Mr. Chairman, the good people of Indiana want jobs. And we know how to create them. In Indiana, under Governor Mitch Daniels, we've seen a government that spends less and taxes modestly. We've seen that that leads to job growth. That's why…
Mr. Chairman, the good people of Indiana want jobs. And we know how to create them. In Indiana, under Governor Mitch Daniels, we've seen a government that spends less and taxes modestly. We've seen that that leads to job growth. That's why Indiana, during these tough economic times, is a national leader in private sector job growth.
The Budget Committee crafted a budget for our Federal Government that, like Indiana, spends less and keeps a lid on taxes. The result is a plan that will help create 2\1/2\ million private sector jobs by the end of this decade.
Recent economic history isn't good to the big spenders. It shows that borrowing and spending trillions of dollars that we don't have doesn't create jobs. And jobs won't be created if we go along with the President's plan and, seemingly, the plan of sorts from the other side of the aisle to increase taxes.
It's no great secret that the job creators in this country aren't hiring because unchecked spending, of course, leads to fears. It leads to fears that we're going to have to raise taxes in the future. It leads to fears of future inflation. And we know, of course, that it leads to fears that interest rates are going to go up.
By calling for a measure of spending discipline as we do, we replace that fear with hope--hope that we can restore conditions where private sector job creators can go out and put Americans back to work. That's what the people of southern Indiana want.
Now, I mentioned Indiana a minute ago and the success we've had in creating those private sector jobs. We didn't do it all through our policies
with respect to spending. Instead, we also looked at tax policy. We understood that it just didn't make sense to jack up taxes during a down economy. Instead, we kept them steady and we made our tax code more efficient, just as some of our neighboring States were doing the opposite. As a result, many businesses chose to move back to Indiana or to move to Indiana for the first time.
We see the reverse trend nationally. Unfortunately, many businesses are leaving this great country or just not getting off the ground because of our job-destroying Tax Code and because of our punitive corporate tax rates.
Mr. Chairman, we improve upon those previous policies. We learn from the errors of the past. I urge my colleagues to help us create jobs by voting ``yes'' on the Republican budget.
Madam Chair, there has been much discussion today about shared sacrifice. The notion of shared sacrifice, let's disaggregate that for a moment.
We might have shared sacrifice for the next generation. We certainly are contemplating that right now if we fail to act in a responsible manner and address our Nation's debt crisis.
Shared sacrifice for the currently unemployed and underemployed in our country, that is what we are contemplating. If our solution to our Nation's problems is merely to increase taxes, we're going to see a decrease in job creation in this country. We will actually see our going the other direction in terms of employment in this country if we implement, as is proposed in this substitute, a tax increase of almost $6 trillion as compared to the budget that we are embracing on the Republican side.
We are imposing all manner of unnecessary sacrifice under this substitute on those Americans who are currently working and middle class. It contemplates a tax increase on capital gains and dividends at ordinary income rates. What that means, essentially, is we're thinking of taxing pensions and mutual funds at a rate as high as 49 percent. That would adversely impact our seniors. It's not the responsible thing to do.
Here in this proposal, we are also contemplating allowing all tax provisions of the 2001 and 2003 deals to expire for all taxpayers. In other words, this is a proposed tax increase on middle class Americans. I don't think that's the right thing to do right now.
Let's remind ourselves that we cannot tax our way out of this spending problem. Washington, once again, does not have a tax problem. We are not in this mess because we're not taxing the American people enough. Instead, we are in this mess because we're spending far too much.
This will become a familiar chart for Americans around the country, I hope, but let's look at this:
This is the ski slope of future spending projections, according to our Office of Management and Budget and Congressional Budget Office, if we do nothing. Those on the other side are seemingly proposing that we continue along this course or that we try and remedy
this situation through job-constraining tax increases. That's not the way to go.
Finally, one statistic that was cited earlier tonight bears reiterating. If we were to tax everyone in this country who makes $250,000 or more--every family in this country, so that's just two income earners--at the $125,000 level and at 100 percent of their incomes, we still could not improve our financial situation enough to restore private sector job creation and put ourselves back on the path to prosperity. That is why I think we need to embrace this Ryan budget.