Economic Recovery After the Pandemic
Floor Speech
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, what is the American businessman to do when the American worker will not come into work?
For the past nearly 7 months, this President has held America's small business owners hostage and declared a de facto strike on the American economy.
Following the end of this COVID pandemic, the Biden administration has been granted the political gift of a lifetime: take a staggering American economy, still reeling from the economic collapse, and simply let it return to normal. If the Biden administration had done nothing, zero, if they had sat on their hands and twiddled their thumbs, if Joe Biden had taken more naps, then experts say our economy would be in a much better place than where it is right now.
Instead, the Biden administration's efforts place the American economy in a financial choke hold that threatens to obliterate hundreds of small businesses in my district.
It was John Adams that said: ``Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.''
Let's cast our eyes over the facts, shall we?
Back in April, economists predicted over 1 million new jobs to be added to our economy. Biden added just over 250,000. In May, economists adjusted their expectations, acknowledging this administration simply cannot deliver the type of job growth past administrations could.
Even with adjusted expectations, the Biden administration still fell short of the mark. There is no debate that the Biden administration of free handouts has dramatically undercut efforts to restart our economy. His massive increase of unemployment benefits has kept workers at home and left store owners scrambling to keep up with the growing consumer demand.
In my own district, business leaders in Asheville, Hendersonville, Franklin, and Macon County, have spoken with me about the difficulty in getting employees back to work. Who can blame them? Biden is literally paying American citizens to stay home instead of getting them back to work.
Who would fault an American husband or mother when they decide to stay home with their family and earn double their salary while doing it?
The Biden administration knows that their policy of handouts harms and is hurting business owners, but the game has always been about creating a welfare class, not empowering our economy. It is disgusting.
With those thoughts in mind, I now recognize one of my fellow North Carolina champions, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop).
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and my fellow North Carolinian, Mr. Cawthorn, for having this Special Order.
My comments will echo his. Look, the pandemic is over. Thank goodness. Our economy should be seeing robust growth. Instead, businesses cannot fill the record number of jobs available.
In fact, the number one issue that I hear, not only from business owners and managers, but from all constituents, is that folks will not come to work, businesses cannot find workers.
Last month, despite 9.3 million job openings, there were only 69,000 more new hires than in the month before. How is that possible with unemployment at 6 percent?
Simply put, President Biden and Democrats have insisted on continuing to pay people more to stay home than to work.
Despite consistent warnings from Republicans and economists, the so- called American Rescue Plan continued expanded unemployment benefit programs enacted in the heart of the pandemic.
In my home State, in North Carolina, these expanded benefits are worth $650 a week. That is about $50 more than the Progressives' preferred minimum wage of $15 an hour. You don't have to be an economist to see why small businesses can't fill job openings, and it is beyond time that Congress fix this self-inflicted wound.
That is one reason that Representative Jodey Arrington and I introduced the Jump-Start the Economy with Jobs Act. This bill, which ought to move promptly in this Congress, requires an individual who is currently receiving enhanced unemployment benefits to recertify that they do not have a job offer waiting for them in order to continue receiving enhanced benefits.
If their former employer would receive a communication, and if they say we are prepared to give an offer to that person to come back to work, then they can't continue to receive unemployment benefits. How appropriate. That would tailor the program to those people that continue to need it because of a job dislocation they cannot resolve. Enhanced unemployment benefits should continue for those who truly need them and not for those who have a job waiting for them.
The extended Federal unemployment benefits implemented during COVID- 19 had their time, but they should not be the mainstay now. They are, instead, artificially reducing the workforce.
Across the country, let's all be thankful, communities are opening up their economies and getting back to normal.
It is past time for this government to stop holding back the recovery and to stand up for small businesses, job generators, by ceasing to pay people to stay home.
A good first step would be to enact the Jump-Start the Economy with Jobs Act.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Thank you very much, Congressman Bishop, for those words. I echo the sentiments of both Jodey Arrington and Dan Bishop of wanting to jump-start this economy again.
With the fact that there are 9.3 million job openings in this country right now, we do need to change something to be able to actually fill the hire rate that has not increased at all. In fact, last quarter it only increased by 4.2 percent.
My friends, we will have artificial inflation if we do not do something to act quickly, and I believe the Jump-Start the Economy with Jobs Act is a great idea.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize another North Carolinian, a lion of our mountains, my dear friend, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Budd).
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Congressman, thank you for introducing that bill.
If you think about it, $387 is the amount the average American receives from their home State in weekly unemployment benefits. You add to that the $300 boost that the Federal Government is putting on, on top of that, and it is no wonder why people aren't going back to work. They get to stay at home with their families while making $17.17 an hour. That sounds like a good deal to me.
But I genuinely hope that we can find some way out of this, because there is a real spiritual poverty created when you don't actually work for your living.
It is now time for me to recognize a dear friend of mine from a Carolina that is not as good a North Carolina, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman).
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, Congressman Norman was elected to take care of the American people, but right now the Democrats in Congress-- although it is hard to call them Democrats because right now I believe that they have a socialist agenda, which is sabotaging America's jobs recovery with a crippling tax hike that targets our small businesses, the backbone of our economy.
Their plans raise small business taxes to the highest point in a generation, halt new projects and small business growth by doubling taxes on investments, and Democrats supercharge a second death tax, if you can believe that, where they want to tax you more. It would hit farms, machine shops, and other small businesses.
With all that in mind, I now yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller).
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I can see why Pennsylvania loves their Congressman so much.
When I think about what is going on in Congress and I see that Democrats are prioritizing wasteful spending over hardworking Americans' paychecks, I realize that the Democrats' socialist agenda won't produce long-term growth or greater economic security for American families.
A majority of Americans say they fear for an impending crash following the injection of Federal stimulus money during the pandemic. This is an unsettling thought for those who are trying to deal with dining room politics.
With all those thoughts in mind, I am very pleased to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Nehls), my dear friend and America's sheriff, who represents Texas' 22nd District.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes), a dear friend of mine who represents the Fourth District.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I think Congressman Estes touches on a great point. Under Republican leadership, under the last administration, business applications were at record levels. The TCJA encouraged business creation, as the amount of business applications reached its highest level ever, of over 880,000.
Now, you contrast that with what is going on in America today. There are many people who own restaurants in my own district, who are having to literally pay people $50 just to turn an application in, and then they never show up for the interview or even for work.
Because of how bleak things are looking, I am very happy to yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. McClain), the most loved and the most feared woman in all of Congress.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I believe we are created to work, and I believe we are created to work hard, and the right to work and the determination to build with one's hands is as foundational to the American ethos as it can be.
We were not set in this universal orchard to stand still as trees. There is no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It has been said that a firm work ethic is the process by which dreams become realities. It is the process by which idle visions become dynamic achievements.
This administration seeks, though, to strip employment from the men and women of America, to replace work with welfare and service with subservience. I reject that notion.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), my dear friend.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, when we started looking at the American Families Plan, we realized the tax hikes it would increase would raise capital gains and dividends tax from 20 to 39.6 percent, almost two times the normal price. It would impose capital gains taxes at death, which creates a second death tax, although I can't believe that we would ever need to tax anyone more than we do now. It would expand the 3.8 percent Obamacare surtax to hit even more small businesses' income than it already does.
Lastly, it would increase the IRS' auditing power, including monitoring bank accounts, because the very first thing that we need to reopen our economy at a better pace is to give more power to three- letter agencies.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, when we start thinking about what is going on here in our country with unemployment, in the week ending May 1, 2021, about 16 million people collected unemployment. Now, that is a staggering statistic when you realize that over 6.6 million of those people would not have been eligible to receive unemployment benefits in a traditional environment. But because of the trumped-up and boosted-up unemployment benefits the Federal Government is sending out, we are basically incentivizing people by giving them $34,000 a year to not go to work, thus creating more and more inflation. There is no production so, therefore, there are too many dollars chasing too few goods.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I am disheartened to know that with this Federal unemployment stimulus that we are sending out around the country, although it might solve some short-term financial woes, it is creating a spiritual poverty in the hearts of men and women across this country that I believe cannot be described.
When you start to think about how devastating it would be to one's morale and one's own honor and one's own self-esteem to think that you don't actually create anything, you don't actually build anything, you are not truly benefiting society, it makes me shudder to think about how I would feel about that.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining?
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her always incredibly accurate and fierce comments.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressman for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, as I continue to consider that the Democrats' plan must be to destroy our economy by incentivizing laziness, by incentivizing people not going to work, I shake my head and say, No, that can't be true. That is just one mistake that they made.
But then when I start to look through all the points that I have outlined--of the ridiculous tax increases on dividends, the tax increases on capital gains, the tax increases on small businesses, the tax increases which will increase the cost of living for the middle class, I am sure that they are trying to destroy our economy.
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Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Brady for his leadership on the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I think with everything that has been said from all of these Representatives from all over the country, each of them representing nearly 730,000 people, I believe it is overly and abundantly clear that it is time to end the emergency spending. It is time to end the trumped-up unemployment checks, which are incentivizing laziness. It is time to end government-mandated joblessness in America.
There is a labor shortage in this country, and if we don't end it, we will see inflation, the likes of which our country has never seen before, and I don't know if we will be able to recover from that.
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