W. Akin

Mr. AKIN

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. We have shifted the topic here just a little bit. But I think it is very important. And you're making excellent points. What I'm hearing is we are talking about taxes. Let's just talk a little bit about an average guy that has a small business, because 70 or so, depending on how big you call a small business, 70 or 80 percent of the jobs in America are in small businesses. So let's talk about the average guy in a small business. First of all, most of them are making or have a $250,000 income. So starting right off the bat, we are going to tax these guys, because they are the rich guys.

Mr. AKIN. The gentleman from Florida, Congressman Rooney.

Mr. AKIN. Certainly.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming the time here. I recall standing not very far from where I'm standing right here on the floor of this House and hearing the President make a promise. And I felt good when he made the promise. He said, ``I'm not going to tax anybody who is making less than $250,000.'' And I sort of slumped back in my chair and said, ``well, at least he missed me.'' Now we are talking about cap-and- trade. And what he is going to do is he is going to increase the energy costs on every household across our country. It doesn't make any difference how much money you're making. If you're using electricity or burning fuel, you're going to get zapped. And the average is $3,000 per household. When you see that big yellow line, that just isn't a big old line on a graph. We are talking about families in America in all of our districts getting saddled. And this is just one proposal. This is just ``cap-and-trade.''

Mr. AKIN. What just occurred today made it pretty obvious why we needed to be saying ``no'' to that big porkulus bill; because it had, just as we knew it would, all these little things hidden in it. We are going to be talking about that. We are going to be talking about some of the things that were hidden in it that were just announced on ABC News just recently. We have also been joined by a doctor, we have increasingly a number of doctors in this Congress, the good Dr. Cassidy from Louisiana. I yield time to Dr. Cassidy.

Mr. AKIN. You are saying that, in 2009, we have more deficit we racked up than all 8 years of Bush?

Mr. AKIN. More than all 8 years of Bush. You add all of the 8 years, and you are saying in this year--is this 2009?

Mr. AKIN. I voted against a lot of that spending. But now reclaiming, and taking a look at that chart, what you are saying is if you add up all of those Bush deficits together, how does that compare to that huge jump that you see this year?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, that little yellow line is so close to the edge that the first time I saw that, I just about missed what you are saying. This looks like some sort of science fiction thing. Let's go through it. If you add up the yellow bars between those two sets of dotted lines, which represents the 8 years of the Bush years.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, gentleman, it sounds like to me this is stock market advice that you are offering today. What you are saying is if you see the Republicans in charge of the House and the Senate, then go buy some stocks. Is that what you are trying to tell us?

Mr. AKIN. Go ahead. Proceed.

Mr. AKIN. The blue color represents the Democrat color; the red is the Republican color; the hash marks is a mixed bag, you have got Republicans in one body and Democrats in the other. So now you have got basically a whole timeline going, what is it, close to 20 years or so?

Mr. AKIN. The white dash lines are transitions in terms of the Presidencies.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. I think what you are saying is you are really putting a whole lot of information in one picture. Aren't you?

Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, we have a number of interesting topics that we are going to be talking about tonight, and even a little bit of a challenge question for people who are feeling imaginative and innovative, and it is a strategic question about some votes that are coming up tomorrow on the floor. It should be very interesting. Joining us first off this evening is my good friend, Congressman Pitts, who hails from Pennsylvania and has come up with quite a barrage of different colorful charts here. I don't know, it looks like some part of a critical measurement of somebody's life expectancy or what it is, so I am going to yield time to Congressman Pitts, who has been a Congressman for a long time, highly respected, from Pennsylvania. I yield the gentleman time, and I would like you to tell us a little bit about what you graphed here, because they are quite interesting.

Mr. AKIN

Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1217, a bill I introduced to honor the life of Peter J. Navarro by designating the post office in Ballwin, Missouri, as the ``Specialist Peter J. Navarro Post Office Building.'' A resident of Wildwood, Missouri, Specialist Peter J. Navarro was part of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. On December 13, 2005 Specialist Navarro was one of four soldiers killed when a roadside bomb detonated near their Humvee during combat operations in Taji, Iraq. A graduate of Lafayette High School, Peter declined his acceptance at Truman State University so he could join the Army right after graduation. When Peter returned home for his younger brother's funeral, he was faced with the undeniable risks of serving his country. However, he returned to Iraq telling friends and family, ``They need me there.'' Peter was a dedicated soldier, willing to give the ultimate sacrifice to protect his county and the men and women who reside there. As Peter's father, Jose Navarro said, ``He cared for the soldiers he worked with. He would do anything for his friends. And he told me he believed in what the mission was.'' As the father of two Marines, one of whom has served in Iraq; it is a privilege to stand here today to honor one of our fallen soldiers. Peter's commitment and dedication to his country is a shining example of how our military men and women are the finest our nation has to offer. His and his family's sacrifice should serve as a reminder to all that the freedom we enjoy as Americans is not free but the result of the tremendous bravery and selfless service of men and women willing put themselves in harms way for freedom's cause. Our nation will be forever indebted to Specialist Peter Navarro. Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me today in honoring Peter. Vote ``yes'' on H.R. 1217.

Mr. AKIN

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, the budget that we are talking about spends too much, it taxes too much, and it borrows too much. That ought to be pretty close to the title of our discussion here. I really appreciate the good thinking and the high level of education. We have doctors here on the floor today. Congressman Austria from Ohio, we appreciate you joining us. And Congressman Pence, a solid, conservative, commonsense kind of guy, coming from the heartland of Indiana. And Dr. Roe, this is the first you have joined us, and I am so thankful for your perspective and leadership. You are a medical doctor, and you also literally ran a small government. You have tried and you know what works. That is obvious from your comments today. Congressman Scalise from Louisiana is a regular, and we are so thankful for you. Spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much.

Mr. AKIN. Wait a minute, reclaiming my time, maybe my memory is foggy. I thought I recalled the President saying he wasn't going to tax anybody making less than $250,000, and I kind of almost went back to sleep. I said that's not me, I'm not going to worry about it. Now you're upsetting me.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Pence, you said it so simply. What is that again?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, on top of everything else, you're saying we have another thousand bucks a family in this deal?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, you just got my attention. I had seen some numbers, but are you saying that the average family in America, what is this cap-and-trade tax going to be? It is going to increase your electric bill on the electric side?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, certainly there are some things that could be done that wouldn't cost anything, just along the lines of what you proposed to your local businesses where you saw problems in your local area as mayor, but there is something called mark to market, and there is good opportunity there. We talked about that last year, but we just couldn't get Treasury and the people there to take a good look at this whole situation. The rules needed to be dealt with. We are joined by a good friend, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), who has joined us before on the floor. He is articulate, very much up to speed on these topics, and it is a treat to yield time to Congressman Scalise.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, that is not even talking about what you are going to do to further bury small business, who are the very people we want to create our jobs. I see that we are joined by a highly respected congressman, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence). I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, this picture right here does not make the stock market feel very comfortable. There are people who are my age, I am an old geezer, and I am thinking about saving for retirement, and you see your 401(k) become a 101(k), you are not just one to shell out dollars to invest in small businesses, you just had your head handed to you financially, and then you see this kind of level of deficit spending, this is Republican spending in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, and you know what, I don't like the fact that the Republicans were spending and creating a deficit. I didn't vote for that deficit, I don't like it, but there are a lot of differences between these blue lines and these red lines. These red lines, we have never done anything like this in our country before. These are unprecedented times, and they are unchartered waters. The effect of doing this kind of thing sooner or later is going to come back, and we have to stop this. I recognize my good friend, Dr. Roe, from Tennessee.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, the proposals the gentleman is talking about are scored by different economists. And they are saying that these proposals are going to create twice as many jobs as the thing that we passed that put us into tremendous amount of debt. The thing that is ironic about that porkulus bill that we passed, billions and billions, as I said, if you want to go with your Cadillac aircraft carrier, you're talking 100 of these things. That is how much debt we created. And how much of that really went to the Keynesian idea of just building roads and hydro plants and that kind of hard manufacturing jobs? Almost none. It went to things like training people about STDs and AIDS and protecting mice in the Speaker's district that are on an endangered species list, and all kinds of maybe wonderful projects, but they have nothing to do with creating jobs or getting the economy going. What it has a lot to do with is taking all of the money out of the private sector so these small businesses can't get a breath of oxygen. That is a problem. We don't like to just be negative, but these bills that we have passed won't work. It is not that we want to be negative. But I am an engineer. You have to say, Did you put enough steel in the bridge? If they don't have enough steel in the bridge, it falls down. This economic set of principles will not work. It has not worked historically. It did not work for the Japanese. The fact is we have a good set of principles that worked for JFK, for Ronald Reagan, and it worked quite well for us in the second quarter of 2004.