[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4] [House] [Pages 4879-4880] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, we live in quite interesting times. Where else could you invest about $1 billion and get $100 billion in return? A Republican Congress, but of course. As the New York Times recently pointed out, the people's House has turned into the House that Jack built. Here is what the Times says in an op-ed: These are the men That fleeced the tribes That paid the money That made the bribes That purchased the Congress That Jack built. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to read the rest of this poem, [[Page 4880]] written and published last Friday, because it nails right on the head this is the House that Jack built. Let's look at the $1.2 billion that Jack Abramoff bought. Let's look at the house he built. The energy industry, oil and gas interests, they spent about $87 million. What did they get? $14.5 billion in tax breaks, given and paid for by the United States taxpayers; given access to $65 billion in oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico, costing the taxpayers $7 billion in royalties they should be paying back to the Treasury that they did not get; given $2 billion to the ultra-deepwater drilling fund. They were given that money, all for $87 million in contributions and expenses paid on lobbying. $14 billion in tax breaks, $7 billion in lost revenue for royalties in the Gulf of Mexico, $2 billion in tax subsidies there to the ultra-deepwater drilling fund. You can't get a return on your investment like that on Wall Street. Where can you get a return like that? The Republican Congress, of course. But that is not limited. In fact, that is prevalent. Let's take the health care industry. They spent about $173 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. Yet the pharmaceutical interests, $139 billion in additional profits over 8 years. The prescription drug bill here, which was supposed to cost $394 billion, ended up costing close to $790 billion to the American people. {time} 2000 Private insurers will make $130 billion in extra profits in Medicare overpayments, HMOs given a $10 billion slush fund, all for $173 million in lobbying expenses and contributions mainly to the Republican Party. Take business interests, spent $500 million on lobbying. We had a corporate tax bill to fix a $5 billion disagreement with Europe. By the time it was done, it cost $150 billion, not $5 billion, and it never fixed the problem. $150 billion in corporate giveaways to special interests on the corporate tax bill, $139 billion in additional profits for the pharmaceutical interests, $130 billion in additional profits to the HMOs, and in lost revenue to oil and gas companies close to about $22 billion while oil and gas interests are trading and oil is trading at $66 a barrel, all in The House That Jack Built. This is the operative philosophy of the Republican Congress. They have turned the Capitol upside down to figure out how much change they can take over from the American people and pass it off to the special interests. When the gavel for the Speaker comes down, it is intended to open the people's House, not the auction house. For the last 6 years that gavel has been turned over to the auction house, whether it is the oil and gas interests, whether it is private insurers, whether it is the HMO industry, whether it is in fact the pharmaceutical industry, or whether it came to the corporate tax bill. Oil is approaching about $70 a barrel, now nearly $3 at the pump. Gas home heating costs, up 38 percent. Health care costs are up 58 percent for the average family, $3,600 in the last 4 years. College costs and tuition, up 38 percent for the American people, yet median incomes are down 2.3 percent, and yet what does this Congress continue to do? It continues to turn itself into an auction house for the special interests. When college costs were up 38 percent, the Republican Congress cut student loans by $13 billion. Yet, we have continued to pass on over the last 4 years $3 trillion in additional debt that was borrowed, more than all the predecessors of the last 42 Presidents combined. One thing you can say about the Republican Congress and President Bush when it comes to the economy: We will be forever in your debt, because that is all you have left is a sea of red ink, and you have turned the American people and the treasures that this country has over to the special interests when it did not need to be this way. Mr. Speaker, the special interests may have bought the Capitol, but the American people are paying for it. Jack is gone, but others are leaving. This place will remain The House That Jack Built until we get serious and undertake real lobby and ethics reform and return to the work of the American people. They are struggling under the interests of higher energy costs, higher health care costs, higher educational costs. They have not had a raise in over 5 years, and the politics as usual, business as usual continues with the policies and making sure that the special interests get heard first. This House is the time and this election will be about returning the people's House back to the American people and ensuring that that gavel does not open up the auction house but the people's House. ____________________