How Business Gets Done in Washington: House of Representatives

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, this evening I want to take some time to talk about how business gets done here in Washington. Now, I guess you can call this the lessons of a rookie. I'm starting my third year here, my second term; and during my first two years in the 111th Congress, frankly, it was like it was politics as usual, and I think the American people have had enough of that.

The American people are at a point where it's not about Republicans, it's not about Democrats. What they're looking for are problem solvers; and, fundamentally, I think that is what's most important as we go forward as problem solvers because we know this country is facing some tremendous issues. We are at record unemployment, the highest sustained level of unemployment since the Great Depression. We have a national debt that has amassed to over $14 trillion, impacting our children and our grandchildren's future.

We have all kinds of significant issues facing this Nation, and we need solutions; but the solutions, they have to be solutions, I believe, that are not politics as usual. They need to be solutions that are, frankly, based on what I call the principle of leadership. It's the very foundation of how we make our decisions, not based on a political agenda, not based on the whims or the will of a few or many but, frankly, based on principles; and that's what I want to spend some time this evening talking about, principled leadership.

In my time in Congress, I've seen us make a lot of decisions, an awful lot of decisions. Many of those impact not just the Nation but the world, and I see decisions made by different Members using different methodology. For me, I really do fall back on principled leadership. I actually fall back on values, principles that I learned as a youth. Frankly, I take them from my experience in Scouting, 41 years. This is my 41st year in Scouting. It's a great organization. It serves boys and girls and develops them into fine young people, productive, active citizens.

When I make a decision, I ask myself four questions, and it may sound a little old fashioned for some folks, but, frankly, it works for me and it works consistently. I ask myself four questions, principles that come from the Scout promise, actually. The first question I take from that Scout promise, that first question is when I'm making a decision, I'm faced with an issue and I need to decide, first question is, what is my duty to God? Is the decision I'm making, is it righteous according to God's word? Is it according to my faith? Frankly, if the answer is ``no,'' I don't go any further on to question two, three, and four.

If I do go on, the next question is, what is my duty to the country? That is, frankly, what does the Constitution say about the decision that I'm about to make?

Is it according to the rule of law? Is it according to those liberties, those freedoms, those rights, and the distribution of powers that are outlined within the Constitution? Because there are certain things the Federal Government is supposed to do, according to the Constitution. That amount of responsibility is literally very tiny, though, compared to what the States have retained for rights; and that is small compared to what we, as individual citizens, have as all those rights that are provided through our creator.

So my second question I ask, what is my duty to country? The third question I ask myself in terms of principles is, what is my duty to others? Now, others for me are what I call the 660,000 really smart people that I work for in the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District. It's pretty easy to determine what the intended consequence is and the intended impact on the citizens that I serve and, frankly, that all of my colleagues serve. Because on the first page of any bill--I don't care if it's a one-page bill or it's 2,000 pages, that intended consequence is pretty easily and clearly articulated. It's the unintended consequences, however, that you have to work at. It's the unintended consequences that can have the most impact on the lives of the people that we serve. And that's why communication is such an incredibly important responsibility with our constituents, including why we're here in Washington using different methods and an open-door policy and receiving, soliciting input, feedback from our constituents.

But also certainly when we're back in the district, and we're in those communities and we're communicating with people, and they're talking about the situations that they're in, and how the Federal Government--the things that are going on are impacting their lives. That is tremendous, valuable information that we gain when we are back in the district, and that is what district work weeks are all about. It's about communications and feedback with your employer, and it's the people that you work for.

Finally, for me, the fourth question I ask myself in terms of principles and principled leadership has to do with duty to self. And, again, I borrow from Scouting, my years and decades in Scouting. The questions I ask myself are: am I prepared to do my best on each and every decision I make? And that is, have I worked hard to get all the information that I need? Have I worked hard to reach out to my constituents to find out, as I've read a bill, to make sure that they have access to it so that they understand and I can determine and solicit from them their feedback and what the unintended consequences are. Am I prepared to do my best?

Those are principles that have served me well these first 2 years, and I certainly continue my commitment and follow principled leadership going forward in serving both this country and certainly the citizens of the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District.

Another set of principles that I'm pleased to share tonight came from a group of citizens within the area of the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District, and these are principles that were outlined by citizens who were concerned. They were concerned over the past 2 years with the things that they saw going on in their Nation, in their country. They came together because they were afraid. They were afraid of what the future held. And this was in Lycoming County of the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District. But you know what, these are principles that I have actually seen put forward by everyday citizens all over the Nation, certainly throughout my congressional district.

And I appreciate the fact that they took the time to put this together. I have a scroll here with--I'm not going to roll this out completely because it would definitely be a hazard. It is a wonderful scroll with over 4,000 names on it of individuals who have put their signatures to standing for principles and expectations from government.

The principles, as put forward, were: ``We, the people of the city of Williamsport, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States of America, declare that we are free and independent citizens, and that we are entitled to inherent and inalienable rights for which our ancestors fought to protect and for which they established governments to ensure.'' Rights that, within our founding documents, come from our creator.

In the charters of those governments, our rights have been clearly and undeniably established to the exclusion of any encroachment by the civil servants elected to carry out the people's business. However, a long train of abuses and usurpations has evinced a clear trend which, if followed to its logical conclusion, would reduce the People under absolute Despotism. We protest these encroachments upon our natural and indefeasible rights and liberties and demand that they be redressed.'' And among the abuses, they outlined seven principles, you know, principles that I think are incredibly important, things that you've heard about already on the floor tonight. And as you tune in, these are issues that have taken front stage in terms of our national debate.

Starting with taxation. You know, taxes have grown both continuously and geometrically both in the number and scope, such as greater than half of all of one's income is now claimed by the government. Taxes are something that we battle on here. And it's a fundamental decision of, first of all, the scope of government, what government should be in the business of doing, what constitutionally are those issues that should be funded. We are going to be engaging in significant debate through the rest of this week and certainly next week as we look at a continuing resolution of what is the proper role of government, and we will certainly be looking at how we fund that and the amount of taxes that are levied on individuals.

We had that debate at the end of the 111th Congress. In the 111th Congress, this country was facing the largest tax increase in its history, and it would have been devastating. It would have raised taxes on every American. It would have raised taxes on individuals, on families, on job creators, on small businesses. And I am pleased that in the 12th hour we were able to at least extend what's called the ``Bush-era tax cuts,'' and that's been good for America. Frankly, we should have been able to make them permanent. That is something I think we need to obviously continue to work towards.

But at least by extending those, we were able to restore some certainty, some certainty for families, for individuals and, frankly, for job creators so that they could do their business plans and at least restore some confidence going forward in this economy, confidence to allow small businesses to be able to invest their resources, to invest in capital, expanding and building a new site or business by expanding a product line or a service line, and hiring, creating jobs.

Frankly, many of the individuals over the past year and a half, as I've traveled around in my congressional district--and I talk with folks who I know are the job creators. These are individuals that every year would take their resources, their profit--and that's not a bad word; that's a good sign of good economic times--and they would reinvest a good portion of that profit back into their businesses, and they would create jobs.

You know, in the past 2 years, because of uncertainty--much of it around taxation--they have been sitting on the sidelines. They didn't know what was coming. Health care, the ObamaCare that would raise taxes would put mandates. If you are an employer with more than 50 employees, that means that more financial burdens are going to be placed on you, more mandates, so there is no encouragement to grow your business. I was very pleased when we were able to extend those tax cuts. That's the American people's money. They have had that for almost a decade, so we need to continue that.

The second principle that these good folks have identified is national debt. The public credit has been tapped beyond any reasonable ability to repay within the current generation. I think our national debt is somewhere around--every man, woman, and child. I go out into schools, and I like to read to the kindergarten kids. But I love getting out to the seniors because they are getting ready to go out into the world. They are just on the threshold of life. And I usually open up by saying, First of all, I work for you. I'm your Member of Congress. I work for you. And each of you owes $143,000, and I don't take checks.

And that's a good icebreaker, for a sad notation of that really is how much each of them, each of them owes towards our national debt. And so we are approaching over $14 trillion at this point. What that does, I think, is, frankly, it's probably our largest threat that we have to national security, the fact that we have that much debt accumulated, and that 60 percent of that debt is held by foreign countries. Our number one lender is China. And I think that just puts us in a very, very dangerous situation for the future.

So I am joined this evening by a good friend of mine who lives in Lycoming County. Mr. Marino, if you want to step up and talk a little bit about your thoughts on national debt and what that means to us going forward that would be great. Go ahead and join me at the podium there. This is a great Member, Tom Marino. He represents a neighboring district of mine. We share two counties. I've known Tom for a long time. I worked in health care in Lycoming County for about 28 years. Tom's a former district attorney there, a native son, and I was real glad, real proud to see him come to Congress. And so I'm going to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening to applaud my good colleague and friend from Pennsylvania. In fact, our districts border one another. And we have the same philosophies because we're so close--our districts overlap. We share a couple of counties. And we both share the sentiments of our constituents, the people who voted for us, the people who didn't vote for us. We have a job to do. We've been hired and directed to be sent to Washington and very clearly told what we need to do, and that is, to continue to cut taxes, cut the spending, and downsize Washington, which a combination of those three will create jobs.

Like my good friend from Pennsylvania, we need to get back to a simple time when we look at the Constitution, we apply the Constitution, we follow the Constitution, and in doing that, I'm confident that we are on the right track. I know our constituents from Williamsport may be watching us and from around the district. And I want to tell those individuals, as well as anyone else watching around the country, that we work for you. We know what the message was, and we have started that process.

I look forward to, as my good colleague does, us reaching across the aisle, working with our colleagues there to improve the quality of life for people in this country, to make sure that our children hopefully have a better life than we do, and to make certain that we do not strap them with this unbelievable cost and debt that I'm afraid if we do not take control of this now, we will absolutely lose total control of it. And we just have no idea of how far our finances can be plunged into total chaos.

So, again, I want to thank my colleague for having me here. I'm going to sit and listen to more of this debate. I appreciate the time.

I want to say hello to my friends back in my hometown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and the people in the 10th Congressional District, and also my friends in the adjoining district of my good colleague from Pennsylvania.

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman for joining me tonight on the floor to kind of share about principles and the needs that we have there that we're faced with. Again, these are difficult times. One of the things in terms of this much debt that's out there, it reminds me of, we just hit kind of a milestone of being married for 30 years not long ago. And soon after my wife and I were married, we bought a house, and it was a time where the country was facing a similar situation, such high unemployment and, frankly, high inflation. And this is a tremendous concern that I have that with all this borrowing and this debt, inflation will naturally follow. And, in fact, frankly this was at the term of President Jimmy Carter. We were looking at real estate. It was a time of stagflation, both high inflation and high unemployment. And my wife and I bought a home. We got a great deal because real estate wasn't selling, much like today. And we thought we got a--we got a first-time state mortgage rate, and we thought we were just doing great because we got this interest rate. I believe it was 18 percent, which was pretty good because at the time the banks under this type of inflation that naturally comes from this kind of borrowing and spending, the banks were lending at 20, 21 percent interest. So it's something we have a responsibility, not just to today's generation, but our children, our grandchildren, to get this national debt under consideration.

The next principle I wanted to touch on was national defense. And the principles as presented here talk about, you know, frankly the placement of troops without formal acts of war and the concern with that. But it also goes on the fact that we put so much into fears of war. I happen to believe--I've got a son and a daughter-in-law in the United States Army. They were just married yesterday, actually. They're in Washington here with us a couple of days. And I'm very proud of our troops and what they do. I believe that constitutionally, the national defense really is our most important job. It's up front in the Constitution that that's what we should do.

Within the principles outlined here before you, it also--this is the finer print, it's hard to read, but it talks about the fact is we can't ignore national defense here at home. And we've got threats here. We know that. When you look at the southern border, in particular, and just the unchecked illegal immigration into this country, and I realize many of those folks are coming in search of a better way of life. But frankly, there are folks coming in here that I think could easily come across the borders, and probably have, that seek to do us harm, and the things that they can carry across that border. And so we need to make sure that we are securing that border. We should be doing everything we possibly can. I think that this principle speaks to that. And I think that this country's been failing at making sure that our ports and our borders are ultimately safe. This is a different day. This is when our enemies don't wear a uniform and don't march under a specific flag. We have to take the measures and the precautions to make sure that the American people stay safe. That is our number one job in this country, safety and security.

The fourth principle under here to be addressed is political corruption. That is something that, frankly, we need individuals at all levels of government that are public servants, that approach their jobs with a servant's heart, as opposed to being self-serving. And I know that Mr. Marino, who is now in Congress, has that servant's heart. Many of my new Members, new colleagues, and certainly folks I've served with for the past 2 years have that focus and commitment, frankly, of service and sacrifice to our constituents. And so I think that is something that I respect, the fact that that is on here. That is certainly something that's important; that the people that are here are serving, not just at the Federal level but the State level and local level, for the right reasons.

Central banking and money. I'm going to switch these charts just to be able to read them a little better.

The fact that the U.S. Congress really has delegated, and I think illegally, their vested powers, coining money, taxation, regulation of commerce, making treaties, appropriating public money, all of the things that the powers of the House in particular is in the legislative branch.

We have three branches of government, but they are not equal. They are cosovereign, but they are not coequal. And we have delegated over, not just 2 years but many years, much of our authority, much of our responsibility as the legislative branch to the administrative branch. Much of that has been very inappropriate, and I think it's a time of going back to our roots and making sure we go back to those founding principles and looking at what is it that we are supposed to be doing that we have deferred, that we have designated and allowed the administrative branch to now do.

Certainly principle number six, the central planning: The constant intervention of the economy through regulations, subsidies, tariffs, taxes, policies have altered the fabric of the Nation's free market economy in just these past 2 years, and we are dealing with it now. We voted to repeal the Patient Protection Affordable Health Care Act. The media sometimes refers to that as the Obamacare plan, and we voted and passed on a bipartisan way to repeal that bill for that very reason of that top-down approach. Washington is famous for a top-down approach, a cookie-cutter approach. I have seen that in my service on the Education Committee where it is a cookie cutter.

No Child Left Behind believes that every child should go to college. Well, that's great. If that child has that aspiration and those attributes, that's wonderful. I'm going to be dedicated to making sure we make that as affordable and as accessible as possible. But not every child is on that path. Some children, it will be technical training. Some children, it will be going into the military and learning a skill or trade there. Some will be going right into the workforce.

We need to be empowering through education, not top down from a central planning way from the national government. We should be empowering our best resources for making sure that every child's individual potential is developed. Do you know who that is? That's the parents, the teachers, the administrators. It's the local school board members, that governing body and the local school boards. That's the way the founders intended it, because they knew which way it would work best.

Well, I am joined by another neighbor of mine across the State line to the north, Mr. Tom Reed from the great State of New York. Mr. Reed, thanks for joining us tonight.

Mr. REED. Thank you very much.

I stand today to join my colleague and applaud my colleague for coming to the floor of the House to articulate what are truly our founding and our core principles. We should be going back to our Constitution on a regular basis and always recognize that what our Founding Fathers envisioned for America was a limited Federal Government; not an America that guarantees everyone success in life, but, rather, a government that guarantees that every American, every man, woman, and child in America has the opportunity to succeed.

We do not at the Federal Government level pick winners and losers. What we should do is always guarantee that the opportunity in America is there for our young men, women, and children of the generations of today and the generations of tomorrow to have the opportunity to succeed and control their own destiny.

I see an America right now, my good friend from Pennsylvania who is articulating here today, the concerns that the Nation of America truly is fighting for its existence.

We see a national debt that is at $14 trillion in publicly held debt. You talk to people about the unfunded liability of putting that national debt at $200 trillion, plus or minus. That's $242,000 for each man, woman, and child in America. That is not sustainable. That will not protect this Nation for generations of today and of tomorrow and for generations that are not even contemplated as we sit here tonight.

We have an obligation to stand for this wonderful Nation, and I am proud to join my colleague from Pennsylvania and come here tonight and cry out for America to say we need to stand once again.

We need to fight for our very existence, because that existence is threatened from that financial insecurity that is brought on by this national debt. And I am so confident that when we stand together, when we come into this Chamber and we have the open and vigorous debate that we are going to have and that we will have, America will prosper. We will make the hard decisions, and we will stand proudly as one Nation for many generations to come that will be the beacon and the light to the world for so many who so need us and who so want us to succeed, and we are committed to that effort.

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I thank my good friend for joining us tonight.

The last principle is one I am proud to say we have taken some action on here. It has to do with legislation, the common practice for Congress to shortcut things, shortcut the process, not follow regular order, open rules, allowing all Members of Congress to offer amendments.

In my first 2 years of Congress, I never experienced one open rule. I didn't know what it was like. And I was shocked to find out that that is normally how you do business; that predominantly, most of the time, it's under open rule.

Some of the things we put in place with the rules package is requiring bills to be published ahead of time so that not only us as Members of Congress but our constituents can read them, and we have that chance to solicit input from them, to get that feedback on the unintended consequences and how it may impact them; the fact that we are now requiring you have to give some evidence, some documentation of where the constitutional authority is for doing this bill now, trying to keep germaneness in terms of what we put forward versus these thousands-of-pages bills that are just a mismatch of different topics.

So I thank my colleagues tonight for joining me in this. I certainly thank the patriots, like those folks from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, who joined in sharing those principles that we have, those patriots like that all over this Nation. We are just so appreciative for what they do for this country as well.

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