John Garamendi

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Yesterday, Dr. Kagen and I were in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, and Dr. Kagen was in the chair, and we heard from a panel of contractors and bus manufacturers that the stimulus bill actually created jobs. Dr. Kagen, I know you have personal experience in this. You had told me about it earlier. Why don't you share that experience where Republicans say no jobs are created, yet the contractors, the voters are saying thank goodness for the stimulus bill because it kept me in business, it kept my employees employed. Dr. Kagen.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Dr. Kagen.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, we have about 10 minutes left, and I would like to bring us back really to where we started, or where I started this discussion, and that is, for the first 18 months, the strategy of the Democratic Party in this House, in the Senate, and with President Obama has been to stabilize the American economy. Let me go back to this. Let's review what was happening. Beginning in December of 2007, the last 2 years of the George W. Bush administration, the American economy slid into a recession. It became the greatest recession in America's recent history, since the Great Depression of the 1930s. By December of 2008, in January of 2009, the last months of the Bush administration, we were losing over 700,000 jobs, 750,000 jobs a month. President Obama came in and my two colleagues here--I was not yet in Congress, having just joined last November--you put through the stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It stabilized. It stopped the slide, and people began to go back to work, with the largest, middle class tax cut in America's history, the largest middle class tax cut ever in American history. There were major investments in infrastructure. The result, after 18 months, was 2.8 million Americans working that otherwise would have been out of work or had gone back to work; 2.8 million Americans. We see that here. We see the improvement, the monthly reduction in the number of people losing jobs. So that by this year, 2010, after 1 year of the stimulus program and other programs that were all voted on by Democrats with virtually no Republican support, we began to see job growth; not enough, not nearly enough. We are now shifting gears. We are into the second half. We have stabilized the first half. We have reached some improvement, and now, now it is the second half. In the second half, manufacturing matters. This is the heart, the soul, the strength of the American economy, and it is where the middle class makes it. It happens to be, as you so eloquently pointed out, Dr. Kagen, it is where the middle class lost. When those manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas, middle class lost. We will make it in America when we manufacture once again in America. Both of my colleagues here have laid out some very important elements. One is the international competition, and I would like, Dr. Kagen, if you could review with us the international competition and the disadvantage of one--both hands tied behind the American manufacturer's back. Dr. Kagen.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Before I turn to the gentlewoman from Ohio, I want to pick up that tax policy. American tax policy, probably set by both Democrats and Republicans in the past decades, gave an advantage to United States corporations that would offshore American jobs with a tax credit, $14.5 billion a year. The end of those credits came to the floor a month ago on a piece of legislation that would end those tax breaks that American corporations have for offshoring jobs. The Democrats voted to move that to the Senate. Not one Republican voted for ending those despicable tax breaks that the corporations have. There is a difference here. Where do you stand? For whom do you fight? Now, the gentlewoman from Ohio started us off talking about how we might use our tax money more wisely. Would you please bring us back to the reality of what's going on in your district and how this would benefit your district.

Mr. GARAMENDI. How correct you are. And we would reach out to our Republican colleagues and ask them to join us on Making It in America. We've had enough of our tax dollars shipped overseas to buy buses that are manufactured overseas, to buy trains and ferries. Our tax dollars need to be spent at home. If it's a water system, a sanitation system, a bus, if it's our tax dollars, make it in America. If it's our tax dollars, then let's use it to make our future energy supplies--wind turbines, solar systems--make it in America. It's our mission, in the second half of this session, to make it in America.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Sutton, would you like to pick it up from there?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Please.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If the gentleman would yield, the Wall Street Reform Act goes to the heart of both of those issues.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Those would be Wall Street banks?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me. Are you telling us that banks own more homes than individual families do?

Mr. GARAMENDI. We will make it in America. If the gentlelady would yield, I would like to turn to our colleague, Dr. Kagen from Wisconsin. He and I were chatting earlier, and he was in a rage about what happens on the international scene. Would you like to share that with us, Dr. Kagen?

Mr. GARAMENDI. So we will use our tax dollars to create manufacturing jobs in America.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. You mentioned Democratic leadership. Just next to you is our Democratic leader, the Congressman from the great State of Maryland (Mr. Hoyer). I suspect you have a few things you'd like to say, and you may want to cover the 20 or 30 bills that under your leadership and Speaker Pelosi that the Democrats have passed out of this House with no Republican support. But I'll leave it to you to speak on the matter of manufacturing. But before you do, if you will look over here Mr. Leader, ``Make It in America.'' Now that came from a tremendous leader. Our majority leader said in caucus one day, Make it in America. It's your slogan, it's our slogan. I yield.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko, thank you so very much for bringing us that perspective. I am going to very quickly run through a scenario of policy changes that the Democratic majority in the House has approved by overwhelming Democratic majority and which the Republican minorities have consistently voted ``no'' on, almost to a person. First of all, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; 2.8 million jobs created out of that, every single Republican voted ``no.'' This was the stimulus bill. The Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act; 98 percent of the Republicans voted ``no.'' This was to keep people in their homes, to help small businesses. The health insurance reform; 100 percent of the Republicans voted ``no,'' and this is the bill that provides a subsidy for businesses that buy health insurance for their employees, keeping their employees healthy. Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, giving students the opportunity to go to school, whether they are 50 years of age or 18 years of age, increasing the Pell Grants; every Republican voted ``no.'' The Democrats passed it. Cash for Clunkers, keeping the auto industry alive; a majority of the House Republicans voted ``no,'' 95 out of their caucus. Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment, the HIRE Act, which will help create 300,000 jobs; 97 percent of the Republicans voted ``no.'' Credit cards. How many of us have been ripped off on our credit cards, the hidden interest bump that occurs after 3 or 4 months? The House Republicans voted ``no.'' The Democrats passed that, and it's now law with the President signing the Wall Street reform. And speaking of the Wall Street reform, every House Republican voted ``no.'' The great collapse of the American economy caused by Wall Street excesses. Republicans stood with Wall Street; the Democrats stood for reform. The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act passed by the House and Senate; 90 percent of the Republicans voted ``no.'' Small business, Republicans voted ``no.'' The Home Star Energy Retrofit Act, how we can improve the efficiency of our homes and put thousands of people to work; 93 percent of the Republicans voted ``no.'' The COMPETES Act, creating an educated workforce. You and I worked on this in the Science and Technology Committee. So what do the Republicans do? They voted ``no.'' This is the law that gives us science and technology education, gives us the resources, the research for the next generation, on and on and on. We need policies that move the manufacturing of America, that put Californians, New Yorkers, Ohioans, Minnesotans, Wisconsin and every other State, those people need to go back to work. The jobs program, the innovation programs, the manufacturing programs, those are Democratic agenda items. We vote them out of this House, the Republicans vote ``no'' on them, and then it goes over to the Senate where the power of one Senator, usually a Republican, has stalled it all. We are not finished. We have just begun. We are going to put America back to work. We are going to make it in America, and Americans will make it. That's our agenda. That's what we are all about, and we are going to see that it gets done. I want to thank my colleagues and thank you for joining us this evening. For the American people, we thank you for your attention.

Mr. GARAMENDI. We will not find any unanimity among the Democratic Caucus on that, but let's yield to Dr. Kagen.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Somewhere between California and Philadelphia is where Dr. Kagen is from. And you actually started a major business in America. You know what it is to make things in America. You are a physician, you are an entrepreneur, and you are one heck of a legislator. So please share with us.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio for bringing to us the perspective of things that we have yet to do; the idea of a strategy. You mentioned several pieces of that strategy, one of which the Democrats in this House have already done, the Senate voted for it, it's been signed into law, and it happens to deal with education. We know that if you're going to have a manufacturing strategy where you compete in the worldwide market, you need a well-educated workforce. And so the Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act was passed here several months ago, was approved over in the Senate, and the President has signed it. One very interesting fact about the way that bill passed this House. It passed without one Republican vote. Every Republican voted ``no'' or didn't vote at all. Only the Democrats voted to increase the Pell Grants to make it possible for students to enter college, to enter the community colleges. You can't have a first class manufacturing industry unless you have a well-educated workforce, which means education. And that's what we did. It's now the law. Every student and wannabe student across this Nation now has access to that additional money.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Let's do it and then we can export them, too. I notice next to you the gentlewoman from the great State of Ohio. She is determined to change from the Rust Belt to the Future Belt. Congresswoman Betty Sutton is joining us. You are right smack in the middle of what once was the greatest industrial section anywhere in the world. Please share with us your experiences and your hopes and where you think we ought to be going.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Leader, thank you so very much. I notice we're joined by yet another Representative from another State, Mr. Tonko of New York, and you have often talked to me about the manufacturing that occurs in your area. Could you share us with your experiences and how all of this comes together in the great State of New York?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Happy cows.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Under the present laws of the United States, the Department of Transportation has the opportunity to use our tax money to purchase rail cars made in Philadelphia, or buses made in California or in the Midwest, but they don't often do it. Instead, they use one of four waivers that are in the law that allows our tax money to be spent on things that are manufactured--buses, trains, light rail, subway cars--manufactured overseas and imported. Our tax money is going overseas. And I'm going, no way, no how. So what you and I and others are working on is to eliminate three of those waivers and simply say, ``No, no, no, no, no. If it's our tax money, we're going to use it to buy rail cars manufactured in Philadelphia.''

Mr. GARAMENDI. The gentleman is getting carried away. Let me just cut you off and say that there is no candle that I've lit that was not already lit by the Democratic Caucus. I came here just 8 months ago and much of this work was under way. You did mention something that caught my attention, and that is that in Philadelphia there is a rail car manufacturer.

Mr. GARAMENDI. You have that experience of women from Ohio, and it couldn't be better, and we certainly appreciate our colleague from Ohio, Congresswoman Sutton. I noticed over here on my left side a gentleman who comes from the Continental Divide. Congressman Perlmutter has been very deeply involved. He was here a moment ago bringing to us a rule from the Rules Committee as a member there. You were talking to me earlier about the way in which the economy is changing, and Colorado's become a manufacturing State. So please share with us.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If you yield for a moment, I assume, therefore, you must be from Minnesota.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. I want to spend this evening talking about manufacturing. Manufacturing matters. It is the foundation of any solid economy. It is the one part of the American economy that is seriously hurting, and with the great recession, the manufacturing sector in America has even further weakened. I would like to start this discussion with just a quick review of what has happened with regard to jobs over the last 3 years. If you will look here on this diagram, you will notice that, beginning in 2007, jobs in America slowed down and began to decline, so much so that, between 2007 and November of 2009, some 700,000 jobs a month were being lost in the fall and into the early winter of 2009. When the Obama administration came in, it was at the lowest possible point of some nearly 800,000 jobs lost in December and January. As the administration came in, very strong action was taken--the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, which was an effort to move the economy and to put people back to work. It was a major tax cut in that. The largest middle class tax cut ever was part of that. There was an effort to build roads and streets and infrastructure, and money was sent to school districts to continue to employ teachers and to stabilize the American economy. It worked. It worked, and slowly we saw a decline in the number of jobs that were lost. We didn't see an immediate growth in jobs. It didn't happen. It takes a long time to recover from a very serious recession, in fact, the worst recession since the 1930s. But over the months that followed, each month, improvement, improvement, improvement, so that this year we're beginning to see the effects of the efforts of the Democratic Congress, some Senate help, and the President in turning around the economy, so that in 2010, in the most recent months, we're beginning to see job growth. In fact, we've added nearly 600,000 jobs this year. No longer a decline; stabilization and now job growth. So with this background, we can begin to understand the efforts that are being made here in Congress by the Democratic Party and by the President. An historic piece of legislation was signed today that deals with the underlying collapse and the reasons for the collapse of the American economy and, indeed, the economy of the entire world. Today, around 11:30 today, President Obama signed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a very important law--clearly, the most important financial regulation law since the 1930s--designed specifically to deal with the underlying problems that led to the collapse of Wall Street. Many parts of it, the kinds of excesses and gambling with our money that took place are going to be history. They're not going to be allowed under the new law. A consumer protection agency has been put in place to provide consumers with a place to go with their complaint and to protect them. Now, I know about this. I did this for two terms as the insurance commissioner in California. I know the importance of a consumer protection agency. We will soon have such an agency in the United States to help us, as consumers, to make sure that those mortgages are no longer subprime and hidden costs with hidden resets. All of that is in law now, as a result of what this Democratic Caucus did, and with the help of just three Republicans over in the Senate passing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Now, what has been done is good, and I'll talk about some other bills as we go through this afternoon, but I want also to make it clear that it is not enough. Manufacturing matters. We need to rebuild the manufacturing base of America. We need to make it in America, and we can. I don't think there's a person on this floor that doesn't want to walk into a Target store and find ``Made in America'' labels on everything. We're not going to get there immediately, but we can sure get there much, much faster if we pass the correct laws. Joining me today in this discussion are several of my colleagues from around the Nation who are going to tell their story and what's happening in their community. I'd like to start on the far east coast. Now, I'm a west coast person. I'm from California, but there is another side to the continent. They'd like to say it's the right side, and sometimes they call California the left side. But my colleague from the great State of Pennsylvania would like to inform us about what's going on in Pennsylvania and, more specifically, in the Philadelphia area. I yield to the gentleman.