Small Business Microlending Expansion Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Let me thank the chairman of the committee and the ranking member for working in a bipartisan way on what is very worthy legislation that I support. Small business America is the engine of the American economy, and I appreciate in these tumultuous times the development of this program in this legislation.

But I rise today with a heavy heart, Mr. Speaker, a heavy heart, because this morning we crossed a milestone. Unemployment was announced this morning at 10.2 percent, the worst rate of unemployment in the United States of America since 1983. Now, that is just a number, but I can't help but feel and see in my mind the faces and the families and the businesses that that represents.

Working families, small businesses, and family farmers in this country are hurting; and at 10.2 percent unemployment, it is time for this Congress to rethink the approach that we have taken to legislation and to this economy.

First, on the economy. Clearly, the so-called stimulus bill that was passed in February of this year has failed. The American people know that we can't borrow and spend and bail our way back to a growing economy. But, sadly, that was the approach that this administration and this majority took. Borrowing more than $700 billion from future generations of Americans, spreading it out in a wish list of liberal spending priorities, has seen unemployment go from 7.5 percent at the time the stimulus bill was passed to today's gut-wrenching 10.2 percent unemployment. So we have got to take a different approach to this economy.

Back in Indiana, I can tell you a lot of things we focus on out here are not really what I hear about walking up and down the streets of Muncie and Anderson and New Castle, Indiana. I hear people talking about jobs. People are asking, when is Congress going to get the message that the time has come for us to enact fast-acting tax relief for working families, small businesses, and family farms, tax relief that would take effect right now, hit the bottom line of households and businesses all across this country right now?

Republicans offered an alternative to the so-called stimulus bill earlier this year that, using the economic models of the White House at the time, would have cost half as much and created twice as many jobs; and there is still time to get it right.

The lessons of history are clear: John F. Kennedy knew it, Ronald Reagan knew it, and after the Towers fell, George W. Bush knew it. The way to jump-start the American economy is to give the American people more of their hard-earned tax dollars to spend on their families and on their enterprises, and that we should do. That is first.

Secondly, let me say I think the time has come, Mr. Speaker, for this Congress to make the priorities of the American people its priorities and set aside this massive government takeover of health care that is being driven to the floor of the Congress tomorrow, with $700 billion in higher taxes, with $1.3 trillion in new spending. 111 new government programs and bureaucracies are created; 43 entitlements are created or expanded.

At 10.2 percent unemployment, now is not the time to launch a massive new government-run insurance plan and pay for it on the backs of working families, small businesses, and family farms.

An analysis of the tax increase, there is $729.5 billion in new taxes on small businesses and individuals who can't afford health coverage in the Democrat health care bill. I saw one piece of analysis that suggested that, despite the President's promise in last year's election that he would allow no tax increases on any Americans that make less than $200,000 per year, 87 percent of the new taxes in the Democrat health care bill will be paid by Americans who make less than $200,000 per year. A 1,990-page bill creating a massive new government-run insurance plan at a time when working families and small businesses are struggling and shedding jobs and making sacrifices at home and at work just to keep the lights on and the doors open is unthinkable.

So, Mr. Speaker, I plead with this party: Belay your plans to launch a government takeover of health care. Put the interests of American families in this hurting economy first. Let's not add the insult of a massive new government program to the injury of 10.2 percent unemployment.

And one last point. I note, Mr. Speaker, an admired colleague of mine just moments ago said on the floor of this House that it was a shame that Members of the minority were using unrelated legislation to talk about health care reform, and I don't begrudge that esteemed Member his opinion.

But let me say, with press reports that suggest that we won't spend any more than half a day on the floor of this House debating what could amount to a government takeover of one-sixth of the American economy, it is a shame. There are great ideas on the Democrat side of the aisle. I want to say without hesitation, there are better ideas on the Republican side of the aisle.

But why don't we let the People's House work its will? Why don't we start the debate immediately? Let's bring the hundreds of amendments that Republicans and Democrats have offered, as we do with appropriations bills, let's bring them to the floor. Let's have wide-open, free-wheeling debate, and let's call the votes one after another. I have nowhere to be, except home standing with my veterans next Wednesday, from now until Thanksgiving. So let's get started. Let's go around the clock.

The people that should be feeling shame, Mr. Speaker, are those that would pile drive through this Congress a massive expansion of the Federal Government, an enormous increase in taxes, at a heart-breaking time when unemployment reaches historic levels in this generation. It is time for Washington, DC, to listen to the heart of the American people and make their priorities our priorities.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source