House Chamber, Washington D.C.  October 27, 2009.  M. Speaker:  The last time our unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent was in 1983. 

 Ronald Reagan responded by cutting taxes and reducing regulatory burdens on the economy, producing the biggest peacetime economic expansion in the nation’s history.

 Today, President Obama is doing exactly the opposite.  Obamacare and Cap and Trade and many other bills promise the biggest tax increases and heaviest regulations our country has ever seen.   

 Over the last 100 years, three presidents responded to recessions by reducing taxes and regulations: Warren Harding, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan – and all produced rapid and dramatic economic recoveries.

 Two presidents reacted to recessions by doing the opposite.

One was Herbert Hoover in the early 1930’s, who radically increased taxes and spending and imposed unprecedented burdens on trade.   And the other is Barack Obama.

  As they say, those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.