The Honorable Vern Buchanan

Floor Statements

A TAX ON HEALTH CARE IS A TAX ON PAYROLL -- (House of Representatives - July 21, 2009)
   
Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Speaker, at the start of this year, the focus has been on economy and jobs, number one.

   I was chairman of the Florida Chamber 4 years ago. We represented 137,000 businesses, and 99 percent of those businesses were small business. They create 75 percent of the jobs. Yet, today, we are going to tax health care. It's not a tax on profit. It's a tax on payroll. If you've got a $1 million payroll making no money, and if you're paying another $80,000 a year you don't have, you're going to put people out of business.

   The other thing they want to put together is a surtax of 5.4 percent on businesses. They want to get to the millionaires. Do you know who those folks are? They're small business people. You wouldn't know that if you've never been in business. That's the majority of them. So you're going to tax the 8 percent. You're going to add another 5.4 percent. You're going to kill millions of businesses, and you're going to kill millions and millions of more jobs. We need to get focused back on the economy and on jobs in America today, right now.

 JOB CREATION THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACT OF 2009, House of Representatives, May 20, 2009

I want to thank the chairwoman and the ranking member for including my legislation, the bill to modernize SBA's SCORE Program, into the larger bill before us today.

For years, SCORE Program has been providing entrepreneurs with free, confidential and valuable small business advice. Nationwide, SCORE has 389 chapters throughout the United States, nearly 11,000 volunteers.

Locally, I know it has had a huge impact on our small business community. They do a lot to help them, especially with small business planning, which is critical to starting any kind of business today.

Small business creates 70 percent of all the new jobs, not only in our market, but throughout Florida. Their success is vital to our economy, and we need to do everything we can to ensure their success. And this bill helps that.

My legislation will help ensure that qualified SCORE volunteers are available to provide one-on-one advice and counsel to small business owners in Florida and across the country.

Again, I want to thank the chairwoman and the ranking member for giving me this opportunity today

 

PRESSING NEED FOR TAX SIMPLIFICATION, House of Representatives, May 14, 2009

Madam Speaker, last week the House Small Business Subcommittee on Finance and Tax held a hearing on a long overdue issue: the pressing need for tax simplification for America's small business.

The IRS estimates it takes over 37 hours to complete the 1040 short form, the most basic income tax form we have. Why does it take this long? Because our Tax Code today runs over 67,000 pages.

This is a disgraceful state of affairs. We need a simpler and fairer Tax Code that rewards, not punishes, hard work and success. Small business creates 70 percent of all new jobs in America. Small business can lead us out of this economic recession and back into recovery if Congress gives them a chance.

Let's start by overhauling our broken tax system.

 

MORTGAGE REFORM AND ANTI-PREDATORY LENDING ACT, House of Representatives, May 07, 2009

I want to thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in support of this important bipartisan amendment.

Defective Chinese drywall has taken a toll on thousands of homeowners. Many, including my constituent, John Medico of Bradenton, are now finding their homes uninhabitable.

John left his new home and now rents a place. He is forced to not only to pay the mortgage, but he is paying rent on his new place. And this has happened to a lot of people in my area in southwest Florida.

Earlier this year I wrote the U.S. Trade Representative and the Federal Trade Commission asking them to take the appropriate steps to confront this problem.

I am concerned about the public health effects of the problem. Anecdotal evidence points to the Chinese drywall being responsible for the chronic respiratory problems in our region. Also, pregnant women have been advised to move out of their homes for the safety of the unborn.

I am grateful to the gentleman for bringing this amendment forward. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle of Florida on this important issue and helping our constituents resolve this problem.

 

RECKLESS SPENDING, House of Representatives, April 02, 2009

Madam Speaker, the House will vote today on a Federal budget that borrows, taxes, and spends more than any other budget in history. Tax increases and deficit spending on big government programs won't help the economy. It will discourage job creation and burden families in the future for additional generations.

We can't spend our way back in terms of the recession and we can't borrow our way out of debt. The budget before us today would increase spending by $1.9 trillion over the next 10 years, raise taxes by $1.4 trillion, and add $3.3 trillion in new debt.

This is reckless spending masquerading as sound budgeting. What our country needs is a responsible budget that scales back spending and borrowing; a budget that will strengthen our economy and put Americans back to work; a budget that will leave our children and grandchildren with better opportunities than we had.

 

CALLING FOR THE PREVENTION OF BONUSES PAID TO AIG EXECUTIVES AT TAXPAYERS' EXPENSE, House of Representatives, March 17, 2009

Mr. Speaker, the American people were outraged yesterday, and with good reason, when they learned that the bonuses of $165 million were going to executives at AIG, an insurance company. They are the very executives who drove the company to the ground and helped create the economic problems we're facing today. Instead of getting bonuses, they should be fired.

AIG is now 80 percent owned by the Federal Government, which is the American people. This is an outrageous injustice at taxpayers' expense.

I have been in business 30 years. We always pay for results, proven results, in this case something that would be a return to the American people. But that hasn't happened. This rewards greed and recklessness.

AIG recently reported in a 2008 fourth quarter more than $60 billion in losses, all while the unemployment in America hit a 25-year high.

I ask the President to use all the power at his disposal to prevent these bonuses from being paid at taxpayers' expense.

 

BLOCK CONGRESSIONAL PAY RAISES, House of Representatives, March 11, 2009

Mr. Speaker, Congress needs to lead by example in this time of economic uncertainty. For that reason, I was encouraged when the House decided to give up its pay raise next year. It is important to send the right message to the American people: a message that says Congress is willing to tighten its belt just like American families are doing across the country.

But we need to go even further. That's why I hope the leadership in the House will take up my legislation, H.R. 566, blocking all future congressional pay raises until the Federal budget is balanced.

Millions of hardworking Americans only get a salary increase if they produce positive results. Congress should be no different. With our national debt about to surpass $11 trillion and unemployment in our country surging past 8 percent, we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. The American people expect and deserve nothing less.

My legislation to block congressional pay raises until we balance the budget offers meaningful reform. I urge Members from both sides of the aisle to support it.

 

SMALL BUSINESS--KEY TO GETTING OUR ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK, House of Representatives, March 04, 2009

Mr. Speaker, unemployment in my home State of Florida and across the country continues to rise. As the stock markets and retirement accounts fall, our national debt is approaching $11 trillion. And just last week, Congress approved, over my objections, a $410 billion spending bill that was 8 percent higher than last year, more than twice the rate of inflation. On top of all this new spending, we now hear that the White House is proposing nearly $1 trillion in new taxes. Now is not the time to be raising taxes or embarking on a reckless spending free.

Rather than exploding the size of Federal Government, Congress should be working to strengthen the backbone of our economy with small businesses. Seventy percent of all new jobs are created by small business, many of them in our area family owned.

Let's get our economy back on track by helping to work with small businesses. That's the legacy that we want to leave our children and grandchildren.

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, House of Representatives, February 12, 2009

Mr. BUCHANAN led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:  I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

 

WE MUST DO BETTER, House of Representatives, February 12, 2009

Madam Speaker, this bill that we are going to consider or vote on in the next day or so should be about jobs, small business, and working families. However, small business, which I am on that committee, make up 99 percent of businesses in Florida and they create 70 percent of the jobs, but only 1 percent of this will actually go in terms of helping small business.

The Congressional Budget Office says it will do more harm than good long term; 300 leading economists say this bill will not help the economy. It explodes the debt. We are at $10 trillion now; this year we will be at $1.2 trillion plus the stimulus with interest, over $1 trillion. This is about our children and grandchildren. We are going to put them further behind. We will not leave it better for them, and that is why I cannot support this bill.