Republican Study Committee Press Conference - Tax Incentives for Economic Growth

Press Conference

Republican Study Committee Press Conference - Tax Incentives for Economic Growth

REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE PRESS CONFERENCE WITH REP. TOM PRICE (R-GA); REP. RANDY NEUGEBAUER (R-TX); REP. PHIL GINGREY (R-GA); REP. JOHN KLINE (R-MN); REP. SCOTT GARRETT (R-NJ); REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND (R-GA)
SUBJECT: TAX INCENTIVES FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

REP. : (In progress) -- bigger government, but it's a bigger free market system. This bill, H.R. 470, will do just that.

We want to bail out the taxpayers and families and small business in America, not bail out Wall Street and big business. H.R. 470 will bail out the small people, the Main Street people, small business here in America. And that's the reason it's so critical.

The president was absolutely wrong when he and Hank Paulson abandoned free market principles with the bailouts that we've seen over and over again. They have not worked; they will not work. Socialism has never worked in history and never will. So we have to develop a system that's going to bail out the people who working, generating income, generating jobs, and that's what H.R. 470's all about.

I encourage people all over this country to contact their members of Congress both in the House and the Senate and to support this idea, which is the only idea that's going to work. None of the proposals that we've gotten thus far, which are big-government proposals, are going to do anything more but create greater debt for our children and our grandchildren. We have to stop it. We have to put money back in the pockets of the people of this country. And that's what's going to create a stronger economy and get us out of this recession that we're in today.

This bill that the Republican Study Committee has proposed and hopefully will get the American public's attention will work and will stop this economic woes of America.

REP. PRICE: Thank you, Paul, so much. We've got a vote going on, but we've got a few more folks who want to say a few words.

Randy Neugebauer, Texas.

REP. NEUGEBAUER: Thank you. I'll be very brief.

I was a small-business man before I came to the United States Congress, and so I understand how you create jobs and understand how the economy works. And when my business actually began to get better was when I could keep more and more of the -- my money in my business and built up equity. And so when I went to my banker and I ask him -- I wanted to do an ambitious program where I was going to expand my business, I was able to do that, because I was building up equity in my company.

We do no good for the American people building equity -- or actually we're building debt for the American people. If you want to stimulate this economy, you begin to put equity in America's small businesses.

Now people talked about Joe the Plumber. I want to talk about Ray the Electrician. If Ray the Electrician can retain maybe 5(,000 dollars) or $10,000 additional money this year for not paying taxes, you know what he can do? He can go down to his bank and he can make a down payment on a new truck. And so now he's got a new truck. What does he need for that new truck? He needs some workers. So he goes and hires an electrician and a helper to ride around in that truck and be able to expand his business.

This isn't rocket science. But let me tell you, taking the money out of the economy and giving it to the federal government -- does anybody believe that the federal government can go spend a trillion dollars this year efficiently? If you do, I've got some swampland in west Texas that I'd like to sell you.

So I applaud the efforts of the RSC. They're on the right track here. Let's put money -- invest money in America. Let's don't invest it in government.

REP. PRICE: Thank you, Randy, so much. I didn't know there was any swampland in west Texas. (Laughter.)

Phil Gingrey, a colleague of mine from the state of Georgia.

Congressman Gingrey?

REP. GINGREY: Representative Price, thank you. I'm a proud member of RSC, proud of our chairman, Tom Price, a fellow Georgian, and proud to be supporting this legislation brought to us from the RSC, co-sponsored by Tom and by Scott Garrett and Jimmy Jordan.

What you're hearing from the members is a commonsense approach to solving this economic meltdown that we currently find ourselves in.

As the other speakers have said, government throwing trillions of dollars at a problem with absolutely no oversight and no accountability is not going to solve the problem. And we have seen that. We've spent $350 billion -- the first tranche -- the so-called rescue package. And where's it gone? We do know that 4 billion (dollars) or more, including GMAC, went to Chrysler and General Motors. But where did the rest of it go to? Big banks, national banks, regional banks; and purportedly to unfreeze credit, and loans to people and small-business men and women -- and none of that has happened.

I think that the essence of this bill is to say -- and it's a broad bill. And you have it in front of you, and there are a lot of details about capital gains and dividends and cutting 5 percent on all marginal rates, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera -- but the bottom line is, it should go to individuals and small-business men and -- (audio break) -- to hold on to the -- to your money to -- so you can stimulate the economy, whether it's growing jobs or individuals having more money to spend. And this will work. I'll guarantee you that this will work.

The other thing that -- (audio break) -- approach of throwing -- just writing more checks and printing more money is not going to work. So I commend the RSC, and I support it wholeheartedly.

Thank you.

REP. PRICE: Thank you, Phil. Next up, from the great state of Minnesota, Colonel John Kline.

REP. KLINE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, everybody, for coming here. I want to thank the authors of this bill. And I want to thank the president-elect for asking for Republican input into this.

I hope that the speaker will allow Republican debate and input. I know that my colleagues behind me were very frustrated last summer when the speaker and the Democrat leadership in this Congress did not allow us to have a vote, to have an open debate on the all-of-the- above energy policy, which we were pushing, which -- by the way, that all-of-the-above energy policy is another important part of getting America back to work and improving the economy.

But what we want now is what we were asking for last summer and continue to ask for, and that is an opportunity to have our ideas brought forward so that we can have that debate and get a vote.

So again, I want to thank my Republican Study Committee colleagues for this great piece of legislation. I'm very pleased to cosponsor it. And I'm asking the speaker now to let us bring this idea forward.

Thank you.

REP. PRICE: Thanks, Colonel. And finally, for a few comments, Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia.

REP. WESTMORELAND: Thank you, Congressman Price. And I want to thank my colleagues, too, from the RSC, for working on this.

But I think the real story here is just what Congressman Kline just mentioned. The real story is that this bill will not be able to be debated in the open and in front of people. And that is the real shame.

You know, when the 110th Congress came in, Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership said this was going to be the most open, honest, ethical Congress in the history of this body. I think that we saw that the 110th was not that. And the 111th has started off worse, with the majority trying to keep us from having motions to recommit, where we can put our ideas and our thoughts out so the American people can see them.

We will never get to debate this bill. So with all the merits of it, probably the majority -- or the majority party will never hear about this bill. They will never hear about -- open debate on the House floor. That's the real story of this. Not only this bill, but other pieces of legislation where new ideas and things that improve the thoughts of this Congress could come forth, are being silenced.

I don't think the American people appreciates that. We've got to do more to change the process to make sure that these new ideas get out.

Thank you.

REP. PRICE: Thank you, Lynn.

Let me just say in closing, I want to thank Scott Garrett and Jim Jordan for their wonderful work on this bill, and Mary Fallin and everybody else who's spoken here. I also want to commend the Americans for Tax Reform and the National Taxpayer Union, who have already sent out letters of support on this bill, H.R. 470.

I'm a -- the eternal optimist.

I'm hopeful that the speaker actually allows open and honest debate on this bill.

I believe that this is the kind of solution the American people are looking for: more money in their back pockets and more money in the back pockets of businesses, across this nation, and a beginning on decreasing the debt burden for future generations. With that, I want to thank you for coming. And we've got time for a couple questions.

Yes, sir.

Q To what degree have you been working with Chairman Rangel on this and the minority leader? (Off mike.)

REP. PRICE: As you know, we're in the second week of this 111th Congress. The -- we have been charged, coming right out the chute, with a new piece of legislation. We put the final touches on this within the past 24 hours. And so we will be going with all of the stakeholders involved and asking for their support. Look forward to working with Chairman Rangel and certainly Ranking Member Camp on this bill.

Q If you could, speak to just the immediacy of this having an impact. There are some on the other side who would say, there are shovel-ready; there are states that need aid, and that gets to people right away.

With this process, you know, we've got to count on taxes to take effect, rates to take effect. What works quicker? And how do you know?

REP. PRICE: Well, I look forward to comments from my colleagues as well. But expensing immediately helps. Decreasing cap gains immediately helps. Decreasing corporate tax immediately helps.

All of those things work to the bottom line immediately to allow businesses to create the environment, to create jobs and get more people back to work and get the economy moving.

So we believe strongly that what we have seen, over the last year, has not worked. You talk about something that has taken too much time is the current proposal.

Scott, do you have any comments?

REP. GARRETT: I'll just echo one word that Mary said, that you have heard her say, that what we're suggesting here is a quick and proven method. Compare that to what the other side of the aisle has proposed so far. Theirs may or may not be quick. If you do -- I'd encourage you all to get a look at the recommendations and the proposals from the mayors, as far as what their projects are.

Some of them are quick. Some of them are longer, take longer to implement, to get to the shovel in the ground. And even when they do get implemented, as the example I gave before, some of them are simply like changing light bulbs and doing other very short-term, painting- the-fence sort of thing that will only be here for a few weeks.

So the question you have to really ask them is, when you're talking about creating jobs, is that really a permanent job that's going to last for the year or the length of time? Or is that a job that may only last a week?

And the second point of it, as far as proven, well, as Mary pointed out, and the rest of the folks behind me pointed out as well, these have a history of being proven to actually get the job done and get the permanent jobs creation. And it can be done quickly at that.

Q How many Republicans have you whipped?

REP. PRICE: We just dropped it yesterday; H.R. 470.

And I think we've got a dozen or folks on it immediately, and then we'll have -- we'll be going around the conference and asking individuals to support it, as well as folks across the aisle. There are individuals who ran on the Democrat side who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility, and we look forward to their support as well.

Q Have you had any reaction from Minority Whip Eric Cantor on your proposal? And -- (off mike) -- specifically the fact that aid to the states -- (off mike).

REP. PRICE: Yeah, we've been in constant conversations with our leadership, and they've been supporting all sorts of proposals -- the formulation of all sorts of proposals. as you know, there's going to be a hearing tomorrow on our side of the aisle talking about these kinds of proposals and other sorts of things to solve the challenges that we face. So we've had good discussions with them.

In terms of the state issue, I would suggest -- we would suggest that if we are able to turn around the economy in a way that creates more jobs and provides more opportunity for more individuals, then the states, by their very nature, benefit from all of that.

So we think that the process of throwing money at the challenges that we have has demonstrated not to be effective, and that if we want to embrace American vision and American values and American solutions, what that means is the kind of proposal that we've put on the table.

Q Congressman Price, can I just you about one of President- elect Obama's picks handling economic policy, Tim Geithner. Setting aside his -- (off mike) -- what you and your colleagues think of him ideologically. He comes from a Wall Street background. Some look at him as a protege of Robert Rubin. What do you think of his approach to fiscal policy?

REP. PRICE: Well, we'll see what his approach to fiscal policy is once he takes office. As I mentioned, the president-elect has put on the table that he's interested in working in a bipartisan way. So we look forward to meeting with the secretary if he's confirmed and presenting our proposals for solutions to the challenges that we face.

Q And at this point how much support do you think there is in the Republican Caucus for the $800 billion economic stimulus package that Obama has made, particularly now that he seems to be pulling back on some business tax cuts -- (off mike). How much support do you think there for that?

REP. PRICE: There's support on our side of the aisle, strong support, for solutions. What we believe strongly is that continuing to borrow and spend isn't providing the kind of solutions that the American people support. That's why we put on the table this bill, which provides appropriate ability for all Americans, all taxpayers, to keep more of their hard-earned money; that it allows for businesses to be able to have the environment to create more jobs and stimulate this economy and begin to increase the debt burden on future generations. We believe that's what, frankly, the Congress would coalesce behind if given the opportunity.

Q (Off mike.)

REP. PRICE: I think, again, what we will support is something that will solve the problem. I don't believe that our colleagues have the sense that another $800 billion will, in fact, solve the problem.

One more question? Yes, sir.

Q How many members are there in the RSC in this Congress? (Off mike.)

REP. PRICE: We're still in the process of recruitment, but we will be north of a hundred members in the Republican Study Committee.

Let me thank you all very much. And I'll be glad to stick around and answer a few questions. Thank you all.

END.

Source