Robert Latta

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, amendment 259 will cut $70 million from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which I intend to be removed from the FreedomCAR initiative. Currently, H.R. 1 funds the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at $1,467,400,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. This amendment would reduce that amount to $1,397,400,000. This office already received $16.8 billion in stimulus funds, and $2.24 billion was appropriated in fiscal year 2010. While citizens across the country are struggling to pay their bills, it would be very difficult to justify not being able to cut $70 million from this office. With Americans also struggling with higher gasoline prices and other fuel costs rising, Congress should focus on legislation that allows us to utilize resources we have available to drive prices down. The free market is the best place for technological innovation. Reducing taxes and eliminating burdensome regulations will allow private companies to bring new, more fuel-efficient technologies to market when it becomes cost effective. With a forecasted deficit of $1.6 trillion this year and the national debt scheduled to triple in 10 years, I have serious concerns with spending more funds on programs that have received massive increases from stimulus spending. The President released his budget proposal this week which reflects a pattern of record spending and even higher taxes, this continued spending of funds that the United States Government does not have as we continue to borrow from other nations. During the last session of Congress alone, the President signed into law over $1.8 trillion in new government spending and over $670 billion in new job-damaging tax hikes. My $70 million cut will be a small reduction in an overbloated Federal budget. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would reduce spending for the Department of Commerce under the National Institute of Standards and Technology construction of research facilities account by $10 million and transfer those funds to the spending reduction account. This program provides government money for construction of research science buildings. Currently, H.R. 1 funds the technology construction of research facilities account at $58 million and this amendment would reduce it to $48 million. While scientific research is important, when our nation is experiencing massive deficits, we have to make these difficult cuts. With a forecasted deficit of $1.6 trillion this year and the national debt scheduled to triple in 10 years, I am simply proposing cutting spending from a program that received over $123 million in increased funding in the stimulus. The President released his budget proposal this week which reflects a pattern of record spending, and even higher taxes. This continued spending is funds that the U.S. Government does not have, as we continue to borrow from other countries. During the last session of Congress alone, the President signed into law over $1.8 trillion in new government spending and over $670 billion in new job damaging tax hikes. My $10 million cut is an example of a difficult cut that has to be made in our Federal budget. Furthermore, the Department of Commerce has established a national program office under the National Institute of Standards and Technology to begin development and implementation of the national strategy for trusted identities in cyberspace. The general goal of this strategy is to secure and protect transactions in cyberspace through use of a special ID, or digital identity, so that people can prove who they say they are. Let me say that cybersecurity and privacy are extremely important issues to all Americans. However, I have very strong concerns that this government-directed effort could destroy online anonymity, become the equivalent of a national Internet ID, and crowd out current private-sector efforts. That this project could potentially lead to issuance of a unique Internet ID that would serve as a single identifier for access to password-protected Web sites is frightening. It is equally concerning to think that if this single digital identity were to be hacked, the hacker would have access to a wide range of a user's personal information and accounts. Security of the cyber domain is serious, but a government-run or government-directed Internet ID system is a risk to liberty and this strategy is not the way to go about achieving this goal. The elected representatives of Congress should address these issues, not a government bureaucracy. I will be offering a limitation amendment to block any funding towards the development of this strategy, and that is why I am offering this amendment, No. 260, to cut funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the EPA has indicated they intend to overturn 30 years of precedent and designate coal ash as a hazardous waste, despite findings from the Department of Energy, the Federal Highway Administration, State regulatory authorities and the EPA itself that the toxicity levels in coal ash are well below the criteria that requires a hazardous waste designation. In fact, in the EPA's May 2000 regulatory determination, they concluded that coal ash does not warrant regulation as a hazardous waste, and that doing so would be environmentally counterproductive. About 45 percent of the coal ash generated is recycled, being used as an additive in cement, concrete, wallboard and roofing materials, road- based fill materials, and snow and ice control. While all of this is completely safe, designating coal ash as a hazardous waste would halt these beneficial uses, which the EPA estimates will lead to $16.7 billion in increased costs per year, further damaging our economy. Finally, the increased cost of coal ash disposal will lead to the closure of up to 18 percent of current coal-generated power, resulting in lost jobs, higher electricity costs, and further increasing our dependency on foreign countries for our energy needs, which we cannot afford. Mr. Speaker, I urge support.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my strong opposition to ObamaCare. ObamaCare will single-handedly have more negative ramifications on the American economy than any bill passed in our Nation's history. If not repealed, the $1.2 trillion government takeover of health care will increase the cost of care, eliminate jobs, and cause budget deficits and the national debt to explode. The Democrats' health care takeover contains $569 billion in taxes, increased government spending, a half-trillion- dollar cut in Medicare, increased costs to the States, and mandates on businesses. All of these are hurting the economy and making it harder for small businesses to create jobs and get people back to work. We need greater competition and more choices for consumers. Since this bill became law last spring, I have heard the same message across the Fifth Congressional District: Businesses aren't hiring new employees, buying new machinery, or expanding their businesses because of increases in costs under the legislation. Imposing these higher costs on businesses will lead to lower wages and fewer workers.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise on this sad day to join my colleagues in recognizing the lives of those affected by the horrible tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, this past weekend. As we reflect on this tragic event, the one thing that must be remembered is that our colleague from Arizona, Congresswoman Giffords, was simply doing her job, a job that she loves to do. Meeting with her constituents and providing them with assistance is the basic duty of any Member of Congress. The best and only way for Members of Congress to carry out their oaths is to be with, listen to, and see what our constituents are experiencing. The nameplates on the front of our offices read ``Representative.'' Congresswoman Giffords was doing just as we do day in and day out--representing our citizens at home and here in Washington. The loss of life and injury suffered by the victims will always be remembered by this body. Whether it was Federal Judge John Roll; Gabe Zimmerman, Congresswoman Giffords' staff member; or 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, all of those who lost their lives or who were injured will hold a special place in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. We cannot let this random act of heinous violence deter us from our duty to serve our constituents, and I know we will move forward together as a stronger united House.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Section 2: ``The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service to the United States; he may require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of the respective offices, and he shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.''

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and congratulate one of Ohio's longest and continuous farming operations. The year 2010 marks the 175th anniversary of Lewis Clark homesteading and clearing the land south of present day Stryker, in Williams County, Ohio. The deed for the conveyance of one hundred sixty acres of land is dated October 7, 1835 and is granted under the signature of President Andrew Jackson. Vernon and Carol Sloan have carried on the stewardship of the land begun by Vernon's ancestor Lewis Clark and have helped to feed not only Ohioans, but Americans and people from around the world. American farmers are some of our hardest working and best producing citizens who continue to find innovative ways to produce crops and raise livestock. Today less than two percent of Americans earn their livelihood on the land while that number is even smaller in Ohio at less than one percent. These numbers are contrasted to the forty percent of Americans who were engaged in agriculture in 1900. Vernon and Carol Sloan have ingrained their love of the land in their children and their children's children. The Sloans look forward to passing on their farming heritage and tradition to their family's future generations to till the land and harvest the bounties of the earth. Madam Speaker, I salute Vernon and Carol Sloan on their faithfulness to the land and their family's wonderful achievement on the 175th anniversary of farming in Williams County, Ohio.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my House Resolution 1740, a resolution honoring the National Guard on their 374th anniversary. And as the gentleman alluded to, 374 years long predates this Nation. The National Guard origins date to December 13, 1636, when the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered existing militias to be organized into three regiments. Since then, the National Guard has fought in every major war and conflict. From the ``shot heard round the world'' on April 19, 1775, on Lexington Green and later that day that running battle that occurred at Concord Bridge, to the men and women who have stood strong and fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the National Guard and its citizen soldiers have been there for us no matter what, always ready, always there. Going back to that day on April 19, 1775, it was one of these days that we have to remember, it was April 18, 1775, that Paul Revere and two others left Boston to alert the countryside not that the Red Coats were out but that the regulars were out. As Revere Road became known later as Battle Road from Boston across to Lexington and Concord, he was alerting the countryside, and the countryside was alarmed and the people awoke. And those were the early National Guard or the militia that responded. They were the ones that stood up on April 19, 1775, on Lexington Green to the command to stand down from the British. No one knows who fired that fateful first shot, but that was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. And it was the militia--now our National Guard--that was there for us and is still there for us today. The National Guard is the oldest component of the Armed Forces in the United States. The National Guard's number one priority is the security and defense of our homeland at home and abroad. Americans have relied on their National Guard for more than three and a half centuries, long before the establishment of these United States. I want to thank all past and present members of the National Guard for their service in response to the attacks on our homeland on September 11, 2001, and their continuing role in homeland security and military operations. In today's world, it is essential that we honor and support all of our servicemembers who have sacrificed so much to ensure our freedoms and liberties that we cherish so dearly in these United States. We need to support and provide our men and women in the National Guard and all of the Armed Forces with enough resources to ensure their readiness and success. As the National Guard's official song goes, ``Defending Freedom, protecting dreams, this is the spirit of what it means to me. For my God and my home that I love: I Guard America, Guarding America, America.'' I urge passage of the resolution.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I appreciate his kind words. I am honored to rise today in support of House Resolution 1612, which honors our United States Constitution on September 17 as Constitution Day. You know, in the not-too-recent past, too few people in this country knew what was in this document. As the gentleman has previously said, it is about 4,400 words. That is all there is, 4,400 words. But I think over the last couple of years, more and more people are turning to it to find out exactly what is in here and how this place operates and how this country operates. And I think it is important. I have always been a student of history, and I think it is important to know where we came from in order to know where we are going. I think it is important that folks recognize September 17, that they should sit down and just start leafing through the Constitution. I know this coming Friday, when we are all back in our districts again, I'm going to be back in my district talking at a school. From there, I'm going to go to a university in my district and talk about the Constitution and what it means to us. I think it's important that people know what it is because, again, as I said, people have got to understand how we are and why we are the way we are. As the gentleman has said, this document has been in existence for 223 years from September 17. As just a little bit of background on how we got here, James Madison, when he was still in Virginia, really understood that the Articles of Confederation weren't working in this country. There was a dispute that was going on, and they wanted to really get something worked out with Maryland, so they kind of sat down and came up with an idea of having some kind of a get-together, a meeting, in Philadelphia. The question really was at that time: Were they going to, A, just look at the Articles of Confederation and try to amend those, which is what a lot of the delegates who attended thought they were doing, or, as Madison thought, were they really going to sit down and bring forth a great new document that would get us past that trying time in our country's history and move us forward? There was great debate, because as they assembled in 1787, in May of that year, and as the delegates were coming in from around the country from 13 States, in the debate, they were saying, Well, we should be doing this or we shouldn't be doing that because we're only supposed to be here for the Articles of Confederation; but folks really started sitting down and looking at the issue. As they were looking at this, more and more people came to the conclusion which Madison had, and he had gone there prepared. It's amazing what he had done if you look at his background and what Madison was, but he went there. He had gone through the ancient charters, going back to Greece, to Rome, going across the world; and he looked at the best that was there at that time that they could examine. He brought those things with him, and then the debates began. The great thing about it was there were debates, and there was open discussion, but the open discussion was only amongst the members because, during that time, they said, you know, We do not want this to get out, so they actually closed the doors and shut the windows. Now, you've got to remember that this was one of the hottest years that they had had on record for a summer in Philadelphia. They closed the windows. They posted a guard at the door, and they didn't want anybody to know what the discussions were. Everybody was under pretty much an oath of secrecy that they would not go out and discuss what was being said in there at that time. We would know it today as a complete press blackout. Though some of the members got disgruntled, they went home. Some of them came back, but some of them just said, You know what? I'm fed up with this. We shouldn't be doing what we're doing, and they left. Yet the ones who stuck it out are the ones to whom we owe our being where we are today. You start looking at this document and the people that presided over that Constitutional Convention--you know, George Washington being the presiding officer, and then there also was a deputy from Virginia. You look at some other individuals--Alexander Hamilton from New York, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania, of course James Madison, who we all know is the Father of our Constitution. These individuals made sure that they put forth a document that we would have and hold so dear to us today. There were a lot of people at that time from around the world who were still looking at this fledgling country and asking, Can it really exist? Can it survive? But this little document, these 4,400 words, showed the world who we were as Americans and what we stood for. Now, there was a lot of conflict, and there were a lot of things on which they could not come to a resolution during that time--slavery was one of them--but they hoped at some point in time that Americans would come to a resolution on that. As we saw this document progress during that time. On September 17, 1787, they finally came to a resolution, and they signed the document. It's interesting because it's reported that, when Benjamin Franklin left Constitution Hall, a woman met him outside. She asked--and I'm paraphrasing--Mr. Franklin, what have you given us? He said to her in reply, A republic if you can keep it. So, for these past 223 years in this country, it has been important that every generation read this document to understand who we are and why we want to preserve it. It is so important, in my opinion, that on September 17, this coming week, that we honor the Constitution with Constitution Day. I would urge everyone to sit down, to pick up their little pocket Constitutions, to just read them, and to thank those individuals. In my opinion, the good Lord gave us such a small window of time, and He put so many great minds in one room to give this great document.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman from Utah for yielding. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to stand before you today in support of House Resolution 1429. This resolution celebrates the symbol of the United States, and it supports the goals and ideals of Flag Day. Flag Day is celebrated on June 14, which was the anniversary of the official adoption of the American flag by the Continental Congress in 1777. This was done by the first Flag Act, which stated, ``Resolved, that the flag of the United States be made of 13 stripes, alternating red and white, that the Union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.'' Since 1777, our flag's design has been altered three times under Executive orders, rearranging the design of the stars and the stripes each time a State was added. To reiterate what the gentlewoman has stated, the first celebration of Flag Day is believed to have been introduced by Bernard Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher, who arranged for his students at Stony Hill School to celebrate June 14 as Flag Birthday in 1885. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first nationwide Flag Day in 1916. In 1947, President Harry Truman signed legislation requesting National Flag Day be observed annually. Flag Day is an important holiday as our flag is the official symbol for our great Nation and its ideals. Our flag serves as a beacon of hope, courage, and freedom during times of crisis and triumph alike. The flag honors the men and women of the Armed Forces who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defending the United States, and it serves as a symbol to those families who have lost loved ones while defending our Nation. Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I ask for unanimous consent on H. Res. 1429 as we celebrate our Nation's flag.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Well, you have touched on something when you are talking about the death tax, the estate tax. And, you know, when you are talking about something going from having zero death tax this year, which won't ever happen because, you know, there will be a retroactive clause put in somewhere saying that they are never going to let people off the hook, and they are going to say anybody that passed away this year, somehow they will try to bring them back up, and I am sure the lawsuits will begin. But you are right about a couple things right off the bat. You know, family businesses, family farms, I know it's difficult for some folks when you are only looking at a very small percentage of about less than 2 percent of Americans now that make their livelihoods from the farm. And when you go to your local county fairs and you go to look at these implements and the costs, and when you are talking about a $425,000 combine with one head, or you are looking at a couple hundred thousand dollars for a tractor, and you start adding all these pieces of machinery up. People say, well, if you have got a couple million dollars you are rich. Well, most farmers that I know are land rich and cash poor. And what happens in a lot of cases or a small business, what do they have to do? Well, number one, okay, they have to start doing estate planning early on. And I am an attorney by trade. But when you start talking about that we have to tell the American people they have to expend millions and billions of dollars when it comes to estate planning or doing the taxes every year, we should simplify this. But, also, we shouldn't be taking what they have worked hard for. And when people are out there thinking, Is it going to be worth it in the end? Because this will be--you know, if we get to a point in this country, people are going to say, You know what? If the government's going to take it in the end and I can't pass it on, what are they going to do? Either, A, I am not going to work that hard, or, B, I am just going to spend it. And if they spend it, what's going to be the result of that? They are going to say, Government, you take care of me now. I am not going to worry about my livelihood or I am not going to worry about down the road when it's time for me to retire. Just have the government take care of me. And that's not going to work. So, you know, we have got to keep this entrepreneurship. We have got to make sure that people in this country have the ability and the thought that they can succeed. You know, a lot of people sometimes are jealous of people that come here as new immigrants to this country, but the thing that they know is they come to this country like a lot of our ancestors did. They want to make something of themselves. They want to make something of their future. They want to have something for their kids. But when you kill that entrepreneurial spirit, that's when the beginning of the end becomes. And you know, it's kind of interesting. There used to be a saying years ago before the fall of the Soviet Union that the people pretended to work and the government pretended to pay them. And we never want to have that happen in this country, where people get to the thought that there is this hopelessness, that there is no reason to do it. We want to make sure that the people have the ability in this country to get ahead. And I yield to the lady.

Mr. LATTA. I thank the lady for yielding. This is the problem you run into. In my opinion, I truly believe that the United States has the greatest workforce in the world. We have the best trained workforce. We have the best educated workforce, but we just need to be put on an equal footing. And when companies understand that--you know, it's just like with that small entrepreneur. If they toil day after day--I knew somebody that, to get their company started, they had a small bed that could roll up in their office. And his wife would come in and help work, and she slept on the couch. But, you know, they put hours and hours and hours into that business, first of all, to get it off the ground, to grow it, and then to make it successful. But if you put the roadblocks in front of these people, you know, some folks aren't going to be as steadfast as they were, and they are going to say, You know what? It's just not worth it. Why kill myself? And I think that, again, it's the spirit of entrepreneurism in this country that makes this country work. It's like when I talk to these kids on the Capitol steps. You know, why did a lot of our relatives ever get on--some people's relatives came on the Mayflower. Most of ours came on the Poorflower. And when people got off that boat, and my relatives came down by barge on the Ohio River, and they came up the canal system, and they cleared the land, and they started farming in Putnam County in Ohio. They had a desire. They wanted land. They wanted to grow that land. They wanted to make sure that they had something not only for themselves but for their kids. They wanted a future. And I think that's what we are losing track of in this body and in this Congress, that what's happened is that it's no longer about the future, but too many are thinking, ``It's about me.'' And the problem with ``me'' is we are not growing it. And we have to grow the ``we'' and the ``us'' to make this country successful.

Mr. LATTA. We have to go across the board. If we are going to compete against our foreign competitors, and that is who is out there today. Because when we look at a lot of these regulations that are coming down on businesses, you look at the corporate tax rate and you look at what has happened here with health care, we have seen these numbers coming out today of what is going to happen on the health care side. They are saying you get to keep what you want; well, that is not going to happen for a lot of individuals. When you look at the regulations, companies are saying we don't have to worry about that if we are someplace else. I have had companies that are located in a village or city, and when the EPA puts a mandate in for water or sewer, but the parent company is some place outside the State, and they are told if their rates go up to a certain amount and they are no longer profitable in their area, well that company is going to be moved. When you are looking at losing 300 jobs or 400 jobs or 600 jobs, that is totally unacceptable.

Mr. LATTA. One of the things that we are talking about, those jobs, and it goes back years ago when I was a county commissioner. You wanted to make sure you had as broad a tax base as possible in your county or State or country. It is like a pyramid. You want as big a base on that as possible. But the thing we were worried about, what happens if? We were losing jobs and we had fewer and fewer people. All of a sudden that starts shifting that base, and pretty soon you have a very small tax base out there of individuals, and you have a lot of other people up on top. It doesn't work. What we can't have in this country is killing the entrepreneurs. When you look at all of these different scenarios out there, the bills that have come before this Congress, and these are the same people that I talk to in my district. And again, when you are dealing with the largest manufacturing district in the State, 20th largest in the Nation, they are concerned. I hear all the time about the issues out there that will help bring them down, is about the best way to say it. You know, we have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. What are we doing about that here? When we talk about the health care costs, a lot of them are saying when they hit that certain magical number, when they get above it, they are asking why do I want to expand if I will be paying more. It won't work. Folks in business understand it. It gets to the point of economics 101 from your first year of college which is the law of diminishing returns. It is the more I work, the more I get taxed, and the less I have; why do it? People aren't going to do that. It is against human nature to do something like that.

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentlelady. I think what you are looking at is from the small business owners. They understand right off the bat that something has to be done. They understand that they have had to make deep, deep cuts. Until recently, I served on the Budget Committee, and you are still a member. Sitting through those hearings with the Congressional Budget Office director or the Office of Management and Budget director or Secretary Geithner or when we heard from Mr. Bernanke, we heard the same thing: we are on an unsustainable growth of spending in this country. It has got to be stopped. They don't offer a solution, but it is a very simple solution: you don't spend what you don't have. I was one of 19 grandkids on my maternal side. I will never forget my grandmother, the good German farm woman she was, she had a simple saying, that he who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. She pretty much made sure that all 19 of us understood that. Again, you don't spend what you don't have because we cannot spend our way out of this mess. If we are going to be doing that, all we are doing right now, and have been doing, is mortgaging the future of the next generation of Americans. You know, the question when you talk to parents out there and say are your kids going to be better off than you are, most parents don't believe it. They think that their kids are going to have a harder time of it than they have, and that is a bad sign for America's future.

Mr. LATTA. Again, I think we would have heard it if something like that would have happened. But at this stage of the game, the Federal Government has a trump card some people think, and that we control the printing presses for putting out money. The big problem is we watch dollars being put out, but at the same time the United States Treasury is out there at an auction, and at that auction you have the Federal Reserve buying it, and all of a sudden we are monetizing our debt. We are moving one IOU from one pocket to the other. We are not accomplishing anything. We are not cutting anything. And we watch expenses keep rolling up. The American people understand that what we do at home when we sit around our kitchen tables and you get out the family budget and say these are the things that we are going to have to pay for. It is the question of wants and needs. There is a big difference between what I want and what I absolutely need. I think the Federal Government has got to go to what is needed, and we are going to have to start scaling back immediately. I am sure you have students and constituents who come here. When I had a group of students here today on the Capitol steps, and I look at these kids, juniors or seniors in high school, I look at what their future is for the next 10 years, and I don't care if it is $20.3 trillion in debt or $26 trillion in debt, according to the Treasury, we are in trouble.

Mr. LATTA. I yield to the lady.

Mr. LATTA. I thank the lady for yielding back. Because again, you know, when you are looking at these staggering numbers--I'm sure Wyoming, like the State of Ohio, in our Constitution we have to balance our budget. I was a county commissioner for 6 years when I was first elected to public service. We went through the '91-'92 downturn at that time. And what did we have to do? Well, we had to cut back. We didn't just say we have to spend more. We had to cut.

Mr. LATTA. Absolutely. I yield to the lady.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlelady for yielding. This is a very important issue that we are talking about: jobs, small businesses, and how we can get this country moving. I rise tonight to discuss a bill that I have sponsored, H.R. 1763, which is the Responsible Reinvestment Act of 2009. But before I do, I would just like to make a couple of comments, as the gentlelady just said, about the uniqueness of my district. I have the number one manufacturing district in the State of Ohio. I also have the number one agricultural district in the State of Ohio. And about 2 years of this time, according to the National Manufacturers Association, I had the ninth largest number of manufacturing jobs in the United States House of Representatives. But because of the recession that we've seen happen across the country, I have dropped to about 20th, which is totally unacceptable because last summer we had unemployment rates raging across our district and across the State and the country. Two of my counties had over 18 percent unemployment. I had four others over 16 percent. So we have to do something in this country to get this country moving. It's kind of interesting. We talk about having a district that's number one in manufacturing and also a district that's number one in agriculture. So how did that work? Well, I have so many of my farmers that work full time off the farm, but they work full time on the farm. So like my relatives who also live in my district, you know, they're working a lot more than 40-hour weeks, and they are making sure that the American economy keeps moving, they are making sure that Americans are fed, but they are also making sure that we don't have to rely on foreign countries for our food, like we have to do when it comes to oil, relying on foreign countries for our needs. So we need jobs. We need jobs that are created by the private sector. We don't need any government jobs that are really just make-work jobs out there. Small businesses continue to bear the burden of this economic slowdown, and they need relief to be able to survive and continue to remain in business. Currently, small businesses employ over half the private sector workers in America. To assist small business owners, I introduced the Responsible Reinvestment Act. Specifically, this bill focuses on the following areas that I believe will not only help small businesses grow throughout the country but also help put our neighbors back to work. The bill does the following: a 20 percent tax cut for small business is equal to 20 percent of the total income of the business. It permanently repeals the estate tax, or the death tax. You know, we have to do something in this Congress because if we do not act by the end of this session, the death tax will revert to where it was 10 years ago without any adjustment to inflation, and that will hit small businesses and farmers alike. So, again, this bill repeals the death tax; it increases the expensing for small businesses to $500,000; a full first- year expensing for farm and manufacturing equipment; and the full deductibility for the self-employment tax in relation to health premiums, which is extremely important for small businesses across this country. The items in this bill will also be very beneficial to small business owners by freeing up capital for them to use to reinvest in their business. And through doing that, it will bring stability back to the communities in which they exist. The future of our country depends on a proactive approach to creating viable solutions for small business owners to exceed and remain profitable. Small businesses are the lifeline and the heartbeat of our Nation's economy, as these are the companies that we rely on for products and services. As a Congress, we must absolutely stop passing legislation that contains massive spending and, instead, pass legislation like H.R. 1763 that will help small businesses rather than hurt them. President Obama submitted his administration's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal with a record-breaking cost of $3.8 trillion. This budget proposal includes a $2 trillion tax increase over the next 10 years and projected record deficits. This proposal will double our Nation's debt in 5 years and triple it in 10 years from fiscal year 2008 levels. The Congressional Budget Office has stated that under current spending levels, by 2020 American taxpayers will be paying $2 billion a day in interest on the national debt alone. And, again, let me reiterate that--$2 billion a day. I think we have to understand what this is going to do. It hasn't been all that long ago that we look back to the late seventies and early eighties when we had 21.5 percent interest rates in this country. And it wasn't very long ago I was talking with some small business owners in my district, and they said, Well, we even had problems getting a loan at over 26 percent interest. Now, if the Federal Government is borrowing over $2 billion a day-- and you know, when you are talking about that, you are looking at the Federal deficit or, I should say, the debt going to $20.3 trillion by the year 2020, and now the U.S. Treasury is coming out and saying that that could be at least $26 trillion, that $2 billion a day is going to be much higher, and businesses out there are going to have to do one thing--compete against government to borrow. That means the interest rates are going to skyrocket again, and how are we going to get small businesses moving again in this country?

Mr. LATTA. Well, what we had to do was when we did our budget for the year, there are certain things in Ohio that the commissioners are responsible for. You looked at things. You thought, we have to budget for things like bad weather because you have to have more overtime. One of the things that we always hoped we never have happen was a capital murder case because we know how much that would cost. We had to sit down with all of the other elected officials and say, We have to make cuts across the board and scale back. If we didn't, we were going to be in trouble. Again, our Constitution says you shall balance your budget.