Paul Tonko

Mr. TONKO

Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, while my statement mimics a well-known seasonal classic, it is shared in all seriousness and with a sense of greatest urgency. 'Twas the week before Christmas when all through the House, A cry echoed much louder than a roaring mouse. Don't raise our taxes, on us please be fair, or our middle class will be lost in despair. The majority was plotting a thought in its head, We should staunchly oppose what from the President was led. Millionaires should be spared, not a penny we sap, But Keystone pipeline we will never ever scrap. When outside the Chamber there arose such a clatter, The public was disgusted and shouted: we matter! Away to offices lawmakers flew in a flash, A change in this bill or else it will crash. End of year coming and no jobs plan to show, They said no regulations was the best way to go. Then what to our debate should suddenly appear, But a sentiment from the public those in office should fear. Come on Congress, be fair and be quick. Don't be deceiving, and don't be so slick. More rapid the calls and emails they came, ``No pipeline'' said Senator I won't name. So let's get to work and not be grinches this season, The economy and middle class are clearly the reason, We should have a straight vote, not this 400-page show, And help America's middle class and small business grow. Let's spring into action and get this bill done. We have other work; in fact, there's a ton. Spending bills, doc fix, unemployment and more, Before the year ends, they must all come to the floor. We serve our constituents and our Nation first. For jobs and opportunities, many of us thirst. Clean air and clean water should not be rolled back. Deregulatory riders ours bills should well lack. Thus we go forward to end of the year, Good tidings and joy this Congress must steer. Working together with all of our might, Happy Holidays to all, and for fairness let's fight.

Mr. TONKO

Mr. TONKO. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. TONKO. Madam Speaker, might I suggest that during this holiday season, as the American public struggles to pay bills that range from gas bills to groceries that are required for their mortgages, again, the focus should be on job creation. And the payroll tax holiday is nearing its expiration. This body should act to extend that tax cut for hardworking middle class American families. A failure to do so would result in job losses, a reduction in economic activity, and higher taxes for many families when they can least afford it. So my suggestion here is to stop wasting time on less important priorities and start focusing on creating jobs and standing up for our middle class, enabling them to strengthen their purchasing power and to enable our economic recovery to be as vital and strong as possible.

Mr. TONKO. I thank the Representative from Michigan for the opportunity to speak to this measure and to really express concern about the inordinate time that we are spending on measures that allow us to harm the air that we breathe and the water that we drink. The American people are asking us to set priorities here that focus on job creation. They're demanding that this body focus on jobs and helping rebuild our economy. Instead, we seek to be spending hours debating regulatory and bureaucratic measures that are flawed and would dramatically undermine the ability of our government to protect the air that we breathe and the water that we drink. Instead, I would suggest that our time be better spent focusing on putting more money in the pockets of American workers, empowering our middle class.

Mr. TONKO

Mr. TONKO. So now there is more determination by America's middle class families to have it fixed and done correctly. And the other thing is, I'm reminded, every time I go home, by middle class Americans, modest household incomes, that: We're job creators. My children needed my attention at home. I opened a childcare in my home. I charge. I have a small business. Many small business people tell me, as an idea came to mind, they now wanted to turn that into a product. They're small business owners. They're the engine. They're connected to the community. They're tethered to the small community.

Mr. TONKO. Right. And so they're saying, Well, whoa, we've been flatlined for so long, and this exponential rise for the highest in the income ladder's outcome.

Mr. TONKO. Let me just talk about a point of clarification, too, to add to that discussion. On this whole tax fairness, people have approached me. They've said, Now, explain to me--because they hear different scenarios. They were imagining that there would be this tax, this surcharge on $1.2 million. For instance, if you're over that $1 million threshold and you have an annual income of $1.2 million, the people are now reminded that it's on that $200,000 over and above the first $1 million upon which the surcharge is levied. You know, that's an important fact that is sometimes lost in the discussion. So now people are saying, Well, wait a minute; so the first million dollars isn't taxed.

Mr. TONKO. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio. Thank you very much for kicking us off on a wonderful hour of discussion as to a plan to revitalize our economy and to grow the opportunities for our working families across this country. President Obama has ushered forward a wonderful package called the American Jobs Act that will enable us as an American society to respond to the crisis for jobs and to the crisis for economic recovery, all of which are incredibly valuable to the future of this country. We need to invest, I believe, in a way that allows us to provide the tools that are essential for a modern-day economy and modern-day manufacturing. This proposal stands in sharp contrast to the work done a decade and a half ago, a decade ago. What was done then is this spending frenzy that paid for tax cuts for millionaires and paid for tax cuts for billionaires and bought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and offered a pharmaceutical plan for the Medicare program, all without having a payment mechanism. And so this spending frenzy, which was tremendous, it was a huge bill for the American public, had been done off budget and had no funding sources. There were no pay-fors, as they are addressed today. The contrast here with the President's proposal, with President Obama's proposal, is that there is an offering for relief for America's working families, for her middle class strata, with a payroll tax reduction extension, and that enables both employers and employees to realize the savings that then allow us to put together a balanced approach on assisting the economic revitalization of our working families and middle class, and on providing the investments that are essential in going forward, automating our manufacturing concepts in providing an inducement for an ideas economy into the equation of success for this country. That all requires investment. And so as we look at this plan that is very balanced and paid for, we know that we can compete in that global market if we're given the appropriate revenues to invest in a modern manufacturing concept. Keep in mind, certain sectors were totally avoided by the Bush administration. No focus on agriculture, no focus on manufacturing, a focus on the service sector of the economy, but they are narrowly on the financial services. We all know the saga there. We know the scenario all too well, that avoidance of a watchdog, turning our back so that there could be this laissez faire approach that brought America's economy to its knees, and we saw the displacement of 8.2 million jobs. That was painful and impacted people in tremendously profound measure, and people lost their lifetime savings through those failures. Housing values went down. They plummeted and, again, 8.2 million jobs were lost. So we have an opportunity, Representative Kaptur, as you've talked about an extension of the payroll tax holiday, we have an opportunity here to not only provide for savings, for our families, but for investments in a modern world manufacturing model that enables us to, again, utilize the strength of research, the strength of technology, the strength of ideas that can then bridge into a new threshold of manufacturing opportunities in this Nation, and then, of course, the investment in the human infrastructure where we train and retrain workers for that automated phase that comes in manufacturing. So, I thank you for bringing the focus tonight on the floor of the House of Representatives to what we call in our caucus a progressive agenda for revitalizing the economy, and emphasizing, underscoring the concept of making it in the USA, making it in America, putting a focus, again, onto the manufacturing base. I represent a host of communities dubbed mill towns. They were the economic engine for an industrial revolution. They were the epicenters of invention and innovation that led to this westward movement that enabled us to impact not only the growth of this Nation in favorable measure, but to impact the quality of life in peoples around the world simply by our spirit of pioneer, which is within our DNA to make a difference in the product delivery, in the quality of life that's addressed by that product line. I'm filled with optimism. I'm filled with optimism if we move to go forward in a way that invests in the American worker, invests in the American business, small business, and invests in our ingenuity and our innovation. Thank you so much for the discussion.

Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, thank you again for bringing us together with this request for a Special Order. If Representative Kaptur could just take us back to that second chart that she shared with us earlier this evening and the measurement or the depiction of real average after-tax income. Now, you talk about the unfairness out there or the inability to go forward and tax fairly. When you look at that graphic, to see the injustice that's displayed just in simple line graph format, that flatlining of America's middle class from 1979 forward, that flatlining contrasted with that steep climb upward for those in the upper income brackets tells us the whole story. And people have said across this country, when I go home to the district, people say to me that they're concerned, they're upset. They've been taught, rightfully so, they've learned along the way that if you play fair, you roll up your sleeves and you abide by the rules that you should be able to have within your grasp that American Dream. The American Dream, one that allows for working families to climb the ladder. They don't feel that that's within their grasp today. And it's not only the injustice here that is measured on a chart--and be mindful, they don't reject the notion of working hard and scoring big, making money. They're not concerned about that. They honor that. What they're concerned about is the undue influence that the powerful have, those sitting perched high on the income ladder, the power they have with the process and the policy outcomes. And the fact that we would avoid fairness in revenues and not invest in the American Dream, not invest in opportunity, not invest in the prosperity of this Nation is what bothers them. They don't want to be ignored that way. They want to know that a process out there, there's a government working to create policies that initiate a comeback, that enable people to have within their grasp the American Dream. That's what they want to know is alive and well here in Washington. And now it's a fight. It's a fight for the Democrats in this House to score a victory for the middle class. We want that victory. We want people to be able to know that there's a fairness out there. Look at it, $1,800, $1,500, whatever your strata would produce as a favorable outcome is something for them. Month to month they will score some victory here where the essentials, as Representative Kaptur labeled them, are available to them with these savings. Contrasted with opportunities that we see here that find this group that's rising to the top exponentially just won't share the prosperity in that way. And I think it's the avoidance of sound progressive policy that's really the struggle right now. And people are expressing their anger and their frustration, and rightfully so, because we need to be more fair.

Mr. TONKO. Exactly.

Mr. TONKO. So many of these programs, including the longstanding Medicare program, are looked at sometimes in dollars and cents and argued about how they're improved or not improved. But sometimes lost in the whole discussion is the value added, the whole underpinning of support that is offered the senior community. Prior to the inception of Medicare in 1965, families that retired were probably going to see their economic well-being dip precipitously. And what they had here, with the Medicare Foundation, was that their economic stability, their dignity factor, was addressed in tremendously strong and powerful ways so that they were able to move forward in those retirement years with that sense of dignity, with the quality of life, with economic stability. These are facts that need to be maintained in the front of any discussion; that to undo Medicare would be a tragedy for American families, for our seniors. And certainly, let's go forward, as we have said, with optimism. Let's invest in Medicare. Let's invest in Social Security, and let's invest in an economic recovery where we cut where we can, belt tighten, but invest where we must so we can compete effectively. And to my colleagues on the floor here tonight, Representative Kaptur, Representative Garamendi, I join with you in being a powerful voice in promoting optimism as we go forward, and wanting to have progressive change.

Mr. TONKO. You should share it for your home State.

Mr. TONKO. You know, this is a statement of underpinning of support for middle class, for working families, for small business. It's the engine that's making it happen. Small business, the investment we can make, not only the tax cut we can provide here, but the investments that are required for the ideas to move along. We're in a challenging time. We're there competing in a global economy. We invest in the intellectual capacity of this Nation, and how foolish of us not to take that investment, that product of that investment and put it into working order. That's what we're asking for here. Give small business the tools, give working class families the opportunity, and we will have a comeback story that is glorious, and we should be filled with optimism if we do the things that are so logical, and that polls across America, individual polls from all sectors, all angles, all different groups that measure, they're saying this is what America wants. And how come they can't get it delivered by their government? They're speaking to us loud and clear through their opinion surveys. We want this progressive schedule. We want this agenda. Make it happen. We're trying here as the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives, Representative Kaptur, to make it happen, and I think we can if we put our minds to working together in a very, very bipartisan, bicameral way, executive branch working with the legislative branch, vice versa, and making a progressive agenda happen.

Mr. TONKO

Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. TONKO

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.

Mr. TONKO. We've had a wonderful hour of discussion, and I give thanks for the wonderful investments that have made us this strong Nation. In conclusion, if we invest in the middle class of this Nation, our greatest days lie ahead of us. We have a chance to be continually investing in a way that allows us to make it in America and allow for our intellectual capacity to reign supreme. It's been our history. It's our DNA. Let's make it happen. I'm optimistic about the tomorrows for this country with the appropriate investments.

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Let me just, if you'll suffer an interruption, or yield, please, Representative Garamendi, I absolutely endorse what you just said. They are devoted. They are an essential part of this body to introduce all of the statements into the annals of history, making certain that statements that might inspire the sort of progress that is required by this Nation right now--they provide an awesome, awesome task.

Mr. TONKO. You're absolutely right. And I believe, as you just indicated, our history, our American history is replete with the soundness of government planning and policies that incorporated investments from the public sector. And it made us strong. It retained our strength. It was a sustainable outcome. And the way of the world today is other nations are doing that with their private sector co- investing with them. And when you look at the scenario of threats to cut some very valuable programs, you know you're going to place our businesses at risk. And if there's anything I hear from my middle class that is disgruntled with Washington is that they're not against people making money. They're not against that. They're concerned, and they're deeply upset by the undue influence that a few, a growing few, most powerful have on the process. They see it as insatiable greed. They see it as a rejection of what worked in the past, where people shared the wealth, shared by investing in America's middle class, which is that intellectual capacity, is that innovative spirit, is that potential for the next generation of jobs. And that's where our strength lies, and that's why they're upset. The undue influence has caused this insatiable greed that produces a drain on the middle class of this country and, therefore, reduces the number of jobs that we could possibly have in this Nation.

Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for leading us in an hour of discussion, of dialogue, that is most critical to the economic viability, to the economic comeback of America's middle class. You talk about some of these incentives that would be addressed through a payroll tax deduction. It's all about empowering our middle class, enhancing their purchasing power, enabling us to enhance that demand out there for products that then obviously translates into job growth; because with more demand upon manufacturers in this country, with more consumer confidence, with absolute increase in purchasing power, there will be a positive outcome. There's no denying that unemployment is driving the deficit; and if we can turn that around, if we can invest in ways that enhance the middle class, that's good for all strata, all income strata in this Nation. And what's been lost in the logic here for the majority is that the empowerment of the middle class stands to produce gains for everybody, and we saw what happened in the buildup before our entry here into the House. In the period of the recession, it was all about borrowing, totally, the money that was necessary to spend on a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. And some would suggest those are the job creators. But what happened was we realized 8.2 million jobs lost, and so that didn't work. We ought not go back and revisit that formula, because it was not a formula for success. What we need here is to bring about the long overdue empowerment of the middle class. And it is working families across this country that need that assistance today; and, by the way, it works in everybody's favor. So that's what we're promoting, and it's good to start off with that discussion; because as we move forward, investments are what it's about: investing our way to prosperity, investing our way to opportunity, investing our way to a stronger tomorrow for all Americans. It's not going to come by cutting into situations that relieve the liability, the responsibility of those who have been most profitable here. That didn't work, and that is not going to be the formula for a comeback for most Americans. What we need is to be sensitive to the investments in education, higher education, in sounder tax policy, reforms of tax policy, and certainly investment in research because, as we invest in research, that equals jobs, and that's still the highest priority of America's general public out there. We need jobs, and the dignity of work is what ought to be front and center for the work that we do here in public policy format or in resource advocacy so as to go forward and herald the need of the middle class.

Mr. TONKO. I think you highlight some of the major differences and disagreements that have highlighted the debate on the Hill here in Washington between the two parties. And I would suggest it's probably some of the reasons that the supercommittee could not come to consensus, because we have called upon an outcome that is fair, balanced, and bold--that we will not allow for the price tag on further continuing tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to be paid for by cuts to Medicare. There were those who fought Social Security at its inception and have fought it for 76 years and want to deny it. It's about making certain that there is an underpinning of support for our elderly as they grow into what is a longer life span. We have to have measures in place that enable there to be a quality of life that provides economic vitality, economic balance for those who move into their retirement years. I think that when we look at some of the measurements of Medicare, for instance, where it's about 5 percent of the GDP, much more modest than private sector health care is to GDP, and here's a program that has worked tremendously well. Can it be made better? Absolutely. That's where we stand. Make it better. Make it more secure. Make it more sustainable. But do not deny the masses of this country who have prospered, who have been strengthened, who were lifted by programs like Medicare and Social Security. And I am proud to serve in the caucus that, as a conference, has said we stand for keeping these programs in place, strengthening them, not denying them, which I think is a major disagreement on the Hill.

Mr. TONKO. We do.

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. I hear in your statement the wisdom of sound planning. We need that for a government to be smart and efficient, which is the call by the general public. We want smart investment from our government. Ask any competitor out there in the global economy. They are competing against industries that are being co-invested in by their native lands. There are co-investments with governments and their private sector, and we're moving in the other direction. So a couple of things come to mind here. I participated this past weekend in Small Business Saturday. And the spirit I detected was a leap of faith, a sound leap of faith, by many small business leaders who said, I want to offer a service, I'm going to put my creative genius to work. I'm going to make my commitment to community a response here that's tangible. I saw a lot of belief in the American public, a belief in the American system; and it offers a warm and fuzzy, cozy personalized relationship. People come in; they're known when they walk into the shop; they see the creative flair that's been introduced into that small business. I also see more technically savvy qualities that are engaged in the district I represent with a lot of start-ups, incubators, again, another leap of good faith but needing an investment, a co-partnering with government, especially in a very tenuous economy where there's still a lot of guesswork. We need to be there to remove some of that risk. That is so critically important. Representative Garamendi, you mentioned earlier the fact that my district is that donor district to the Erie Canal/Barge Canal, which was the westward movement that triggered an industrial revolution. These mill towns that were given birth to by the canal became the epicenters of invention and innovation--manufacturing towns and mill towns that had blue collar workers coming up with tremendously clever ideas. And for people to throw up their arms and say manufacturing then is what it was, it was our greatness, it's gone today, nothing could be farther from the truth. What is the challenge today to a sophisticated society like the American society is that while we have a number of product lines that we developed through our decades of manufacturing, the challenge to a sophisticated society is to build the products that are in demand today. And if we believe that every product that's ever required by society has been conceived, engineered, designed and manufactured, then the story is over. But if we believe, as so many of us do believe, that we can be the wizards of those new products and we develop it by investing in ideas and investing in research, then we build those products that are now the step up, if you will. That's where we are with our policy initiatives as a Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives. Make it in America by embracing the intellectual capacity of this Nation and holding fast to innovation, entrepreneurs, and the manufacturing of today, spun up to a new level, that's America at her greatest moment.

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Let me just respond to the absolute clear focus of our friend, the gentlewoman from Texas, and for the strength of Texas. Representative Jackson Lee is constantly talking about the opportunities to make it in America, but she cited, also, the flood damage in my district, in the Mohawk Valley, the Schoharie Valley of upstate New York. Sometimes we will sit around and try to tout the effect of infrastructure for our job growth. There are different ways to express the economic development quotient related to infrastructure, the traditional roads and bridges, but then broadband and our grid system for our electric utilities, what role does it play? Well, sometimes the best expression is done when that is taken from you. And when roads and bridges were washed away, we saw immediately what the effect was on the regional economy--and therefore the State economy--and then we're all connected one to another so that the national economy hurts through the ravages of flood waters that impacted this district, some would say with 500-year storm impact. What did that mean? It meant that you couldn't haul milk that was processed, produced on these farms; and you could not ship products being manufactured. It stopped the economic viability of a district and of a region. So it's important for us to look at those bridges that measure in deficient form. We need to make certain that we have state- of-the-art infrastructure and broadband. We began to talk about this with the space race of the sixties; we unleashed untold amounts of investment in technology that enabled us to stretch opportunity here. Think of the rotary phone that's now moved all the way up to what is a changing telephone by the week. And that all happened because of an investment in the intellect of this Nation. So the intellectual capacity of this Nation has been an inspiration to not only this country but to folks around the world where the quality of life was raised simply by the inventive qualities of American workers. And so that's what we're calling for here. The Democrats of the House of Representatives believe in investing in the worker and in research. Research equals jobs, and research equals opportunities. The intellectual capacity that was developed here, I'm told by the most recent former energy minister of Denmark, influenced the turnaround of thinking in Denmark where they transitioned their economy, created energy-innovative outcomes, all inspired by patents coming from the United States of America. So we have that intellect. We talk about manufacturing as a base. We saw the exodus of manufacturing jobs to the millions--to the millions. We're still perched highest on the list for manufacturing jobs; but if we allow that trend where we were disinterested, paid no attention to manufacturing and agriculture, if we allow that to continue, we will sink as an economy. What we need to do is now bring the focus back to manufacturing and to agriculture. The focus was totally on the service economy, and there more narrowly to the financial services. We know what happened.

Mr. TONKO

Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.