House Proceeding 02-13-09 on Feb 13th, 2009 :: 0:53:00 to 1:12:25
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0:52:48 to 0:53:08( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from georgia, mr. gingrey is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. gingrey: thank you, mr. speaker. it's a pleasure to have the hour, i probably won't take a

0:53:00 to 1:12:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Phil Gingrey

0:53:09 to 0:53:31( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: full hour. but to have the opportunity to speak to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. in particular, to follow my colleague from texas, the gentleman who just spoke from the words of wisdom he expressed, the gentleman mr.

0:53:32 to 0:53:52( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: conway who is a -- conaway who is a certifi public accountant as he described the problems with the bill passed on the floor today, mr. speaker, and no doubt will be passed by the senate tomorrow and probably signed into law by president obama on monday. the thing that i want to

0:53:53 to 0:54:13( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: express and i think that mr. conaway and some other speakers on our side of the aisle said as they spoke about this bill was not that we on the republican side are opposed to doing something. we're not -- we don't want to just do nothing, although, mr. speaker, i firmly believe that

0:54:14 to 0:54:34( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: doing nothing would be better than the harm that's likely to be inflighted -- inflict on our economy and as mr. conaway said on our children and grandchildren, by the enactment of this legislation where we're spending almost .2 trillion when you uninclude the interest

0:54:35 to 0:54:55( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: on the debt -- when you include the interest on the debt, putting that burden on the backs of our future generations without an absolute assurance, without an absolute assurance, mr. speaker, that those 4,000 jobs would be created and that this would jump start our economy and get us out of this deep recession.

0:54:56 to 0:55:16( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: even with that, i would have some concerns. but vice president biden just said the other day that he thought that this bill had about now you think about that. we're going to take money,

0:55:17 to 0:55:38( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: federal money that we really don't have in the treasury, we hope that we cancel these bonds and these -- thisederal paper, treasury notes, people on the open market, probably some foreign governments, like china and others might buy some of this, but if they don't, it's simply a matter of running

0:55:39 to 0:55:59( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: the printing press to come up with this money. of course, as we all know, that weakens our dollar, leads to inflation, and so i'm not surprised when vice president joe biden said, look, this has got to -- there's no guarantee. we're doing the best we can. we hope it works, it's probably

0:56:00 to 0:56:20( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: got about a 30% chance of ilure. for my money, mr. speaker that is too great a chance of failure. it is just not worth that. and that's why i say that in fact doing nothing probably would be better, and although we would go through some tough times economically as we are

0:56:21 to 0:56:41( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: now, indeed people are suffering and it may take two or three years to get out of this recession, but the republican minority has a plan. we're not just standing in the doorway blocking any kind of meaningful, good legislation. we want something to work. we don't want it to take three

0:56:42 to 0:57:03( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: or four years. we want to try to stimulate this. that's what our leader said on the floor this afternoon as we debated -- debated this issue and finally, madam speaker, spoke and our leader boehner spoke and the chairman of the appropriations committee on the

0:57:04 to 0:57:24( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: majority side, mr. obey spoke. but really the words of mr. boehner, i think i would want my colleagues and anybody within shouting distance to remember what he said. we know, we who voted kno on this bill, are fully aware, fully cognizant of the fact

0:57:25 to 0:57:46( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: that people in every single district in thisountry, all 435 of them, my 11th of georgia, absolutely. the state of georgia is facing a billion deficit. like most states, they have to balance their budget. so times are tough. and as john boehner said and i

0:57:47 to 0:58:08( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: would repeat here now, mr. speaker, we want to do something. unfortunately, the plan that the minority republican party had was given no opportunity to be presented. there was no subcommittee hearings. there were no full committee hearings. there was nopportunity for

0:58:09 to 0:58:29( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: amendments to be presented on the floor, so-called, at least a modified open rule where both republicans and democrats would have an opportunity to say, you know, we need to change this. there's some good in this bill. i think it's a 1,000-page bill we had it on the floor earlier, my colleagues remember, it was

0:58:30 to 0:58:52( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: about that high. probably six or eight bibles thick. within that, yeah, there were some good things. but a whole lot of things that are not good. i'll try to speak to some of that as we proceed. but the idea of the minority and not letting

0:58:53 to 0:59:13( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: them speak on behalf of the constituents they represent, every one of us, 178 republicans, represent about 675,000 people in their respective districts. and quite honestly, 50 very conservative democrats, they call themselveses the blue

0:59:14 to 0:59:36( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: dogs, many of them are from southern states, good members, also representing 675,000, and fiscally conservative, they were shut out. they didn't get an opportunity. that's why this vote ended up being, even the though "the democrat"ic majority prevailed,

0:59:37 to 0:59:59( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: the bipartisanship -- even though the democratic majority prevailed, the bipartisanship was on the no side. that means every single member of this -- republican member of this body, 178 of us, and we were joined by six or eight democrats who all voted no. all for the same reason.

1:00:00 to 1:00:22( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: the republican members are not all the same on every issue. weave very conservative members on social issues, like myself. and we have some members who are socially moderate. but what you saw today is the coming together of the republican minority on one

1:00:23 to 1:00:44( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: thing that we absolutely always agree on, and that we will always stand for. what i think defines us from the majority party. there's a difference. there's no question about it. and that difference is, we on the republican side, mr. speaker, believe in limited feral government.

1:00:45 to 1:01:05( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: and we believe in reduced spending and let the states do what they can for themselves. and the people do what they can for themselves. let them keep more of their own hard-earned money, ma theen -- that means individual employees, it also means

1:01:06 to 1:01:26( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: emoyers, the small mom and pop companies, most of the jobs in this country as we all know are created by those small mom and pop companies. less than -- far less than 50 we're not talking about the

1:01:27 to 1:01:48( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: microsofts and home depots and coca-colas and huge companies. we're talking about small companies that would if you gave them an opportunity to keep more of their own money, and that's basically what the republican plan was, as you know, mr. speaker. we felt like in this bill, that there should be some spending.

1:01:49 to 1:02:10( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: and the amount of spending should be significant on infrastructure projects. after all, that's what was talked about for a month or six weeks ahead of time. we are going to put people back to work in this country on repairing bridges,

1:02:11 to 1:02:31( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: roads, putting more money into rapid transit across all 50 of the skates -- states. and each state, mr. speaker, was asked to submit a list of

1:02:32 to 1:02:53( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: projects called shovel-ready. shovel-ready projects. so they could start turning dirt within 90 days. i think the bill finally extended it to 120 days. we were in favor of that we are in favor of that. but in this final bill that we passed on the floor of this

1:02:54 to 1:03:15( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: use today, about 7% of the money, about 7%, not 70%, mr. speaker, but 7% of the money goes to tho infrastructure projects within our states. i do believe more money spent on those projects would indeed

1:03:16 to 1:03:37( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: put money back to work and get the economy going. but the other thing that we felt very strongly about though was the opportunity to let people, let people keep more of their own money. that's why the republican alternative had a 5% cut in the

1:03:38 to 1:03:59( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: tax rate of everybody who pays taxes. no matter what your income if you're paying at the 36% bracket, you'd pay 31%. if you were paying at the 28% bracket, you'd pay 23%. if you were paying at the 15%, 10%.

1:04:00 to 1:04:23( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: and at the 10%, 5%. everybody across the board a 5% cut in their federal tax burden. immediately start seeing that money in their paycheck. not going to uncle sam. and also, my colleagues, you know thathe republican alternative felt verytrongly that the way to create jobs in

1:04:24 to 1:04:46( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: this country, or to preserve jobs, president obama said, create 4,000 or save 4,000, it was a little vague on that but if you cut the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 25%, and that's in the republican alternative, the small business men and women who usually pay

1:04:47 to 1:05:07( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: as individuals, they're not s corporations or c corporations or l.l.c.'s or whatever you call it, that would give them an opportunity, mr. speaker, my colleagues to make more profit, to be able to expand their product line, add on to the size of their building, bring in more people, re more

1:05:08 to 1:05:29( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: people, and get more people who are earning a paycheck and indeed paying taxes. but at a lower rate. in the final analysis, we have proven, under presidents kennedy in 1960, reagan in 1980, and during the bush administration in the early

1:05:30 to 1:05:52( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: 2001, 2003. when you cut taxes and let people keep more of their money, you do grow jobs. we did that nobody can deny that. they can be critical of a lot of things, mistakes are always made, monday morning quarterbacking, but without question, that type of economic philosophy and

1:05:53 to 1:06:13( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: approach is what increases the federal revenue because it grows jobs, it expands the job base, so these were some of the things that we had proposed but yet never saw the light of day. and it's sad because i truly believe that that would work. in addition, mr. speaker, to the

1:06:14 to 1:06:34( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: tax cuts, the other thing of significance in the republican alternative was to pledge, indeed, its law had we passed it, 1% reduction, 1%, i know that doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me, up here, inside the beltway, it's pretty hard to

1:06:35 to 1:06:55( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: cut anything, but we were talking about cutting 1% of spending across the board except for our national defense. preserve the spending on our national defense, continue to keep this country safe and not pull the rug out from under the men and women who are doing the fighting and the suffering and th

1:06:56 to 1:07:17( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: but across the board, every other spending category, 1% cut. these are the kind of things that i wanted to talk about to my colleagues and make sure on both sides of the aisle, but i'm particularly talking to my friends on the majority side so

1:07:18 to 1:07:38( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: that they do understand and your constituents understand that we're not in the minority hoping for failure. we're not hoping that president obama is unsuccessful. nothing could be further from the truth. we want president obama to be successful.

1:07:39 to 1:07:59( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: and i hope that he is successful. but i don't want for some socialized program to be so successful that all of a sudden we get away from a market-driven economy and the democracy that we have all enjoyed and loved and what makes this country

1:08:00 to 1:08:20( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: unique and wonderful. we don't want a europn-type socialism and so if you hear someone say, well, i hope this thing fails, please don't get the idea, my colleagues, that it's directed toward our new president. of course not.

1:08:21 to 1:08:42( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: of course not. but we just want to make sure that our country succeeds in the right way and this is for our children and our grandchildren. i wanted to take a moment to paraphrase an article that i read in the newspaper today when i got up early this morning.

1:08:43 to 1:09:03( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: i was looking at "the hill," the newspaper that we get daily when we're in session and politico d, we all read -- "politico," we all read these things. there's some fine, fine writers on these thupes -- newspapers and this was an article penned

1:09:04 to 1:09:25( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: by sherri jacobis and here's what she said. i think it really cuts to the chase in regard to this dollars worth of spending. i'm going to quote just parts of her article. congress should throw this greasy pile of pork into the grinder.

1:09:26 to 1:09:46( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: instead, instead, give every american household a 0,000 stulus check to spend as we please. with approximately 100 million households nationwide, we hit that magic number of trillion. so you give 0,000 to every one

1:09:47 to 1:10:08( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: of 100 million households, that's spending the trillion. so you spend it in a different way. you give it, mr. speaker, to the families. and along with that we have a two-year moratorium on capital gains taxes and then we'll get this economy off life support.

1:10:09 to 1:10:31( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: and i want to point out in the republican alternative, this idea of giving 0,000 to each of 100 million families was not part of it, but the suspension of capital gains tax definitely was. and then you would see the stock market not go down 350 points when something like this passes,

1:10:32 to 1:10:52( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: you'd see it go up 350 points. so, dointhis now, instead of letting the government decide how we spend the trillion, let the families decide how the trillion are spent. instead of condoms, green golf carts, mouse habitats and

1:10:53 to 1:11:14( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: government-run health care, americans would spend based on individual priorities, thus spurring competition, resulting in higher quality gooded and services -- goods and services. good banks succeed, bad banks fail. well-priced quality automobiles hit the streets.

1:11:15 to 1:11:35( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: lemons fade away. capitalism lives to fight another day and the greatest country on earth narrowly survives its near death experience with socialism. she goes on to say, so here's the challenge for every member of congress. mr. speaker, that's us, me and

1:11:36 to 1:11:56( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: you and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. so here's the challenge for every member of congress, or more accurately a dare. ask your constituents what they would do with 0,000. compare their list to what's in this stimulus bill.

1:11:57 to 1:12:19( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: then see who has the best ideas for spending mr. speaker, i wanted to use a couple of posters to help my

1:12:20 to 1:12:26( Edit History Discussion )

Phil Gingrey: colleagues understand and put in perspective the amount of money we're spending because you know,