House Proceeding on Jul 22nd, 2009 :: 1:31:30 to 1:35:35
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1:31:27 to 1:31:47( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: injured by it. and with that, mr. speaker, i would yield three minutes to the gentleman from tennessee, a proud member coalition, mr. tanner. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from tennessee is recogn mr. tanner: thank you. thank you very much for yielding. this bill today is not what some of us would like, but it

1:31:30 to 1:35:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John S. Tanner

1:31:48 to 1:32:08( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: is something that we think maybe could pass the senate which after all has a hand in this statutory approach. it is the first step to restore a rule that was allowed by this congress to expire in 2002 which effectively removes a

1:32:09 to 1:32:29( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: constraint, one constraint on what almost everybody wants to see happen. and that is you want to vote against any taxes and you want to vote for all the programs. this is one small step to try to address that urge that i guess all of us share from time to time. if you look back at this

1:32:30 to 1:32:52( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: decade, in the year 2000, revenue and expenditures were both around 19% of g.d.p. the country basically was breaking even. by 2002 when pay-go was allowed to expire and we had seen the economic policies of the country change dramatically in

1:32:53 to 1:33:15( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: the summer of 2001 shortly before 9/11, develop where by 2003 the expenditures were over 20% of g.d.p. and the revenue coming in was less than 17%, actually 16.3% of g.d.p. and without changinour economic game plan that was

1:33:16 to 1:33:39( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: enacted in june of 2001, we began to borrow money, mostly 75% of it, from foreign sources. wh situation where we now are beginning to be more and more vulnerable to our foreign creditors who may or may not

1:33:40 to 1:34:00( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: does and secondly, we are transferring more and more of our fax base, whatever it may be, to interest -- tax base, whatever it may be, to interest. as my friend from new york just said, the government has to do two things in addition, of course, the first thing to keep

1:34:01 to 1:34:22( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: our country safe. but the other two things it has to do is invest in infrastructure. if youo anywhere in the world where there's no infrastructure, nobody's making any money. it's almost impossible to make money on a dirt road with no water, sewer, electricity and so on. the government has to invest in

1:34:23 to 1:34:43( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: infrastructure. the second thing is human capital. if you read history, no country has been strong and free with an uneducated, unhealthy population. and so public education and health care, preventative health care for children is necessary for the government to invest in so we can remain a

1:34:44 to 1:35:06( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: strong and healthy society. as we transfer more and more of our tax base to interest, we necessarily -- mr. arcuri: an additional minute. mr. tanner: we necessarily cripple our own ability as americans to make those investments that are necessary for our country to be successful.

1:35:07 to 1:35:27( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: and so i -- this is, as i said, the first step to restore some sort of constraint in the system where when we change the law regarding mandatory spending or mandatory tax reduction, then we have to figure out a way to offset it. it is common sense. we're going to demand if we can

1:35:28 to 1:35:35( Edit History Discussion )

John S. Tanner: that it pass the senate so we can have a statutory backstop, a statutory constraint.