Jobs for Americans
Floor Speech
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Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for leading us in an hour of discussion, of dialogue, that is most critical to the economic viability, to the economic comeback of America's middle class.
You talk about some of these incentives that would be addressed through a payroll tax deduction. It's all about empowering our middle class, enhancing their purchasing power, enabling us to enhance that demand out there for products that then obviously translates into job growth; because with more demand upon manufacturers in this country, with more consumer confidence, with absolute increase in purchasing power, there will be a positive outcome.
There's no denying that unemployment is driving the deficit; and if we can turn that around, if we can invest in ways that enhance the middle class, that's good for all strata, all income strata in this Nation. And what's been lost in the logic here for the majority is that the empowerment of the middle class stands to produce gains for everybody, and we saw what happened in the buildup before our entry here into the House.
In the period of the recession, it was all about borrowing, totally, the money that was necessary to spend on a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. And some would suggest those are the job creators. But what happened was we realized 8.2 million jobs lost, and so that didn't work.
We ought not go back and revisit that formula, because it was not a formula for success. What we need here is to bring about the long overdue empowerment of the middle class. And it is working families across this country that need that assistance today; and, by the way, it works in everybody's favor.
So that's what we're promoting, and it's good to start off with that discussion; because as we move forward, investments are what it's about: investing our way to prosperity, investing our way to opportunity, investing our way to a stronger tomorrow for all Americans. It's not going to come by cutting into situations that relieve the liability, the responsibility of those who have been most profitable here. That didn't work, and that is not going to be the formula for a comeback for most Americans.
What we need is to be sensitive to the investments in education, higher education, in sounder tax policy, reforms of tax policy, and certainly investment in research because, as we invest in research, that equals jobs, and that's still the highest priority of America's general public out there. We need jobs, and the dignity of work is what ought to be front and center for the work that we do here in public policy format or in resource advocacy so as to go forward and herald the need of the middle class.
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Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, as you talk about the loss in any given year where a student may lose the opportunity in the classroom because of these cuts that are significant to education, that is one measurement; but let me suggest another. We see aggressive investment going on around the world in emerging powers out there, nations competing with us in that global marketplace on clean energy, innovation, an ideas economy. An ideas economy is a robust opportunity for a sophisticated Nation like ours; but it requires commitment, commitment to investment, investment in education. We take that intellectual capacity, and we make it work.
We did that in the space race of the 1960s. President Kennedy, a rather youthful President in his time, offered a challenge to America, offered a challenge in a way that enabled us to invest in research, that enabled us to win the global race in space. That was an unleashing of technology in all told sectors of the economy and from every perspective of quality of life that was enhanced by the investments that were made.
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Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Let me just respond to the absolute clear focus of our friend, the gentlewoman from Texas, and for the strength of Texas. Representative Jackson Lee is constantly talking about the opportunities to make it in America, but she cited, also, the flood damage in my district, in the Mohawk Valley, the Schoharie Valley of upstate New York.
Sometimes we will sit around and try to tout the effect of infrastructure for our job growth. There are different ways to express the economic development quotient related to infrastructure, the traditional roads and bridges, but then broadband and our grid system for our electric utilities, what role does it play?
Well, sometimes the best expression is done when that is taken from you. And when roads and bridges were washed away, we saw immediately what the effect was on the regional economy--and therefore the State economy--and then we're all connected one to another so that the national economy hurts through the ravages of flood waters that impacted this district, some would say with 500-year storm impact.
What did that mean? It meant that you couldn't haul milk that was processed, produced on these farms; and you could not ship products being manufactured. It stopped the economic viability of a district and of a region. So it's important for us to look at those bridges that measure in deficient form. We need to make certain that we have state-of-the-art infrastructure and broadband. We began to talk about this with the space race of the sixties; we unleashed untold amounts of investment in technology that enabled us to stretch opportunity here. Think of the rotary phone that's now moved all the way up to what is a changing telephone by the week. And that all happened because of an investment in the intellect of this Nation.
So the intellectual capacity of this Nation has been an inspiration to not only this country but to folks around the world where the quality of life was raised simply by the inventive qualities of American workers. And so that's what we're calling for here. The Democrats of the House of Representatives believe in investing in the worker and in research. Research equals jobs, and research equals opportunities. The intellectual capacity that was developed here, I'm told by the most recent former energy minister of Denmark, influenced the turnaround of thinking in Denmark where they transitioned their economy, created energy-innovative outcomes, all inspired by patents coming from the United States of America. So we have that intellect.
We talk about manufacturing as a base. We saw the exodus of manufacturing jobs to the millions--to the millions. We're still perched highest on the list for manufacturing jobs; but if we allow that trend where we were disinterested, paid no attention to manufacturing and agriculture, if we allow that to continue, we will sink as an economy. What we need to do is now bring the focus back to manufacturing and to agriculture. The focus was totally on the service economy, and there more narrowly to the financial services. We know what happened.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Would the gentleman pause for just a moment.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
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Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. I hear in your statement the wisdom of sound planning. We need that for a government to be smart and efficient, which is the call by the general public. We want smart investment from our government. Ask any competitor out there in the global economy. They are competing against industries that are being co-invested in by their native lands. There are co-investments with governments and their private sector, and we're moving in the other direction.
So a couple of things come to mind here. I participated this past weekend in Small Business Saturday. And the spirit I detected was a leap of faith, a sound leap of faith, by many small business leaders who said, I want to offer a service, I'm going to put my creative genius to work. I'm going to make my commitment to community a response here that's tangible.
I saw a lot of belief in the American public, a belief in the American system; and it offers a warm and fuzzy, cozy personalized relationship. People come in; they're known when they walk into the shop; they see the creative flair that's been introduced into that small business. I also see more technically savvy qualities that are engaged in the district I represent with a lot of start-ups, incubators, again, another leap of good faith but needing an investment, a co-partnering with government, especially in a very tenuous economy where there's still a lot of guesswork. We need to be there to remove some of that risk. That is so critically important.
Representative Garamendi, you mentioned earlier the fact that my district is that donor district to the Erie Canal/Barge Canal, which was the westward movement that triggered an industrial revolution. These mill towns that were given birth to by the canal became the epicenters of invention and innovation--manufacturing towns and mill towns that had blue collar workers coming up with tremendously clever ideas.
And for people to throw up their arms and say manufacturing then is what it was, it was our greatness, it's gone today, nothing could be farther from the truth. What is the challenge today to a sophisticated society like the American society is that while we have a number of product lines that we developed through our decades of manufacturing, the challenge to a sophisticated society is to build the products that are in demand today.
And if we believe that every product that's ever required by society has been conceived, engineered, designed and manufactured, then the story is over. But if we believe, as so many of us do believe, that we can be the wizards of those new products and we develop it by investing in ideas and investing in research, then we build those products that are now the step up, if you will.
That's where we are with our policy initiatives as a Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives. Make it in America by embracing the intellectual capacity of this Nation and holding fast to innovation, entrepreneurs, and the manufacturing of today, spun up to a new level, that's America at her greatest moment.
Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for just a moment. Every hour we're here we're joined by men and women who are working hard on behalf of the American people. The stenographers taking down our words here deserve a praise of thanksgiving; not that our words are so worthwhile to put into the American Record, but they do it, nonetheless, and I want to thank them for their good work, and for the staff behind us as we go through this hour.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Let me just, if you'll suffer an interruption, or yield, please, Representative Garamendi, I absolutely endorse what you just said. They are devoted. They are an essential part of this body to introduce all of the statements into the annals of history, making certain that statements that might inspire the sort of progress that is required by this Nation right now--they provide an awesome, awesome task.
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Mr. TONKO. You're absolutely right. And I believe, as you just indicated, our history, our American history is replete with the soundness of government planning and policies that incorporated investments from the public sector. And it made us strong. It retained our strength. It was a sustainable outcome. And the way of the world today is other nations are doing that with their private sector co-investing with them.
And when you look at the scenario of threats to cut some very valuable programs, you know you're going to place our businesses at risk. And if there's anything I hear from my middle class that is disgruntled with Washington is that they're not against people making money. They're not against that.
They're concerned, and they're deeply upset by the undue influence that a few, a growing few, most powerful have on the process. They see it as insatiable greed. They see it as a rejection of what worked in the past, where people shared the wealth, shared by investing in America's middle class, which is that intellectual capacity, is that innovative spirit, is that potential for the next generation of jobs. And that's where our strength lies, and that's why they're upset. The undue influence has caused this insatiable greed that produces a drain on the middle class of this country and, therefore, reduces the number of jobs that we could possibly have in this Nation.
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Mr. TONKO. I think you highlight some of the major differences and disagreements that have highlighted the debate on the Hill here in Washington between the two parties. And I would suggest it's probably some of the reasons that the supercommittee could not come to consensus, because we have called upon an outcome that is fair, balanced, and bold--that we will not allow for the price tag on further continuing tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to be paid for by cuts to Medicare. There were those who fought Social Security at its inception and have fought it for 76 years and want to deny it.
It's about making certain that there is an underpinning of support for our elderly as they grow into what is a longer life span. We have to have measures in place that enable there to be a quality of life that provides economic vitality, economic balance for those who move into their retirement years.
I think that when we look at some of the measurements of Medicare, for instance, where it's about 5 percent of the GDP, much more modest than private sector health care is to GDP, and here's a program that has worked tremendously well. Can it be made better? Absolutely. That's where we stand. Make it better. Make it more secure. Make it more sustainable.
But do not deny the masses of this country who have prospered, who have been strengthened, who were lifted by programs like Medicare and Social Security. And I am proud to serve in the caucus that, as a conference, has said we stand for keeping these programs in place, strengthening them, not denying them, which I think is a major disagreement on the Hill.
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Mr. TONKO. We do.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We have much to be thankful for. We are thankful for those men and women that served here in this House over the years that brought us to where we are--the world's strongest, greatest country with the greatest opportunity. Even with all of the troubles we have today, it's still a country with great opportunity.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
Mr. GARAMENDI. It's a country in which the American Dream lives, and we have the obligation to make sure that it's there for future generations.
Mr. Tonko, we're going to do a rapid 30 seconds around.
Mr. TONKO. We've had a wonderful hour of discussion, and I give thanks for the wonderful investments that have made us this strong Nation. In conclusion, if we invest in the middle class of this Nation, our greatest days lie ahead of us. We have a chance to be continually investing in a way that allows us to make it in America and allow for our intellectual capacity to reign supreme. It's been our history. It's our DNA. Let's make it happen. I'm optimistic about the tomorrows for this country with the appropriate investments.
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