The Official Truth Squad

THE OFFICIAL TRUTH SQUAD -- (House of Representatives - March 08, 2006)

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak before the House tonight. I want to thank the leadership for allowing me to participate in this hour. I thank the conference chair, Congresswoman Pryce, for her leadership.

And I want to come tonight with a number of colleagues, and we come with what we call the Official Truth Squad. And we call it that because a group of freshman Congressmen, in our class there are 25 or so freshman Congressman, who have now served in Congress for about 15 months, and when we get together on a regular basis, one of the overarching concerns that we voice to each other over and over and over again was the tone in Washington and the remarkable partisanship in Washington. And we kind of brainstormed about what could we do to change that tone, to make a difference.

And so we came up with the Official Truth Squad. And we try to come every evening and share with the American people what we believe to be the truthful situation on whatever the topic is.

This instance tonight we are going to talk a little bit about the economy in just a short time. But I think what you have heard, Mr. Speaker, over the last hour, and much of it veiled in some very kind words, but what you have heard is a clear example of the politics of division. And it is the politics of division that many of our friends on the other side of the aisle seem to be wedded to, and I cannot tell you why that is.

It disturbs me. It is very distressing, because I think that it does not serve the greater purpose of why we are all here, why we are all elected to Congress, to try to solve the remarkable challenges that we have.

But the politics of division is, as you know, Mr. Speaker, is pitting one group against another in some really political way that really does not make a whole lot of sense. But it is appealing to people's lowest common denominator. It is appealing to their fears and to their basic instinct, and that, again, does a great disservice to us as a Nation.

I have quoted on this floor before something that I have attributed to President Abraham Lincoln. And I was so pleased that there are folks who are out there and interested in what we are talking about. And I stand corrected on that. It was felt to be consistent with President Lincoln's philosophy, but, in fact, it is attributable to Reverend William Boetcker, who was a leader and a public speaker in America born in 1873, died in 1962.

He talked about the politics of division. He talked about it a lot. He talked about the need for appropriate discourse and a social philosophy that he felt was consistent with President Lincoln's, and it has been confused with that in the past.

So I wish to share that with you again tonight, Mr. Speaker, because I think it really crystallizes what we ought not do here in the people's House because it does a disservice. And the quote goes like this:

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot encourage the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could do for themselves."

And I may add another one tonight: that you cannot empower women by tearing down men.

So the politics of division do truly a disservice to us as a Nation. It is disheartening to the public discourse, frankly. So I urge my colleagues to try to endeavor as we are talking about issues and the challenges that confront us to remember that truth is important and truth is vital in everything that we do.

In my real job I was a physician. I was an orthopedic surgeon. And I am fond of telling folks that if I did not get truthful information either from the patient or from whatever laboratory study or examination we were doing, if we did not get truthful information, then we could not make the right diagnosis. If you do not make the right diagnosis, then you cannot treat the right disease. And if you do not treat the right disease, it is hard to get the patient cured.

It is the same in public policy. If you are not dealing in truth, if you are not making the right diagnosis, if you are not treating the right disease, you cannot get to the right solution. So, again, I challenge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to try as hard as they can to avoid the politics of division. It really is shameful and it does a disservice to the public debate, and it really does not do any credit to the party itself.

So I am pleased to be able to have the opportunity tonight to come and talk about many different things, but we are going to talk about the economy for a good length of time here this evening.

I have been joined by a good friend and colleague, a member of the freshman class, Congressman Westmoreland, a fellow Georgian. Congressman Westmoreland is a small businessman and a fellow Georgian. I served in the State legislature with him. He has come to share some of that truthful information about the economy.

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It really is amazing when people hear this because it is kind of counterintuitive. If you decrease taxes then people say, well, surely you decrease money coming into the government. But it does not work that way, does it? And what we see here is exactly what you described.

You decrease this line right here. This is the years down here, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003. This line is when the tax decreases, the tax cuts, went into effect; and the red line is the revenue into the United States Treasury.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I came up with another chart that highlighted exactly what you said because so often, as we have talked about on the Official Truth Squad, we get one word out of one side of a person's mouth and what they do when they actually vote is something completely different.

You mentioned about the balanced budget amendment and the opportunities that our friends on the other side of the aisle have had to support a balanced budget amendment and, in fact, their deed has not matched their word. They talk a good game, they really do. They talk about supporting a balanced budget amendment. But here are votes that were taken in 1990; 145 Democrats voted no on a balanced budget amendment; 1992, 150 vote no; 1994, 151 vote no; 1995, 129 vote no. And the most recent time they had an opportunity to do that, 1997, 8 Democrats voted yes, 194 voted against calling for a balanced budget amendment.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thanks for your participation, and your words tonight really were right to the point.

We are fond of saying in the Official Truth Squad, quoting Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had a wonderful quote that goes, "veryone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts."

And that is what this is about, the Official Truth Squad. You know as well as anybody that this is not Washington's money. This is the people's money. And that is what is so important to get across to folks. It is the people's money. It is not Washington's money.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Do you think that after so long this money starts looking like play money and you start talking about billions of dollars and trillions of dollars and that is unrealistic to most people? I think when you start to think of a billion dollars is ten hundred million, and most of us will never know what a million dollars is. It is not just play money. It is money that has come out of the taxpayers' pockets and we have got to be accountable for it.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. It is their money and they deserve to spend it as they please. Thank you so much for your participation.

We are talking about the economy tonight in the Official Truth Squad and trying to bring some light to some of the wonderful things that are happening in the economy and put statistics down where statistics ought to be and show the truth.

We are joined tonight by Congresswoman Blackburn from Tennessee. We are so pleased to have you join us again on the Official Truth Squad and share some of your perspective on the United States economy right now.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I think that is such an incredibly important point that you just made, and that is not to raise taxes.

What most of my constituents do not understand or appreciate is that Congress has to act in order for the current tax decreases, the current tax cuts, to continue, and that if we do nothing, if the other side is successful in making it so that Congress is inactive and does not do anything, then a tax increase will take effect; is that not the case?

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. It really does. A picture really is worth 1,000 or a million words, certainly, and this one certainly is. In fact, it is worth 4.73 million words, because every one of those 4.73 million new jobs is demonstrated on this picture here, on this graph here, from January 2002 all the way to January 2006. You see the trend that happened during this administration, during the Republican leadership and what happened when it crossed the line with tax decreases, the tax cuts you talked about.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thank you so much for joining us this evening on this Official Truth Squad and bringing us some truthful numbers, some truthful comments, and highlighting so well the wonder of the small business community across this Nation, because the small business community really is the engine that drives the job creation in our Nation, and this is why the environment to make certain that small business, mom and pop, the corner drugstore, the corner cleaners, those folks who are just working as hard as they can, that the environment for them to be able to succeed and be able to thrive is so doggone important. That is what we are here to try to do and make certain that we continue that economic environment.

We have been joined by Congressman Mike Conaway. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn was with us. Congressman Mike Conaway is another fellow freshman member of the Official Truth Squad and very, very helpful. He is a CPA by profession. That is exactly what we need are more CPAs in Congress who can tell us exactly what the right number ought to be, and I want to welcome Congressman Conaway and look forward to your comments this evening, the truthful comments about our economy.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thank you so much, Congressman Conaway. You said you didn't have the flowery speech, but you do. And in addition to that flowery speech, you speak the truth. Because so oftentimes here we don't refer to that document, the Constitution, that I carry with me every single day and that highlights our principles; that is the founding document that says what our guidelines ought to be.

Where are our walls and fences? What should we be doing? We ought to hear every single day on the floor of this House, is that the responsibility of the Federal Government? We ought to be asking ourselves that on every single thing we do.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I appreciate so much, again, the gentleman's coming. Really, it is a positive picture, because what it says is that we ought to be looking at our founding document. That is a positive uplifting picture.

I guess what is one of the most distressing things about what you have said is that you described this budget that is going to be proposed as a radical budget, but it is a balanced budget. There is nothing radical about a balanced budget within a 5-year period of time, which is, as I understand it, what will be proposed. So it is not radical.

In fact, doing anything else is harmful, is not compassionate, and is probably radical because it puts us on that track for the GDP percentage being consumed by the Federal Government that you pointed to of 50 percent in the year 2050. And as you say, that is unsustainable. It means it doesn't work. Can't work.

So thank you so much for joining me tonight, and I really appreciate your perspective and your insight and your acumen that you bring from the private sector to us here in Congress.

I have talked about Senator Moynihan's wonderful quote that "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts." What we try to do on the Truth Squad is to highlight some of the comments that have been made on the floor of the House of Representatives and to point out what in fact the truth is. And we have heard an awful lot, an awful lot lately about the Dubai Ports situation, the potential transfer or sale of management of six of our Nation's ports to Dubai Ports World.

And regardless of what you think about that, there are some real questions that many of us have about that. But in the context of that discussion, we have heard over and over and over again that no money has gone to port security, the money has been slashed to port security, and the Congress hasn't been responsible in what it has done with port security. So what I have done tonight is to bring two new highlights for the Official Truth Squad that talk about port security funding.

This first one highlights the funding to the six ports that are in question here as it relates to the current topic.

This chart says since September 11, 2001, Congress has authorized a 700 percent increase. That is not a cut, that is not flat, that is an increase in funding for port security, and in particular Congress has authorized the following amounts for six of the most high-risk ports: $43.7 million to the port of New York and New Jersey; $32.7 million to the port of Miami; $27.4 million to the port of New Orleans; $16.2 million to the port of Baltimore; and $15.8 million to Philadelphia, a 700 percent increase in port security since September 11, and nowhere do you see a decrease.

That is highlighted even more so on this chart here that demonstrates and shows the port security funding in fiscal year 2001, and you see the remarkable increases we have had since September 11, 2001; fiscal year 2006 and the 2007 request is nearly $3 billion for money that would be utilized in the area of port security.

What you hear and what the truth is oftentimes are two different things. I am pleased to be able to bring this kind of information to the floor and to talk about the truth, talk about the kind of numbers that in fact we are dealing with in the House of Representatives and to try to get through a lot of partisanship, to try to get above a lot of hyperbole and misinformation that is rampant and does a disservice to the debate.

We oftentimes do not get to debate a whole lot in Congress. Like what is occurring tonight, one side presents their issues and the other side presents their issues. It goes back and forth. It really is not a debate, it is not an interchange. It is not the kind of thing that I would think of as a debate and probably most Americans would think of, but what is occurring with the Official Truth Squad coming here night after night after night is we are beginning to have some dialogue, some back and forth with our friends on the other side of the aisle, and they have made some interesting comments and I thought I should bring them to the American people.

Last night there was a group of folks in the House that call themselves the Blue Dogs, and they talked about what we do in the Truth Squad in a certain way.

They said, "following us this evening, I am pretty confident that the other side will show up and they will probably talk about how we had an opportunity to cut, to cut $40 billion in spending and how we, the Blue Dogs, voted against it. But what they will not tell you is it was $40 million in cuts to the most vulnerable people in our society: Medicaid, 8 out 10 seniors in Arkansas on Medicaid; 1 out of 5 people in Arkansas are on Medicaid. Cuts to Medicaid, cuts to student loans to the tune of $40 billion."

Now that is what they said. But the Official Truth Squad is here because what we are interested in doing is looking at the real numbers. What is the truth in that? That is a pretty significant charge that was made, significant cuts in Medicaid and to education, to student loans. What is the truth? What really has Congress done?

Madam Speaker, here is the chart that puts the Medicaid situation into perspective. This chart goes from 1995 to 2005. It talks about the amount of money, the Federal outlays in billions of dollars to the Medicaid program. In fact, what this square says is that spending more than doubled over the last 10 years on Medicaid for an average growth of 7.4 percent per year. Average growth in Medicaid for the past 10 years, 7.4 percent. That may not sound like a lot, but look at the actual numbers. In 1995, $89.1 billion. In the year 2000, $208 billion. In 2005, $181.7 billion in Medicaid funding.

Now, Madam Speaker, I know that people oftentimes like to talk about a cut. As I talked about before, that is the politics of division. It does not help anybody. All it does is put fear into folks reliant on the program who oftentimes are the most vulnerable.

What we have done in the United States House of Representatives under Republican leadership is cut waste, cut fraud, worked to cut the abuse of the system, but continually increasing the amount of revenue that is going because that population, regretfully, has increased. So it is appropriate to have more money go into that area, not cuts, not cuts to the program.

What about education? They mentioned education. These cuts that they quote for education; well, in fact, it is the same kind of picture. Here we have a chart, the year 2000 all of the way up to 2005. This is the annual growth in Federal education spending over the past 5 years. The year 2000, a little under $40 billion. The year 2005, nearly $60 billion. Total education spending has grown an average of 9.1 percent per year over the past 5 years. That is certainly faster than the inflation rate. It is faster than the population in that area. It is not a cut, not a cut.

And then they talk about student loans. What is happening with student loans? We had some significant changes to student loans last year, but they were loans that put more money into the hands of the students and less money into the hands of the borrowers. Still, if we look at the actual money, this is the truth, the Official Truth Squad, Pell grant funding has grown 10.3 percent per year since the year 2000, $12.4 billion for fiscal year 2005. The graph demonstrates clearly annual growth every single year.

So, Madam Speaker, when people hear that the cuts are occurring and when they hear the discussion about the cuts as was mentioned earlier in the budget, the balanced budget within 5 years that is going to be proposed, again, it is not honest, it is not fair to the discussion. It results in this politics of division which pits one group against another, all of which is not positive for our Nation and it does not assist in the debate. It does not help us reach solutions. I encourage my colleagues to kind of rethink how they are approaching this debate.

We would love to have an open and honest discussion about these things and be able to work together to solve the problems because these are not Republican problems, these are not Democrat problems, these are American problems. They are challenges that all of us have. It works best, our system works best when we all work together to solve the challenges that we have.

Madam Speaker, we live in a wondrous and a glorious Nation. It is still a Nation where men and women around the world, they look to us with optimism, they look to us as being a beacon of liberty and a vessel of hope. They view us as being an example that they might be able to follow. I am proud to serve in the United States House of Representatives. I am proud to serve with men and women who are willing to stand up and to say how much they love America and how much they believe that the policies that we are putting forward are moving us in the right direction. I am proud to serve with those men and women who joined us this evening and talked about truth, talked about issues that are so important for the American people to understand and put a little positive perspective on the challenges that we have before us. I look forward to coming back at some point in the future.

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