying the accuracy, how is it, though, that somebody can show a district that doesn't exist on your Web site as creating jobs? And the White House spokesperson's answer was, Who knows, man; who really knows. That is his direct quote. That is the best the White House could come up with as the American people are saying, Where are the jobs and what are you all doing with all of this money? And their answer is, Who knows, man; who really knows.

So we go back to President Obama. Right here in February, February 24, on the House floor his quote, Because nobody messes with Joe. And then here we've got a picture of Vice President Joe Biden with these two folks that crashed the White House State dinner just a week or so ago, and you wonder why nobody is manning the store and nobody's taking any accountability now. These are the people that are manning the store, and the American people are saying enough is enough; this is not a joke because the joke is on us. And it's money that you're borrowing from China and our children and our grandchildren, and we're tired of it. We actually want to create jobs. That's why we're going to continue to try to create jobs. But this shows you just what's really going on with the taxpayers' money.

Robust.

I thank the gentleman from Oregon.

This is what we talk to our small business owners about. When I go back home, small business owners that I talk to aren't saying that they want the government taking over health care. What they're saying is these policies, these policies are what are causing them to hold back or to look at divesting and just getting out. But there's so much money on the sidelines because of the actions being taken by President Obama and the liberals that are running Congress that are literally stifling the ability for businesses to create jobs. The American people know that because the American people are looking at these policies. And they've got good common sense. And they're saying, If you've got tough economic times, the first thing you should be doing is figuring out how to help businesses create more jobs.

And so then they look at this health care bill. Here's a bill that, first of all, spends over a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars in new Federal spending. But then how do they get that money? Well, they go and they cut Medicare to the tune of about $500 billion, and our senior citizens know how bad that would be. But then they also turn around and they add over $700 billion in new taxes on the backs primarily of small businesses. And so, on one hand, the President's holding a job summit, but, on the other hand, he's got a bill that would add $700 billion on the backs of small businesses with the government takeover of health care. Then, on a third hand, he's got this cap-and-trade energy tax, which literally is a tax on any company in this Nation that manufactures goods.

Absolutely. In fact, the National Association of Manufacturers said the cap-and-trade energy tax would run at least 3 million more jobs out of this country. Now, of course, this is a President who, since the stimulus bill, he said it was going to create 3 million jobs. Our economy has lost about another 3 million jobs since his stimulus bill, but then his policies would run millions more jobs out of this country.

Of course, the President says we need to do all of this because we've got to save the planet. Well, just earlier this week they finally have exposed some of the corruption involved in this whole argument behind cap-and-trade.

I'm talking about Climategate. Climategate just hit. This is something that's been going on internationally for over for 10 years. It just got uncovered because some of these emails came to light. Of course, to pass the cap-and-trade energy tax, they said man is destroying the Earth and we've got to limit carbon emissions. Of course, the two biggest emitters in the next 10 years are going to be China and India, and China and India have already said they're not going to comply. So you're not only running millions of jobs out of this country, you'd be running them to countries that actually emit more carbon to do the same thing. So it actually is counterproductive. But then let's look at the science behind what they're saying they need to do.

You've got Al Gore out there who's been running around for years now--he's won Nobel Peace Prizes and Academy Awards--saying the scientists are virtually screaming from the rooftops, Now the debate is over. This is former Vice President Al Gore. The debate is over. There's no longer any debate in the scientific community about global warming. And what he's saying is all of these charts and graphs he's been talking about for years and in his movie ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' a very famous chart he used to show talking about global warming was called ``the hockey stick chart.'' That's this chart right here. It's showing over thousands of years they've documented that our Earth is going through cooling periods, our Earth is going through warming periods. We had more warm temperatures than we have today thousands of years ago when there was no combustion engine, there were no fossil fuels being burned. Mother Nature just has a way of going through different cycles on her own.

And so what they were showing was over hundreds of years you had this

normal trajectory down, and all of a sudden there's this increase in the Earth's temperature that they showed. The problem is, we just exposed through Climategate, they got to this huge increase that Vice President Al Gore said we need to change our entire national economy over by corrupting the data.

These are some of the things that came out in the email: I have just completed Mike's nature trick to hide the decline. That was Phil Jones, who's one of the lead scientists for a group called the University of Anglia in England. This is a group that writes all of the documents that our scientists in America have used to say we need a cap-and-trade energy tax. They phonied up the numbers. They corrupted the data. And here's the email.

And there are many, many more emails, talking about how they use tricks and that they hide the declines that don't prove their argument. In fact, there are many scientists who have said we're in the seventh year of a cooling period, but they won't show any of that data because they literally have hid the data, and now we've exposed it through Climategate and these emails.

So you've got Vice President Al Gore still running around out there saying we need to have this cap-and-trade national energy tax. The President's going to be going to Copenhagen in about a week and a half, and I guess, just like he went there to try get the Chicago Olympics, a lot of us are hoping he comes back empty-handed in Copenhagen, because what he wants to do is sign an agreement that would literally lead to the destruction of millions of jobs in America based on corrupt science.

In fact, we're now asking for an investigation to be conducted into not only----

By the way, he just stepped down through the embarrassment of the exposing of this scandal. So for anybody to say, Oh, this isn't anything real, this is all being trumped up, this guy just stepped on down out of embarrassment over this scandal.

But we're now calling for an investigation to look into the millions of dollars of Federal grant money, U.S. taxpayer dollars, that have been either obtained through corruption or, when they got the Federal tax dollars, they went and conducted studies that they manipulated the data, corrupting the data, again, using that taxpayer money, and we want our money back and we want criminal charges to be filed against these people that actually went out and corrupted data to try to pass a national energy tax in this country that will run millions of jobs. And you wonder why small businesses feel like they're walking around this country with a bull's-eye on their back.

And I guess that's a good place to finish, kind of where we started. The American people are saying, Who's manning the store? And they're also saying, Where are the jobs? And they're looking at these policies and they're looking at this cap-and-trade energy tax, they're looking at this government takeover of health care with the $700 billion in new taxes. They look at what happened today here on the House floor. Speaker Pelosi's top priority was a bill that actually puts into law a permanent 45 percent tax on death. A tax on death. And so that's their answer.

Their ideas are actually leading to increased unemployment, running millions of more jobs out of this country, and the best that they can say is, Who knows? There's no accountability. But, don't worry. The President is still saying, There's old Joe. He's manning the store, because nobody messes with Joe. They think that this may be some kind of joke, but the joke is on the American people. And the American people are tired of it.

I want to thank my friend from Missouri. We have been having these discussions for I guess the past few Wednesdays for a few months now. I appreciate the gentleman for hosting this hour that's become a regular tradition, not only to talk about the things that are happening in the country, but really to focus in on the actions that have been taken here in this Congress by this Democratic leadership that have actually led us to the decline in jobs that we're facing today.

Of course, so many Americans remember now back in the beginning of this year when President Obama stood right there, right there on that well behind you, and talked about the need for a stimulus bill, a bill that spent $787 billion of money that we don't have, money that was borrowed from our children and grandchildren, and he said it had to happen so that we would stop unemployment from exceeding 8 percent.

Now, of course today, as we look at 10.2 percent unemployment, the American people are asking, Where are the jobs? And, of course, when the White House came out with this Web site, and the White House and the President bragged about the transparency, and, in fact, the President talked about the fact that the American people would be able to track every dollar, and even said that Vice President Joe Biden would be in charge of tracking the money, and the American people would be able to go to a Web site and see where that money from that stimulus bill is being spent and how it's creating all these jobs. Of course you and I opposed that bill because we knew it wouldn't create jobs. In fact, we knew it would help actually lead to more unemployment because it would add so much more money to our national debt, money that we couldn't afford to spend, and money that was going to hurt small businesses and in fact did hurt small businesses.

Well, in fact, they created a Web site called recovery.gov, and this is where the President said people could go and find out and track every dollar that's being spent, and it's going to be fully transparent. I guess maybe the White House didn't think that people were actually going to take him up on his offer. But of course the American people did. As people started going to that Web site, we had uncovered this about 2 weeks ago. When you would go to the Web site, we found out, first of all those of us in Louisiana found out that we had about 45 congressional districts because they actually had a listing of how many jobs were created in Louisiana's 45th Congressional District. And, of course, they showed that more jobs were created from the stimulus bill in Louisiana's Eighth Congressional District than in the district I represent, the First Congressional District. The only problem with that is Louisiana only has seven congressional districts. And so many people in Louisiana were not only asking, where are the jobs, but where is this Eighth Congressional District?

Not only that--and maybe this would be a comedy if it was fiction. The problem is, this is not fiction. This is reality. This is what the White House actually had on their Web site that was supposedly showing the transparency and accountability for all the tax dollars that they said that they would display how that money was being used. And so we had actually inquired about this and our local newspaper, the Times Picayune of New Orleans, did a little digging of their own and called the White House and said, How is it that you can have this Web site and you're showing districts that don't even exist, showing jobs created in places that don't exist? What is really going on here?

The first thing the White House said is, We're not certifying the accuracy of the information. That was the quote from the White House. The group that said they would be the most transparent administration in history, when finally tasked with showing the American people where billions of dollars of money that we don't have is being spent, their answer was, We're not certifying the accuracy of the information.

And then, if I can follow up, they actually went further and they said, Okay, wait. Hold on a second. Okay, let's say you're not certifying the information, but you're actually showing on your Web site districts--and this just isn't in Louisiana. We found this in Arizona and Kentucky. Probably Missouri.

They were showing districts that didn't exist all across the country, and they were bragging about the jobs that were created in those districts that didn't exist, those phantom districts. So they said, Well, how is it that you can show on your Web site a district that doesn't even exist? The answer from the White House--and that is riveting, because this is taxpayer money, this is money our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay back, money that you and I said should not have even been spent in the first place because it was money we don't have, and it wasn't going to create jobs--and they asked the White House to follow up, and they said, How is it that you can show information that's false on your Web site? The White House's answer was, Who knows, man, who really knows. That was the best they could come up with, and the American people deserve better.

Some of the economic experts are actually saying that the true unemployment number right now is probably closer to 17 percent because there's so many Americans that just stopped looking for work because of the tough economic times. And so what we had pointed out back then in February, 10 months ago when they first brought this stimulus bill, we pointed out that you don't create jobs by growing the size of government. You don't create jobs by borrowing money from our children and grandchildren. You create jobs by helping small businesses enjoy a climate where they can actually go and create jobs. Because it's not government that creates jobs, it's small businesses out there.

The small businesses create about 70 percent of all the jobs in this country. They are our job creators. And what they've been saying and what American families have been saying is: Government, stop all of these policies that are literally shutting down companies and running jobs off to countries like China and India.

And so what we've had this year, we have seen this cap-and-trade energy tax. That's been one of their answers that literally would run millions of American jobs out of this country to other countries. Then they came back with--of course, they had the bailouts

and then they had the stimulus bill and then they had the budget that doubled the national debt in 5 years.

And then after cap-and-trade they came with the health care bill, the government takeover of health care, which they're still putting as their top priority. Of course, President Obama is using that as his top priority when the American people are saying, We don't want a government takeover of health care; we want you to reform things that are broken. And we've presented legislation to actually fix the problems--to lower costs, to address preexisting conditions--the real problems American families are having with health care. But what American families don't want to see is the government take over all of health care and literally shift the hundred million more people onto a Medicare system that's already struggling to make ends meet. And senior citizens know that.

So what they're asking is: stop dealing with all of these policies that are actually running more jobs out of our country. Go and help create jobs in small businesses by lowering tax rates. And guess what's going to happen here on the House floor tomorrow? The Democrat leadership is actually bringing a bill to make permanent the death tax at a 45 percent tax rate. That's going to kill small businesses in this country. And that's their priority instead of creating jobs.

I thank my friend from Missouri for pointing that out. And when you go back to those comments by Henry Morgenthau, the Treasury Secretary for FDR, the comments that he made in 1939, there's an old saying: history repeats itself. And the unfortunate part of that is we're standing at a very critical point in our Nation's history. We're at one of those crossroads. And are we actually going to be here in Congress and try to perpetuate the great legacy of America, and that is that every generation has inherited a better Nation than the one that was passed down to them by the previous generation.

And that's a great tradition our country has always enjoyed. And that tradition is at risk right now. It's at risk because of the spending and the borrowing that's being perpetuated by the liberals that are running Congress right now.

When you show that comment from FDR, it's very telling because when this administration came in, President Obama made a point everywhere he went, and he still talks about it today, saying he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. Well, first of all, if you go back and look at the Great Depression and the signs there, they were much worse than the signs he inherited. The signs he inherited weren't as bad as what Jimmy Carter created that ultimately led us to Ronald Reagan. When Jimmy Carter was President we had double-digit unemployment, we had double-digit interest rates, and double-digit inflation. In fact, they created a new term for it called ``stagflation.''

When President Obama came into office, we were less than 8 percent unemployment. So it was single digit. It was still a high number, but it was a single-digit number. We had very low inflation and very low interest rates. Right now, because of President Obama's policies, these policies like cap-and-trade, like the spending and the stimulus bill and the health care government takeover, they have led us now to double-digit unemployment; but what we're starting to see are the telltale signs also of creeping up interest rates and inflation because of the policies of President Obama.

So when he talks about this being the worst economy since the Great Depression, I think what he was trying to do was set up an event so that he knew his policies probably would create double-digit unemployment and double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates, because history does repeat itself. So he tried to set the stage that he was walking into something worse than what he walked into, but he's created an economy that virtually is leading us back to the 1930s, when we did have the Great Depression, and it's because of his policies that are spending, taxing, and borrowing our country into oblivion.

I yield back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the House to ask the question that many Americans are asking, and that is, Where are the jobs?

Over the last few months, the American people have been saying very vocally that they want this Congress to address the big problems that are affecting them today--and there are a number of problems. But the top problem I hear from my constituents--and I am hearing from so many of my other colleagues that their constituents are saying the same thing--is that they want this Congress to be focused on creating jobs. Unfortunately, we're seeing just the opposite happen in terms of the policies that are being brought forth by the liberal leadership of this Democratically controlled Congress.

It started back with the first bill that came out, the so-called stimulus

bill. This was a bill that added $787 billion of debt that our children and grandchildren have to pay--money we didn't have--but the White House said, Don't worry. We've got to roll this thing through quickly, ram it through. Don't let anybody have the opportunity to read it, and it's got to go quickly because we need to stop unemployment from breaking 8 percent, and this bill's going to do it.

And then they said, When this bill passes, there's going to be so much transparency, you'll be able to track every dime, there won't be any waste, fraud, and abuse; and you can even go to a Web site and track where that money is going.

So, of course, after that bill passed, a bill that many of us opposed because we knew it wouldn't create jobs--in fact, it would actually make our economy worse because it was all borrowed money, money that our children and grandchildren have to pay. But what was worse is now that we're starting to try to find out where that money is, where is that money? We know when we're asking where are the jobs, we can't find the jobs because millions more Americans have lost their job since that bill passed. So it actually had the opposite effect that the American people were promised when the President stood right here on this podium.

But now as people across the country are trying to track down and say, Where is that transparency? Where are those billions and billions of dollars that have been spent going to?, we just find out the other day when you go to the White House's own Web site, Recovery.gov, you can't actually track those jobs. You can't track where that money's gone because there's an incredible amount of fraudulent information on that Web site.

Now, those of us in Louisiana were waking up on Tuesday going to that Web site, and maybe some people would think it would be good news that we found out that we had 15 congressional districts, according to the White House's own Web site. They actually tracked districts that don't exist.

Of course, in Louisiana, we only have seven congressional districts. So a reporter from our local newspaper called the White House. And first of all, they said, How can you possibly have all this accurate data on your Web site? You're telling the American people that jobs were created in congressional districts that don't even exist. And the first response from the White House was, ``We are not certifying the accuracy of the information.'' Now, these are the people who said this would be the most transparent administration in history. Now they are not certifying the accuracy of the information now that they have got their hands on the money.

So then they followed it up, and they said, Well, how can you actually have mistakes made that are this big where you have a State that only has seven congressional districts, and when we go to your Web site, there is a District 45, and it actually says how many jobs were created in that district that doesn't exist? How can you actually have a system that is set up that allows that kind of inaccurate information to be reported? And the White House's spokesperson actually said, ``Who knows, man? Who really knows?''

Mr. Speaker, this is unbelievable and an insult to the American people who are still asking, Where are the jobs? Now, maybe it's fitting that the White House is showing jobs created in districts that don't exist because their stimulus bill was passed using money that doesn't exist. It is all money that is borrowed from our children and grandchildren, not a dime that was paid for.

And, of course, the latest that the President was talking about just 2 days ago, he said, if we keep on adding to this debt, even in the midst of this recovery, at some point, people could lose confidence in the United States' economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession.

So here you have the President of the United States admitting that all of this debt spending, this deficit spending that they are on this road to continue going down, is a bad thing and actually could lead to a double-dip recession, and yet their answer from day one has been a stimulus bill that adds another $787 billion of debt. Then he came back right behind there with another bill, his budget, his budget that doubles the national debt. And then they went on with the bill called ``cap-and-trade,'' a national energy tax, a bill that adds hundreds of billions of dollars.

You wonder why people are still asking, Where are the jobs? We need to get back to fiscal sanity. We need to actually have real transparency.

I thank the gentleman from Missouri.

You're talking about these tricks, and, of course, the American people are saying Halloween's over, we're tired of all these tricks. In fact, for most American people right now, the only treat they get is when Congress adjourns and during those times when Congress isn't trying to pass all of these policies that literally are adding millions and billions of new taxes on the backs of American families, adding billions of debt onto the backs of our children and grandchildren, and running millions of jobs out of our country. All of this happening under Speaker Pelosi's leadership. The public's had enough of the tricks, and like I said, that's the only treat they want.

But one trick that they just found out about the other day, this goes back to the stimulus bill, something that we talked about a long time ago. We opposed that pork-laden bill, that bill that massively grows the size of government, over $787 billion of money we don't have. But the White House promised the American people there would be a full accounting of the money. And now we find out, in fact, that people just in the last few days went to the White House's own Web site that was set up to track the spending in the supposed job creation, which they initially said it was going to create all these jobs and then they changed the wording and said there will be jobs created or saved, and there's no definition of a job saved. I guess every job that's out there they can try to claim they've saved. But then what we've seen is we've only had millions more jobs lost since that massive spending bill that grew the size of government.

But now talk about another trick on the American people, just Monday night when they would go to the Web site that the White House had set up, and maybe this was good news for States like yours, mine. In Louisiana, we found out, according to the White House's Web site, we had 15 congressional districts.

Fifteen, according to the White House. In fact, Louisiana's Eighth Congressional District, according to the White House's own Web site, created more jobs than the First Congressional District that I represent. That all sounds really good until you realize Louisiana doesn't have 15 congressional districts. Louisiana only has seven congressional districts.

So we did a little bit of research, and some people did some calling around on their own and they actually called the White House. And they said, Can you explain to us, you said there would be all this transparency. You said there would be accountability. How is it, how is it that somebody can go to the White House Web site and pull up in Louisiana Congressional District 26 or Congressional District 45? And the response from the White House was, ``Who knows, man, who really knows.''

That was Ed Pound, who is the spokesperson for the White House's recovery.gov Web site. The best he could come up with was ``who knows.'' And then he further went on to say, ``We're not certifying the accuracy of the information.'' That's the White House's spokesperson on the stimulus bill actually saying that they're not going to certify the information after they said they would be so transparent.

So when the American people say what happened to $787 billion of money that was borrowed from our children and grandchildren, money we don't have, money that surely hasn't done anything to create jobs because it was going to cap unemployment at 8 percent and now we've got unemployment at 10.2 percent, and then you go to the White House, what about that accounting that the American people deserve to know where their money is being spent, and the best the White House can say is, ``Who knows, man, who really knows,'' well, the American people have had enough.

Right.

And what the American people are really asking is, where are the jobs and where is the accountability? And when the White House actually goes out and

made these statements back months ago and they told the American people that that stimulus bill needed to be passed, we said back then it was a mistake, we shouldn't do it because it wouldn't create jobs. We proposed alternatives.

If this was just a mistake limited to Louisiana, maybe you could understand their excuses. But, of course, this was all across the country. I talked to a colleague of mine from Arizona where they claim there was a 99th District from Arizona.

But one final word on that. President Obama himself just yesterday said, and I'll quote another quote from the President: ``If we keep on adding to the debt, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double dip recession.''

Now, of course, those words ring true to us. They would really ring true to the American people if it weren't for the fact that this is the same President that passed a budget just a few months ago out of Congress that doubles the national debt in the next 5 years. And yet here he is quoted just yesterday saying, If we keep on adding to the debt, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double dip recession.

Now, I would agree with that. The only problem is, the President needs to start living up to the comments that he's actually making and pull back his bill that doubles the national debt and actually work with us to balance the budget, which is what we've said from the beginning needs to happen, not only to create stability in our economy, but actually to go out and start creating jobs as opposed to his policies that are running millions of jobs out of our country.