mr. speaker , i yield myself the balance of my time and would like to point out that despite the rhetoric of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle , and we did hear again the last speaker mention the fact that one of the reasons we are attacking osha is because employers feel they can not compete with these regulations .  they can not compete with american workers being treated the way they are being treated .  the humane treatment of american workers stands in the way of profits and competition with the people who are in the developing countries and china .  they do not have to treat workers this way .  they do not have to spend the money , as i said before .  but i want to point out that this bill is hardly limited to small businesses .  the appearance or the notion that small businesses are being persecuted by osha , by the government , is an incorrect one .  according to the bureau of labor statistics , in 1998 there were more than 6.5 million private sector firms with 99 or fewer employees .  h.r. 742 applies to all firms with 100 or fewer employees with a net worth of $ 7 million or less .  these companies , those with a hundred or fewer employees and $ 7 million or less , comprise about 97 percent of all american businesses .  let me repeat that .  h.r. 742 applies to all but 2 or 3 percent of american businesses .  this is the broadest definition of small business that anyone could ever come up with or dream up .  it is similar to categorizing elephants as small mammals .  it does not tell the story as it should be told .  mr. speaker , when it comes to employment-related laws , congress traditionally defines a small business as one with 20 or fewer employees , 20 or fewer employees .  as a matter of fact , that is the definition used on annual congressional appropriation riders , which exempt firms of 20 or fewer workers from scheduled osha inspections , 20 or fewer workers , not 100 , as this bill treats .  mr. speaker , i would also point out that osha also has a long-standing practice of reducing penalties for small employers .  for businesses with 25 or fewer workers , any osha penalty is routinely reduced by 60 percent .  routinely reduced by 60 percent .  likewise , for businesses with between 26 and 100 workers , any osha penalty is reduced by 40 percent .  again , osha inspectors , in reality , are hardly like the draconian police inspector javert from the famous novel , `` les miserable. '' it is important , mr. speaker , to realize that there is a need for both parties to come together and for the republican majority to yield on its strategy to destroy labor unions .  there is a strategy that has been pursued relentlessly to destroy labor unions ; and in the process , working families of course get hurt because working families are represented by labor unions .  in the effort to destroy labor unions , everything related to them , it gives them some kind of power , has to be destroyed , among them including osha .  members of unions are likely to complain .  they are likely to insist on their rights .  they are likely to report violations .  osha is less likely to run over the interests of the workers if there is an accident or some problem .  so the relentless pursuit of labor unions is part of the problem with this legislation .  it has been brought back because it is a part of a master plan , and that master plan is to sort of distract our attention from the real issues related to safety in the workplace , distract our attention from the fact that it is really an employer protection act that we are concerned with .  employer protection at all cost .  the constituency of the republican majority party demands it all : destroy the kind of environment and atmosphere that working families have been used to for years in this nation .  let us change all that because it is not competitive .  it is not competitive .  it costs too much .  we can not compete with our overseas competitors .  we are , in the process , drawn into the trap of class warfare .  we hate to hear the term class warfare anywhere in america .  nobody wants to be accused of class warfare , but that is what it amounts to : working families against people who never get enough .  we have bloated capitalism .  aristotle said there are extremes of everything .  there are extremes to capitalism .  at one end of the spectrum , in terms of economic systems , you have communism ; at the other end you have reckless capitalism .  capitalism out of control .  capitalism so greedy it never gets enough .  i think democratic capitalism is the hope of the world , and we have enough experience now to know that democratic capitalism is the only system that really works .  but if you allow capitalism to go to extremes , it tramples on the rights of workers .  it tramples on the rights of consumers .  you know , workers are consumers .  there is a madness at work here .  as we destroy the buying power of workers , we are destroying that which makes our economy go .  we all agree , there is no debate about the fact that the economy of america is driven by consumer spending .  henry ford understood that very early when he said , i am going to make cars and pay my workers enough money to buy them .  that was a simple , commonsense idea that is at the heart of capitalism today .  two-thirds of our economy is dependent on what people buy .  we are going to destroy the consumers by destroying the conditions in the workplace which allow our workers to work productively and get paid appropriately .  the minimum wage of today , henry ford would see right away , is not going to allow our consumers to keep buying products .  we are lucky ; there is a sort of credit card fantasy , an oasis of credit card credit that is driving our economy right now .  but slowly , as we lessen the amount of money that flows into the hands of workers , as we move more jobs overseas and encourage outsourcing , as we give more and more of our dollars to china , because we are not giving all of our dollars to china , we are giving the dollars that they use for manufacturing , for production , but the trade with china benefits the wholesalers and retailers .  people are making big profits off china in this country .  we would not be dealing with china if somebody was not making big profits in this country , but it is skewed .  it is out of balance because in order to make big profits at the upper levels by producing products in a low-cost economy and getting the low-cost product , bringing them back into another economy with a different standard of living and selling those products at that standard , we are having consumers in america pay high prices for the lowest-priced goods that come from china .  and the people who sell those goods and buy them from china , they walk off with the profits , along with the chinese who produce those goods through the deals that have been made .  there is more wal-mart in china than there is in the u.s. , and more all of the time .  they find it so profitable to take the product , the production , the manufacturing to china , and bring back the products to capitalize on the sales here .  it is not going to work eventually .  we are catering to those who benefit at the top , but it is not going to continue to work because we are destroying our own consumer market .  we are going to wake up and find that the economy is going to come to a standstill because nobody is able to buy the products that we want to sell .  our own class war that we do not recognize and will not recognize will destroy us .  other evidence of a class war is the fact that we continue to give huge tax credits to the people at the very top who need it the least , yet we do not use the power of the federal government to increase the minimum wage .  we started this discussion about minimum wage , and we are going to end it on minimum wage .  the minimum wage is one way that we guarantee all americans have a part of american prosperity .  we should be paying something like $ 8 an hour in order to keep minimum wage competitive with when minimum wage was first instituted .  we should be paying about $ 8 an hour to enable those workers to buy the products that we want to sell and keep our economy going .  so minimum wage , we refuse to even consider .  congress has gotten huge increases in their own salaries , and refuse to consider a minimum wage increase for the workers at the very bottom .  is that not an element of class warfare ?  that is class contempt .  that is class hatred , to stamp on those at the very bottom and refuse to use the authority invested in us by the american people .  we have the authority to raise wages , but the same people who are being protected by these bills as far as osha is concerned by minimizing their expenses and minimizing any trouble they have to encounter in making the workplace safe , they are being protected by refusing to raise the minimum wage .  what is the ultimate danger here ?  the ultimate danger here is that , one day , working families are going to wake up and say , you have it all wrong .  the country belongs to all of us , not you .  if you do not want to admit that , it belongs only to us .  working families are the people who go out and defend the existence of this country in times of war .  they will determine whether we defeat terrorism or not .  working families are going to determine that we do not have domestic terrorism spreading in america because working families are going to save america by rising up to throw out people who insist on stamping on them and have contempt for them .  mr. speaker , in closing , i urge a `` no '' vote on all four of these bills today .  