35 , mr. Speaker, is the rate that that 1 are paying today. 35 cents out of every dollar earned by that top 1 today, at the marginal tax rate for those folks. Now, a lot of folks dont realize taxes are already going up next year. The president S Health Care bill, that bill that i was not here to oppose it though i tried to repeal it, i havent been able to get that through the senate, but the president S Health Care bill raises taxes come january 1. So on the top income bracket that the president wants to raise taxes even further on, they have a tax rate increase coming and its coming on january 1. 3. 8 , mr. Speaker. Every dollar of earned income these top 1 earn is going to have a new 3. medicare tax added to it. 3. 8 . 0. 9 , mr. Speaker, thats an increase in the medicare tax on the earned income of these folks. 3. 8 increase on the unearned income, 0. 9 increase on the earned income. 2. 7 , mr. Speaker. Thats the medicare tax that that top 1 is already paying on all of their earned income today. Its going to go up another. 9. They are already paying 2. 7. The president says thats not enough. Let me do some quick math here. They are only gg to have to pay one, mr. Speaker, either the unearned income tax or earned income tax that would be 3. 8 either way. They are paying 39. 8, plus this 15. 3, of course, on all those dollars that are subject to medicare and Social Security under the cap today, plus another 6 the average rate for state income tax today. Let me add those. My home state of georgia, let me come back over here to these middle class taxpayers that appear to be paying 46. 3 as a marginal rate of every dollar they earn. Back over here to the high income folks, before they pay their payroll taxes, we have 44. 8, and of course on that money that they earn up to 100,000 they are paying an additional 11. 5 on that. 11. 5 added to 44. 8. Thats over 56 tax rate. Mr. Speaker, how much is enough in enough . When does freedom in this country cease to have meaning . At what level of confiscation of the work product of the American People does freedom cease to have meaning . We got to be getting close to it, mr. Speaker, but more importantly, when we talk about paying their fair share, when is america as a whole paying its fair share, mr. Speaker . When is america paying its fair share but the federal government is spending too much anyway. Middle class america, 46. 3 . Thats middle class america. Thats 35,000 a year you are earning. And your federal government and State Government hit you for a combination of 46 of every dime. What incentive is that to go out and work longer and harder . 46 . 57 over here. 57. We all know Small Businesses create all the jobs in this country. Thats why we are so worried about this tax proposal because while this is already 57 over here, mr. Speaker, the president wants to raise it another 3 to almost 60 . 60 of every dime earned by familyowned businesses, the president wants to take back to washington, d. C. Im in favor of a balanced approach. Im committed to fairness in american society. But, mr. Speaker, i ask you, is the problem that taxes are too low or is the problem that spending is too high . What better than class warfare, mr. Speaker. We are better than saying we are going to ask the them to bear the burden while the we been fit. Ben fifment benefit. 320 million of us have to come together, mr. Speaker. On tough, tough challenges. Challenges that this house has crafted solutions to. These solutions are not easy. These solutions are not pain free. These solutions involve shared commitment from every single american. Because as freedom is eroding in this country, every single american suffers. And Economic Opportunity and economic liberty is expanded in this country, absolutely every american benefits. We can do better, mr. Speaker. As a nation we have done better, as the United States house of representatives. And i come here today just to remind my president , the white house, that the election is over. The time for clever sound bites that register on the Public Opinion polls is far behind us. In front of us are hard, hard decisions that this house has led on and that we are waiting patiently for partnership to work on and to pass. I want to leave you three numbers, mr. Speaker. H. R. 5652, h. R. 5652, its the it was passed in may called the sequester replacement reconciliation act. It was the house passed idea to avoid the debilitating sequester cuts that we see coming. To deal with the mandatory spending side of the equation, passed in a bipartisan way here in the house. Only proposal to have been passed by a body. Passed in may. Leave you with h. R. 8, mr. Speaker. The job protection and recession prevention act. Thats our plan, house passed plan, for how to deal with these tax increases that threaten americas family owned business, threaten our economy. How to deal with them in a responsible way, get us passed this fiscal cliff, passed in august, only plan in washington, d. C. , to prevent these debilitating tax increases from hitting across all of our family owned Small Businesses. Finally, mr. Speaker, h. R. 6365, its the National Security and job protection act. We passed that in september. Thats the bill that looks specifically at these coming defense cuts. These cuts that secretary of defense leon panetta has called devastating in their impact. I know you do, mr. Speaker, leon panetta, former chief of staff to president bill clinton, former chairman of the democraticled Budget Committee here in the u. S. House of representatives, current secretary of defense calls these defense cuts devastating. This u. S. House has passed a proposal to prevent that second round of cuts from taking place. Its the only proposal anywhere in this town to have passed. We did in august. We took care of our business and we have yet to have partnership from either the white house or the senate. On that proposal. We took the sequester replacement reconciliation act in may. We took care of the job prevention recession act in august, mr. Speaker. We took care of the National Security and job protection act in september, mr. Speaker. The work of this house has been done. Month after month after month. We passed two budgets in a row, mr. Speaker, that take on the tough challenges of entitlement reform, that take on the tough challenges of increasing revenue, that take on the challenges that no congress in my lifetime has ever taken on, mr. Speaker. We did it not once but we did it twice. And the silence from the senate and the white house has been deafening. We can do it, mr. Speaker. We must do it. This house has done it. And as we did in may, as we did in august, and as we did in september i reach out my hand again, mr. Speaker, to the senate and to the white house to join us in tackling these tough solutions, tackling these challenges, providing these solutions, not the republicans, not the democrats, not for politics whatsoever. But for america. Because its the right thing to do and without it we all know where this country is headed. Mr. Speaker, with that i yield back the balance of my time. Search the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 5, 2011, the speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 5, 2011, the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky, mr. Whitfield, for 30 minutes. Mr. Whitfield thank you very much, mr. Speaker. We all recognize that in this country we recently had a national election. We have a lot of new members of the house of representatives. We have new United States senators. President obama and Vice President biden are back in their offices. We have had new Office Holders elected in many states and local communities as well. And while we have a lot of change in the elected offices, we all know that a big part of government relates to what we refer to as the executive branch and that means various departments of government and agencies within those departments of government. And those people work very hard. They are committed to the American People. They are not elected. And many times we do not even know who they are. Now, today i want to raise an issue that is vitally important to all of the American People. Because on or about december 10, the levels of water on the Mississippi River are going to be so shallow between st. Louis, missouri, and cairo, illinois, and then on top of that because of rock tentacles between red tower and theebs, illinois, that river traffic may come to a halt on the Mississippi River. And that means theres going to be millions of tons of commodities that are not going to be able to be transported north and south on that river. And of course that affects not only the recipients of those commodities, and the shippers of those commodities, but in directly indirectly people who mine, make, manufacture, supply those commodities. And so this potentially can have a dramatic impact and negative way on the economy of our country at a time when we are trying to stimulate the economy, create more jobs, and make sure that we do not throw ourselves back into a recession. Now, in november, early november, and even toward the end of october, over 15 United States senators, around 65 members of the house of representatives, five or six governors of various states have written letters to president barack obama, major philip may, regional administrator for region four of the federal Energy Management agency, mr. George Tony Robinson region six federal Emergency Management agency, ellen darcy, assistant secretary of the army for the corps of engineers. Mr. William craig fugate, administrator for the federal Emergency Management agency, mr. Andrew velazquez, regional administrator, reasonon five for the federal Emergency Management agency, ms. Beth freeman, regional administrator region seven for the federal Emergency Management agency, in which we point out this impending problem. Now im not the only one talking about this. Every member of congress along that corridor are receiving phone calls, letters, emails, we have all sorts of groups out there very much worried about this problem needing to be solved. And it can be solved. But it appears that the corps of engineers has an annual operating plan. And this annual operating plan determines how much water they are table release from the Missouri River into the Mississippi River in the wintertime. And i understand that, that they have to have a plan. But most people in america know that when you have exceptional circumstances, you have some emergency, you have some unintended consequence, that you have to make alternative plans. And so those senators that i talked about, those members of the house that i talked about, the governors that i talked about, 15 or 20 associations that i talked about, all have gone to the corps of engineers and asked them to change their annual plan and release some water from the upper missouri to the Mississippi River so that we do not have to stop barge traffic on the Mississippi River. And so far, weve heard no response. And i know that there are groups that are opposed to this. There are some environmental groups that are opposed to this. And for valid reasons. And were not asking this to be done permanently. But this is an emergency. That will have dire consequences on the economy of this country. And we cannot stand for even a brief period of time to stop commerce on the Mississippi River. And of course theres another issue that i mentioned earlier, and that is that we have these rock pinnacles contributing to the problem of the Shallow Water bed between grand tower and theebs, illinois, and the corps have indicated theyre going to take action to remove those pinnacles. And thats vitally necessary as well. So im here today partly because out of pure frustration. Although some people think that individual members of congress have a lot of power and authority, and sometimes we think that, but the truth of the matter is, these decisions are being made by people at the corps of engineers, maybe the secretary of the department of transportation. They have the Legal Authority to take action here. But so far, theyre unwilling to do so. So im here today simply to raise this issue because i dont know what else to do. Weve written letters, weve called, these associations and agencies of other governments, state, local, have written letters, have called. Weve done everything that we can do. Weve talked, weve asked the president to take action. Weve asked the corps of engineers to take action. And we understand that its not anyones personal fault. This is caused by a drought of unusual proportion. But when you think about traffic, all traffic on the Mississippi River, in that region between st. Louis and chi roe coming to a halt and cairo coming to a halt, its going to have a dramatic negative impact on everyone in our country. So i simply am here today to focus attention on the issue, to once again ask the president , ask the assistant secretary of defense, the corps of engineers, to take some action, work with us to resolve this problem. And with that, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. The clerk h. R. 915, an act to establish a Border Enforcement Security Task force program to enhance Border Security by fostering coordinated efforts oy aamong federal, state and local border enforcement officials to protect United States border cities and communities from transnational crime including Violence Associated with drug trafficking, arms struggling smuggling, illegal alien trafficking and smuggling, violence and kidnapping along and across the International Borders of the United States, and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition . Mr. Whitfield i move that the house do now adjourn. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayings have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly, the house stands adjourned until noon on monday next f brought to you as a Public Service by your television provider. The Program Began under one of the advisers to president franklin roosevelt. To document the conditions under which people were living back when we did not have televisions. We had radio but a lot of places did not have electricity to they could not listen to the radio broadcast to find out what was going on. An economist from Columbia University was the head of this project in 1939 when kodak introduced color film, they send found to have his photographers try out to see what they could do. Trying this new market and it wanted people who could use it effectively to try it out and publicize it. The library of congress curator shares some of the color photographs taken during the depression and world war ii. Sunday at 7 00 p. M. And it 10 00 p. M. Eastern this weekend on c span3. Earlier today, president obama visited in manufacturing the facility in pennsylvania. This is about 25 minutes. Good morning, everybody. Please have a seat. Have a seat. Relax for a second. It is good to see all of you. Hello. It is good to be back in pennsylvania. And eight is good to be right here and it is good to be right here. I want to thank michael, robert, and the investor, joe glickman for hosting me today and giving me a great tour. Stand up so everybody can see you guys. [cheers and applause] there you go. We have a couple of the outstanding members of congress here. [cheers and applause] now, id just finished getting a tour of the workshop. I have to say it makes me wish that joel invented this stuff sooner when i was a kid. Back then, you cannot build a roller coaster out of your erector set. I got a chance to meet some of the folks who have been working around the clock to keep up with the christmas rush. That is a good thing. These guys are santas extra elves. They manufacture almost 3000 pieces every minute. Every box that ends up on store shelves in 30 countries is stamped made in america. That is something to be proud of. [cheers and applause] by the way, i hope the camera folks have a chance to take a look at some of it. Including that flag. Joe biden was in costco and he wanted to buy some of this stuff. [laughter] i told him he had too much work to do. I was not going to have him building boiler coasters all day long. Of course, santa delivers everywhere. I have been keeping my own list for washington. You should keep your eye on who gets some this year. There are going to be some members of congress who get them and some who dont. [applause] this is a wonderful time of year. It has been a few weeks since a long election finally came to an end. Obviously, i cannot be more honored to be back in the white house. But i am already missing the time that i spent on the campaign visiting towns like this and talking to folks like you. I love you back. [applause] one of the benefits of traveling and getting out of the white house is it gives you a chance to talk to the American People about what kind of country we want to be and what kind of country we want to le