Andy Barr: “I thank the gentlelady for organizing this Special Order and her leadership in highlighting a real problem in our…”

“I thank the gentlelady for organizing this Special Order and her leadership in highlighting a real problem in our country right now. The President of the United States the other night in the State of the Union made an observation, and the President's observation was one where he described an economy in which inequality has deepened and upward mobility has stalled. Unfortunately, in many respects the President is right, but he is wrong about what has caused that problem to exist in our economy. The truth is a major reason why upward mobility has stalled is because the Environmental Protection Agency, under his direction, has produced a deluge of red tape and regulations that are literally strangling the Nation's economy. The poor are worse off today than they were when President Obama took office. Seven million more Americans live in poverty today as compared to 2008. Median household income has fallen over $2,000 in the last 4 years. Seventy-six percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and the percentage of working-age people actually in the workforce has dropped to the lowest rate in 35 years in the Obama economy. The EPA is largely responsible for this. The coal industry in my region in central and eastern Kentucky could be the poster child of this regulatory onslaught.…”