W. Akin

Mr. AKIN

Mr. AKIN. Just reclaiming my time for a minute, gentleman, what you're suggesting is, one, what's being done is exactly the wrong thing. And if you want a positive Republican recommendation, it would be to do the opposite of that, right? In other words, what we would be saying would be, look, if you've got 70 or 80 percent--depending on how big you call a small business--if that's where 70 to 80 percent of the jobs in America are, you want those small businesses strong. How do you make them strong? They have to have enough liquidity, enough capital to be able to invest in entrepreneurial ideas, to put in more productive assembly lines or machines or processes. So you have to invest, and you have to let that money work for you. And you have to leave it with the small businessman. But if you vacuum it out of his pockets with massive tax increases, he's not going to have the money to invest, and he's going to lay off more people, it's going to make things worse. So the solution is, quite simply, leave more money for the small businessman and back off the spending pedal a little bit. I don't mean to get overexcited. I want to yield again to my good friend from Indiana, and then go to a wonderful new Congressman from Wyoming.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, gentleman, what you're saying is we're just not learning from history. It's not that the economy is brand new, there are patterns here. It's not that the Republicans are the party of ``no,'' it's the fact that these solutions don't work and they're going to hurt our constituents, and that's why we get a little excited about them. I mean, here you have the quote from Henry Morgenthau, he is the guy that, along with little Lord Keynes, came up with Keynesian economics. And he says, After trying it for 8 years, our theory didn't work. Our unemployment is as bad as it was before, and now we're in debt. And what we're trying to say is, don't accuse us of not having solutions, the solutions are there; but don't repeat history's mistakes. I didn't mean to interrupt, but just continuing to yield to my good friend from Indiana, Congressman Pence.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. I think you're a little bit of a prophet, gentlemen, because they were dumping tea in the river in St. Louis this last weekend. I think people are starting to get wise and they're getting upset. I also am just thankful that we're joined by a very good friend, a very distinguished colleague from this House, Congressman Pence from Indiana. I would yield time to my good friend. I know that you have very good insights on these issues.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, gentlemen. You're getting me all upset. You're ruining my entire evening here. But I have a feeling what you're telling us is true. In fact, I know it is true.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. You can be making $20,000 dollars a year, and you are still going to be burning some natural gas and using some electricity; is that right?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. I think there must be something wrong with your chart here because I was just on this floor last week, and I heard the President say that nobody making less than $250,000 is going to pay any of these taxes. And I said, ``I'm glad I'm not going to have to pay these taxes because I make less than $250,000 a year.'' And now you're ruining my whole evening by telling me that that isn't true. Is that what you're saying? I yield.

Mr. AKIN. So reclaiming my time once again, the problem with socialism is sooner or later we run out of other people's money. That concludes our 1 hour. I just thank all of my colleagues from all over the country joining us tonight. Next week we will try to get into freedom a little more heavily, but the economy is certainly a top topic and that's why we have given it a lot of attention this evening. God bless you all. Good night.

Mr. AKIN. This is something I want to be very clear in our discussion this evening. We're having this, like a dinner conversation. What I want to make clear is that the Republicans are not just saying ``no.'' What you're saying is, You're doing the wrong thing which will make the economy worse. Now, what you've gotten to in your chart here is the absolute crux of what has worked in the past to pull us out of a recession. And it's not the government that pulls us out of a recession; it's the marketplace. And it's particularly the entrepreneurs and the inventors and the investors and those small business people. And what do small business people need in order to create all of those jobs--because depending on what you call a small business, you're talking 70 to 80 percent of the jobs in America come from small businesses. So if you harm the small business guy--even though he may be fairly well-to-do--you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. And what's going to happen when you take $636 billion out of small businesses-- that's the money they need to invest in new equipment, new processes, new procedures and innovation which is going to result in hiring the people that need to be hired. So what's happening here is this policy is economically crafted to make the problem worse. I would yield to my colleague.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. The gentlelady from Tennessee has a very, very effective chart. And what you're pointing out is that we're in uncharted waters. We have not dared to take and swallow this much debt in the past. I was trying to put some kind of a handle on what we passed just a couple of weeks ago on this House floor on about--I think it was--what was it, $840 billion. Now, I don't make that much money. So I tried to think, Well, what's something big that the Federal Government buys. And because I'm on Armed Services, I think of aircraft carriers. They're bigger than tanks. They're like a whale. They're tremendous. Well, an aircraft carrier, we've got 11 of them. And they're valuable. And we put other ships around them to guard them. And we don't make aircraft carriers very often because they're so expensive. So let's take the average cost of those 11 aircraft carriers and divide it into $840 billion that we just spent a couple weeks ago-- money that we don't have--and you're talking about 250 aircraft carriers--can you picture that--end-to-end-to-end. This is a lot of money. Or if you want to get one of those kinds of Cadillac aircraft carriers, the big long-deck ones that really do all of the fancy stuff, you're still talking over 100 aircraft carriers. That's money that we don't have that we just spent, and it was supposed to be for stimulus; but we called it ``porkulous'' because there wasn't really much stimulus. But that's talking about doing some big-time spending following that same old Keynesian idea that if the government spends enough money, that everything will be okay. To this engineer, that's a little bit like grabbing your bootstraps, lifting up, and trying to fly around the room. We're joined by another very good friend of mine, Steve Scalise, Congressman from Louisiana. I think you wanted to also talk a little bit about where we are with this level of spending and what's going on with these taxes.

Mr. AKIN. Yes. I would yield to the gentlelady from Tennessee.

Mr. AKIN. I would reclaim my time and yield. I'm the one who's supposed to do this. This is part of the dinner conversation here. Being the father and the guy who serves the food at our dinner table, I would recognize the gentlelady from North Carolina.

Mr. AKIN. I would yield for one minute.

Mr. AKIN. Well, I sure appreciate your sharing that with us. You know, we are joined by another very good friend of mine, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. She is one of our great communicators, a lady from Tennessee. We're just delighted to have you with us, Congresswoman Blackburn, and would ask you if you want to chip in a little bit here in our discussion on where we are economically. I yield.

Mr. AKIN. Boy. Oh, boy. I'll bet you there's a lot of people who would love to see us get back to that kind of a number. Then the tax rate was four something, 4 percent?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, gentlelady, I would like to highlight what you said. Those numbers are absolutely shocking. In 1930, you're saying the Federal Government was spending three point something percent of the GDP?

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, it does my heart a great deal of sadness to see my friend from Texas without a little bit of a twinkle in his eye, which is so commonly there. But this is a very serious subject. We try not to yell and scream too much about it, but we know that economically what's being done is going to harm our constituents. It's getting rid of jobs. It's making the small businessman have to basically shutter down and to keep his operation small, which is exactly the wrong thing for what we should be doing. And why is it that we need all of this money? That is the question that I think we need to be asking. Why is it that we have to be spending all this money on government programs? And the answer seems to me to be, again, we're not learning very well from history. Just bear with me for a second. I'd like to get your perspective on this. A certain number of years ago, there was a thing called the Soviet Union, and they were bad guys. And they were a bunch communists and they were socialists. And what was it that they thought? They thought the job of the government should be to provide you, first of all, with a job, and then they wanted the government to give you health care and food and housing and an education. And one thing particular about them, they didn't want you to talk about God ever. Now, in our country, let's see, we've got all this government spending going on so the government can provide you with health care and a job and food and housing and an education and it's politically correct not to talk about God because if you did that, gentlemen, you'd realize your rights come from God. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, not big government nanny state. And I just wanted to toss that out to you to see if I could get a response from my good friend from Texas. I yield.

Mr. AKIN. The other alternative is they can, of course, borrow it. Then of course, within that category, we have the other thing that we don't hear much about but which has happened extensively in the last 9 months, which is printing it, a form of borrowing it. I don't mean to interrupt, and would yield to the gentlelady.

Mr. AKIN. Well, reclaiming my time, gentlelady, I think there are a bunch of us--and I'm not accusing you of this--in the baby boomer kind of category who have just seen our 401(k)s turn into 101(k)s. We understand, when the government does things the wrong way, it really can be expensive, and there are different ways. One, as you say, is to tax people. You don't have to pay your taxes. If you don't, you go to the free hotel.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time, gentlelady, what you just made is really an important point. What you're saying is Republicans do have an alternative, and part of that alternative is to stop spending money, but it seems like some people down in Washington, DC and a certain party have their ears plastered. They don't want to hear that as an alternative, but there is an alternative. It is the same thing that every commonsense household in America is doing, and that is, when you're troubled, stop spending money. That's a good first step, isn't it? I yield.

Mr. AKIN. Could I reclaim my time for just a second? There's a little, funny story about where this quote came from of all things: My father is 88 years old. He was reading a flyer that had been sent to him from Hillsdale College, and it was a quote out of a book called New Deal or Raw Deal. It has just been published. So here is my father. He gives it to me. ``Son,'' he said, ``you don't read enough. Here. Take a look at this.'' So we've been using it some, but I yield time to the gentlelady.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time a second. That should send the alarm bells off in people's minds. When you're having not only just a little recession but what's starting to turn into almost a depression and you're talking about huge tax increases, you don't want those two things in the same sentence, I believe. I yield.

Mr. AKIN

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time One of the things that's of concern is that if we follow in the path of the model that doesn't work, the Soviet Union, with the government trying to run all of these things, the government is terribly inefficient. People may think and complain to you doctors that medicine is awfully expensive today. Well, if they think medicine is expensive today, let them get a snout full of what it's like when the government runs it, with all of that efficiency. About half of the health care dollars in America are already going through the government, and that's part of what's made it less efficient and expensive. So if we move in the direction of what I'm reading, if you read between the lines of the speech last night, we're talking about a single-payer system like Canada. And the bill that we passed already has the language in it saying the government can ration your health care, and I don't think that makes for good quality health care.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time. You're talking about, in the last 6 or 7 weeks, we have added 20 percent to the debt. And yet, when you take a look at the money that we've spent, it's not going to do any good to help us with joblessness, it's not going to get the economy going, it just is flat not going to work. Because we can already see that it didn't work when you used the same approach during the ``Raw Deal'' or the New Deal. Henry Morgenthau says it won't work. He's the guy that engineered the plan. He says it won't work. And the Japanese tried it, and it didn't work for them. And yet we have solutions to the problem that will work which are being ignored. You know, gentlemen, one of the things that I think we have to be careful of: We are in a very difficult time in America right now, and a lot of people recognize that. And we'll have to continue this next week on Wednesday. And I really appreciate my good friend from Louisiana joining us, Congressman Scalise.

Mr. AKIN. Reclaiming my time for a minute. You're saying a 20 percent increase in the national debt. So you add up all of the national debt since the country was born, you put that all together, and you're saying we added 20 percent to that in a period of 6 weeks?

Mr. AKIN

Mr. AKIN. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information regarding earmarks I received as part of the FY2009 Omnibus. Requesting Member: Congressman Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)--Health and Facilities Services Legal Name of Requesting Entity: SSM St. Clare Health Center Address of Requesting Entity: 1015 Bowles Avenue, Fenton Missouri 63026 Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $167,000 for the development and manufacturing of a medication distribution system for St. Clare to reduce the risk of medication errors. Essential elements of the system include: medications for each patient which will be kept in the patient's room, medications will be double locked and entry will be tracked by computer for security and narcotic tracking, and there will be a bar code system and a medication administration record on the computer in the room for additional safety and documentation. Associated costs with this request include development and software and hardware costs. Requesting Member: Congressman Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)--Health Facilities and Services Legal Name of Requesting Entity: ThriVe St. Louis Address of Requesting Entity: 4331 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri 63108 Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $143,000 to expand pregnancy resource services by expanding the facility in which they operate. Expanding physical space by an additional 1,130 square feet will allow ThriVe St. Louis to offer one-on-one counseling for clients and provide a second exam room which could be used for STD testing. The expansion will also give space for volunteers and staff to serve clients effectively, and conduct administrative work and phone counseling. Funding for this request will go towards facility construction, technology and equipment, furnishings and operations. Requesting Member: Congressman W. Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Federal Highway Administration, Transportation, Community and System Preservation Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Missouri Department of Transportation, District 6 Address of Requesting Entity: 1590 Woodlake Drive, Chesterfield, MO 63017 Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $237,500 to upgrade and partially relocate MO Route 141 in St. Louis County, MO and help complete a 33-mile four and six lane north-south connector that will run between I-55 in Jefferson County and MO Rt 370 in north St. Louis County. This project will provide traffic mitigation locally and regionally by serving as a reliever for overloaded I-270, provide safety improvements by diverting traffic away from the entrances to a high school and middle school eliminate two major at-grade crossings (one which floods intermittently) and promote regional business and employment growth. This project received $800,000 in FY05 Appropriations, $2.88M in SAFETEA-LU and $250,000 in the FY08 Omnibus Appropriations Act. The Missouri Department of Transportation will provide a local cost share of 20 percent. This project is also part of the State's transportation improvement plan, is eligible under the account request according to the Missouri Department of Transportation and considered by the State and/or regional transportation official to be critical to their needs. Requesting Member: Congressman Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Federal Highway Administration, Transportation, Community and System Preservation Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Missouri Department of Transportation, NE District Address of Requesting Entity: PO Box 1067, South Route 61, Hannibal, MO 63401 Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $190,000 to conduct a study and engineering plan for Route 61 in Lincoln and St. Charles Counties, Missouri. This project will look at what must be done in Lincoln and northern St. Charles Counties to improve a four-lane highway to a limited access expressway with outer roads slip ramps and new interchanges. Vigorous regional growth has resulted in an accident rate twice the state average along the corridor particularly at intersections. The Missouri Department of Transportation will provide a local cost share of 20 percent. This project is also part of the State's transportation improvement plan, is eligible under the account request according to the Missouri Department of Transportation and considered by the State and/or regional transportation official to be critical to their needs. Requesting Member: Congressman W. Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Federal Highway Administration, Surface Transportation Priorities Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Missouri Department of Transportation Address of Requesting Entity: 1590 Woodlake Drive, Chesterfield, MO 63017 Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $1.14 Million to Page Avenue Extension, Phase II in St. Charles County Missouri. This is the second of three phases needed to connect US 40/61 (I-40) in St. Charles County with I-270 in St. Louis County 20 miles east. When the overall project is finished, this will extended Route 364 will be on the NHS and serve as a relief corridor for I-70 to the north and I-64 to the south. Phase I is finished. Phase II will upgrade a 4.6 mile section of MO Route 94 to interstate standards for traffic mitigation, business continuation and development along the corridor and for increased safety by eliminating 6 major at-grade crossings. Phase II receive $1 million in FY05 Appropriations and $34.6 million in SAFETEA-LU. It received another $250,000 in FY08 Appropriations. The Missouri Department of Transportation will provide a local cost share of 20 percent. This project is also part of the State's transportation improvement plan, is eligible under the account request according to the Missouri Department of Transportation and considered by the State and/or regional transportation official to be critical to their needs. Requesting Member: Congressman W. Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Department of Housing and Urban Development, Economic Development Initiatives Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Saints Joachim and Ann Care Service Address of Requesting Entity: 4112 McClay Road, St. Charles, MO 63304 Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $142,500 for the acquisition and renovation of a building for use as a Tri-County Outreach Center. Saints Joachim and Ann supports families in crisis in Lincoln, Warren and St. Charles counties. The current lack of space impedes the case manager's ability to provide necessary family assistance and requires the use of other locations to meet with families including personal vehicles, city parks, hotels and shelters. Renovation of the building is required to provide interview rooms, expanded food pantry, case manager work areas and space for other agencies to provide family social service support. Requesting Member: Congressman W. Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Army Corps of Engineers, Construction Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Monarch-Chesterfield Levee District Address of Requesting Entity: c/o Mr. William S. Kirchhoff, Treasurer, MCLD, 17627 Wildhorse Creek Rd, Chesterfield, MO 63005 USA Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $3.349 million to complete construction of closure structures and pump stations. Funding from this request could be used to construct the Baxter Road closure structure and initiate design of the Walnut Grove flood wall at Long Road. These structures will augment completed earth works that provide 500-year protection to over 700 businesses. This request is consistent with the intended and authorized purpose of the Army Corps of Engineers, Construction account and has previously been authorized by the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000, Section 101(b)(18). The Monarch-Chesterfield Levee District will provide its cost share in accordance with Federal cost-sharing requirements for Federal flood protection projects, 65 percent Federal, 35 percent non-Federal, and the non-Federal funding will come directly from the Levee District. Requesting Member: Congressman Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Army Corps of Engineers, Operation and Maintenance Legal Name of Requesting Entity: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District Address of Requesting Entity: 1222 Spruce Street, St. Louis, MO 63103 Description of Request: Provides an earmark of $19.027 million for current year operation and maintenance on an aging system of locks and dams. Basic operation and maintenance will provide a nine-foot navigation channel, regulating works, dike and revetment, dredging, environmental compliance and environmental stewardship. This request is consistent with the intended and authorized purpose of the Army Corps of Engineers, Operations and Maintenance account and has previously been authorized by the Overton Act of 1936 and the Flood Control Act of 1944. This funding category is 100 percent Federal and has no local entities that are subject to cost share requirements. Requesting Member: Congressman Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Army Corps of Engineers, Investigations Legal Name of Requesting Entity: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District Address of Requesting Entity: Clock Tower Bldg, PO Box 2004, Rock Island, IL 61204 Description of Request: Provides an earmark of $8.604 million for the first phases of construction of new 1,200 foot lock chambers at L/Ds 20,21,22,24,25, LaGrange and Peoria; for implementing small-scale navigation aids; and beginning ecosystem restoration projects along the Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway. This request is consistent with the intended and authorized purpose of the Army Corps of Engineers, Investigations account and has previously been authorized by P.L. 99-662 and P.L. 110-280 Sec. 8001-8005. This project is 100 percent Federal and has no local entities that are subject to cost share requirements. Requesting Member: Congressman Todd Akin Bill Number: H.R. 1105 Account: Army Corps of Engineers, Construction Legal Name of Requesting Entity: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District Address of Requesting Entity: Clock Tower Bldg, PO Box 2004, Rock Island, IL 61204 Description of Request: Provides an earmark of $17.713 million for addressing the adverse impacts to the aquatic ecosystem caused by maintenance of the river's navigation channel. This includes habitat rehabilitation and measures to determine if enhancement projects are effectively preserving and improving fish and wildlife habitat on the river. This request is consistent with the intended and authorized purpose of the Army Corps of Engineers, Construction account and has previously been authorized by P.L. 99-662 Sec. 1103 as amended. This project is 100 percent Federal and has no local entities that are subject to cost share requirements.