Dan Burton

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleagues a question: Who said this: ``The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of someone else's money'' that is the problem with big spending in government when you don't have it? My good friend, Mr. Poe, just talked about a lot of the waste that is in the so-called stimulus package. But you know, in addition to that there are a lot of other things that worry me, like the things that the President just said and some of his cabinet members just said, and what the vice president just said. Let me just read to you a quote from President Obama which was on Friday, January 16. He said, talking about the $835 billion stimulus package, ``This plan is a significant down payment on our most urgent challenges.'' Down payment? That is almost $1 trillion, plus the $700 billion that we put in the bailout bill for the banks and Wall Street. So that is $1.5 trillion, and he says this is a down payment on our most urgent challenges. We are spending so much money that we are going to have hyperinflation down the road. And it won't be just us that will be paying for it; it will be our kids and our grandkids, and the quality of life for everyone is going to suffer. And then, of course this Sunday, appearing on CBS face the Nation, Vice President Biden said that, ``Obama's choice for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, will soon recommend to President Obama whether more money is needed beyond the $700 billion already allocated to American banks.'' So the $700 billion, $350 billion of which we don't know anything about, it may have been wasted, at least a large part, and there is another $350 billion in the tank that President Obama is going to use; and now Vice President Biden is saying that they may need more than the $700 billion. So here, we hear the President talking about a down payment on the money that is going to be spent, $835 billion, and Lord only knows how much is going to be added to that. And then, Vice President Biden says that Mr. Geithner might want more than the $700 billion that has been used for bailing out the banks and Wall Street. And then of course, on Meet the Press Sunday, Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to President Obama, said, ``The government can't afford to spend more than $1 trillion to boost the economy and save financial institutions.'' I would just like to say to my friends who might be paying attention, it is not the government that is spending that money; it is the taxpayers that are spending that money. And we are spending this country right down into a dark black hole from which we may never get out. I mean, it is tragic that we are just throwing money at this, when we should be cutting taxes across the board to give Americans and business more disposable income so they can get this economy moving again in the right direction through the free enterprise system. President Barack Obama signed his first two Presidential memoranda aimed at getting us on the path to energy independence; and what he said when he signed those just today or yesterday, he said, ``That is a down payment on a broader and sustained effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.'' Everything is a down payment, which means they are going to spend trillions more, billions and trillions more of money that they don't have that is going to have to be printed or we are going to have to borrow from someplace like China. We are putting this country into an economic black hole that we shouldn't be doing right now. What we should be doing is stimulating the economy the right way, by giving the American people part of their hard-earned money back and creating an incentive for business to invest in this country, like cutting the capital gains tax at least for 1 or 2 years. If we did that, we would have true economic recovery that will last, and not something that is just going to last until we print more money.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. A $100 billion piece of currency won't buy a loaf of bread. That's what happens when you have hyperinflation. It destroys the economy of a country. And we are spending this money so rapidly and without any accountability that it really scares me. These young people who watch us and who hear us talk, they are the ones who are going to have to deal with this in the long-run because if the currency devalues, that means the cost of everything is going to go up and they are going to have to pay for it. What happened back in the seventies was it got so bad that they brought Mr. Volcker in, who's in this administration now, and he raised interest rates to 21\1/2\ percent. Well, boy, that put the hammer on the economy. It slowed down inflation all right, but it increased the problems with unemployment, and it hurt the economy so desperately that Mr. Carter was saying, My gosh, we had to do with less. We had to handle our lives in a much more simple fashion because we couldn't afford to live well again. And then Ronald Reagan came in and said the way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes to give the American people more of their money back and let them spend it, to cut the taxes on business so there was more money for investment. And, because of that, we came out of that recession and we had about 8 or 9 years of very positive economic growth. In fact, it was one of the longest periods of economic growth in the history of this country. But now we are spending money more rapidly than we did in the past. It's unbelievable the way they are going to have to print money to deal with this problem. And so I am very concerned, and I am going to be down here talking about this a lot, that we have to do something to stop the spending, to control the spending, to be more accountable, because if we don't, there will be hyperinflation, there will be a rubber band effect on the economy, because once it gets so high, they are going to have to raise interest rates so high that you can't buy anything on time. And then the economy will go into a nose dive. It just will not work. It's going to be very horrible for this economy long term if we continue down the path we are on. There needs to be accountability. And what we have done in the last couple of months and we are going to do this next week is not going to solve the problem. It's only going to make it worse.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives just a few minutes ago voted to disapprove the $350 billion in additional funds for the TARP bailout. But because of the way the original bill was passed, that won't do a thing to stop it. That money is going to be given to the administration and it's going to be spent. We don't know where the $700 billion is going. We know where part of it is going, but we certainly don't know where most of it's going. That means the American taxpayers have given $700 billion to the Congress of the United States and we have ceded the authority to spend that money to the administration without any real oversight. We don't know where that money is being spent and, as a result, we have abnegated our responsibility to oversee the power of the purse and make sure we are spending the money of the taxpayers wisely. In addition to that, not knowing where we are going to spend it, where they are spending the $700 billion, next week we are going to have another $825 billion bill that is going to come to this Congress, and we are not going to know what that bill is until the markup is finished tomorrow, which means that we will probably get the information on it Saturday, and Monday will be the first day that Congress will really take a hard look at it. So we will have the afternoon of Monday, and Tuesday, and then vote on Wednesday on an $825 billion supplemental stimulus package. That means in the last 3 or 4 weeks we will have spent almost $1\1/2\ trillion of taxpayers' money and we don't know where it's going. We are ceding that authority to the executive branch. And it's an abnegation of our responsibility, for the most part. We know where some of it's going, but not all of it, not most of it. And it really, really bothers me. When we come down here and speak, Mr. Speaker, we know from time to time there's an awful lot of young people that watch us in the gallery. And there's a lot of young people and parents watching from at home. And the thing that bothers me is we are spending this money like it's going out of style, without any accountability, and we are spending it in such large numbers that it has to have a long-term, terribly inflationary impact on the economy of the United States of America. People in this country don't really know what hyperinflation is. But after World War II, Germany, people would get money and they would have to take a wheel barrel full of money to the store to buy bread or meat or something to live on, and if they didn't do it that day, the money would devalue that day and it would be worth less the next day. I don't think that's going to happen here in the United States. But what will happen, in my opinion, is we will have very strong inflation like we had back in the seventies under Jimmy Carter when he was President. We had inflation that ran 14 percent. We had unemployment that was 10, 11, 12 percent. Because of that, the economy was really floundering. And so they brought in Mr. Volcker, who is once again in the administration.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I am happy to yield to my colleague.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. And I want to say that I agree with a great deal of what Ms. Kaptur just said. She is a very thoughtful legislator. One of the things that hasn't been addressed today is something I think we should really pay attention to, and that's history. Back in the 1970s, we spent ourselves into a real hole and we had what was called hyperinflation. Interest rates were supposedly a solution to the problem. We had inflation that was about 14 percent. We had unemployment that was 10 or 11 or 12 percent. So they brought Mr. Volcker in, who was the head of the Fed at the time, and they raised the interest rates to 21\1/2\ percent because that was the only way they thought they could get inflation under control. And it put a hammer on the economy. Now, the reason I bring this up is because we are heading toward hyperinflation again. We're spending so much money that we don't have that they're going to have to print it. We are spending $700 billion on the TARP plan. We don't know where the money's going. We have got another 825 or 830 billion coming up in the next couple of weeks. We're going to be looking at $2 to $3 trillion of additional spending that we don't have. And where do you think that money is going to come from? It's going to come from the taxpayer, and it's going to come from the hides of the people of this country because they're going to have to print that money, and when they do, we'll have more money chasing fewer goods and services, which means we are going to have very high inflation. And what will happen then? They'll come back with a hammer and they'll say the only way to stop inflation is to raise interest rates, which will put us into another economic decline. It will be like a rubber band. We'll be going like this. The best way to deal with the problem today is to cut taxes, to stimulate economic growth by helping the private sector and giving the American people more disposable income, not by printing more money and just throwing money at these problems. It's not going to solve the problem. It's going to cause severe economic problems down the road that we don't even visualize yet it will be so bad. So I would just like to say to my colleagues let's think about the kids of the future that are going to have to bear the responsibility for this. They're the ones that are going to be paying the price because we're spending so much money we don't have right now. We are heading toward hyperinflation.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that the people who are having trouble in the stock market ought to start looking at places to invest like the ink that's being sold to the U.S. Treasury or the paper that's being sold to the U.S. Treasury that's going to be used to print more and more and more money. I don't want to take the whole extra minute my colleague has allocated to me, and I really appreciate it, but I would like to say if I were talking to the President or the American people that we have to control spending in this place. We have to control spending. If we don't do that, we're going to see very high inflation which will be followed by very high interest rates, will put a real kibosh and a rubber band effect on our economy. The way to solve this problem is to give the American people some of their money back with tax cuts and to cut capital gains. So I would like to end up by just saying let's be more concerned about spending around here. Let's really start thinking about it. It's the people's money. The taxpayers want accountability.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Let me just start off by saying I'm opposed to all these bailouts. But after having said, let me say that if we're going to do it we really need a comprehensive plan that's going to deal with the problems facing this country. I had home builders come into my office last week, and they told me that their businesses are being re-appraised, and they're going to have to pay the difference between what the appraisal was initially and what it is now, and they're driving a lot of these home builders out of business. I had some people who are commercial developers come in to see me last week, and they told me that their commercial assets are being re- appraised, maybe 70 percent of what they were before, and they have to pay the difference between what they were getting and the 70 percent, and they're being driven out of business. So there's a huge cascading effect with all these problems that we're facing right now. And we're not addressing them in this bill or any of the other bills that I've seen. You've got people who are losing their homes. You've got home builders that are going out of business. You've got commercial developers that are going out of business because of these re- appraisals, and there's nothing in the plans that I've seen that addresses these problems. Mr. Frank and I are good friends. But just throwing this money at these problems without any plan is actually crazy. And yet we did it with the first $350 billion tranche, and we're going to do it again, and then we're going to come back with a $1.2 trillion request in just another 2 or 3 weeks. I mean, we can't buy our way out of these problems. We have to have a sound business plan to deal with these problems. And if we don't do it, we're going to see a huge economic problem that's even worse than what we face today. So I'd like to say to Mr. Frank and my colleagues, before we start giving all this money away, why don't we really sit down with the people that are supposed to be administering this money and come up with a sound plan that affects the entire economy. I mean, if you're going to spend the money, we might as well do it the right way.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for yielding. What does that mean, a ``senior Member''? I hope it doesn't mean I look old.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. All right. Mr. Speaker, let me just say that Everett Dirksen, when he was a United States Senator, said, a billion here, a billion there, and you're really talking about money, real money. Now it's a trillion here, a trillion there, and you're talking about real money. The only problem is the American people are going to face hyperinflation down the road if we continue down this path. Today we are talking about an additional $350 billion, and we don't even know where the first $350 billion of the bailout was spent. It makes no sense to me to be voting for this today when we really don't have any accountability for the first tranche, the $350 billion that has already been allocated. People in the stock market are taking a real bath. People who have investments, their life investments, in the stock market are taking a real bath. People who are going to retire or are already retired are taking a real bath.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I don't want to discuss things that have already been discussed, but the things that concern me are things like this will be a magnet for more illegal aliens coming into this country because it's going to provide a mechanism for illegals to get coverage under this bill. It's going to cost $44 billion more than the baseline. It's going to involve a tax increase. You know, one of the things that really concerns me about what we are doing is we passed a bailout bill for $700 billion. We are going to pass another bill here, a supplemental, it's going to be $1.2 trillion. We spent $14 billion for the auto industry. This is going to cost $44 billion over the baseline. Where do you think all this money is coming from? And I wish my colleagues would start thinking about the kids in the future as well as what we are talking about today. Because the inflation problem they are going to face is going to be huge. You have got to print this money. It has got to come from someplace. And the kids of kids of today and tomorrow are going to have to pay through the nose for the things we are doing today. We don't have all the money to do these things, and yet we are spending. That will lead to hyperinflation down the road and severe economic problems.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, not long ago, the Secretary of the Treasury came into our conference, and he was visibly shaken. He said, if we didn't pony up $700 billion in a short period of time, the entire economy of the United States was going to dissolve, and we would have a major depression. There was no plan. It was just ``give us $700 billion.'' Instead of talking about long-term solutions, such as tax cuts, for the people across the board or instead of stopping capital gains and doing away with capital gains taxes for a couple of years to stimulate investment, they said, Throw $700 billion at us, and we'll solve the problem. Well, here we are a short time later. $350 billion has been spent, and nobody knows where. I mean, we come down to this floor. We start talking about the things that have been accomplished. We still have people losing their homes. The financial system in this country is in really bad shape, and companies are going bankrupt. $350 billion has been spent, and nobody knows where. I know part of it went to buy a bank in China. I'm sure the American taxpayers really appreciate that. Now they're saying we've got to give another $350 billion very quickly or, once again, the sky is going to fall. Well, the sky has been falling, and it seems to me that we ought to have a plan that deals with the long-term financial problems facing this country. The long-term financial problems facing this country involve investment, jobs, and economic growth. The only way you're going to get economic growth is to stimulate the economy by creating an incentive for people to invest. Tax cuts. We need to cut capital gains. I don't think anybody is really listening, but we need to cut capital gains. We need to have tax cuts across the board. If we do that, I think you'll start to see signs of recovery in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, we may have to pony up a few more hundred billion dollars to keep things going while this takes place, but we need an overall plan, not just another $350 billion thrown at the Federal Reserve.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Let me just summarize by saying that we need a plan, a comprehensive plan, that involves not only spending this $350 billion but also a plan that will involve tax cuts across the board and incentives for business to invest, such as a cut in the capital gains tax rate and cuts in business taxes across the board. If we do that and come up with a comprehensive plan, maybe we could work our way out of this, but we certainly cannot do it by just throwing more money at the problem.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I am proud to be an original cosponsor and strong supporter of House Resolution (H. Res.) 34 which expresses the United States House of Representatives strong support for and commitment to Israel and recognizes that Israel has a fundamental right to defend its citizens against violent attacks. Back in 2005, I spoke to this House to express my profound concern about Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. I feared that Islamic radicals would exploit that opportunity to jump-start the peace process and instead use Gaza as a launching pad for attacks on Israel; undermining the peace process, exacerbating global and regional terrorism and moving the Middle East one step closer to all out war. I am sad to see that circumstances have proven that my concerns were justified. There can be no negotiations with--and no concession to--terrorists like Hamas; who refuse to even accept Israel's right to exist. If the world wants calm to return to the Middle East it must speak with one voice--as this House is speaking with one voice today--and tell the leaders of Hamas, and their handlers in Tehran--that blame for this bloodshed falls squarely on their shoulders. To end that bloodshed--and to bring humanitarian relief to the people living in Gaza, Hamas must immediately end the rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and verifiably dismantle its terrorist infrastructure. Israel and the United States have shared a special bond since the founding of the modern Jewish State in 1948. As a lone State fighting for freedom and democracy in a region dominated by authoritarian and military regimes, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that the United States can fully count on to stand firm against the terrorists and oppressors. As we continue to fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region by rogue regimes, and work to halt the States who continue to sponsor terrorism, Israel stands as a lone and vital ally. Similarly, Israel stands as an important strategic partner with regard to our joint efforts to stop the spread of Islamic radicalism. We all support the cause of peace; we all want to see the Israeli- Palestinian conflict resolved but will we ever reach that goal if the rockets and mortars do not stop; that is the first step. I strongly urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 34.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I just want to say to Mr. Kucinich and all the previous speakers, I agree with most of what I have heard today, except the way we get there. I don't think anybody in the House or the Senate wants the auto industry and related industries to collapse. Nobody wants that. The question is, how do we get to a solution that is workable, that will work over the long term? Just a few weeks ago we passed the TARP bill, and we were told in just a day or two that we had to pass this or the entire financial system in this country and the world was going to collapse. We threw $700-plus billion at it, and today there are an awful lot of Members in both bodies that think, hey, it isn't working the way we thought it would. Things have gone south in a lot of areas, and we should have thought about this a little more carefully. Now, I had the mayor of Marion, Indiana, and a lot of GM executives come in to see me last week and they told me in Marion, Indiana, they would lose $5 million in tax revenue if these companies go under. And they would have to lay off firemen and policemen and other civil employees. Nobody wants that to happen. But how do we solve the problem long term? And my concern is we're throwing $15 billion at this right now without a solution. We're going to have these people come to the conference table after we give them $15 billion, just like we gave the $700 billion a few weeks ago in the TARP plan, and we're going to say, now go solve the problem and come up with an answer. We need to have these answers first, and then give them the money. I don't mind staying here through Christmas and New Years to find a solution to save the automobile industry and the related industries. But this isn't the way, in my opinion, to do that. Now, you know, Senator Corker, in the other body, said, here's the way that we ought to solve the problem; and I'd like to read this to my colleagues. He said, Number 1, the manufacturers should give existing bondholders 30 cents on the dollar to help reduce their overall debt. Right now they'd only get 13 cents on the dollar, so 30 cents on the dollar would make them happy, and they would agree to that. And Senator Corker said this ought to be one of the things that's in the plan. Second, he said, wages should immediately come in-line with the transplant companies. And I think everybody that thinks about this realizes that if your cost of doing business is not competitive with your opposition, you're not going to survive. So that's an essential thing, in my opinion. Third, the UAW should take half of GM's payment in the Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association in GM stock; and I think they should do that because they're in this thing with everybody else, and taking half of their benefits in stock would be a great thing. And I think they would enjoy doing that if they knew the company was going to survive. And they want it to survive. And finally, the Jobs Bank program should be eliminated. He said, if you had these four things as a starting point, we could get on with the business of solving this problem. Now, at the hearing in the Senate Banking Committee the other day, Mark Zandi, who is the Chief Economist and Co-Founder of Moody's Economic Guide said, testified, ``under the most likely outlook for the economy and the auto industry, the restructuring plans in which the Big Three have requested $35 billion in loans,'' at that time it was $34 billion, ``will not be sufficient for them to avoid bankruptcy at the same point in the next 2 years. They would ultimately need another 75 to $125 billion to avoid bankruptcy.'' Now, we need to solve this problem. I want to help those employees. I want to help the executives. I want to help the communities that will suffer if they lose the tax revenues from these people who would lose their jobs and if the industry went south. I want to solve it. But rushing to judgement today, just like that, and throwing $15 billion at it, without a solution, in my opinion, is the wrong way to go. So I'd just like to say to my colleagues, if you really want to solve this problem long term, let's don't rush to judgment today. Let's stick around here a few more days and work this out so we can really solve the problem long term so the industry can survive.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for yielding. This appears to be a pretty good bill, but we're not going to help small business until we get an energy package that's going to lower the price of energy, gasoline, and other forms of energy in this country. We're sending $700 billion a year overseas that could be kept here in America by drilling here in America and getting energy out of the ground here in America creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen until we get a good energy bill. We're asked today to deal with a $700 billion piece of legislation that will help keep this country's economy afloat. And I submit to my colleagues tonight or today that even if we passed that and we solved this problem temporarily, we're going to be right back here if we don't deal with the energy crisis. This energy crisis is taking money out of everybody's pockets: small business, big business, homeowners. If a person has to pay exorbitant prices to fill their gas tank to get their kids to and from school and to and from work, it's going to hurt them. It's going to hurt them when they have to buy groceries that are transported across this country by diesel fuel and trucks. And because of that, people's cost of living is going up and up and up. And if you don't think that's going to have an impact on their ability to pay their home mortgages, you're just not thinking straight. We have to deal with the energy crisis so people can spend less on energy, can have that money for food for their kids, and to get to and from school and to and from work and to pay for their home mortgages. I think we have to deal with the crisis that faces us right now. But I think all of us ought to be aware that until we solve the energy crisis, until we become energy independent or move rapidly in that direction, we're going to continue to have problems in the future with this economy. This economy cannot stand $4 a gallon gasoline. We just can't. And it is going to impact every area of this economy now and in the future. Even if we pass this so-called bailout bill today or next week or tomorrow, whenever we pass it, it's not going to solve the problem until we deal with the energy crisis which is an integral part of the problems facing America.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, in the aftermath of September 11th, we have made huge strides in expanding and updating our Nation's emergency preparedness and response capabilities. As a whole, our communities are better prepared than ever before. However, like with everything else, more can be done and we cannot lull ourselves into believing that we have all the answers; especially considering that we do not know what the next terrorist attack may look like. The old military adage is that you go into the next war with your army prepared for the last war; and I believe that philosophy applies to our Nation's emergency response system. I believe that our first responders have worked hard to anticipate and train for a future crisis but what will we do if those experts become the victims? It is not hard to imagine a scenario where terrorists attack police, firefighters and other emergency responders in order to sow more chaos and confusion. If our frontline responders go down are others prepared to step up and handle the crisis? I believe that we should look to the efforts of ZAKA Rescue and Recovery, an Israeli volunteer organization dedicated to helping victims of terrorist attacks, accidents or natural disasters for guidance. I think we can all agree that the threat of terrorist attacks and missile strikes are an everyday worry for the people of Israel; and ZAKA volunteers are often the first to arrive on the scene when tragedy strikes working seamlessly with Israel's police and emergency responders. At the core of ZAKA's mission is the belief in the preservation of human dignity when disaster strikes. ZAKA volunteers provide first aid and rescue services, aid in the identification of the victims of terrorism, accidents and other disasters, and where necessary ensure that the deceased receive a proper Jewish burial. ZAKA first aid materials and supplies and volunteers are prepositioned in practically every Israeli community; along with special motor scooters ready to take them to the scene of any accident or terrorist attack day or night. ZAKA has gained international recognition by expanding their rescue and recovery work around the world to include the United States. In the aftermath of the deadly Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004, ZAKA teams were on the ground and worked side-by-side with the host nations and other international rescue and recovery teams to help identify victims. ZAKA has also helped return victims of plane crashes in Russia and Namibia as well as help rescue and preserve sacred Jewish Torahs in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Last year alone, ZAKA volunteers participated in more than 18,000 life-saving or search-and- rescue incidents, and I believe that ZAKA has a level of emergency preparedness and response expertise that we here in the United States could benefit from. That's why I truly believe America's first responders and our communities could benefit from ZAKA's expertise and vice versa. ZAKA's dedication to ``saving those who can be saved, and honoring those who cannot'' should be commended and I am proud to stand up and recognize their good works. Our Nation's first responders are dedicated and, in my opinion, the best in the business. I commend all of America's first responders and the countless volunteer organizations who came to the rescue of their fellow citizens following September 11th, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike, and who joined in the international relief efforts to aid the victims of the 2004 tsunami. Simply put, international relief organizations, like ZAKA and the Red Cross, are critical backstop players in search-and-rescue and recovery efforts, and I hope my colleagues will take the opportunity to research and learn about ZAKA's story and capabilities.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to two exceptional people, who I am proud to call Hoosiers. Lynne and Phil Himelstein will be recognized for their years of dedicated service to both the people of Indiana and to the State of Israel at the annual Indiana-Israel Dinner on October 19, 2008--sponsored by the State of Israel Bonds/Development Corporation--which this year commemorates the 60th Anniversary of Israel's statehood. Since 1951, the State of Israel Bonds Development Corporation has issued securities in the name of the government of Israel for the development of every aspect of Israel's economy. This has included Israel's roads, public transportation, power plants, agricultural expansion, water desalinization, and industrial growth. State of Israel Bonds Corp. has secured more than $28 billion in investment of capital, and maintained a perfect record on the payment of interest and principal on the securities it has issued over the years. From a small, fledging idea, the organization has grown into a powerful legacy of achievement. In fact it's probably fair to say that the State of Israel Bonds Corp. is the financial rock upon which the modern State of Israel is built. This same kind of entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to community drives this year's honorees, Lynne and Phil Himelstein, who have individually and collectively made a huge impact in their community, both for Jewish and secular causes. Their efforts will leave a lasting legacy that will benefit both Indianapolis and Israel. Lynne Himelstein was born in Beverly Hills, California, and decided to move her family back to her husband's home state of Indiana for a more Midwest value-oriented life. Immediately, Lynne became extremely active in the Indianapolis Jewish Community. After seven years of working as a Jewish day school teacher, Lynne was able to become a strong voice and leader to many of the communities' organizations. Since then, Lynne has served a term as President of AIPAC for Central Indiana, and is currently co-chair of Endowments for National Women's Philanthropy of the United States Jewish Community. Lynne has also served on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis (JFGI). During her term with the JFGI, Lynne spearheaded the raising of millions of dollars as the campaign chair in both 2003 and 2004. Lynne also created an academic scholarship in her name that is awarded annually to one deserving Jewish individual. Lynne's husband, Phil, is a Hoosier by birth. When Phil returned to Indiana in 1992 with Lynne--after seventeen years working for a prosperous law firm in Los Angeles--he became manager of Magic Menu Foods, a company that produced nutritional food products for the health care industry. Currently, Phil runs Hilan Capital, a private equity partnership that he co-founded in 1998. Phil is also the director of the Sage Group, an investment bank in Los Angeles; and a director of Brainscope Company, Inc., a neurodiagnostics company based in St. Louis and New York City. Phil is as equally hard working outside of the boardroom; he currently serves as chairman of the Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center; one of the largest treatment centers in the country serving individuals with bleeding disorders. Phil is also a founder and trustee of University High School of Indiana, a diverse college preparatory school in Indianapolis with a college placement rate of 100 percent. Madam Speaker, individually and together, the Himelstein's contributions to the United States, to the people of Indiana, Indiana's Jewish Community, and to the State of Israel represent the highest tradition of selfless public service, civic stewardship and commitment to others. Their praiseworthy efforts will be recognized at the Indiana-Israel Dinner of State on October 19th but I ask my colleagues to join me now to commend and congratulate Lynne and Phil for their outstanding achievements, and their lives of service.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I rise as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and member of the House Taiwan caucus, to honor the people of the Republic of China (Taiwan)--a strong strategic partner and ally not only to the United States but also among the democratic nations of our world--as they prepare to celebrate their 97th National Day on October 10th. Taiwan's National Day, also known as Double Ten Day for its date on October 10th, marks the start of the revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China, the first republic in Asia. Many Chinese on Taiwan have compared the celebration of this day with our own Independence Day and celebrate with the notable spectacle of parades and fireworks. It has been nearly a century since October 10, 1911 and the ROC on Taiwan has become a full-fledged democracy. Just twenty some years ago, Taiwan was a closed authoritarian society with no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, and no right to vote. It now has robust political parties, and virtually every office in Taiwan is contested through free and fair elections. This past March, Taiwan successfully concluded the fourth popular election for president since 1996, showing once again her unwavering commitment to democracy and freedom. May Taiwan long continue to be a beacon of prosperity and freedom for all of Asia. I believe that all Americans should be proud that Taiwan and the United States have enjoyed such a strong and durable relationship. Taiwan is one of our largest trading partners and the cultural exchanges between our two peoples are as vibrant as they have ever been. We are committed to defending Taiwan under the framework of the Taiwan Relations Act, and we are fully committed to a peaceful solution of the Taiwan issue; no military conflict should ever occur in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States to combat the scourge of global terrorism; and the people of Taiwan have always given generously in our greatest times of need with monetary contributions to the Twin Towers Fund, Pentagon Memorial Fund and through offer of humanitarian assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Taiwan and the United States are not merely allies; we are friends and partners in the truest sense of the words. I have been a long-time supporter of Taiwan and hope that my colleagues and I will continue to improve relations not only between the United States and Taiwan but between Taiwan and the international community. It is imperative that the United States take more active steps to support Taiwan's ongoing efforts to participate in the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group and other regional and multi-national organizations. It is regrettable that Taiwan has been excluded from these organizations. It has been a gross injustice to deny Taiwan's 23 million people their proper voice in the world. I myself have been to Taiwan on numerous occasions and have supported the work of its leaders through tremendous challenges, particularly in reference to cross-strait relations. As we continue to work toward solutions in this region of the world, let us commemorate and remember the ongoing commitment to democracy exemplified by Taiwan. Madam Speaker, I would ask all of my colleagues to join me now to thank the people of Taiwan for their friendship, to congratulate them on the 97th Anniversary of National Day, and to renew our commitment to further develop and strengthen the bonds between our two peoples.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, recently I had the pleasure to meet with Joyce Jones, who is a Spina Bifida Association board chair, and past board member of the Spina Bifida Association's Central Indiana Chapter. Ms. Jones's daughter, Lisa, is afflicted with spina bifida, and also is active within the chapter and is a past Chapter president. Ms. Jones visited my office to discuss the daily challenges that her daughter faces as an adult suffering from spina bifida. As the House of Representatives prepares to adjourn, possibly for the year but certainly through the November elections, I rise tonight to ask my colleagues to join me in the best spirit of bipartisanship to help raise awareness of the struggles of people like Lisa Joyce by recognizing October as National Spina Bifida Awareness Month. For my colleagues who may not know, spina bifida--which literally means split spine--is our Nation's most common, permanently disabling, birth defect. This defect often presents itself within the first month of a pregnancy and leaves a permanent opening in the spinal column of the unborn child. Due to this opening, a person with spina bifida faces complications with almost every organ system, including physical, developmental, educational, and vocational challenges throughout life. The estimated total medical and surgical costs for persons affected by spina bifida in the United States exceed $200 million. Currently an estimated 70,000 to 130,000 Americans are afflicted with this condition and that number is growing by about 3,000 annually. Compounding this tragedy is the fact that spina bifida, and many other so-called neural tube defects, are largely preventable. In fact, research has shown that adequate' consumption of folic acid or vitamin- B by women of child-bearing age before and during their pregnancies could lower the possibility of a pregnancy affected by a neural tube defect by almost 70 percent. The important point, however, is that folic acid is water soluble and it does not stay in the body for very long; so women need to take it every day to help reduce the risk of neural tube defects. Throughout October, the Spina Bifida Association and others will work to raise awareness of the fact that all women of child-bearing age are at risk for having a pregnancy affected by spina bifida; and the fact that they can significantly lower that risk by taking a daily dose of folic acid. National Spina Bifida Awareness Month is perhaps the most valuable tool we have to help convey this message and I hope that my colleagues will spend October, as I will, speaking out about this critically important issue.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, a number of the speakers tonight have been talking about the bailout on Wall Street. And we've been told by the head of the Treasury and the FDIC that, unless we do this, there could be real dire consequences for the entire economy of the United States. The amount that we've been talking about, which will be brought to the floor, is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 billion, which is directly going to go to our national debt, in all probability. Hopefully, some of those assets that are going to be bought will be able to be sold down the road and the money repaid to the Treasury. But the thing that bothers me the most is we haven't done anything that will really create new jobs. The speaker that just spoke talked about the creation of new jobs. And we passed an energy bill last week that really isn't going to do anything. And we have the ability to drill off the Continental Shelf and Alaska and elsewhere. And we can get billions and billions of dollars in money coming into the United States Treasury from these assets that we have already, and that is, oil, gas, shale, and other commodities that will help us with our energy crisis. We have an energy crisis right now, and we have not passed an energy bill that will do anything. Boone Pickens has been on television talking about the transfer of wealth, $700 billion a year. It's an odd consequence that we're going to be asking for $700 billion for the ``Wall Street bailout'' and at the same time we're denying the drilling for oil and other energy products here in the United States which could save $700 billion of our money that's going overseas to Saudi Arabia, to Nigeria, down south to Venezuela. And so the United States is actually turning over our money that we could keep here at home and create hundreds and thousands of jobs and really help this economy if we could just go after the energy sources that we already have here in the United States. I just don't understand it. We're sending $700 billion to Saudi Arabia, and they're going to be buying these assets here in the United States. It's going to be our money that's purchasing the oil that gives them the money to buy the products here in the United States. It makes no sense, especially when we have the energy products right here in this country, offshore and up in ANWR, and elsewhere, trillions of square feet of gas, millions of barrels of oil, and we can't drill for them because of the environmental concerns that people are talking about. And we could do it in an environmentally safe way. It makes no sense to me whatsoever to send $700 billion out of this country that we can keep here at home creating jobs. And at the same time that we're sending that $700 billion out of this country to buy oil from other parts of the world, we're asked to give $700 billion to bail out bad investments that have been made, bad loans that have been made. It just doesn't make sense to me. If we're really concerned about the economy of the United States, we need to drill here, we need to drill now. Use alternative sources of energy as well--wind and solar and everything else--but we need to drill here in the United States. The American people are suffering. They're still playing $4 plus for a gallon of gas, $80 to fill up a 20- gallon tank on a car or a truck. The American people can't afford it. And we could be saving that money, reducing the price of oil and gasoline dramatically, if we drilled here and drilled now, keeping $700 billion of our money here instead of sending it overseas, and especially at a time when we're going to be bailing out financial institutions to the tune of $700 billion. It's really odd. We're sending $700 billion of our money overseas--we don't need to--at a time when we could sure use it here at home to deal with our financial crisis. We need to drill here, we need to drill now. We need to lower the price of gasoline and oil and other energy products and we're not doing it. And I simply don't understand it, Mr. Speaker. And I want to say it one more time; the energy bill we passed last week isn't going to doing anything. It's not going to provide one barrel of new oil from the United States. And we're going to continue to send to Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela, and elsewhere, $700 billion of America's money, which could be used to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It makes no sense. We should drill here, we should drill now. We should move toward energy independence and immediately start lowering the price of gasoline and other fuel products.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, you know, there's an old saying that sometimes people whistle past the graveyard. I think, last night, that's what this Congress did. The majority on the other side rammed through a bill that's not going to do anything to move us toward energy independence, and that means we're going to continue to send $700 billion a year overseas to Saudi Arabia, to Nigeria, to Venezuela, and to other countries, many of whom don't like us at all and who are using our own money against us. $700 billion a year. While we didn't do anything about that, that which would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the United States, we have found that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae we have bailed out for God only knows how much money. It's in the hundreds and hundreds of billions. It's probably going to be more than the S&L tragedy we had years ago. Bear Stearns we bailed out. AIG, $85 billion last night. There's $25 billion to $30 billion we're going to give to the auto industry. We're going to be giving money, no doubt, to the aviation industry because it's in trouble because of the energy crisis. The stimulus package we're talking about is going to cost probably about $50 billion in the next week because the Democrat majority is going to send that to the floor, and we don't have the money. We're talking about $800 billion to $900 billion that the taxpayers are going to have to cough up that we do not have. Now, what does that mean for the economy of the United States? It means simply that the dollar and the economy are going the wrong way. Today, get this: Gold went up over $70 an ounce. If you look back over the past several years, gold was running between $250 an ounce. Today, it went up by 25 percent over what the average was for the price of gold. Do you know why? It's because there is no confidence in the dollar right now, and we're not doing a darned thing in this body or in the other body to deal with the problem. Nothing. We had a chance last night to move toward energy independence and to save $700 billion a year that we're sending overseas. That would have made a dent in the problem we're dealing with right now, and it would have provided a mechanism for hundreds of thousands of jobs, and it would have cut the price of gasoline and of heating oil and of everything else that we have to deal with. It would have moved us radically toward energy independence. It would have helped stabilize the economy of the United States. We didn't do a darned thing, and everybody knows it. Everybody knows what we did last night was a sham. It's not going to result in any drilling. It's not going to result in any more oil here in the United States. It's not going to result in anything toward nuclear or toward alternative sources of energy. It's not going to do a darned thing. Yet we went to the American people last night, my Democrat majority with that bill, and said, ``Hey, we're going to solve your energy problem,'' and it was a big lie, a facade. We had an alternative bill. We had an alternative bill sponsored by Democrats and Republicans--Mr. Abercrombie and Mr. Peterson, Democrats and Republicans--that would have moved us toward energy independence that was really a compromise. It didn't allow drilling in the ANWR, which I preferred, but it did allow other things like coal shale converted to oil and drilling off the Outer Continental Shelf. It would have resulted in revenue sharing with the States that would allow us to drill. The bill that we passed did not do any of that. The bottom line is this economy is in real trouble, and it's not just because of this Congress, but it's in real trouble because of loans that we gave to people who didn't deserve home loans, and it was because of the packaging of those loans and selling them up the line. The fact of the matter is we could have done something last night to help stem the tide by passing an energy bill that would have led us not only to energy independence but to saving about $700 billion a year that we're sending overseas to people who are not our friends. It's a real tragedy. This Congress is sitting on its hands, and it's not doing anything at a time when this country is crying out for some action, not just for energy, not just for lower gas prices but for some kind of a movement toward solving the economic problems that face this country. I'm going to end by telling you this: If gold goes up $70 in one day, that's an indication that the value of the dollar is going down the tubes. In addition to that, everybody's 401(k)s and IRAs are going down with it. This is a very, very difficult time for America, and Congress needs to respond, and we're not doing a darned thing. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are listening. The Democrat majority needs to do something about this, especially about the energy crisis right now and not just sit on your hands and pass bills to help get people reelected, which is what you did last night.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, this bill is all about the future. It's about protecting the Democrat incumbents to make sure they get reelected. This should be called ``The Protect Congressmen and Congresswomen Bill.'' We're bringing this bill to the floor at the 11th hour just before we adjourn for this year, unless we have a special session. They know full well this bill is not going to get through the Senate. So we're not doing anything. This is window dressing. We have a severe problem in this country, and they're doing nothing but creating a facade so the American people will think they're doing something when they're not. This bill will not do anything to help people with the price they are paying for food, gasoline, clothes or anything else that is transported by diesel or gasoline. It's not going to do anything because it's not going to go anywhere. In addition to that, this bill has no nuclear, no clean coal, no refineries and no revenue sharing with the States. So if a State says they want to drill off the coast 50 or 100 miles, which is a long way and it's going to be really deep, they are not going to do it unless they're going to get something back, some revenue back. Why else would they do it? So this bill is really a facade because it's not going to encourage the States to allow drilling off their coast because they don't get anything for it. This bill increases taxes on the oil companies. It's going to discourage further exploration and further drilling. This bill is something that the American people ought to know is a fraud. It is not going anywhere. It's not going to solve the gasoline crisis problem. It's not going to solve the energy problem. But it's going to help reelect some of the Democrats because they have heard from their constituents when they went home, you have to do something about the energy problem. You have to drill here in America. You have to pass a bill. So they're going to pass a bill. But this bill is not going to do anything. It's going to accomplish nothing. It's not going to get through the Senate. And we're going to be in the same situation 6 months from now because they will not move a real energy bill. There was a bipartisan bill that Mr. Abercrombie of Hawaii and Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania sponsored. I was a cosponsor of that bill. It had all kinds of compromises in it. But it dealt with the energy crisis. They don't want that bill. The Speaker doesn't want that bill. And they're not going to do a darn thing, and the American people ought to know.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, for many years, Washington, D.C. has had the distinction of being the murder capital of America. It's very high as far as crime is concerned, right up at the top. I want to tell you a couple of stories, and I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle listen to this. I had a gal that worked for me, a young lady that worked for me as my secretary, years ago. She lived about four blocks from the Capitol, and one night she had her window opened this much on the second floor. A guy shimmied up the drain pipe, came in with a 4-inch knife and stabbed her four times. The only way she could protect herself was to hit him in the head with a pan. She couldn't have mace, she couldn't have a gun, and so she was at his mercy. When I first got elected, I took a cab to the Capitol. On the way in, I said to the cab driver, I said, tell me about Washington, D.C. He said, ``Oh, it's a beautiful place, but there is an awful lot of crime.'' I said, ``Back in Indiana I used to carry a lot of money in my business, and I had a gun permit. Maybe I should get one here.'' He said, ``Oh, you can't get a gun permit here in Washington, D.C. Nobody has guns here except the police and the crooks.'' He reached under the front seat of his cab and pulled a .38 out and says, ``But if you want one of these, I can get it for you in 15 minutes.'' Now a person who wants to defend themselves and their family in this city, and they want to do it legally, they are at the mercy of the people who can get these guns in 15 minutes. The record shows that this has been a murder leader and a crime leader across this country, because criminals know if they break into your house, you don't have any way to defend yourselves. That's why the Supreme Court made the decision that it did, because people have a right to protect themselves. You know, I live across the river in Virginia. The crime rate over there in Alexandria is much, much lower than it is here, and it's because the people have the right to defend themselves and their property in their own homes. If they want to, they can get a gun permit to carry a gun to protect themselves. That's the way it ought to be in Washington, D.C., and it isn't. As a result, we have had Members of Congress mugged, the former minority leader of the House was mugged, beaten half to death. Two of my staff people have been mugged and beaten, one of them twice, and he took their money. They had no way to defend themselves, none, even in their homes. Now, we are not asking you to give gun permits to everybody that's walking around the streets, but they ought to at least have the right to have a gun in their home to protect themselves if somebody breaks in. I want to end up by saying this, I think this is a beautiful capital, I enjoy being in Congress, but there is no way in hell I would live in this city. I live across the river where it's safe.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, during the August recess, I think a lot of my colleagues got the message from their constituents that they want an energy bill, they want energy independence, and they want us to start working on that right now. I talked to some of my Democrat colleagues today, and I had an indication from them that we might have an energy bill next week. All I wanted to say to the leadership on the Democrat side is, Give us an energy bill that we can really support. Please don't give us a facade. Don't give us the frosting on the cake without the cake. We want an energy bill that will move us toward energy independence that will allow us to work and get energy from a whole host of sources, as well as the alternative sources that we're talking about in the new technologies. Give us a good energy bill. Don't give us a piece of junk that we can't vote for.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I see my other colleague who's here. I hope I am not jumping in front of you. If I am, I will pledge to you I am going to talk a very short period of time so you can get to the mike and express your views. My brother, Congressman Latta, is a State representative in Indiana, Woody Burton, and he called me the other day and he gave me some startling facts. I think the American people would be interested in hearing these things he told me because I'm sure it's happening all over the country. He said that sales tax in Indiana is down by 28 percent, which means simply that people are buying so much less because they are spending their money on gasoline and getting to and from work and on buying products that they have to have to survive. Food. Milk in Indiana had gone from about $2 a gallon, up over $3, and they are making packages of food that are close to the same price but they contain less of the commodity. And so sales tax is down in Indiana by 28 percent. But just to let you know how much the people are spending on gasoline, gas sales tax is up 24 percent. So you see a direct correlation between the amount of money people are spending on products that help the economy and the amount of money that they are spending on gasoline to get to and from work and do what they have to do. My colleague from Georgia just made a very eloquent statement on why we need to deal with this energy crisis now. I won't belabor the point by going into it again, except to say that about 75 or 80 percent of the American people, depending on which poll you look at, say: Drill here, drill now, just like T. Boone Pickens says. They don't want to see $700 billion going overseas when we can keep that money at home and create hundreds of thousands of jobs which, again, would be a big help to the economy. I just want to say we really need an energy bill, we need it right away, and if the American people are paying attention, I hope that they will, Mr. Latta, take this opportunity to contact their Congressman and Senators because when the pressure is put on them, then they do respond. I talked to one of my Democratic colleagues today. He is a cosponsor of a bill that I am sponsoring with him and about 20 other Members of the House, both Democrats and Republicans, which is a bipartisan energy bill. And he said their caucus today was entirely about the energy issue, and he told me he was confident that we would have an opportunity to debate and vote on an energy bill in the next 2 or 3 weeks, which is the end of the session. I hope he is correct, and I hope if we do have an energy bill, it's a real energy bill and not some kind of a facade. If we get a facade here, I hope we at least have some amendments that we can vote on, which would make it a real energy bill, and that means we'd have to have an open rule. So let me just say to Mr. Latta one more time, thank you for doing this. I know it takes away from things you would like to be doing elsewhere, but you come down here on the floor of the House, along with a few of our colleagues, to talk about how important this issue is. And I applaud you for that.