30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to be on the floor with the 30-somethings. I am 30 plus almost 27. I am proud to admit that I am 56, and I think I am doing all right. I am glad to be here with my sons, as I call KENDRICK MEEK and TIM RYAN, an my colleague on Ways and Means.
The most interesting thing is, if you think about it, remember when the Iraq war began, and there are millions of dollars that they can't account for. They said it was so crazy over there, they couldn't figure out where the money went. And the most recent reports about FEMA, about moneys that should have gone to help Katrina victims, they can't account for.
So I am with my colleague, Mr. Meek, saying Mr. Tanner, great piece of legislation. Keep on pushing it. We are going to help you make sure that the Members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican, say to the people of America, we are going to account for the dollars. The Ways and Means Committee, we raise the means to do things, and here we have people messing with the dollars we have expended. I am pleased, Mr. Tanner, to be here with you tonight.
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I am reminded of one of the hearings in the Ways and Means Committee where then-Secretary Snow was before the committee. This was before we actually got into the Iraq war.
I said, Mr. Secretary, you used to run a business. Tell me what trustees or board of directors of any business would say to you that you can have a supplemental outside of the budget that would increase significantly the deficit, and you don't have to include it in the amount of dollars we are expending?
He said to me that the President doesn't want to go to war, so it is not part of the budget.
I said, wait a minute. I know that there are tankers over there, there are men and women over there, there are arms over there, and we are spending dollars to feed and clothe them. That ought to be part of the budget. The American people should know what kind of money we are spending and not have it off side.
That is what this administration has been so good at in all of these supplementals. Many of us vote for the supplementals because we want to support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is bad budgeting. I know if Secretary Snow ran his business like he ran the government, and he is gone now, but he would be put out of business if he ran a business like this.
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I am laughing, Mr. Tanner. Remember when we had the IRS hearing, and the IRS decided that they were going to go look for waste, fraud and abuse in Earned Income Tax Credit instead of looking for waste, fraud and abuse in the larger corporation and what they were doing with the Tax Code?
I am not against business. Democrats are pro-business. We know that if we have business, people have jobs. But the reality is when you want to look for waste, fraud and abuse, you don't look for somebody that is paying a dollar in taxes. You look for somebody who is paying a whole bunch of dollars or who is getting a whole bunch of dollars from the American public to do a job and they don't do the job.
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Perfect example was today when we started talking about the estate tax. And there are different views on the importance of the estate tax. But reducing the estate tax puts in place, how do we pay for what was covered by the estate tax? And how do we pay for it? They don't even account for it. They just reduce it or get rid of the estate tax and say, okay, I am going to leave you to fend for yourself as to how you cover it.
Pay-as-you-go, they fussed at us. Well, if you want to increase college loans, or if you want to increase money for Social Security, or if you want to increase money so that seniors can get a prescription drug benefit, or you want to increase it so seniors can be covered with Medicaid, pay for it. But they don't ever talk about paying for it and a reduction of taxes.
And there are a lot of Democrats who certainly believe that we should not reduce taxes. But regardless of where you are, pay-as-you-go is language that everybody understands. My father used to say, if I have $5 and beef costs $5, I am going to buy me a pound of beef for $5.
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. It is very important to understand that there are 41 members on the Ways and Means Committee. As a result of that 41, there are 24 Republicans and 17 Democrats. And the Democrats, 17 members, beginning with our ranking member, Charlie Rangel, and going on to Pete Stark and on down the line, are people who can bring leadership and knowledge to a discussion about legislation. But, unfortunately, as the committee is currently constituted, we do not have the opportunity to sit at the table and truly legislate. Even one day the police called on us, trying to pull us out of the Ways and Means library room.
The reality is that we are willing and ready, ready and able, to provide import to the legislation on taxing and raising revenue for the United States of America. But, unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity. Unfortunately, we, as Democrats and Republicans, do not have the opportunity to sit at the table, talk it over, figure it out, and come to the floor with legislation that can make a difference on behalf of all Americans.
If you look back in history, every year we were in, there was legislation that really worked for America. It was legislation that was done on a bipartisan basis. This chairman talks about being a member of the willing, something like the Iraq war, if you weren't a member of the willing and you didn't go to war, you do not get counted in. We are, hopefully, not at war right here in the House of Representatives, although some days I think that we are, that we can have the opportunity to sit at table, legislate, and make a difference on behalf of the people of America. The people of America expect it from us. They do not send us here to argue back and forth with one another about issues. They want us to work it out, and that is why we were elected as representatives.
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. If the gentleman would yield, you know what is interesting as we debate on the floor, let us talk about, just for a moment, the minimum wage. And there is always the discussion that the people who pay the most tax ought to get the most return on their taxes. And I cry and scream on behalf of the unemployed in my district: Give them a job, and they will gladly pay taxes. Give them a job and a living wage, and they will be glad to pay taxes. They will be able to take care of their families. They will come off of government rolls.
But the reality is most people working at $5.25 an hour cannot be successful. They cannot be part of the American dream because they cannot buy milk, $3 a gallon of gas, and take care of their families. And the reality is that the Democratic Party is the only party talking about raising the minimum wage.
And there has been an argument that we do not want to raise the minimum wage because it impacts business, but there is statistical information very recently that just came from Ohio that says if you raise the minimum wage, businesses are doing better. It is not that if you raise it, they will go into debt. The reality is that if you have got a better worker making a better salary, then you have got a better business. And that is what we need to have happen in Ohio and across this country.
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Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I know that my good friend Kendrick Meek is going to close out on a New Direction for America, but I want to talk again about the minimum wage.
Consider that if the minimum wage had increased with inflation, it would be $9.08. Well, think about it like this. Family health care insurance is up 70 percent. The increase in minimum wage would help 7.5 million. Gas prices have doubled. So if the minimum wage doubled, it would be $10, and we would be able to do it. Record surplus has been turned to record deficits. And then college costs are up. There have been $12 billion in student aid cuts under this administration and Republican Congress.
It is time for Democrats to take control of the House so that we have an opportunity to serve the people and put America in a new direction.
I yield back to our leader.
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