Boehner Floor Speech on the Importance of Competitiveness
Washington,
Aug 2, 2007 -
“Let me thank my colleague from Texas for yielding and say to my colleagues, the issue of competitiveness is an important issue in America. We are competing with countries all over the world. And as a result, real competition brings out the best in all of us. And when I look at the bill that we have before us, it really tells me and shows me everything that's wrong with Washington.
“This bill left the house with a $23 billion authorization. Comes back with a $43 billion authorization, creating 40 new programs. Now, these are well-intentioned programs. I'm sure there are very good things in this bill, but when you begin to think about 40 new programs that are being authorized, there's no spending available for these. We authorize all kinds of bills, but then we have to go find the money to pay for them. We know what the appropriations is like.
“And I just point out one tiny example. There are 208 math and science programs that are operated by 13 federal agencies. 208 Math and science programs, 13 different agencies, and guess what we do in this bill? We create five or six new ones. I have been trying to get my arms around this for about the last five years. Why can't we find a way to take these programs and the money that we're spending on them and try to do some coordinated approach that really will produce more math and science majors? That's not what we do. We just keep adding new programs. It happened last year and will happen this year. It remains me of the old adage age, throw enough money at the wall, some how it will stick. If you throw enough money at the wall, some of it is bound to stick.
“At the end of the day, I don't think that's what the American taxpayers want us to do. I think they want us to do things that pass the straight face test. And adding five or six more math and science programs to the 208 we already have makes no sense to me at this time.
“If we're serious about competitiveness and serious about allowing our manufacturers and our companies -- our software companies and others in this country be able to compete, let's look at the regulatory burden that we put on our companies that doesn’t exist around the world. We regulate things until they can’t hardly breathe and we wonder why our companies can’t compete as well around the world.
“When we talk about extending and making permanent the tax cuts, giving companies in America certainty about the reasons to invest in the American economy, reasons to invest in their own future. And if we were to make those tax cuts permanent, people would have some feeling and some certainty about what the tax regime's going to be in our country so he can, in fact, allow them to put greater investment here.
“What about tort reform? Nowhere in the world do our companies get beat up by the courts and the trial lawyers at no place anymore than here in America. If we want to be able to compete around the world, we want to bring the cost of doing business down, why don't we do something about tort reform?
“Let's talk about expanding free trade and markets around the world. We have three or four trade bills that are laying around here, languishing for countries in central and south America. Again, we want to be competitive. Why don't we help work with countries around the world to reduce those barriers so we have more markets for our companies to go out and compete in?
“And at the end of the day, if we're serious about being able to compete in a worldwide market, we've got to do something about educating our children. I think most of us here today know that we educate about half of America’s kids, maybe a little more than half get a high school diploma. Some of them can't read it. But the fact is we've never been serious about giving our kids a chance for a decent education. And that doesn't mean that Washington has to drive all of it. But we as a country, as a nation, need to get serious about finding ways to give every person in this country a chance at a good education because if we educate more of America’s kids we'll have more math teachers, we'll have more scientists, we'll have more engineers, we'll have more teachers. But we can't do that if we don't get serious about improving our schools and making sure that all kids have a chance.
“You know, this bill creates a lot of Washington bureaucracies and a lot of Washington bureaucrats. And the only thing competitive about this bill will be the competition for office space created by all the new bureaucrats that will be employed as a result of this bill. I know there are some good things in this bill, and I know my colleagues worked hard at it. But at the end of the day this looks too much to me like Washington as usual, and as a result I’m unable to support the bill.”
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