John Garamendi

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. And 100 percent of Americans moving forward.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Surcharge is only on the amount over $1 million.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Same tax rate, doesn't change at all.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might just interrupt you, Mr. Tonko. You mentioned sound progressive policies. We've all been back home over Thanksgiving. I've talked to a couple of those people that are on that blue line way up there, and they're willing to pay a little more for fairness. But I also have heard from some who say, well, we can't do anything until you control Medicare. And what do they recommend in Medicare? They recommend extending the age from 65 to 67. And I'm going, What sense does that make? When you consider that Medicare was started in 1964, 51 percent of those men and women over 65 had no health insurance. Today, virtually everyone over 65 has health insurance. It's Medicare. It is one of the solid bedrock programs that keeps people--seniors--from falling into poverty. Back in 1964, 30 percent of the seniors were in poverty. Without Medicare, they would be in poverty again today. And yet our Republican colleagues want to terminate Medicare, literally turn Medicare over to the private insurance companies who I know, as a previous insurance commissioner, will not provide a reasonably priced policy or benefit to somebody who is 65 because those are the people that get sick. Similarly, they have said repeatedly since the 1930s that they want to terminate Social Security. We hear that. We hear the background buzz around this building. They want to terminate Social Security. These are the programs that give American seniors the dignity and the opportunity not only to live a good life, but to even live, to stay alive.

Mr. GARAMENDI. So why don't they support this?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Can I interrupt for just a second? The American Jobs Act, which we're trying to push through this Congress to get men and women back to work, provides a tax reduction for the employer on wages less than $50 million. So for your childcare provider, for the small business person, the carpenter out there in the small business, they also get a 50 percent reduction in their payroll tax. So instead of 6.2, it goes to 3.1. So this isn't just for the wage earner. This is also for the business person.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank my colleague from the great State of New York, picking up the east-west program once again.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Kaptur, you've gone too far. Thank you so very, very much for picking up. Tonight is a very special night for California. We lit the holiday tree in front of the Capitol. It was a tree that came from a community very close to where I was raised in California. I was out there with the choir from Summerville High School in Tuolumne County, an area that I represented for some 20 years, and then others around the area. A beautiful, beautiful tree from the Stanislaus National Forest in California. There really is much to celebrate and much to be concerned about in America. We are still a very great country. We're the strongest, wealthiest place on this Earth. We have incredible opportunity and potential. I saw it in those kids that were singing in front of the Nation's Capitol this evening. Yet there's so much pain, as was pointed out by you and our colleague from Houston earlier. Americans care about each other. They deeply are concerned about what's going on in our communities, and they want solutions to the problem. That's our task. There's 435 of us here and over in the Senate another 100. And, of course, the President. It's our task to find the solutions. The President has put forth a very powerful program called the American Jobs Act. One piece of it has, fortunately, passed. It was passed just a few days after Veterans Day when I guess we were out at the parades, and we made promises to take care of the veterans. Fortunately, a piece of legislation did pass. Only one part of the American Jobs Act, though there's much more to do. My colleagues, Ms. Kaptur, and the gentlelady from Houston, we're talking about a piece of it. The veterans piece provides employers a very powerful incentive to hire a veteran. A very, very powerful incentive. You can reduce your taxes by $2,600 to hire a veteran that's been unemployed; a long-term unemployed veteran, $5,600 reduction in your taxes; and in addition to that, the President proposed that if it is a veteran who is disabled as a result of their service, a $9,600 reduction in taxes. That's right off the tax line. So we've got to get the message out to employers: Hire, put people back to work, the veterans. It's one of the elements the President has proposed in his American Jobs Act. And you were so powerfully putting forward just a moment ago the issue of the payroll tax deduction. It's going to end. There will be a tax increase for every American who is earning up to $106,000, a tax increase average of $1,500 across this Nation. We want to keep that tax reduction in place. We Democrats do not want a tax increase on the working middle class, no. But again, as was pointed out just a moment ago, our Republican friends are saying, Well, that's a good idea, but where are you going to get the money? You can't get the money from those whose annual income is more than $1 million; $1 million a year annual income, you can't tax them. That's not fair to tax those people. They're the job creators. Baloney. They're not the job creators any more than any other small business in the community who doesn't even come close to having an annual income of $1 million. So let's be fair about this. They've had an enormous tax break over the last decade. It's time for them to come forward and to share in the burden of America and put Americans back to work. The American Jobs Act works. Let me now turn to my colleague from New York. Well, Ms. Kaptur, you're running this operation, so, please.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. It's a country in which the American Dream lives, and we have the obligation to make sure that it's there for future generations. Mr. Tonko, we're going to do a rapid 30 seconds around.

Mr. GARAMENDI. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back with great thanks to my colleagues and for the opportunity to be a Member of Congress.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Kaptur.

Mr. GARAMENDI. And then carried on in the 1960s with Medicare. We have much to be thankful for as Americans, don't we?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, you are absolutely correct. This is where we stand. This is where we fight. Ms. Kaptur.

Mr. GARAMENDI. We have maybe 10 more minutes here. You talked about the purchasing power of Americans. On January 1, unless we act, American workers will lose about $1,500 of purchasing power. We must renew and continue the reduction in the Social Security tax that American workers are paying and businesses are paying. And by the way, it's totally paid for by those superwealthy--a 3.5 percent increase on their taxes over a million dollars a year. So it's totally paid for. It's part of the American Jobs Act. I was just talking to the gentleman from New York, and it came about because of what you said about those men and women that have spent their lifetime working here in America. And I want to end on this between the three of us. We Democrats have made a promise to America. It's not a contract. It is a promise. It's a pledge. And that pledge is to protect Social Security and Medicare, two of the most fundamental American programs, both of which are at risk of being significantly modified or, in the case of Medicare, destroyed by our Republican colleagues. I want to make it very, very clear and get the comments from my two colleagues here about our commitment to these programs. Social Security is the bedrock foundation for every American's retirement; and given the way the stock market gyrates because of those financial institutions and the games they play, you can't count on your 401(k). But here's the promise to America from the Democrats: you will always be able to count on Social Security. If they want to fight about it, then this is the fight we will have and we will win. On Medicare, millions of seniors are not in poverty today and alive today because they have Medicare insurance, a fundamental American program. Mr. Tonko.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Before I turn to my colleague from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) who has just joined us, I want to pull up this chart. If only you had had this next to you while you just made this statement about the change in the nature of America's wealth. This chart has become, I think, rather famous--or infamous, I think, is a better word. The blue line here is a chart that shows the growth in the wealth, the income of the top 1 percent of Americans. And down here is what the rest of Americans have had over the last 20 years or so. What we've seen is basically a flat-lining for the middle class, and certainly for the poor--no improvement, or very, very little improvement, in their situation. This is the 99 percent here. This is the 1 percent. This is the anger that you now see on the streets of America, and it's exactly what you were talking about, Mr. Tonko, with a few, 1 percent of the American public, getting an ever increasing share of the American income and wealth, creating a bifurcated society, one with very few that are extremely wealthy, and the rest that are actually growing poorer. With that, I'd like to turn to a woman from the great Midwest, the State of Ohio that is enduring this exact hollowing out of the American middle class. Marcy Kaptur, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for years of work representing your part of what was once the great industrial strength of America. I know that you want to share with us tonight some thoughts that you shared with me earlier this day, as you went home, as you talked to the men and women in Cleveland. Please.

Mr. GARAMENDI. We have much to be thankful for. We are thankful for those men and women that served here in this House over the years that brought us to where we are--the world's strongest, greatest country with the greatest opportunity. Even with all of the troubles we have today, it's still a country with great opportunity.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might take up, after interrupting you, some of the things that you were talking about. Down through the years, from the very earliest days of this country, there has been a joining of the government and the private sector to accomplish, really, the building of America. And it's been done in many, many ways. I was startled and surprised and frankly, very, very happy when Ms. Schakowsky brought that document in from George Washington's administration about the establishment of industrial policy that placed the American government in synchronization with the then-new manufacturing program industries in America. You talked about the mill towns. They didn't just happen. They happened because there was a government policy working with them, those entrepreneurs, to create these new businesses, these new jobs. And down through the centuries, more than 2\1/2\, almost 2\1/2\ now, we have been able to use this synergy, this government working with the American public, the private sector, to create this incredible country we call America and really, to create the American Dream that all of us possess or have participated in. Today, we're in a discussion, if you will, with the American public about whether to continue that coordination of the public governments-- State, local, Federal governments--working to achieve a goal in the private sector. There's a different vision out there that basically says, get out of the way. Get government away and things will go well. Eliminate all regulation, eliminate all of the programs, and let the free market do it. It's never worked, and the proof of it is found in the first decade of this century. In the first decade of this century, that philosophy of push government aside, deregulate, reduce taxes, and get government out of the way actually created a situation of the Great Recession and no jobs; in fact, 8 million American jobs lost. We need to go back to the policies that actually created growth in America, the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, carried out by Truman and Eisenhower. Even Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson carried out the very basic policies that, working together, we can build a great country.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Jackson Lee, you've talked about the investments; you've talked about the international aspects of our economy. Mr. Tonko, you were so correct when you talk about what happens when those infrastructures are not there. Now, in the American Jobs Act, which we ought to be working on and passing, there is $50 billion over and above the ongoing money. This is new money, additional money, that would be immediately available to restore the coastal areas of the United States, to rebuild the infrastructure and those areas that have been hard hit by the floods of this year, to improve the 100-year-old-plus bridges in America. Those are all things that we need to move our economy. Ms. Sutton from Ohio talked earlier about the sanitation and water systems. Each and every one of these should be framed in such a way as to create American jobs, not just the construction jobs but the rest of the story, which is the concrete, the steel, the bolts, the pumps. All of those things that go into the infrastructure can and should be American made if we have a policy. Now, on the floor here 3 weeks ago, we were talking about this; and our colleague from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) brought something to the floor that just blew me away. She brought a document that was prepared in 1788 by George Washington, and it was a manufacturing policy for America. He told Hamilton, who was then the Secretary of the Treasury, to go out and to develop eight steps for an American manufacturing policy. So this is not new in America, folks. We need a manufacturing policy in America. We call it Make It in America. It's a tax policy, an educational policy, an infrastructure policy, and it is an international trade policy where we don't give it away, but we require fair trade--not free trade--fair trade. These are American manufacturing policies of today. Thank you, George Washington, for setting us on the course. We need to continue it.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much. You are always on top of the issues and you're always so very, very correct. Sheila Jackson Lee, thank you for the enormous amount of work you have done for your constituents in the city of Houston. You mentioned the supercommittee. We ought to spend at least a few moments on that. Everybody says it was a failure and they did not achieve the goal that was set out; however, the public needs to know that the legislation that set up the supercommittee actually reduced the deficit of the United States by $2.1 trillion. A $2.1 trillion reduction in the deficit in the legislation that established the supercommittee. One trillion of that is already going into place. The other $1.1 trillion, it was the specific task of the supercommittee to try to find out if there was a better way to make the cuts, or adding revenue. They were unable to put the revenue together, but the cuts remain, and those are going to go forward. You're quite correct, Ms. Jackson Lee, that we do have the next 13 months, almost 14 months, to figure out a better way. Maybe it's revenue or less cuts. Maybe it's different cuts that are currently across the board in the Defense Department as well as in the discretionary funding. But we have a chance to do that. We have time to do that. It's not all lost. The deficit has been reduced. Now we need to do it in a smarter way, one that actually promotes American jobs, puts people to work, and creates more jobs and manufacturing in America. Mr. Tonko, you come from a State that really started the great American Industrial Revolution and an area in which it actually began, the Hudson River Valley, so why don't we carry on our conversation here. You were talking about research, or take it wherever you would like to go.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I appreciate your correction of my characterization of the bill. Nonetheless, it's a great piece of legislation; and it's part of the Make It In America agenda, using our tax money, in this case to build the sanitation systems, the water systems, and requiring that that money be used to buy American-made equipment. I have a bill that would do the same thing for solar and wind programs--wind turbines and solar, as well as for trains, buses and the like. It's our tax money; use it to buy American-made equipment. That's part of the Democratic agenda. And it works. I can give some examples a little later. I do want to thank you because there is nobody working harder in this entire Capitol building--Democrat, Republican, or the Senate--than you are in rebuilding the manufacturing center of America, the great State of Ohio. Now, Texas is a little far from Ohio, but you've got a few things going for you in Texas. Let me introduce Sheila Jackson Lee. Thank you for joining us once again.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, indeed, you are carrying many pieces of legislation. I like your one--what was it, don't flush America down the drain--having to do with rebuilding our sanitation systems here in the United States.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, you were talking about the need for investment; and, indeed, in the area of education and research, critical functions, I do want to stay with that subject for a while. Our colleague from the great State of Ohio, Ms. Betty Sutton, has joined us. Thank you very much for being with us this evening. I know you, too, had a family and a constituency to work with this last week, so please share with us your thoughts.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for just a moment. Every hour we're here we're joined by men and women who are working hard on behalf of the American people. The stenographers taking down our words here deserve a praise of thanksgiving; not that our words are so worthwhile to put into the American Record, but they do it, nonetheless, and I want to thank them for their good work, and for the staff behind us as we go through this hour.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you so much. The experiences that we have as we return to our districts and talk to our constituents and share with our families, these are the stories of life. These are the stories of real Americans that are out there. Not that we're not real. We've got a very special task as their Representatives to represent them here, and they do want jobs. They want to go back to work. We know that many of them are unable to find jobs. In American Jobs Act, in addition to the tax issues I just talked about--and I must say we actually got something done just before the Thanksgiving recess--there was another provision, and that was for the veterans. This was part of the President's proposal that actually did become law. What he wanted to do--and we agreed with him--was to give veterans, those men and women that are out there fighting for this country in Iraq and in Afghanistan and even way back into the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War, a chance for a job. There's a very special tax provision that's totally paid for, not borrowed, that we actually voted out of here so that employers got a tax credit, which is a reduction in their taxes, for every veteran they hired--$5,600 for an unemployed veteran or $9,600 for a disabled veteran. I'm very, very pleased that we were able to do that for the veterans. That's one very important slice of the American public that is facing unemployment; but there are many, many more. And if I can just pick up for a second on a couple of words you said; you talked about investment. In the American Jobs Act, there is a very, very important investment, and you mentioned it. It's the education investment. The President proposed that we spend about $30 billion to keep teachers in the classroom now so that our kids would be able to continue to learn. That's the future; and if they miss a year of learning, they're going to be behind the rest of their lives. And so he proposed that. It's still out there. It's open, and it hasn't had a chance to come forward yet. We'll see, maybe we can get that one done. That's a critical investment in our children. What's more important than our children.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, it's good to be back, and I hope all of my colleagues had as enjoyable a Thanksgiving as I did with my family and with our constituents back in our districts. We have much to be thankful for. After all, this is America, and this has always been the place of dreams. This is America. It's always been the place where people have found opportunity; where, whatever they wanted to do, they could achieve it; and it's still that America today. But it's up to us, in the third year of this recession, to restore the American Dream, and there are ways that we can do it. And tonight, together with my colleagues who will soon be joining me, we will talk about various ways in which the Democrats in this House will and have made numerous proposals to restore the American Dream. I was out in the district for five of the days that we were gone, talking to people. In fact, one fellow who has a book binding company-- a man who's 85 years old and is about to retire and turn that company over to his employees--was talking about the enormous strength of this Nation, and he was sharing the story of himself and his employees and the way in which they came here. And many struggled from very bad situations in other countries, but they came here with optimism. They came here with a true belief that in America you can make it, that if you follow the rules, if you work hard, you can make it. You can have a good life. You can take care of your family. Unfortunately, for all too many Americans, that's not the case today. So restoring the American Dream is our task, and we can do it. The President, more than 2 months ago, proposed the American Jobs Act, a proposal that would put 2 to 3 million Americans back to work immediately. And tonight, on the other side of this Nation's Capitol, the U.S. Senate is debating a portion of that American Jobs Act, a portion of it that is a very, very significant tax cut for men and women that are working. Their Social Security payments would be reduced by 50 percent. No longer would they pay 6.2 percent of their wages into the Social Security fund. They would pay 3.1 percent--and for their employers, the same reduction--providing a very powerful incentive for individuals to have money in their pockets, about $1,500 a year, money in their pockets so that they could participate in buying gifts for their children. As we look to Christmas, we know there are many, many Americans that are not going to be able to do that. Mr. Speaker, it's time for us in this House to follow the lead of the President and to give every American worker, 98 percent of Americans, a very significant tax reduction, $1,500, by reducing that Social Security tax. And for their employers, the same. If their employers are up to $50 million of payroll, they can reduce, by 50 percent, their Social Security tax so that that employer has more money to hire people. That debate is going on in the U.S. Senate today. Unfortunately, here in this House, we've not been able to even take up that issue. We should, because it's part of what we must do to put Americans back to work, to give them a break. Joining me in this discussion tonight as we talk about restoring the American Dream and about the things that we can do to make that happen is my colleague from the great State of New York (Mr. Tonko). We have often been here. We call ourselves the East-West Team. It is good to see you back. I hope you had as good a Thanksgiving as I did, and I'm sure you worked as hard in your district as I did during those days. Please share with us, and welcome back.