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BUILD BACK BETTER ACT--Continued
Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, tonight will be the night of that tipping point. Tonight, will be the night. Have you looked at the market? Have you looked at the numbers that just came back this week on retail?
You know what happens--please talk to the economists--if you supply all this money in a tight economy, you are going to create more inflation.
Mr. Speaker, when I served at that time, 4 years later, we became the majority. I had the honor and privilege when my conference elected me majority whip and majority leader. And I know the frustration I had when you would do your motions to recommit, but I never once said I wanted so much control to take that away from you.
I respect that you run for this office. I respect that your constituents elect you. And what your constituents do is they lend you power. They lend you their voice, so their voice needs to be heard. When you shut out the minority, you are shutting out millions of Americans.
Now, I don't know what the case was, but I remember talking to my freshman class in 2011, and I put up the 63 names of every Democrat that lost, Mr. Speaker, and they had two things in common. They all voted for a motion to recommit, and they all lost.
In the 8 years that we were in the majority, we never lost one motion to recommit.
Why would you change the course of the history of this body to take away the voice of the minority?
You are not hurting me. You are hurting millions of Americans who participate in the electoral system. Is that about control?
I know our tempers flare, but I promise you this, Mr. Speaker, I will never tell one of you you can't look at me. Even if you are saying something bad about me. You have a right to do it. We are in America. I don't want control over you. I want to participate with you. I want to work with you. I want to solve problems with you.
You know, people ask me what has gone wrong, and I will be honest with you, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the next Congress. How do we heal this place? Mr. Speaker, if you are all thinking of running again, for those who win, no more proxy voting. You are going to have to show up to work.
Mr. Speaker, America is more than a country. We are an idea. Every single one here, except a few that are Native American, came as immigrants. I have told you about the paintings in my office. I also have the papers from Ellis Island of my grandfather, 100 years ago this year, came at the age of 10 from Italy. Giuseppe Palladino. He dreamt of a new world. He knew America would be better with each generation. He came, like many of your ancestors.
One of the greatest strengths in this country is the rule of law. Even in the financial meltdown people still invested in America. So many times when I was in graduate school, I would do a SWOT analysis, strengths weaknesses, opportunities, threats. You start with your strengths to see if they are big enough to overcome your weaknesses. Are the opportunities big enough to overcome the future threats?
We are still the largest economy in this world. But it won't stay if this passes.
We have the greatest fighting force, volunteers.
If you are wealthy and you live in another country and you are sick, you still want to come here for your healthcare.
You still want to send your kids here to go to school.
They admire who we are and what we have been.
I talk about what made me a Republican. I was in the sixth grade. I turn on the TV. I watch Jimmy Carter with a sweater on telling me to turn the heater down, and that the best days were behind us, and that as an American I had to accept less. That wasn't how I was raised.
Then I watched this other man, Mr. Speaker, that came from my home State of California. He went to the podium. He said no pastels. Fly that bold color and go to that shining city on the hill. I knew what he meant when he talked about that shining city. That was America. That was more than a country. That was an idea, an idea of freedom. It went beyond Maine, beyond California. I know you all believe that is America. But under one-party rule, under 1 year, that light has been dimmed.
Our task should be to join together, climb that mountain, and reach toward that light. Five of you should rise up, put the country first, and say no. Twenty-one of you signed a letter that said take the 87,000 IRS agents out of the bill. It is still in it.
Does your name matter? Does the letter matter? You sent it to the Speaker. You told her she had to.
Or what about those Members that said they could not vote on this bill until the Congressional Budget Office proved to them what President Biden was saying, that it didn't cost anything.
Well, you know what, that letter is back, and, no, it costs. In 5 years it is going to cost you $800 billion. It is going to cost us much more. It is going to cost us the rule of law.
You are incentivizing people to come across this border illegally. We believe in the rule of law, but if you start a generation that breaks the rule of law, you break down society.
You are taking this money. How you brag about how you pay for the bill.
You hire 87,000 IRS agents. You are saying to America: We don't trust you. You are adding 1.2 million more audits. One half of all of those audits are going after Americans who only make $75,000 a year or less.
And you know what those Americans are doing right now?
They are wondering if they can pay for their gas this winter that goes up 50 something percent. They are traveling less because gasoline is the highest it has been.
And for our President to say he doesn't know anybody worried about inflation, Mr. President, come to the grocery store with me because I will show you the prices are rising every day. Just walk the streets.
Or what is even worse, you are spending more money than we spent to solve World War II, to win it. And you are proud of it. You are championing it.
You do nothing for Russell Johnson, the rancher on the border, whose kids can't even go outside to play. From February to October more people have come across that border illegally than 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined. Those are the numbers.
Americans are dying at unbelievable levels because of fentanyl. Where do you think that comes from? China through Mexico.
You heard from one of the mayors in these border cities. Just in the last year, 46 times the school had to be on a shutdown because of the cartels and the car chases. You do nothing in this bill for that.
You have the top military general tell you about the Sputnik moment with China when they did a hypersonic, something we don't have because the last time we had one-party rule with all of you in charge, you cut hypersonic funding.
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Mr. Speaker, you have a Chief of Staff at the White House that many refer to as ``the prime minister.'' He says this is twice as big in real dollars as the New Deal. You got Members of your own conference that said President Biden wasn't elected to be FDR.
We are better than this. How can you spend so much? When the financial markets were melting down, when thousands of people were losing their jobs and we didn't know if we could still be the world currency, this body came together and thought $800 billion was enough to do the trick. We weren't in inflation.
Mr. Speaker, you already know from your past of passing trillions of dollars, you created inflation. Now you are doubling down. The American people have said it in so many ways. Enough. We don't need more waste.
Mr. Speaker, when you have inflation, you either devalue the currency or you raise interest rates. You are going to break America. We can't afford to pay our debt. We are going to have to cut.
Mr. Speaker, I will tell you this, and I will make this promise to you, if we are fortunate enough for the American public to trust us for a new direction, we will change the course. We will focus on small business. We will focus on the border. We won't let runaway spending create inflation.
Mr. Speaker, and we will trust you. We won't fine you to walk into your place of work, because there won't be a magnetometer out there. We believe we are going to work together. We believe bills will have to go through committee. One-party rule for 1 year has done so much damage. We will not let America fall further behind, like the Biden administration has. In a sense, falling farther behind has been the theme of Joe Biden's Presidency in the first 10 months. As leaders, it is our responsibility to understand the position and condition our country is in. When it is not providing Americans the opportunity to meet their daily needs, we must fix it.
Mr. Speaker, we trust parents. I don't know if you heard, we introduced a Parents' Bill of Rights. I never thought there would be a day that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, would go after parents simply because they went to a school board meeting, and lied to Congress about it. It took a whistleblower to come forward.
Mr. Speaker, I never thought there would be a day with gas prices so high that the Secretary of Energy, when asked for a plan of how to bring the prices down, to laugh. The Vice President of the United States that was given the job by the President to be the border czar--I understand why he moved it to her, because in his 42 years of elected office, the closest he came to the border was driving by El Paso--but when she was asked, she laughed as well.
Mr. Speaker, these are serious issues, not one to laugh at. The American public is not laughing. When it is not providing Americans the opportunity to meet their daily needs, we must fix it. But that is not what President Biden has done for the last 10 months. That is not what Democrats have done with this bill.
Mr. Speaker, one-party rule in 1 year has given us the highest inflation in 31 years. And I know I said it before, yes, we warned you from the other side, but your own side warned you as well. Larry Summers, serving two Democrat administrations, begged you, told you not to do it in February, but here we are.
Mr. Speaker, the President, even in a town hall meeting on CNN, said he doesn't know anybody that is worried about inflation. I want to invite the President to so many meetings. I want him to go to the border with us. You know, I know we come from different parties, and I know we fight in campaigns. But when the election is over, America expects us to govern. There are many times--I know the President hasn't been to the border, but we sent him letters, we have been there. We will tell him what is happening. We will sit down. We will talk. He doesn't want to meet. I want to work with this President. These problems are too big. I took President Biden at his word when he said if he became President, he would work with the other side.
Mr. Speaker, the American people sent Washington, D.C., an unmistakable message on an election day earlier this month: Our country has drifted too far to the left.
Mr. Speaker, if you study history, there was a moment in time like this; it was back in 1994. Again, it was a one-party rule. You controlled it all. And when you controlled it all, your party wanted more control. They wanted ClintonCare. The country rose up. And at that moment in time, I remember watching President Clinton tell the American public the era of Big Government is over.
Mr. Speaker, where is that Democrat today? Because many of these Members, they serve 30, 40 years; they have been there with them. And they just championed, We got to make the bureaucracy bigger.
Mr. Clinton listened to the American public. You know, this last election was driven by intense disapproval of Democrat's radical policies, absolute chaos on the southern border, out-of-control crime, record-breaking gas prices, and inflation, a broken supply the chain.
Mr. Speaker, I know you care about the environment, and I know you are not far from Southern California. I know you have seen those ships. You see them sitting there for a month. You see the pollution. You know what they are doing? They are dropping off products from China and going back empty.
Mr. Speaker, we got a failing education system, where some of the strongest leaders in your party say parents have no right in their children's education. I just can't imagine that. And, of course, the surrender in Afghanistan. I know you cannot be proud of that moment either. There are still Americans there.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know--and I could be wrong--but I don't know of one hearing we have had in the last month to help those Americans come home. I don't even know if someone would give us the number. But this is what I do know. Republicans are not sitting back. There are a number of Members who served in the military, who sacrificed in the military, who are still helping their constituents and others come home.
Mr. Speaker, and the saddest part about it is, we have to work with other countries. We have to go around our own State Department. This isn't an image of a thriving Nation. It is the image of a country that is clearly on the wrong track and on the wrong side of history.
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Are we better off today than we were 10 months ago? No.
Mr. Speaker, I remember Steny Hoyer. I listened to him. He started off, he said, we don't want to go back. He doesn't want to go back when we didn't have inflation, when gas prices were $2, when we were energy independent, when in the last 16 months not one casualty in Afghanistan, when North Korea was not testing missiles, when China hadn't sent a hypersonic around the world, when we had the strongest economy in the last 50 years.
Mr. Speaker, I know there are people who got upset with President Trump's personality. As I travel the country today, Mr. Speaker, I hear of a lot of people who want to take that vote back who like his policies, who understand policy matters.
We are not better off than we were 10 months ago. Do you know the difference? Ten months ago, we didn't have one-party rule in this city.
That is why the voters who could vote earlier this month overwhelmingly voted to send Democrats a message. Mr. Speaker, that message was one word: Stop.
In 2010, you didn't listen--ObamaCare in 4 days. You are doing the exact same thing.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know if Speaker Pelosi finishes out this term. I know she made everybody vote on ObamaCare and 63 Democrats lost.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know if she will be here after people vote for it. It could be the last term for them. The problem will be that the damage will be done.
Stop overspending. Stop the war on working families. Work gives you a purpose; I don't care what job you have. Stop giving those who run our country more control over the lives of those who make our country run.
The election on November 2 this year in Virginia, New Jersey, and across the country, that should have been a wake-up call. Why did President Clinton hear it but not these Democrats? I don't know.
Mr. Speaker, I don't want to give political advice, but when President Clinton heard it, and he changed course and said the era of Big Government is over, he got reelected.
Washington Democrats obviously aren't listening to the American people. Instead, in a desperate attempt to save face and appease their extremist, leftwing base, Speaker Pelosi has crammed even more radical policies into a partisan bill that costs trillions of dollars we don't have for government-run programs that nobody wants, not even Democrat voters.
What the Democrats are proposing is out of touch in the extreme. What we have before us isn't a social spending bill; it is a pathway to socialism. If you don't believe me, Mr. Speaker, if you listen to the majority leader and you listen to the chair of the Ways and Means Committee--what a prestigious committee that is.
Mr. Speaker, Article I, Section 7 says all tax reform starts in the House. Our rules say it all starts with Ways and Means. It is interesting that your own Member, Jared Golden, talks about what you do in this bill. You go after people who are just making ends meet to give it to people who are making $800,000 and millionaires.
These are radical policies in a partisan bill that costs trillions of dollars that we don't have for government programs that nobody wants. It doesn't work now, and it won't work in the future. In fact, as I said earlier, it will make the problems we face as a Nation much, much worse. Here is how.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if your other side left to eat, but I will buy dinner if they want to stay. I think it is important. I don't know that any have had time to read the bill.
Consider the energy crisis that Americans are facing today: high gas prices and budget-breaking heating costs. Instead of relying on American energy to increase production and lower costs, the answer from Democrats seems to be to beg OPEC to produce more, gather wood for the fireplace, and put on a sweater.
Do you know what happens when OPEC produces more? American dollars go to the Middle East. Do you know what happens when you shut down American pipelines? American workers lose their jobs, but Putin gets more.
Mr. Speaker, winter is coming, and this bill would make our energy crisis worse. Consider the heat your home tax bill the Democrats have included in this bill. By imposing a fee on methane gas, this bill would penalize the very resource that helps produce the electricity that keeps the lights on and heat running.
Mr. Speaker, I think I owe you an apology because I understand the Democrats have left, and they want to recess when I am done. I don't know if they can get to the airlines at this time to change their flights to Puerto Rico for later tomorrow for the fundraiser. I am sorry for that, but this is just too important.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know if they think, because they left, I am going to stop. I am not. It is too important. Mr. Speaker, I am really not talking to them. I am talking to the American people.
I have so much here, but I have a couple of other binders. I think it is important for the American people to know how this bill works. When I got done with the speech, I was able to collect all the amendments that Republicans offered that were denied. The American public should see what could have been in the bill, what could have helped them.
It is probably healthy, Mr. Speaker, for all the constituents to know who voted how. I think that would be important.
The effect of this heat your home tax would increase family heating bills by as much as $242 per year. I don't know if you think that sounds like a lot, but put it in perspective. How much more does it cost to fill up their tank of gas? How much more does it cost them at the grocery store? How much less is their paycheck worth because of inflation? It is not just this. As many as 90,000 jobs could be lost as a result.
Do you know what it won't do? Reduce global temperatures by 1 degree. Mr. Speaker, $242 doesn't seem like a lot of money for the elite liberals. For all those who make $800,000, you will love this bill because you will get a tax break for buying a Tesla, but only if it is built at a union shop and if your kids go to the most expensive colleges.
I don't know about you, Mr. Speaker, but I went to junior college. I was fortunate enough to start a small business, and I sold it to pay my way through college.
You see, Mr. Speaker, I don't know if you know my story. I grew up in Bakersfield, California. I was the youngest of three kids. My father was a firefighter, and he moved furniture on his days off. My mom worked in a dental office. And they made an unbelievable life for us.
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You see, Mr. Speaker, when I got out of high school, I didn't have the athletic ability or grades to get a scholarship, so I went to community college, and I am proud of it.
Mr. Speaker, I met this guy. He had a car dealer's license, but he owned a liquor store. I will let you figure out how I met him. But I asked him if he would take me to Los Angeles because it is not far from Bakersfield. It is where all the car dealers were bringing their trade-
ins. When I went there you had to be a dealer to get in. I started buying and selling cars and flipping them to pay my way through college. I found out later it was illegal, but I didn't know it when I was doing it.
When I went to community college, I had a lot of good friends who were away at college. One of my best friends was up at Stanford. I had some friends at USC, and I had a lot of friends down at San Diego State. So on the weekends I would go visit them.
So this one weekend I went to San Diego State to visit my buddies. So I stopped off at the Food Town Market, my neighborhood grocery store that is no longer there. At one time I worked at the meat counter. I went there to cash a check.
As I stood in line, something interesting had happened in California the day before. The Lotto started. In the last election, so the schools could win, too, we passed the lottery. It wasn't the big lottery; it was just the scratch-off. So as I cashed this check, I bought two lottery tickets.
Do you know what, Mr. Speaker?
I was a lucky Irishman that day. I won the lottery--$5,000, the most you can win. Think about that for one moment. In 1985 I am 19 or 20. On a Friday night, I just won $5,000 back when we didn't have inflation, and I ended up in San Diego 10 minutes from Tijuana.
I came home, and I took my whole family to dinner. We went to the new hotel, the Red Lion. I was so proud of myself, I bought dinner. I could still tell you what people ordered: Steak Diane. My brother ordered dessert just to make the price higher. I gave my brother and my sister each $100 bucks.
Do you know what I did with the majority of the rest of the money?
I put it all into one stock because I believe in risk. But I also believe if I failed, government shouldn't bail me out. But if I was successful, they shouldn't tax all my money. It wasn't because I was bright, but I made 30 percent on my money in 6 weeks--not bad for the market back then.
We were coming to the end of the semester, so I decided I was going to take a break from school. So I refinanced the current cars I was selling, I took my money out of the market, I went to the bank, but they weren't going to loan me anything. I wanted to buy a franchise, but no one would sell one to a 20-year-old.
Another thing you will learn about me--maybe you will learn about me because of this speech--I never give up. So I opened Kevin O's Deli. I even built the counter in my dad's garage. There were good days and there were bad days, but by the end of the year and a half I was pretty successful, if you rate success based upon my family.
I now had enough money saved that I could pay my way through college just as long as I went to California State-Bakersfield. I wanted to finish my degree. At that moment in time, I don't believe any of my family had finished a 4-year degree. So I sold my business. I was a much better student this time. My local paper, The Bakersfield Californian, had an article about being a summer intern in Washington, D.C., with my local Congressman. I had never met this man but, boy, I thought he would be lucky to have me. So I applied.
But do you know what, Mr. Speaker?
He turned me down.
Do you want to know the end of the story, Mr. Speaker?
I am now elected to the seat I couldn't get an internship for to work in. Only in America could that happen.
But I am fearful, Mr. Speaker, that if this bill passes then there will be fewer entrepreneurs in America but more in China. The hurdles will be too high.
How do you get somebody to work if government is paying you more to stay home?
How do you get somebody to work on the child tax credit if you take away the work requirement?
Mr. Speaker, an interesting thing, if we go back to 1994 again, another reason why I believe President Clinton got reelected was because he listened to America after they gave him that shock in 1994.
But do you know what he signed?
Welfare reform. Welfare reform had a work requirement.
Do you know what happened?
More Americans had jobs. They had a higher income. It gave people an incentive.
You are doing the opposite, Mr. Speaker. You are giving an incentive not to work.
And do you know what?
It especially hurts our seniors. Listen to what Claudette Duff, President and CEO of Integrity Senior Services, told us about the implications:
I am concerned that vulnerable seniors are not being considered. While I believe we must battle climate change, I am also painfully aware that most seniors have little financial wiggle room. Any possibility of an added cost to seniors must be seriously considered.
How many of us have a senior person, a family member--and I have been privileged to meet a lot of your mothers, fathers, uncles, and aunts. We care for them, but we know they live on a fixed income. Those are the people who get hurt the most. Those are the people we are going to have to answer to.
So when the Speaker talks about eldercare, we now know it is nothing but empty words, Mr. Speaker.
Throughout this process, the Democrats made it clear they wanted to freeze the American people out from knowing what their Government has in store for them. Now it seems they also want to freeze them out of their own homes this winter. In addition to higher home heating costs, consider higher gas prices in our near future--even higher than they are today.
Mr. Speaker, I like to take risk. I don't know if you want to make a wager. Let's wager dinner. Let's wager dinner. After this bill, if gas prices are lower, I will buy you dinner. If they are not, you buy me dinner.
You believe in the bill. You believe in the economics.
I know what President Biden recently did. I know our State is not far from New Mexico. New Mexico is an amazing State. Congresswoman Herrell represents New Mexico and fights hard. New Mexico schools get almost half of their money from the royalties of the energy they produce there on Federal land. So there it is not just the workers in the field who got laid off. I don't know how the schools are going to survive.
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Maybe OPEC will send them some money. They are making a lot more. We should ask them.
Americans need relief at the pump. As I said, in this past year the price of gasoline has reached its highest point in over a decade. The good news is that we know what it takes to lower our gasoline prices. Let's embrace innovation and American resources.
We lowered our CO2 and became energy independent. We lowered coal when we offered more natural gas. We are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, but the President looks to OPEC.
Do we really think Putin wants a second pipeline because he loves Europe so much? It couldn't be that he wants more control. That couldn't be the case, would it? I don't know. Ask the people in Crimea.
That is what America has been doing for nearly a decade; and at least that is what we were doing, and the results completely shifted the energy landscape in our favor.
But it wasn't just energy. I don't believe we would ever get the Abraham Accords if we weren't able to do that. The world became safer. The world is a safer place and America is stronger.
The only thing you have to look to in history is why does Putin have all those troops along the border? Why does China say they could take Taiwan?
One-party rule in 1 year. That is what it has accomplished.
Just a few years ago the United States, while it was lowering CO2, produced more oil and gas than any another country in the world. And guess what? Our gasoline prices reflected it. So not only did it help business produce more and hire more, the energy industry was hiring more people at a high wage, more people working.
You watched that every day in your district. But you also watched what happened.
Mr. Speaker, I am referring to Kevin Brady--what happened to Houston after that pipeline was closed. You had to look them in their eye.
The sad part about all of this, I remember speaking to this man who worked on the pipeline. He wasn't of the Republican Party. He was in the union, and he voted for Biden. It was like a punch to his gut. He was told not just to vote for him, but work for him, because he believed in good American jobs, union jobs. Then they just cut it.
Then he goes in to stand up next to Putin; and he gives him his pipeline. I don't know if Putin did anything to help elect him. I guess we should ask Schiff. It doesn't have to be the truth. You just have to say it.
There were no lines at the gas stations like we saw earlier this year, and no anxiety that you would blow out your budget just by filling up your car.
And by the way, when America is producing the energy that powers our lives, we do it safer and cleaner than any other country in the world. I am proud of that.
You know, I come from an energy producing district. I don't know if my children's children can do it, because the same policy that Biden has, Gavin Newsom has.
See, there was a moment in time in my county, we produced the second most amount of oil in the entire country. We are top in wind; we are top in solar; all of the above.
But China, China's economy is growing, as they shut down. You know, a lot of those wells are owned by people just like Russell Johnson. They are called stripper wells; a lot of regulation on them, but they produce, for more than 100 years.
They were there when America needed us when we were in World War II. And it wasn't government who invested in them, but they are the people you are going to take the tax from, so people who make $800,000 a year can buy an electric car, but only if it is built in a union shop. I guess that is what the President meant when he said fair.
I don't know if Abraham Lincoln, when he said, we are conceived in liberty, that everybody is equal, really thought that a union worker and a nonunion worker were different. I think he looked at them just as Americans.
And by the way, when America is producing the energy that powers our lives, it is safer. If the Biden administration was truly interested in reducing emissions they would be looking toward American oil and gas, not away from it.
Instead, their methane tax, the methane tax will make it harder for those companies to invest in technology, like carbon capture, that reduces emissions. Technology will help us in the environment. There are so many Members behind me that have championed this.
We should be building pipelines here in America. It is safer than a tanker.
Instead, Joe Biden blocked the Keystone pipeline.
Just listen, Mr. Speaker. Biden's press secretary said they are looking at another pipeline, too. I don't know, they had better get to a gas station.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know. You know what you and I should do? Why don't we go on a codel, fact finding. You invite any Democrat you want, I will invite Republicans.
Let's first go to the Keystone pipeline, and then let's go to Nord Stream 2, and let's see why Americas should allow Nord Stream but not Keystone. It would probably help our constituents if we could explain it. I don't know if Putin would let us near it. We will have to wear a mask because the natural gas from Russia is much dirtier than the American natural gas.
And this makes it clear. Democrats in Congress want to double down on its costly extreme agenda. This bill bans drilling for oil and gas development on Federal land.
What does it mean when you drill on Federal land? You pay taxes. Who do you pay them to? The government and the schools. The kids win, too.
You know, in my community, there is a place called Taft. At Taft Junior College, they have a whole program for people who want to go into the energy business. There are more women in that program than there are men. They are the brightest people I have seen.
I was just out there. They have this old logger base. Taft has been through boom busts. When they first discovered oil back in the day, not far from Elk Hills, the Teapot Dome scandal, oil flowed freely and made a lake.
I don't know if America understands, oil doesn't just go into your cars, your phone, almost everything you buy.
You know, California, under the esteemed leadership of Gavin Newsom, has more homeless. He is shutting down the oil. He has pledged we won't have any combustion motors.
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We pay 40 percent higher than other States. But I guess it makes you feel good. But what happens when you pay 40 percent higher for your electricity? You move.
Mr. Speaker, you and I are both from California. I am sure we both look at the commission to see where the lines are. They will be different this year.
For people here who aren't from California, 12 percent of the Nation's population lives in California. For the entire history of California, they always gained seats. Last time, they broke even. We have 53 seats. This year, we are losing.
When they asked Governor Newsom why did the population go down, you know what his answer was? President Trump secured the border. That is exactly what he said. I was shocked.
I worry about if my children can stay in California.
Why is it that Texas and Florida are gaining seats? Why is it in this body you refer to them as red States? Does it have anything to do with freedom? Why is the tax policy in Florida that it has no State tax, and California has the highest? Florida has great roads. They have an old population. They provide for them. I guess they believe in accountability. They don't spend money on things people don't want. They don't tax you or try to control you.
When you ban oil and gas--think about that, Mr. Speaker. One-party rule, 1 year. What has happened to make the gasoline prices so high? One-party rule, 1 year. They banned drilling for oil and gas.
Mr. Speaker, I know I didn't go to Stanford. I didn't go to Yale. I didn't go to Princeton. I went to Bakersfield College. I got my undergrad at Cal State Bakersfield. I got my MBA at Cal State Bakersfield. I am proud of where I am from. But the one thing I do know is you have to have a bridge between fuel and a solar panel.
I watched President Biden up in Michigan with the other Democrat Members driving that electric truck so fast and so excited. Do you know how much that truck costs? $125,000. Who do you think is going to get the tax break for that? I guess it is the people Jared was talking about, the millionaires. Maybe we could have debated that if we had time on the floor.
There is a direct correlation to the price of gas and to January 20, and it is just getting worse. We heard earlier from Scott Daniel what these dangerous policies will do to customers.
I want you to think for one moment. What if you are a truck driver? There are many up in my district in agriculture. They take a risk and buy their own truck. They have to fill it up. I imagine it probably takes 300 gallons, don't you think?
The price of gas has increased by more than 60 percent. Do you know how much more it takes that small business man or woman to fill up that tank? Almost $500. Where do they pass that on to?
So when you wonder, do we have more truckers? They have to park the truck. Could you pay $500 more every single day? Inflation is rising so fast, you are not passing that on.
I have this dear friend. He is the mayor of Taft. His name is Dave Noerr. He is like John Wayne. This guy worked in the oil business, and he created his own business. When he runs a meeting, he will listen to anybody in there. He will respect them. He won't tell them they can't look at him. I didn't know I was that scary.
But this is what he told us. Only as recently as 1988, the State of California only imported 4.5 percent of all the oil we consumed in our State. Think about that--1988, 4.5 percent. California, the biggest economy--do you know California's economy is bigger than Russia?
But after the esteemed leadership of Gavin Newsom, last year, because of shutting it all down, because they are going to end oil production, because they are going to save the environment, we import over 70 percent. We import over 70 percent.
Mr. Speaker, I believe you agree with me, because all the stats say it. Name me one country that produces oil and gas more environmentally safe than America.
Have any of you ever been up to Alaska? I went to the North Slope as a freshman. A group of us all went. Jim Jordan was with me. We all went up there. If you park your truck, you have to put like a diaper underneath it. It is not oil from the ground. You can't even let a drop of oil out of your car.
Do you think they do that in Ecuador or Venezuela? I am sure they probably do.
It is interesting. I like to study history, and beyond America. It wasn't that long ago that Venezuela was the jewel of Latin America. It had oil. It had wealth. It had a strong economy. They had a democracy. Hugo Chavez ran for President and won. How did he win? He stood up and said: We are going to build our bureaucracies. We are going to give you free healthcare, free education.
They had a lot of oil. He could do it, right?
So he got in office. Do you know what he found out? You run out of other people's money. So he decided to capture businesses, but the supreme court said he couldn't do that. So what was his answer? I don't know if he started with a commission, but he tried to pack the supreme court. Sound familiar? When that didn't happen, he changed the Constitution.
You know, I went on a codel down there. We were in Colombia, and we went to the border of Venezuela. Twenty thousand people came across that day. I would interview them, husband, wife, and young child. They thought all these people just didn't work hard enough. One was a doctor.
Do you know what he showed me a picture of? That free healthcare in a hospital. There is no electricity, and when a baby is born, they put him in the shoebox. They use the iPhone for a light. They were coming to get milk, and they went an hour-and-a-half to do it.
I pulled out my pocket and had a $50 bill. I handed it to the kid. I didn't realize that could be how much his father made for 6 months.
They got hyperinflation. He tried to change the courts. They promised you everything is free. I am sure Hugo Chavez said somewhere, on the day of his inauguration, that this is the day the children's children will remember.
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I am sure somewhere in a speech he said he needed to build the bureaucracies. I am sure he probably wrote a bill like this. But to be honest, I don't even think Hugo Chavez would spend this much.
Or what about Robinson Oil Corporation? Erin is the president. She is in California. She says: ``We have already seen refineries move out of the State or reduce production, and that increases costs and causes a fair amount of supply issues . . . pushing oil extraction or field production outside the U.S. will only exacerbate that problem.''
But what is worse is, our money is going to another country to get stronger.
I hate to tell you this, Madam Speaker, most of these countries don't have the same policies that we do. They are not democracies.
Madam Speaker, it was only a few years ago that women in Saudi Arabia got the right to drive. That is where our President asked to produce more oil, but he looks in the face of Americans and says no.
Emmons Yates, vice president of the New Mexico oil and gas company, Jalapeno Corp., ``A lot of what I am seeing in these bills is that these are things that will raise costs, we all know that. But the real effects of them aren't going to be seen until the next 2 to 3 years.'' Maybe that is when our children's children will realize.
Our colleague Stephanie Bice, she noted that many Western States greatly rely on oil and gas for their State budgets. Stephanie is an amazing Congresswoman. She is from Oklahoma. What is interesting, Madam Speaker, that great Chamber of Commerce endorsed the Democrat. I wonder what they think now. I wonder why.
But I remember watching the commercials of Stephanie Bice, and they caught my eye. There was this guy who worked in the oil fields, and he was on a couple different commercials. He was concerned about what would happen if there was one-party rule. His name wasn't Nostradamus, but he was close. In 10 months. I don't know if he has lost his job yet from Joe Biden, but Stephanie Bice says: ``Approximately 25 percent of our State's revenue comes from the oil and gas industry. The fees, taxes, and regulations that this administration is looking to levy will impact every single piece of Oklahoma.''
If you vote for this bill, I want you to go back to your districts. I want you to look families in the eye and tell them why you voted to make it more expensive to heat their homes, turn on their lights, and fill up their cars. If you are doing a townhall and you want me to come, I will come with you. You know, that would be healthy.
The Speaker is from California, right? Madam Speaker, we are from the same State. I don't mean to interrupt. I will wait.
Madam Speaker, I know we are from the same State. You know what would be healthy? I made a lot of promises to the last Speaker. I want to make them for you, too. We are both from California. Why don't we travel--I will come to your district, you come to mine, okay? And we will do a townhall. You can explain why you are going to vote for this bill, and I will explain why I did not want to. Will that be healthy? You know what, you can look at me when you talk. I won't interrupt you, and we will have a very cordial debate. I think that would be healthy.
The power of the idea should win.
Now, let's talk about Americans spending their hard-earned money. The one thing you ought to know, I tell Americans, it is your money. What you do with your money is for you to decide, not Washington bureaucrats. But get this, Washington Democrats not only want you to pay more in taxes, they also want to spy on what you spend your money on.
Madam Speaker, I am not sure if you are the one, but there were 21 Democrats who signed a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking for the 87 new IRS agents not to be in the bill. I am not sure if you were one of them. But I wonder why we need those IRS agents. I always thought the IRS was supposed to be there to help me, right?
What is interesting, too, a number of Democrats, why we are here late tonight--now, why we are here tonight and not tomorrow, I know some people have got to get to Puerto Rico for a fundraiser, and I screwed that all up, and I apologize. I apologize. I apologize.
But they asked the CBO, because there was an argument with the White House and with the Members, how much money could those 87 IRS agents get?
And it got you to thinking, right?
Well, these IRS agents, are they going to pay more taxes or something? No, they are going to go after Americans. Oh.
So you have to start with the premise for this whole bill, that you don't trust Americans. So the premise is, you are guilty until we audit you.
Now, what is interesting, they have done some statistics on this because there are a lot of things that have been said, and at times it doesn't pan out. So there is a new analysis of this that just came out. You know what you get when you get 87,000 new agents? You get to have 1.2 million more audits.
Now I don't know, Bernie is probably excited about that. But you know, Bernie wants to tax you whether you spend your money or not because he doesn't want you to invest it. But I would think it is probably just going to go after really wealthy people, wouldn't you think? Do you know where half, 600,000, of those new 1.2 are going to go? After people who make $75,000 or less.
Madam Speaker, I know your district is in San Diego. It is probably much wealthier than mine. But this would probably encompass my entire district. You know, a quarter of those 1.2 million new audits are going after people who make $25,000 or less.
You know what we should do? In this townhall, let's do it by segments. Let's do an IRS townhall first. And if you want, I will do it right before the election. Whenever you want.
Madam Speaker, I met your family before. Your family is pretty remarkable. They made America proud, innovated. And they did that because they made investments. When I met some of your older family, they are not afraid to pay taxes. They want to see it go to something. But if they have less to give, they have less to invest, and your business is a pretty competitive business now. It is not that America dominates it. China is on the rise.
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Democrats told us what they want to do is to spy on every American bank account spending as little as $28 a day.
Now, I know if I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Madam Speaker, if I asked you, you would say, no, we don't want to do that. You know what is interesting, Madam Speaker? That is the exact same answer the Attorney General gave us when we said, Are you spying on the parents? No, we are not doing that. But if it wasn't for an American whistleblower, we would never know that.
Why would we empower the Attorney General to make parents terrorists, and let terrorists on the watch list come into America? That is backwards.
Now, how tough is it to spend $28 a day? You go to Starbucks. What can you do? Can you get three gallons of gas? Does McDonald's still have the dollar meal? Yes. Yes. You are still going to hit it. That is less than $200 a week. But you know what, I was fearful when I heard about that. But I remember reading, 21 really tough Democrats, Madam Speaker, they signed a letter, and they told the Speaker, you get that out of there.
You know what would be nice? Now, I don't know if it is in the rules, I don't know if you will kick me off committees, but good thing I am not on any committee. It is only me, Gosar, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. That is right. But don't worry, there will be many more next time. I never liked this new policy, but it has kind of grown on me.
But just $200 a week. We should get a poster, because there is a lot going on in your life when you are a Member of Congress. Maybe those 21 don't remember if they signed the letter or maybe they haven't read the bill? Or maybe that is why they left? I am not sure. But you know what I can do, too? Maybe we should send that letter to their constituents and just put up how they vote, because if they vote ``no'' I want to tell all their constituents they kept their word, they are fighting for them. Would that be helpful, Madam Speaker? I think it might.
And that is what they do throughout its regulation and all the power that comes from doubling the size of the most intrusive bureaucracy in the Federal Government.
Madam Speaker, the one thing I wonder with one-party rule, is that absolute power corrupts absolutely? I mean, I wonder, General Keane, what an amazing patriot he is, right? He served his Nation time and again, Republican and Democrat Presidents. The last President appointed him to one of the academies. Advisory board. We would be so fortunate to have him on an advisory board, would we not? But one party, one rule doesn't only give us inflation, doesn't give us higher taxes, doesn't give us higher gas prices, do you know what else it does? It picks and chooses.
There is a reason, Madam Speaker, that somebody on your side of the aisle said I couldn't look at them. They thought they had the power. Can't we respect someone that risked their life for the freedom of America, that led men and women into battle, did it brilliantly, and could train the next generation, the children of children? Oh, no. Oh, no. We have the power now.
You are not allowed to serve. You are not allowed to serve because President Trump appointed you. He is an American. Been in battle his whole life. Did it when many millions of Americans never would. Risked his life for people he didn't know. Did he really want to spend more time? But he was going to do it because he cared about what he spent his life on.
Is that what Joe Biden said when he was going to work with the other side of the aisle? When did the military become political? What do you think China said about that? All right. I don't think the Taliban cared about the pronouns in the military.
I don't understand. One party, one rule, 1 year. It is just like Jared said, Madam Speaker, he never thought, if somebody asked him, they were going to produce their biggest bill that just goes to millionaires that it would be a Democrat bill.
Oh, my God. We are so much better than this.
If you or your family spends $28 a day, prepare to be under constant audit of the IRS. I don't know. We walk into these Chambers--the public can't come into these Chambers--and, Madam Speaker, we start by not trusting each other. We start by saying you can't come in unless you come through a magnetometer, because we don't trust you.
I remember when we were in the majority, John Lewis and others took down the floor. John Lewis I respect greatly. John Lewis was a dear friend. He took me across that bridge a couple times. You know what John Lewis did? For any of you who haven't made that trek, you should do it. I wish you could have done it through John Lewis' eyes.
I was so excited about the opportunity. I took my entire family, my son's girlfriend, who now is his wife. We were excited. And it was in a Presidential year, and it gets so big as you walk out of that church the first time, and the crowd comes around and everybody else. And John Lewis grabbed me at the very beginning, and he said: ``I want you to walk next to me.'' And I am walking, but I am getting crowded out by everybody else, and I fall behind. There are thousands of people.
Do you know what John Lewis did? He stopped. He stopped and said:
``Where is Kevin?'' And there was Hillary Clinton, there was every big name you could imagine there. We didn't agree on certain things, but we had respect for one another.
I will tell you this, Tim Scott and I were down there on the 50th anniversary, and I have told the story earlier about how proud I am, you walk in, the portraits, the first one you will see is Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass had every reason to hate this Nation, but he did not. He did not. He knew it could be a more perfect Union, not perfect, but could strive. He didn't even vote for Lincoln, but he was Lincoln's friend, because he wanted Lincoln to move faster. He pushed. When Lincoln died and down at this park when they put the statue that they wanted to remove, Mary Todd was there. She had a cane of Abraham Lincoln. Do you know what she did? She gave it to Frederick Douglass. She gave it to Frederick Douglass. Respect.
You go down, you see Joseph Rainey, the first Black American ever elected to Congress in 1870 from Charleston, South Carolina. If you know your history, that is where the Civil War started. You know, today there is only one Republican Black American elected to Congress in the Senate, Tim Scott from Charleston, South Carolina.
And Tim would tell me the story, you know, his mother and father got divorced early, and he lived with his grandparents, and just recently he took people on a tour. The little house they lived in--I think is only 700 square feet--has been torn down.
Tim gets his faith from his grandmother and his mother. If you ever met his mother, what an amazing lady.
But every morning Tim's grandfather made Tim and his brother sit at that table and have breakfast. And his grandfather had that newspaper in front of him. He wanted those boys to see that. Do you know Tim didn't find out until after high school his grandfather couldn't read? But he wanted more for his boys. He wanted them to participate in current events.
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Tim and I went down there on the 50th anniversary. President Obama was President, and John Lewis introduced him. I was emotional that day. Because when you think for one moment, 50 years before, John Lewis was beaten, almost to his death, where when he tells you the story, he will say, That Woolworth counter over there, I got arrested because I tried to eat. I got this far on the bridge--inside that coat he had. He says, I can't remember anymore. But they carried me back to this church. And 50 years later, he was nominating and introducing Barack Obama as President of the United States.
I am proud of the fact that Abraham Lincoln was President in the most dire time of our Constitution, the Civil War, and brought the Nation together. I am fearful of the division that is being created in this House.
Madam Speaker, it almost feels like the Speaker is burning it down on her way out the door. I made the promise to the last Speaker, and I will make it to you too, ma'am. We will run it different. But there are some things we will keep. I may not agree with you, but I respect you. You have a right to your opinion, but you also have a responsibility to show up to work. You also should bring a bill through a committee. You also shouldn't debate a bill all day long and leave 20 minutes before you do the manager's amendment. And I know you want to get to Puerto Rico. I know your donors are down there. But the American people are out there.
Warren Hudak runs a small business accounting firm in Pennsylvania. Like many small business owners, he knows how tough it is to succeed. Even in the best of times, this new proposal will make it much worse. He recently told me, small businesses in Pennsylvania and throughout the country are struggling with labor shortage, rising inflation, and supply chain disruptions.
Given these challenges, the Biden administration's proposal to require annual IRS reporting of inflows, outflows from small businesses and individuals' accounts would just add insult to injury.
Democrats say the IRS needs to spy on every American bank account because, otherwise, billionaires will cheat on their taxes. That is just nonsense.
Where did the Speaker go? Did you fall?
I will wait.
Can I be Speaker? I can finish my speech up there.
Eric Bruen, another friend of mine, he runs a small credit union in Ridgecrest, California. He also happens to be the mayor. He said this: Look at what it is going to do in the long run. Individuals are already beginning to withdraw savings from our credit unions. We don't want to go back to the cash-under-the-mattress approach. We obviously will see liquidity issues and our ability to lend to the community. This is going to hit the middle class and America's families the hardest, especially those two-income families.
I know a lot of Members here did a lot of things before they were Members of Congress. I remember when I first started out; we were both working. We had to live on a budget. We had to cut. When we bought that first house we still live in today, we were living in an apartment. I remember a lady who was coming by and she was collecting cans out of our trash can at the apartment complex. And I asked her if she needed some furniture. Because what I wanted to do when I bought the new house, I wanted to buy all new furniture.
So I loaded it all up, load it on the car--the couches and everything else. When we got in the new house, we had to paint; we had to get carpet; we had to get new shades. I ran out of money. So we had a TV on a box, and Connor had a little couch. And we would lay our heads on both sides of the couch.
But you know what we didn't have? We didn't have gasoline this high. We didn't have inflation. We didn't have an unsecure border.
I worry about those two-income families. It is not just what you are taking from them at the gas pump, now they have to be fearful that they are going to get audited.
Madam Speaker, why can't you trust Americans? I firmly believe Americans are good people. They love this country. But when you start an entire bill to pay for it--and Madam Speaker, you promised the American public this would be paid for, and it is not. I didn't believe you when you said it.
Do you realize you debated the majority of this bill before it was out here? You left 20 minutes of 10 minutes on each side for debate on a bill that is the largest in our history. You are breaking so many records. Just last week, you left two votes open longer than in the history of this Congress.
I never thought I would serve in a body that absolute power would corrupt absolutely. I have said it. I don't know if Speaker Pelosi stays around. Well, the damage that she is doing is a lot. Personally, I hope she stays. I want her to hand that gavel to me. I want her to be here.
Now, the Democrats have had three chances to remove intrusiveness, abusive, and indefensible policy in response to the public outrage and opposition. When pressed, they just adjust their rhetoric. They thought they would fool the American public. I don't know if this happened, but you could envision it, right, because they are listening to what the Democrats are saying. So you have got Congresswoman Spanberger saying, Biden was not elected to be FDR.
So what they are probably saying in the White House, let's tell the American public it doesn't cost anything. Just tell them; they will believe it. Just say it a couple times. It is kind of like, ``if you like your doctor, you can keep him,'' right? Or ``you got to pass the bill to know what is in it.''
Then when the public found out about this IRS, it was $600, everybody got mad. They said, oh, no, it is not $600. It is $10,000. They didn't think the public would figure out $28 a day hits it.
And then they wouldn't allow the ability at the end of the day to find out how many the audits it was until the last day.
Remember when the President was asked whether they were going to give
$450,000 to illegal immigrants that came over the border? He got so mad at that FOX reporter.
No way. No way.
The next day, it was a whole other story.
But telling, they have never abandoned the policy. Even after we learned about it, it would not pay for their new social programs. They said this is how they are going to pay for it. The White House told everybody, Oh, it's 400, 400. They tried to press so many times.
Madam Speaker, I felt so sorry for Josh. All those times he was promised they were going to have a vote.
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They wanted to press you before you could read it, before the CBO score would come back. I don't even know why people waited for it or asked for it. It didn't change the outcome.
I don't know, maybe I am wrong. I thought when I listened to them on TV they said: We cannot vote for this until we get the CBO score to prove that it pays for itself. I guess that last part was kind of like the 21 people who wrote and said the IRS has to be out of it.
You just need a CBO. It doesn't matter what it says. You just want the paper.
Think of the fabric of this country that it is going to tear. Everyone in the country knows what the COVID-19 pandemic did to families and local businesses. Almost immediately, the Trump administration and the last Congress took action to provide immediate relief.
As we pulled ourselves out of the pandemic, the wind should have been at our backs, especially for small businesses. Americans were eager to go back to restaurants with their families and friends. We are eager to shop at local stores after being forced to live by delivery services and online shopping. Those people were heroes, but not this year, even people in the medical community.
Do you remember how there were proposals that you even had to pay more to grocery workers or to nurses? But once you got that one-party rule, you determine if you can look at somebody, what they have to put in their body. They don't even care if they had COVID. We don't care that you were a hero a year ago.
We don't care if the response rates for firefighters and police officers are going to be longer. Why? Because we have power. We have power, and we are going to use it. But we only use it on people we want to.
Madam Speaker, I watched, in the last Congress, Speaker Pelosi on the floor here. She was giving a speech. We all live under the same rules. She said something she shouldn't. She broke the rule. Somebody challenged her on it. You have to take down your words. All she could do is yield back; she didn't want to.
So the Parliamentarian makes the determination. I don't know if you were here. It was one of those other times we set a record.
Nobody would read what the Parliamentarian said. Speaker Pelosi left the floor--left the floor. We were going around and around.
So I come to the floor, and I am talking to Steny Hoyer. What are we going to do? Oh, my God, Speaker Pelosi might have to live under the same rules. Can't be. Can't be.
They took a couple of hours. Every Member that was supposed to stand up there backed out. They walked up there, and the Parliamentarian gave them--``Oh, I am not saying that,'' and they walked. They were all afraid. Steny Hoyer had to do it.
Do you know what the rules say? If you won't take it back and you push it and you are wrong, you can't speak anymore that day. Madam Speaker, that wasn't for Speaker Pelosi. That wasn't going to happen. So the Parliamentarian made a decision.
Madam Speaker, I don't know if you were here at that time, but do you know what your party did? Rules for thee, not for me. They changed it.
I don't know. She is from my State. We have about the same amount of constituents. She said they have a higher standard. Everybody on that side said: We can't do it to her. She is different. She is special. She is special. See, yes, she is.
So when you put magnetometers up here and she walked around them, you know what the answer was, Madam Speaker, why she didn't get a letter and why she didn't have to pay? The Capitol Police determined that. They didn't send her one. Oh, I guess she is different. I guess she is special.
When Jim Clyburn, with his detail, walked around, he was shocked he got a letter: I am Jim Clyburn. I have a detail. I am not like all of you.
The only way you can get out of it is if somebody on the other side in Ethics will say it is okay. Do you know what Republicans said? Yeah.
But that didn't happen to you. It didn't happen to Louie.
I wonder why you would do that? When I read this bill, that you don't even trust Americans, why would you trust us? Why would you trust us?
We are eager to be there for the businesses that are usually there for us. But instead of businesses experiencing new opportunities, they are again facing the threat of closure, and it is not because of the pandemic. The threat comes primarily from a historic labor shortage, which, as I described, is driven by Democratic policies passed earlier this year.
You see, I have been in the room many times--not since you had one-
party rule. When Republicans were in power, they invited the Democrat leadership in. We worked together. One thing the Democrats would always say: We need to give people $15 an hour more than what the unemployment pays. Now you know where the labor shortage comes from, and inflation. I don't think America is cheering that.
The economists told you. We told you. I remember being in the Oval Office, and I asked the President about that. They were encouraging small business after small business. I invited him to go to businesses with me. He said that is not happening. That is not happening.
I said, Mr. President, with all due respect, you have to get out of the White House. I talked about the border. He said: Oh, no, no, no. We are making it better.
I wondered, what is his definition of better?
If you take away the work requirement and child credit, do you know who that is going to hurt? Small businesses, not large. It gives the incentive. The majority of Americans are going to get a paycheck for doing nothing.
I wondered, when I first came in and I listened to Congressman Neal and Steny Hoyer, I don't know who wrote their speeches, but, man, it sounded like it was from Europe. They celebrated it. The sad part about this is we have confronted this before.
Objection to this proposal isn't about being antifamily. Republicans believe the family is the foundation of a strong society, which is why we have supported expanding the child tax credit in the past. But we also know work establishes purpose, and there is no government substitute for a job and an earned income. We have proven that time and again.
I remember back when President Clinton and Democrats believed in work, when we did welfare reform and there was a work requirement. It gave people purpose. It gave them training.
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We all know people who when you fall, we want to build you up. That should be a trampoline, not a La-Z-Boy.
Do you know what happens, Madam Speaker?
Families get proud. You get proud.
By removing the work requirement, the government is putting itself in competition with small businesses.
Larry Allison, the owner of Allison Crane & Rigging, told us, ``We are concerned about where we are going to get the employees.
``What are the costs of the employees going to be?
``I am trying to get more and more diversified today, getting ready for the next time the Governor tries to shut us down here in Pennsylvania.''
Andy Ray, owner of BrightStar Care in Mesa, Arizona, echoed a similar concern, ``I find myself emerging from the pandemic, heading right into another one that is very clear. This legislation is very clear. I am extremely worried that if this legislation goes through and the disincentives to work continue, where am I going to get the team to do this? And what are my options?
``This bill raises taxes right when I am going out of the pandemic.
``And for a government that has proven so incompetent this year, do we honestly expect an expansion of welfare programs not to be overwhelmed with fraud?''
Madam Speaker, I have some facts about our State. I don't know if you are taking notes. I can send them to you if you are not. Madam Speaker, last month, it was reported that unemployment fraud in California--that is where we represent--reached $20 billion.
Do you know how many audits of people earning $75,000 you have to do to get $20 billion?
Now, that is 10 percent of the State's entire budget--10 percent of the State's entire budget--fraud.
Do you think there will be any fraud in this $5 trillion?
Oh, no. No. No. No. They are going to have a lot of accountability in there.
Andrew Gruel is the founder and executive chef of Slapfish Restaurants. Nobody had it harder than the restaurants. He is down in Long Beach. He is an entrepreneur. He illustrated how this isn't just a line-item issue on a ledger. When they shut down outdoor dining, 90 percent of the restaurants in southern California closed.
I had people come to me and say that they lost their job and now the government is telling them that there are no government benefits available because they misappropriated upwards of $50 billion in unemployment funds.
So the government misappropriated.
Do you know what Andrew did?
He started a GoFundMe. He had just opened another restaurant for pizza, and he let everybody come in and eat for free. He struggled, but he kept people on.
Madam Speaker, I cannot believe this body which was so quick to provide local businesses with what they needed to survive in the pandemic. If there is something our children's children should learn, when we had divided government and the pandemic hit us, I think PPP was one of the most amazing things we did. We kept people working instead of off.
Do you know how we did it, Madam Speaker?
We didn't build the bureaucracy; we actually tore it down. We loaned more money in 14 days than the SBA had loaned in 14 years.
Why?
First, we trusted Americans. We said: You can go to your bank, your credit union, or your Fintech. They know you. We gave them a little money for their effort. They already weren't qualified yet, but they worked overnight. We had problems at the beginning.
We said: You can take this money as a loan, but if you pay rent, if you pay your employees, you pay your electricity, it is a grant.
We had to modify it along the way because it was so successful.
But, Madam Speaker, do you know what was one of the saddest moments?
Because we really worked together on that. And this was so successful. But not all of the businesses got in at the beginning. Most of them were small. They were having problems. So it ran out of money. So we wanted to put more money in something we all voted for.
I remember seeing Speaker Pelosi on late night TV. I don't know the name of the refrigerator. I can't afford one. I like ice cream, but I don't buy that kind. That is expensive. I wonder how much it costs now with inflation. It is probably much more. But she picked up that ice cream. She smiled into the camera to America and said ``no.''
How could you do that?
How could you do that?
We are in a pandemic. It was working. It was bipartisan. That is the power of the Speaker.
But let's talk about another idea in this bill that is so unbelievably out of touch with reality and flat-out dangerous to our citizens: amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Madam Speaker, you are a little closer to the border than I am. I know this is an issue for you, too. I am not sure how many times you have been to the border. I am not sure if you were down there when they caught those different people on a different day. They came into California. They were on the terrorist watch list from Yemen.
Your counterpart who serves on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said that I wasn't telling the truth. He says he gets all the intelligence.
I don't know how much intelligence he gets, but, Madam Speaker, I remember seeing him and Swalwell in the Middle East with their shirts off on a camel. So maybe that was the time the paper came through and they didn't have a chance to read it. I am not sure. I thought he would apologize, or at the very least call and say: How can we work together?
I don't know what advice I would give him. Maybe just keep your shirt on.
During the worst border crisis in our Nation's history, Democrats want to make it even more attractive to cross the border illegally to break our laws. According to its supporters, this bill grants amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
Now, Madam Speaker, there are a lot on your side who weren't able to stay. They need to get their rest. They have got a long weekend in Puerto Rico after this. And I understand that. But there are a lot of Members behind me, and if I was to guess, if you asked every single one of these Members if they had been to the border this year, they would tell you ``yes.'' Some would tell you more than once. And to anybody on your side of the aisle, Madam Speaker, who has not been, we will take you. We will take you.
When you sit and interview people and you ask them why they come, many of them have Joe Biden's shirts on. They said: He told us to. He told us to.
I remember early on, I was down in August Pfluger's district. It was one of the first big rushes. He is an amazing Member. I don't know if you met him, Madam Speaker, but he served our country proudly. He flew F-22s in battle.
Do you know what he did?
At 20 years you get a retirement. He left right before that. He gave that up to serve in this body not knowing that he would win. That is how much he respects this body.
I remember I was with him that day and we were in this event and the mayor came. August looked fraught because, do you know what the Biden administration did?
He had moved 1,000 illegals that they had caught into his city without even calling him.
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You know why they went to his city? Because Joe Biden became President, shut down oil production, and they had little oil cities there. So all those people who lost their jobs, that had to leave, moved them in. And not one of them were tested for COVID; not one. It was going rampant. And when you would talk to the doctors there on the border, they said more than 10 percent have COVID.
And when you would walk--and this is interesting to me, Madam Speaker. I know when President Trump was President, the other side of the aisle called where people were stored, cages. I don't know if Webster took that away, but I don't hear that anymore. But it is the exact same place where they are, and it is overcrowded.
But you know what is even worse? They have expanded the cages. It now hangs under freeways. They just walk right on across.
But you know what happened? A news agency went down and started filming it; 10,000 people, just there. So what did the Biden administration do? They used that Machiavellian approach, right? They banned the news agency from using a drone so America couldn't see it. That is how they will fix the problem.
Well, that didn't work. But you know, with one-party rule in 1 year, you can try anything. So then the Secretary came out and said, We hear you. We are moving them all back. They are all going back to their country. And lo and behold, everybody was moved out.
And what did we find just a few days, weeks later?
I don't know what training it is for the Cabinet, but first the Attorney General comes to Congress and says he is not spying on parents, and the whistleblower says he is.
Then we got a Homeland Security Cabinet member, says he is sending them all back. And then a whistleblower shows us late at night, they are not sending them back. They are sending them all around, all around, all-expense-paid trip.
I won the lottery, but I didn't win $450,000.
Where is the trust and respect for the American public?
And here is the kicker. According to supporters, this bill grants amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants who will be able to obtain a government-issued ID. But it doesn't have a single cent for more border security.
Madam Speaker, I made a little wager to the last Speaker, and think it will be a fun wager. We have really never spent much time together. We should. We come from the same State.
So let's make a wager on dinner, okay? Let's say, if this bill passes, I believe more people will be attracted to come here illegally. And I assume, if I listen to the talking points, you think it will be different. So let's look at this in a year. If you are right, I will buy you dinner. If I am right, you buy my dinner. Sound good? We can talk all about it.
But this is the unbelievable kicker. Many Democrats think this doesn't go far enough. You know, it is interesting--and, Madam Speaker, you should find these Democrats, because some of them are from California--they signed a letter to the Speaker and said they would not vote for it unless this was in the bill. They got it in the bill.
So I think Josh and those 21 and everybody that signed that CBO, they should talk to these people. Their letters work. I don't know about the other ones.
The winners of this mass amnesty are going to be the smugglers and the criminal cartels who get a government-provided advertisement for new customers. They don't even have to advertise anymore.
I seriously would request, let's all go to the border together. Let's fan it all the way through. Let's do Republican and Democrat together.
I don't care how you feel about immigration, but I know in your heart you are opposed to human trafficking. And I want to sit with the children and let's talk to them. Let's hear what has happened to them on their journey because they are going to need more help than you can imagine.
Let's talk to the ones who do make it; that are now going to be trafficked in our country because they didn't have enough to pay; of what they are going to have to do for the cartel.
Can you imagine who is getting across we don't know? I fear greatly that someone from that prison in Bagram finds their way. They found their way in a suicide vest that took 13 American lives, while 16 months prior, not one casualty.
Why should America, Madam Speaker, trust the Biden administration with $5 trillion after how he handled Afghanistan?
Why should we trust him if he looked in the eyes of the American public and said he would not leave until every American is out?
Why should we trust him if he said we could do nothing better?
Why should we trust him if he treated our allies the way he did? He treated the Taliban better than the U.K. or France.
Madam Speaker, it is reported that Boris Johnson learned that America was going to pull out. He calls the President, who we all watched in that lonely photo in Camp David. He didn't return his call for 36 hours. This is an ally we have fought side by side with from World War I to World War II, who has sacrificed lives in Afghanistan, not because their country got attacked, but because America got attacked.
But the President of the United States accepted a deadline from the Taliban when our allies asked for a little longer. That same President promised America no one would be left behind.
Madam Speaker, never in my life did I believe a man, woman, Republican, Democrat, whoever, had the honor to serve as President of the United States, would knowingly make that decision.
I know, Madam Speaker, people thought the issue would leave. Unfortunately, it is here for decades. I am sure it put in the calculation of why Putin has thousands of his military next to Ukraine, or China pushes on Taiwan every day.
We have seen it time and time again, allowing illegal immigration fuels more illegal immigration. Talking about amnesty is a public relations coup for the coyotes. We have seen this before.
The losers, however, would be the rule of law, legal immigration, and, most importantly, American citizens.
Madam Speaker, I know your district, like mine, has a lot of first-
generation Americans.
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I go to naturalization services--the look on these young Americans. They raise their hand. Do you know what I tell them? It is a struggle.
When my grandfather came here, Giuseppe, his father was already here. He and his mother had to stay back in Italy. If you walk into my office, right there, you get the Ellis Island. They had to say: Where are you going to live? Who are your sponsors? His father, my grandfather, was working in an ammunition factory in Connecticut.
When I look at the faces when they take that oath, do you know what I tell them? Valley Forge is now their struggle. George Washington is their Founding Father. Abraham Lincoln is their emancipator. Martin Luther King spoke of their dreams. And the flag that flies on the Moon is their flag.
They have as many rights as I do, who was born here, but they also have a responsibility.
Madam Speaker, when I hear from my constituents who are here and waiting for their family, for 10 years, to be reunited, and they watch what is happening, they get the most upset. They left what they knew. They risked everything because they believed in the rule of law. They believed in America.
I saw Victoria back here earlier. She knows what it is like to immigrate here. She knows what it is like to take a risk. She knows what it is like to live up to the rule of law.
As this crisis gets worse, it will creep further into American cities. We know now that the Biden administration isn't sending illegal immigrants back. They are flying them into cities across the country in the dead of night.
Madam Speaker, I don't get to see the President much. When I asked him about the border, he was telling me he is making it so much better.
Can you ask him why they fly them in the dead of night? Do they get a discount, or is that so people don't see it?
It is interesting to me, the word ``respect.'' I know many times I travel the country--I see my friend across the aisle here. The flood in Houston, I remember us all going down to the facility, the families there. We worked together. You were there; the mayor was there; everybody else was there. Why? Because we told each other we were coming. We serve together. We work together.
Why would we fly people into a city and not talk to the mayors? We hold them responsible for public security and safety in COVID. Why do they have to find out? Is it because you are not telling the American public the truth? Every American city is set to become a border city and a sanctuary city.
Madam Speaker, you live toward San Diego, and I think San Diego is a beautiful place.
I loved San Francisco. I thought San Francisco was the only East Coast city California had. But I still remember, I was in sixth grade and saved up $400. That year was tough. My family didn't have money for a vacation. So I told my mom and dad I would give them the $400 if we could go to San Francisco and could go tour Alcatraz.
Some of my fondest memories, my dad driving the van, my sister, my brother, my mom. My dad was a fire chief. He was straight-laced. We were yelling at him because we were hungry. We wanted McDonald's. We told him to get off. He cuts across all of these lanes, and he gets pulled over. He has never had a ticket in his life. Do you know how your father can punish you just with the look of his eye? Oh, I have never forgotten that moment.
We went to San Francisco. We down to the Wharf. We went to Lombard Street, drove all the way as it curves down. My mom went and got tickets for Alcatraz, but she bought the wrong tickets. She bought a boat that just went around Alcatraz, didn't get to go into Alcatraz. Then we went to Lake Tahoe, and we went back home.
It wasn't until my children were born, until they were in elementary school, that I did get to go to Alcatraz.
My son just moved to San Francisco with his new wife. He had to buy a car. He was living in D.C. I had an uncle pass away last week, and they were home for the funeral.
I am worried about him living in San Francisco. I read about the Walgreens. I was worried about him getting a car because the last time I was there, the signs on every door said: ``Please don't break in. I have nothing inside.''
He says: Dad, I just got insurance.
I didn't know that was a big deal. But he said: I found out I live on the safest street in the whole place.
But it still costs him three times what mine does.
I watched the policies of San Francisco change that city. I watched people like Chuck Schwab, who seconded his house to start a business that allows Americans to invest at the lowest cost possible. He has changed so many lives.
Do you know what his greatest love was? San Francisco. There is not a museum or a homeless center that Chuck Schwab hasn't funded. He doesn't live there anymore.
Do you know what my son told me? I was kind of excited when he said he lived in a safe place. He has a little dog, Otis. He said: But I can't wear my AirPods when I take him for a walk because you have to be looking.
I remember another family a few years back was strolling out on the pier, a beautiful place to go. His family watched their daughter die, get shot. The person who shot her was somebody who came across the border illegally and took her life.
The defunding of police has destroyed our cities. It is interesting that the first time I ever heard that phrase was in this Chamber. Madam Speaker, it was from your side of the aisle. The first time, Madam Speaker, was this year.
I watched your party defund the Iron Dome for Israel. I never thought that would happen. I never thought that would happen.
The first time I watched $5 trillion, bigger than the New Deal, and not one dollar to protect Americans--Russell Johnson. I don't care how you feel about immigration. The drugs that are coming across the border are coming to your district.
I don't care if you live in New York or Maine. Call your coroner. Call your sheriff. Ask them. It comes across from Mexico, but it is made in China.
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We heard from Mayor Don McLaughlin about the effects this dangerous policy will have on American cities, especially those that are near the border.
I don't know if I will get this right. You may want to tell me, August, Cochise County? Yeah? You don't know.
Sheriff Mark Dannels told us: ``The rule of law is being destroyed here. The violent behavior we are seeing from the cartels''--listen to this--the cartels call my office, saying they're gonna kill my deputies''--they're gonna kill my deputies.
``And the things we've seen, our quality of life, not just on our borders, but in America is being diminished.'' Maybe you haven't heard that before, but now you have.
So, Madam Speaker, could five Democrats pause this bill and put some money in there to protect these deputies from being killed or protect the children in schools? It just takes five, that is all. Just five. You have got $5 trillion. $5 trillion. No one has ever seen this type of money.
I can't believe it. Who gave you the right to sacrifice those lives, those dreams, those futures?
You know what gets to me? I have told you my father was a firefighter. It is interesting, if you have a first responder job, it is not a job, it is a family. The firefighters, the police officers, you are together on Christmas, you are together all the time. If one of them needs work at the house, we are over there pouring concrete, we are fixing the roof. It is a way of life.
I cannot imagine a deputy coming home, a mom, a deputy being threatened with their own life and looking at their children--because I know they don't sit back and say it won't happen to me because they see it every day. They see it every day. I can't walk by one without saying thank you.
But you know what is happening? They are retiring. They are not appreciated. It is only making it worse. Just five, just five is all it takes. Pause the bill.
Look, I promise, I promise if five would pause this bill, I will pay for your plane to Puerto Rico later, if you just help those along the border. I will pay for your ticket. I promise, you will get there.
Now, let me be clear. Objections to mass amnesty are not anti-
immigrant. Republicans recognize the value that immigrants bring to American society, American culture, and America's economy.
You know what is so sad? The public doesn't realize a lot of us talk together. When I was majority leader, I would bring Members in, and we would talk a lot about this broken immigration system.
I understand, we have a government that you have got to find compromise. If you don't find compromise, you are going to end up just like we are today, one-party rule in one year.
We brought two immigration bills to the floor, and not one Democrat would vote for it. You know the sad thing, Madam Speaker, I am not sure you were here yet. I went to a number of the Members of the Democratic Party who said they wanted it; it was so important, they wanted to vote for it. But the minority leader at the time, now the Speaker, told them no, they needed an issue for the campaign. They needed an issue for the campaign.
So when Steny Hoyer talked about the children's children learning about it, I hope they read about that, too.
We know that America is a nation of immigrants. We honor this tradition in history. As I often say at naturalization ceremonies--as I told you earlier, we are the only nation in the world, and we have Members on both sides of the aisle that were born in other countries--
Lady Liberty does what she does best, she opened up her arms, she brought you in to America, and you became a citizen.
George Washington, right there, even if you weren't born in this country, he is your Founding Father. Abraham Lincoln is your liberator. When Martin Luther King spoke down at the Lincoln Memorial, he spoke of your dreams. Right, Juan? And now you have the opportunity, that less than 13,000 Americans have had, to serve in this body.
But, Madam Speaker, why at times do I feel the rhetoric that I hear from some, they almost dislike this country? They want to tear down the Founding Fathers, they want to rename the schools. No one ever said we were perfect, but we strive to be a more perfect Union.
I would hope those Members would come to my office, see the paintings, see how far we have come. Frederick Douglass had every reason to hate this Nation. Born into slavery, sold from his parents, taught to read but was beaten for it. Gave Bible studies to the other slaves. Was beaten, escaped, became a free man, and became an adviser and one of the best friends to Abraham Lincoln. He had as much to do about America bonding together, of healing and driving where everybody would be equal.
So, yes, we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.
Amnesty is unfair to everyone who plays by the rules, whether they are American citizens or legal immigrants. The depressed wages, rewarding lawbreaking, and straining public resources. That is why Republicans reject the growing calls by Democrats to defund ICE and open our borders to everyone.
Madam Speaker, I said, the first time I ever heard the phrase
``defund the police'' was on this floor. The first time I ever heard the phrase ``defund ICE,'' I thought they just wanted to drink water without ice at first, I wasn't sure what they were talking about. How could that possibly be?
JUAN, you would not want to defund ICE?
Just for the American public to know, Madam Speaker, I have the utmost respect for Juan Vargas. He and I have served together in the State legislature; we serve here. We vote differently. I respect his character. I respect your faith. You know what I respect as well? Your respect of other people who have a difference of opinion. You weren't here earlier, I don't think.
Madam Speaker, I couldn't believe there was a person in this body that told me I couldn't look at them when I talked. I have never heard that before. I am sure people on that side of the aisle might look at me as being unworthy, not equal. That is unfortunate. We are all Americans. I didn't disrupt one word they said. I didn't agree with it. I thought this place was a place of debate, a place of ideas, Madam Speaker, where the best idea could win.
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Without the rule of law we could not have a fair, functioning, or secure immigration system. Without the rule of law, we could not have a free society.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I want to discuss an issue that has sparked a parents' movement across this country: Education. Every parent in every community and every corner of this country has a right to know what their children are being taught and what they are actually learning. And no politician or government bureaucrat should have the power to deny you that right.
I got a lot of hope 2 weeks ago. There are so many times in American society you get down. But we are the best form of government. At any moment, our power is not driven from here, but from people. And they spoke loudly.
Republicans respect the right of parents. After all, these are your children, it is their future. And, Madam Speaker, these are the children that Majority Leader Steny Hoyer talked about, the children's children learning about today. I hope they are not denied to hear what went on on the floor tonight. That would be a travesty.
Over the last year, everyone has listened to passionate parents speak out when out-of-touch politicians and ineffective school boards keep their children's school closed for months on end.
Madam Speaker, I know you must have had your heart torn when we watched that father, the father that went to a school board--and I didn't quite grasp it at first. I just watched--he was being wrestled down. He was trying to talk. And it depends on which station you listen to; on one station they said he was like a terrorist. You know what we found out? He was handcuffed and removed. Why would he do that? Why would he fight so hard? The same reason all of us would: His child.
You see, he went to that school board meeting. His daughter was raped. She was raped by an individual that was not of the same gender that went into that bathroom. That father notified the school board. The school board didn't know about it. Lo and behold, we found out later, oh, they knew about it, and the emails were there.
Why? Why would they arrest that father? I am shocked he didn't do more.
But you know what happened? That is not the end of the story. They just transferred that student to another school to do the exact same thing. I think every parent in that school should have known what took place on that campus; and every student, every parent should have known in the next school that that student was there. They have a right to know it.
Madam Speaker, we introduced a bill to do just that, the Parents' Bill of Rights. I tell the American public if it gets denied by this Democratic majority, it will be passed 1 year from now. It will be one of the first bills we take up.
We have seen and heard parents and children speaking out at school board meetings frustrated by the government-knows-best approach to education.
You know what is interesting, there was an election in Virginia, and it was pretty big in Virginia, this issue. You had a Democrat running for Governor that is a former Governor, and he made a statement:
``Parents don't have a right to know what happens in their children's school.'' I think he lost the election over it. But parents rose up.
What did the Biden administration do? Well, the Attorney General stopped looking at those who were killing people in Chicago on the weekend or why Walgreens was shutting down in San Francisco. You start looking at the parents. They were terrorists. But when he came before this body, you have got to understand who this person is. He is the top law enforcement officer of this country.
We are not far from the Supreme Court. I am not sure--a lawyer can correct me--what is the name of the statue out there, is that Lady Justice? She is blindfolded with a scale in her hands that is supposed to weigh equally. The same Attorney General came this close to being on the Supreme Court. He looked at the Members on both sides of the aisle and said he wasn't investigating them. Could you imagine what it took for somebody working in that body to risk their job as a whistleblower to put forth the information that he lied?
Madam Speaker, I heard the Speaker just yesterday tell me they are at a higher standard. Madam Speaker, I know your body knows how to impeach. You have done it twice. You even have now Special Investigator Durham tell you the first time you did it it was all lies.
If you believe in the rule of law, if you believe in these parents, where is Adam Schiff when you need him, Madam Speaker?
We write law. The Attorney General is the highest law enforcement officer in this administration. He is supposed to be fair on both sides. He promised us he wasn't going to play politics. But now we have found that he lied there. Now they even go further. They use it for intimidation.
Do you know, no subpoena in Congress since 1983 have the Attorneys General done anything with. For those who are held in contempt here, nothing ever happened. It was interesting, Madam Speaker, I don't know if you caught this, but Adam Schiff said, but now it is different, we have an Attorney General who will do what we want. Madam Speaker, Adam Schiff was right. He has become the most political Attorney General in the history of this Nation.
Now, I worry, I worry greatly. If he lies about spying on parents, what else does he lie about? If he picks who he is going to go after based upon your political affiliation, he is not wearing a blindfold, he has got binoculars looking right at you.
Madam Speaker, if we are going to hold this body to a higher level, I would think we could work together on this. Wouldn't you at least want to have a hearing on it now that you have got the facts? Wouldn't you want to call them back? Not for me, but for the parents. What about that father? I wonder if he was investigated.
You know what is interesting, the Attorney General said he based this all on an organization that sent him one letter. One letter. That was put out publicly. Do you know what that organization did? Oh, I'm sorry, I will take it back. But the Attorney General never took it back. I wonder if we had to question, did anybody in the Attorney General's Office call that organization and ask for that letter so they could take that action? I don't know. I don't know this. I would feel better if that didn't happen.
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But it is interesting to me, if they acted so fast on that letter, is he opening all his mail that quick? Because we have sent a lot of things to him. It is almost like he was already prepared.
And it was interesting, he had like a deadline, had to get done before two weeks ago last Tuesday. Yeah, I don't know what happened back then or what the deadline would be. But why wouldn't he back away?
You know, what is interesting with those who sent the letter, once it was made public, they didn't want any part of it.
I would hope that organization would change their leadership. They should change their leadership, rightfully so. Over the last year, parents have become the teacher, the coach, the music teacher, science teacher, had to do almost all. But you never would have thought they would have become the terrorist. You never would have thought they would become the terrorist.
You wonder why all of a sudden are more parents coming out to the school board? Could it be because of the pandemic and the Zoom meetings where the parents are having to teach, they are beginning to hear what is being taught. And it is interesting, one party, one control, 1 year, and the Federal Government can come after you in a school board meeting.
Now, in this bill, they could dictate what your children can do. But nowhere in this bill does it say that parents have a right to know. Nowhere. Nowhere in this bill does it deny the Attorney General to spy on a parent.
Madam Speaker, now that you know this information, with five Democrats, hold this bill up. Don't do it for me, but do it for the parents. Simply say, we don't need credit for this; a Parents' Bill of Rights. They have the right to know of the curriculum. They have a right to know what is being taught. They have a right to know what is being spent; and they have a right to know if there is a violent incident on the campus.
Just five. Just five; that is all it takes. I promise you this, you will be the most popular five Democrats in the Nation. You will. I could tell you which five are in the toughest races.
Listen, far be it from me, but it would be smart of you, because I will tell you this: Two of them are in Virginia. Madam Speaker, Governor-elect Youngkin won one by 11 points and another by 8. Biden had won that State by 10; he won New Jersey by 16.
Listen, President Clinton realized after losing all those seats in 1994 that he needed to listen to America. That the era of Big Government is over. In 2010, this exact same thing happened: 2009, Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans won. And four days later, Speaker Pelosi said you have to pass the bill to find out what is in it.
So if you ask me, why am I still speaking? Because I want America to know what is in the bill before it gets passed. Because I trust you enough if you stayed and heard what is in the bill, you wouldn't vote for it. I don't know, my political team would probably get mad at me for saving some of you, but I don't care. I want to save America.
But let me tell you what I never hear from families, hopelessness. As any parent can relate, our children are the most important people in our lives, and we will do anything to protect them and make sure they have the best opportunities available. That is why despite being targeted by President Biden's Department of Justice, parents are speaking out louder than ever.
Madam Speaker, maybe you and I can go down to the White House and see the President. You see, he picked the Attorney General, so I don't want to judge the President based upon the actions of the Attorney General. But now that the President knows what the Attorney General did, I would hope the President didn't know he did this before the whistleblower came forward, because I know Adam Schiff will hold that for impeachment.
But, Madam Speaker, now that the President knows the Attorney General of the United States of America lied to Congress and spied on parents saying they were terrorists, you know what we could do? Just five Democrats vote with us and we will hold the Attorney General in contempt. I am sure the Attorney General now will base his policy like no other attorney general has done since 1983 and go after himself. Because I am sure he is very fair. It is the rule of law.
Parents nationwide refuse to accept lower expectation for their kids. And this month, we heard Virginia parents say enough.
Madam Speaker, I hope your side of the aisle heard it. I know many had to go home. It is okay. They still get paid whether they are here or not. You can vote proxy.
You know, Madam Speaker, I am worried about some on your side of the aisle. You know some of them haven't been back since they voted for Speaker, but they will probably still vote for this bill. I am sure they read it; maybe they are watching.
Madam Speaker, I believe Puerto Rico is on the same time zone. It is not a long flight; it is just past Florida. You know, after the hurricane in Puerto Rico, I went to the minority whip at the time, Steny Hoyer. We were on a codel together down there. We went all through their struggles. We came up to Florida, toured there as well.
You see, I was in the majority. I could have had one-party rule in this House. I could have gone myself and said no Democrat can go with me, but I don't think that is good for the House, so I reached out to Steny. You know, Steny will lead a group of freshman Democrats to Israel, and I lead a group of Republicans. We have done it for a number of years.
Madam Speaker, on my first trip I went to my friend, Steny Hoyer. I said, let's don't go on separate weeks. Let's spend a couple times where we overlap, because I don't think our greatest ally should be a partisan issue.
And you know when we did this--I may get the number wrong, it is late into the morning--but I think we had 25 percent of the Congress there. We did a press conference together with Steny and I talking, showing the entire world of our commitment to Israel. We broke up in groups of Republicans and Democrats alike, and we went and toured different parts of Israel. But you know the one place we went all together? The Iron Dome.
You see, the Iron Dome is not hypersonics. It is not a first-strike weapon. It is a defensive weapon. You see, what the Iron Dome will do, it will look when a missile is shot from Gaza and it is coming, it will take it and it is going to calculate. If it is going to hit in a populated area, it shoots up and blows it up, but if the calculation means it goes in an unpopulated area, let it go.
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It is technology worked on by both countries. We were so proud of this, 25 percent of this body. We took a picture in front of the Iron Dome. If you looked at each other's faces, we were with pride. We fist-
bumped each other. We went back to the King David and did our press conference. We were united.
Madam Speaker, when thousands of rockets were shot at Israel just this year, never before have we seen these numbers. When it was time for our greatest ally in the Middle East--and not to provide them a weapon to attack anybody, but to say that exact same weapon that we all stood beside each other on, Madam Speaker, your party took it out. Your party took it out. Even today, with one-party rule in 1 year, Israel is now political.
The Hyde amendment, the millions of lives that it has saved--I know the debate of abortion is controversial, but what has been around for 20 to 30 years, we both agreed, whether you support abortion or not, don't take American taxpayer money and make them spend on it. That was fair. That was where we found compromise.
That is what America looks at when they look at this body, year after year. It wouldn't matter if you were in power or we were in power; we all kept our word. If you have been here longer than one term, you have voted for the Hyde amendment. Your leadership--Speaker Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Clyburn--years upon years, they have been here and supported it. One-party rule, 1 year, and it is wiped away. It is wiped away.
Madam Speaker, when Steny Hoyer said our children's children will learn about today, there are going to be a lot of children who don't learn anything because they won't be here. They won't be here. There are so many reasons why this bill is wrong.
Madam Speaker, just five Democrats put a hold on this bill. I know there are more than five over there who think it is wrong because you told me so.
I will never question anyone's faith. I have witnessed the faithfulness of people on both sides of the aisle. I prayed with them. We have wept together. We prayed for other Members. We break bread.
I have seen your heart. I know what you believe. Of all the politics, don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this.
For decades, this body has upheld. From people who are the biggest pro-choice people I know to those who are the biggest pro-life, they would look each other in the eye when doing appropriation bills and keep their word. I know it was difficult.
I know it was very difficult on the other side of the aisle, Madam Speaker. They would get attacked from some people in their own party, but we knew this is where we came together.
That is the history that is being made. That is the history that is taking place. That is the history we can't afford. You cannot put a price on the life of a child. You can't.
What is worse, Madam Speaker--I don't mean to highlight Juan Vargas, but for those in America who don't know him, he is a faithful man. If I am correct, you were going to be a priest at one time. When we were in Sacramento, we would pray together. I have watched your servant's heart.
I just wish, of all the things--and I want to tell our Members, if the American public will trust us with the majority, we will bring it back. Madam Speaker, I know people laugh at that, but, Madam Speaker, I am pretty sure it is going to happen.
I tell America, don't get down. It may be your religious belief, but now Big Government is going to take your taxpayer money and spend on it. We all know people--there are people we serve with--who their own lives a doctor told their mother to abort, but she didn't and then put them up for adoption. This is so personal to them.
With technology today and medicine, a child can live so early. In America, the land of opportunity, the opportunity just to live--but how can we? Why is it--one-party, one rule--that you are going to go after people? You are going to go after people who work in the faith community, who have dedicated their life, who just fundamentally disagree with this.
Now you hired 87,000 agents. You are going to grab it out of their hands. Why would you do that to them?
Can't we disagree? Do you know how tough it was to come to that agreement? I don't know why it has changed so greatly. I don't know why there is one set of rules for you and a different one for us. I don't know why there is a whole other set for the Speaker and nobody else. That is not a proud moment for this floor. It is not a proud moment for the country.
Madam Speaker, it is almost with fear when you say it. I don't know. Next week, there may be a $5,000 fine if I raise her name. Never, when we were in the majority, did I ever think to take away the minority right for amendment, never in the majority. When my own Conference was as mad as can be because the Democrats overtook this body, I let you express yourselves.
They wanted to come back. They wanted to fine you. They broke every rule around. They put it online. They did all that. I took arrows for not doing something. Do you want to know why I didn't? Because I believe in this institution. I did not want to destroy it. I did not want to burn it down. It kills me to watch what is happening in this Congress.
Just because you are leaving, don't burn it down because you are not going to be here to pick up the pieces. That is wrong. That is wrong.
{time} 0250
Enough of elected officials who pay more attention to the head of the National Teachers Union, Randi Weingarten, than to the needs of the Nation's children.
Madam Speaker, I watched that Virginia race. I watched Governor-elect Youngkin who was never elected to anything before. We all know what it is like to run. It is difficult. You are scared. They say things about you that aren't true. He was running in a State where people said he didn't have a chance, learning as he went.
I am sure his political team said: Oh, you should bring in all these elected officials.
He knew where he stood. He said: No. No. No. No. The people of Virginia are my heroes. They are my stars. That is who I want.
He watched and challenged where everybody made fun.
I remember reading on Twitter right after the primary, David Wasserman, who works for the Cook Political Report, tweeted. He got this one right; he got the last election wrong. He said we would lose 15 seats. He got the number right but the party wrong. He said that there is a chance Youngkin could win.
Madam Speaker, you have watched Twitter. Oh, my God, they attacked this poor man, and it looked like he would be wrong throughout this primary because here you are, Madam Speaker, with Terry McAuliffe, a former Governor and the right hand to the Clintons.
Terry McAuliffe is the guy who loaned the money to Bill Clinton when he left the White House to buy his house. He has won it before, he knows what to do. Biden just won by 10 points less than 1 year ago.
I watched all the people they brought in: President Obama and Kamala Harris. I believe what Kamala Harris said. She said: This is a bellwether. What happens in Virginia is an indicator of what is going to happen in the future.
She is right.
But do you know what, Madam Speaker?
I love to study history. I watched the closing days of the campaign because people asked me: Could Youngkin win? Man, that is so difficult, but it is going to be close. Boy, he put up a good fight in there, right?
I know Terry McAuliffe. I have watched him.
How was he going to close after everything that was going on?
Madam Speaker, at the Washington Post they are so smart in politics.
Do you know what they wrote, Madam Speaker, after the last debate?
This is the debate where Terry McAuliffe said that parents don't have a right to have a say in their children's education.
They said: Terry McAuliffe put this race away. He turned the campaign around. This is it. It is over.
So every time they write an editorial about me--they have never written a good one--I know I am on the right path. But Terry McAuliffe, with all that was going on in the schools, brings in Randi to tell the parents: You don't have a say, she does.
What did Governor-elect Youngkin do?
He held a rally. He didn't take his talking points from the White House that says that nobody cares about inflation and that it is good for you.
Do you know what he said?
I am going to lower the tax because I am going to help you.
Then do you know what he said?
He didn't say: This bill is so great. If I get in, I am going to build up the bureaucracy so our children's children can learn about it.
He said that he is going to make the DMV answer the phone and say: How can I help you?
He was going to break the barriers, make it smaller, hold them accountable, and make them more efficient.
Do you know how many people I know in Virginia who would never vote for me and never vote for a Republican?
Not only did they vote for Glenn, they walked for him, and they called for him. The point is, Madam Speaker, you are doing the exact same thing Terry McAuliffe did in this bill.
Madam Speaker, 1 year from now, if you lose your majority, don't blame me. I have warned you. America has warned you. They sent you every sign possible. A truck driver spending less than $400, spending
$60 of it in Dunkin' Donuts, beat the president of the senate of New Jersey.
Enough of politicians who tell them they don't deserve to have a say in their own kids' education. Enough of local school boards who listen to divisive activists who want children to judge each other on the color of their skin, but who ignore the parents who try to explain the devastating and long-term effects of a year of lost learning.
The message sent by Virginia parents on November 2 was loud, clear, and inspirational. You see, Madam Speaker, they didn't have some political organization giving money and training. All they had was love for their children--much more powerful. These are our kids, and we will have a say in what they learn in the classrooms.
A few of these parents joined me earlier this month for a discussion on the harmful policies in this bill.
Jenny, a northern Virginia mom and school choice advocate said it perfectly: Many parents are frustrated with the K-12 public schools. We experienced over 1 year of closed schools, disastrous remote learning, misspent emergency Federal money, refusal to meet the needs of children with disabilities, lowered academic standards, and classrooms focused on woke agendas rather than addressing learning loss and essential academic instructions. We are fed up.
One parent told me that the school board said the kids aren't doing well in testing, so we are going to lower the standards. We are going to lower the standards.
Do you think they say that in China?
No. This is America. We want to raise our standards, and if the kids aren't learning it is not their fault. Fix it.
Republicans hear their concerns, but, unfortunately, Madam Speaker, Democrats in Congress are choosing to ignore them. They would rather appease teachers' unions than listen to parents and students.
Madam Speaker, I wonder what would have happened in that campaign if Terry McAuliffe could have said ``no'' to the union and ``yes'' to the parents, he had on stage parents and teachers. But I guess they didn't write a big enough check.
Here is how in this bill Democrats want the Federal Government to dictate education standards. Make no mistake. Nationalized education means less control for parents and more control for Washington politicians who want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on unionized universal pre-K.
I listened to the President, Madam Speaker, money could only go if it is a union. There are a lot of States that are right to work. If you look at the data, right-to-work States grow faster in their economy. It means that Secretaries of HHS and Education have the final say in what our children will learn.
I wonder if these Cabinet members will be different from the other Cabinet members?
I wonder, Madam Speaker, if we ask them what will be the curriculum, will they laugh at us?
Democrats describe their policies as investments. But the truth is these are not the kind of investments that pay dividends. In fact, it is the opposite.
Will they improve education performance for children?
No.
{time} 0300
Will they keep childcare costs down and give parents better choices? No.
I am not sure in the new provision, but you know what you do to childcare? If you want to be in childcare, you have got to have a college degree. Do you know how many people you are going to knock out? You are going to make it more difficult, more expensive.
Some of the greatest childcare providers are your neighbors down the street that open up their house; that probably lost their job, if they are from Bakersfield in the energy industry and tried to do something else and cared for the children. But in your bill, it won't let them do it.
Will they create new opportunities? No. Instead, it will invariably result in lower standards, limited choice, and more indoctrination. That is the path that would quickly transform society; the great equalizer into its greatest failure.
I don't believe anybody in this body doesn't believe education is the great equalizer.
I was visited the other day by Condi Rice. What an amazing woman; such talent, such a heart. She grew up in a country that judged her, wouldn't give her equal; a concert pianist; fluent in Russian; to the highest office advising our Presidents.
I watched her on a show, The View. She has reasons to be mad at the country. I have never seen Condi mad. She loves this country.
You know, the interesting thing she told me? Here she is, growing up in the sixties, fifties--and she is not the first Ph.D. woman in her family, her aunt was, because they knew what it meant for education.
She grew up in the South. And when she watched and she got this question, critical race theory, with all that she went through, she could not understand why, in today's education, they will judge these innocent children based upon the color of their skin; to move some to the other side, to the other, because she witnessed that. She knew what happened to her.
We are better. I know we are better.
Education gives everybody an opportunity. Now, what you do with it, there is no guarantee.
I am fearful that in this bill, you guarantee an income. You take away the incentive.
Education is not the same. I know you go to your schools in your district. Just in your district, the schools are different.
My district is unique; kids from every walk of life. I am a product of public school. When I go back to my elementary, it is more than 90 percent Hispanic, a lot of first generation, a lot of school lunches.
I give out certificates for those who reach the criteria of a GPA. I watch the grandparents, the parents gleam. Why? Because their greatest investment is their grandchild or that child and how well they are doing. Because they know that that generation can do better than their generation. And this bill tells them they don't get to have a say in it.
I will tell you this, a school on one side of my district and the other, needs are different. But it doesn't matter if you come from the wealthy.
Just outside my district, in David Valadao's, is a charter school, Barbara Grimm. The Grimm family are major entrepreneurs.
You see, in my district, there are two families that grow 50 percent of all the carrots in the country. Have you ever eaten one of these baby carrots? I will let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing. They are just big carrots they chop and they charge you more and you buy them.
They have a workforce of like 7,000, immigrants from all different parts. They love education. They put together a fund to pay for the college of the children of their workers; that is how much they care.
You know what? They just don't put it together and leave it. They started to wonder, because their projections were they would be spending more and they are not. They could have easily said, oh, we saved money.
But then they went and listened. Why aren't the kids going to college? You know what they found out? The local school wasn't preparing them.
They say, you know, what about the money? We will put a charter school in. You know who fought them the hardest? The teachers' union. But that didn't stop Barbara Grimm.
The school has uniforms; does another period of school. And the parents have the biggest say in it. You know that school, on the outskirts of this farming community, in less than a couple of years has better scores than the wealthiest schools in my district.
It doesn't matter where you come from. They just need opportunity. This takes it away.
We have a better vision, and I don't want it just to be ours. I welcome you to join us. We believe that parents matter. Madam Speaker, anybody on your side of the aisle that believes that parents matter, join us. We put the parents' bill in writing. You could cosponsor.
The parents know best; and the parents belong at the center of their child's education. They have not only the responsibility but the right to know what their kids learn in the classroom.
Madam Speaker, I was shocked. Do you realize, in Virginia, if a parent went to a certain school and wanted to know what was being taught, they said you can, but you first have to sign an NDA. What? An NDA? You can't talk about it?
You know, that kind of goes back to the 87,000 IRS agents. If you start with the premise that you don't trust somebody and you know best, and you want control, that is the policy you write.
That is why Republicans have unveiled the Parents' Bill of Rights. It doesn't matter your wealth or the color of your skin. You have the right to know what is being taught in schools. You have a right to have a seat at the table. Our children have a right to have a seat at the table, too.
Education is the great equalizer. We are all created equal in God's eyes. And we are going to make sure we make that happen across this country so all students have a bright future.
Madam Speaker, over 10 years ago this body rushed to pass the government takeover of our healthcare system now known as ObamaCare. You know, it is interesting, Madam Speaker, when they passed it there was a Member in the Senate that offered an amendment. It said Members in Congress have to be in ObamaCare. My healthcare is ObamaCare. But they wrote it in a way that the staff of leadership doesn't have to be in ObamaCare.
Rules for thee, but not for me.
I remember talking to a leader on your side of the aisle. Boy, was he mad. He was not putting his staff in ObamaCare, and he wasn't going to be in Obamacare. But he was going to control it and put it on everybody else.
{time} 0310
I got fact-checked by The Washington Post on whether I won the lottery and whether I had a deli. They actually said it wasn't true.
I was on a trip overseas. It just so happened, Nick Bikakis, who is a friend of mine, was traveling with me to San Diego that day. He was in line with me when I bought the ticket. I literally said to Nick: Hey, Nick, you know what? If I win the lottery, I will give you a hundred bucks.
You know what? I kept my word.
This fact checker at The Washington Post called Nick 25 years later: Did he really win it?
He called the food critic for Bakersfield, California, that wrote an editorial about my deli. But he said it really wasn't. He wanted to know which door opened first.
I can't believe how far people will go to try to have control or take somebody down. I think he called a few of my employees. I don't know who was paying them.
It is interesting. One of my top-selling sandwiches still sells in some of the delis back home. They really call it the McCarthy sandwich. But that fact checker says it is not true.
I wonder if that fact checker--he is still there. Remember what he did to poor Tim Scott? Tim Scott got up and gave a tremendous speech. I may get it wrong; we are late into the morning. I believe his grandfather picked cotton. So he said he went from cotton to Congress. This fact checker said it wasn't true.
Does he despise Republicans that much? Interesting.
But did that fact checker ever check President Obama on, if you like your doctor, you can keep it? Because I would like him to talk to a few of my constituents. There is a family, husband and wife, who have a beautiful family. One of their sons has little movement. He is confined to a wheelchair and needs a lot of help. They lost their doctor; they lost their healthcare; and they had to pay more. That is what happens.
I wonder if he checked Nancy Pelosi, Madam Speaker, when she said you had to pass it to know what is in it.
I have said this before. It came just 3 days after Americans in Virginia and New Jersey elected Republican Governors, sending a loud and clear message to Democrats in Washington to stop what they were doing. When the Speaker was talking about the bill before it passed, that is when she famously said: We have to pass it to know what is in it.
I remember that day. There were crowds out in front. I remember walking out to the balcony over here, watching the people concerned. They remind me of those parents who went to school board meetings just a couple of weeks ago.
The majority in here just wanted to rush through the bill. It was thousands of pages, too. I didn't have a magic minute, so I couldn't talk this long. I wish I could have.
I don't know if this speech is going to make a difference. But in my heart, I know America will know more about it.
I hope, Madam Speaker, your Members know this isn't the last time you are voting on this bill. Because, Madam Speaker, I know when that poor Josh made that incredible dealmaking, that he was not going to vote to start reconciliation until he got the BIF, and he was going to have to get an agreement that it has to be conferenced before you vote on it, in less than 24 hours--it was true he didn't vote on it. He deemed it. He was promised a BIF vote, only to feel like he was Charlie Brown with the football being pulled out from him every couple of weeks.
This bill was supposed to be conferenced with the Senate. But you couldn't pass it off this floor because a group of Members said they wouldn't vote for it unless it had amnesty, so you are all going to vote for that.
It is interesting. Madam Speaker, I don't know. You need to correct me. But it seems to me, from this side of the aisle, that Members in the Democratic Party are not equal. You see, those who ask for amnesty get it. Those who ask for the IRS--and they are a larger number--say it has to be kicked out of the bill, they don't get it, and they still vote for it.
Then there is this whole group that says stay tough; they are not voting on this until the CBO score, the Congressional Budget Office, the independent, affirms what President Biden has told us, that this pays for itself.
Madam Speaker, did you listen to some of their quotes before the CBO came back? Well, it really doesn't have to pay for itself anymore.
I don't know how you go home to your constituents because if you tell them one thing and you vote for another, what are they going to believe you on?
I don't know. Maybe they are home. I don't know. There could be Members here who didn't want to change their airline tickets, Madam Speaker, and are already in Puerto Rico because they can vote proxy. Maybe they are down there. I don't know. I mean, you don't want to make the lobbyists wait, do you?
I wish we had a debate longer than 10 minutes on each side for the final bill. How long do you think they debated the New Deal? Do you think it came in at the end of the night? Do you think they gave 10 minutes to each side? You know, that was one-party rule with a much bigger majority.
We have to pass it to know what is in it. Sound familiar? It should. It is almost what is happening on the floor today, only much worse.
It is the Green New Deal, historic tax hikes, historic borrowing and spending, a government takeover of our education system, open borders for illegal immigration, and incentives to make products anywhere in the world but here in America.
Do you know what is interesting? When we passed the tax cut bill, I remember watching television. I remember people coming up and shaking my hand and saying: I got a raise. The company saved money, so they gave me more money. Now that they have to pay more, I wonder if they will take it back?
Do you know what is interesting, too? Since that passed, there has not been an inversion. Just so you understand what that is, it is an American company domiciling in another country to get the tax benefit. Why? Because they no longer got a benefit to be somewhere else. It was beneficial to be in America.
{time} 0320
A lot of people made big decisions to move back to America. I have had a few of them call me and say if this passes they are staying in the other country. They say they have a responsibility to the shareholders. They could be sued because it is beneficial for tax.
I guess Jared Golden is right when he says the second biggest item in here is to millionaires. But you did not leave out those who make between $25,000 and $75,000. They won't get SALT, but they will still get a knock on the door of their house from the IRS. I don't know, with that many agents, they probably come to your home.
If I need to, I must remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle what was awaiting the Democratic Party nearly a year after that vote. Americans across the country stood and sent a historic message to Washington. Sixty-three new Republicans were elected that next year.
Madam Speaker, I study history, but I haven't counted the numbers yet. Speaker Pelosi lost 63 there. She said, though, I remember, during a press interview with the DCCC chair, they were going to win and keep the majority.
Remember when we invaded Iraq and they had that Iraqi spokesperson as we are landing on the runway saying, oh, nothing is happening here. It kind of felt like that.
So she lost 63 there. I don't know how many she is going to lose after this vote. But I need to get that data. Could she be the Speaker in modern history, one of the few to lose the majority twice and lose the most seats? I don't know. Maybe I have got some time tomorrow, I will look that up.
You know what is interesting? I remember, I don't know--some people in the press stay--but I remember all these press people coming to interview me before the last election. You know what they asked me every time, Madam Speaker? Can you still be leader after losing 20 seats? I was dumbfounded. I said, did the election already happen? Well, no, Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, everybody, The Cook Political Report, oh, man, you are going to lose.
You know what was interesting that night? That was the first night since 1994, not one Republican incumbent lost. Not one. Since 1994.
Madam Speaker, you know what else happened? That number they put out there about 15 Republicans losing, they were right on the number. They were just wrong on the party.
You know what was interesting, too? Every single Democrat incumbent who lost, lost to a Republican woman or a Republican minority. I remember after that, it was a sad day, and in Statuary Hall there, Steny Hoyer, he is a good man, he felt bad for everybody. So he got them all a resolution, and he took a photo of all of them, and he put it up on Twitter. Well, he was the majority leader, and I am the minority leader. I thought that is rude to all my Members who lost. So I went out there and took a picture of myself because nobody lost.
Madam Speaker, you probably know the answer to this one. Do you know which State was the best for the Republicans in Congress? Our State. Wasn't that great? Do you know, we didn't win the majority, but we elected more Republican women to Congress than any time in history. Isn't that amazing? In California.
Now, there was a Presidential election going on. President Trump lost California by 5 million votes, but I bet you are probably thinking, he probably picked up these seats. Oh, no, no. The four seats, he lost all four, three of them by 10 points.
You know what is interesting? When you think about that in California, and you think about what happened in Virginia, and you think about what happened in New Jersey, where Biden won by 10 and Biden won by 16, it almost seems like there is no seat that is safe. After the vote on this bill, I imagine it is going to be much higher.
You know, there are going to be some people who still get reelected on the other side. Madam Speaker, those people went along with all the rule changes. They voted for the rule package that took away the MTR. They voted in Ethics to fine Members on the other side. They voted to remove a freshman Congresswoman from her committees based upon something she said before she ever got here. Just voted and spoke on this floor of higher standards.
What was interesting, Madam Speaker, be it a California Member with a Chinese spy, another California Member that uses a dossier to take the country through something very difficult, Madam Speaker, that the world has learned was not true; created the Intel Committee, Madam Speaker, to be an impeachment committee.
So when we were shocked that China had hypersonics or that Afghanistan would collapse so quickly, did anybody ask the Intel Committee chair? They probably didn't have any hearings on that, did they? But they had a lot of other hearings.
Madam Speaker, I remember watching the chairman of Intel on a Sunday show. He was really excited because this whistleblower came forth, was shocked by it, shocked by it. And they asked him, do you know this whistleblower? You could see his body language. I don't know, I don't know.
But then you know what we found out?
Oh, he knew the whistleblower. They already met with the staff. He has already been directed where to go. But it was a little like the Attorney General today, he doesn't live by the same standards and the rule of law.
Madam Speaker, a lot of these changes that have been made are hard to change. They are going to be hard to change. We will change proxies.
We believe in science. You won't have to wear a mask. I don't know what happens in that rotunda, but the science shifts. I am not sure. But once you get halfway past, I am not sure how the doctor writes that. Maybe they have better filtration.
Do you think that is what it is? I think they might be more susceptible. They are older. No, not disrespectful, just history. No, it is the average.
We will trust you. You won't need to walk through a magnetometer. We won't fine you.
We will respect what you say. We won't tell you you can't look at us when you talk.
But the one thing we will do, we will tackle inflation, we will make America energy independent again, and we will make sure parents have a say in their kids' education, and we will secure the border.
{time} 0330
If you vote for the bill, I hope you know it is wrong. If you hand your voting card over to Speaker Pelosi, if you put partisanship above people, that same fate awaits you in 355 days.
But that future is not yet set in stone. You have a chance, a chance to make a choice. And don't worry. You all don't have to do it, just five. That is all, just five.
That choice is not the Speaker's choice because I can almost certainly promise you there is a good chance she won't be here to face the consequences before voting for this bill.
Madam Speaker, I don't know in history there has been a Speaker that in 3 months, when you are working on the most important bill, the culmination of your career, that you have been able to go to Europe three times in 3 months. I am not sure if there are shirts with cities on them and a tour.
But the only thing I would say, Madam Speaker, if the floor and the rules are going to change like this, people should stay for the consequences if they believe in them. That is in her own words, the culmination of her career. That is what she said at the press conference.
Now the question, Madam Speaker, for all of you: Do you want it to be the culmination of yours? When your constituents call for help to secure benefits at the VA, where do you want them to be? When a crisis hits your community, such as a hurricane, or a wildfire, or an earthquake, where do you want them to be? Or when they are hurting, when they are suffering, when they are in need of your help, where do you want them to be? I trust that answer: Here.
That is why you ran for the position in the first place. But if you vote for this bill, I can promise that many of you will not be serving in this body after the midterms.
Today is not just about saving your seat; it is about saving our country. It is about showing your constituents and the American people that Members of Congress still vote their conscience, that Members of Congress still put country before party. Your vote is precious. Your vote is sacred. Your vote is yours, not Pelosi's and not Biden's. Cast it accordingly to your conviction and your faith in what is right.
I ask you, is it right to raise taxes on small businesses whose only crime is making their product in America?
Is it right to ignore the dire, desperate pleas of our border agents and pass a colossal amnesty for illegal immigrants during the middle of the largest wave of illegal immigration in human history? Is it right to cast a vote that will bring more drugs, more crime, more job losses into your communities? Is it right to destroy safety to accommodate open borders?
Is it right to tax the energy our seniors need to heat their homes in the winter?
Is it right to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans simply because they live in Nancy Pelosi's district or Senator Schumer's backyard? Is it right that $200 million goes to the Speaker's district for a park? Who is going to protect it? It is in San Francisco.
Today is a day to make your choice, to make a choice for your community. Your community isn't hives of hyperpartisanship. They overflow with proud Americans who work hard today so that tomorrow can be brighter.
But what the radical left is trying to do today is crushing, it is callous, it is cruel, it is craven and a sign of colossal contempt for law-abiding Americans.
This is not about compassion. It is about control.
Madam Speaker, we watched that. We watched that from the moment I got to talk, first interrupted every couple of words, to when I looked to the side out of respect for my friends across the aisle. I was told as the leader of the Republicans not to look that way. Has it gone so far that the Democrats think they control everything? This is not Pelosi's House; this is the people's House.
But what the radical left is trying to do today is crushing. It is worth saying again: callous, cruel, craven, and a sign of colossal contempt.
I want to know if anybody on the other side, Madam Speaker, thinks that there is compassion in this bill. I want to know where the compassion is. Where is the compassion when you remove the Hyde amendment? How can you?
Madam Speaker, you have been here longer than one term, right? No, this is just your first term? You are doing a great job. That is probably why they made you take the midnight hour. It is good for you because it is a three-hour difference. The people in California are still watching.
You know, somewhere along the way this year, the voices of the American people vanished from this Chamber. When you think about it, they didn't have the chairs like this. Now, I know we all give tours of the Capitol, but we can't do that now because those in control say we can't, but do you know where my favorite place to go is? Statuary Hall. You know they have the little tiles for anyone who became President that was a Member of Congress. I like to go back to Father Serra from California, and right in front of that tile is where Abraham Lincoln served. He only served one term.
There is a great new book I just read about his mentors. Do you know who some of his mentors were? His political enemies. I don't know if people would say that today.
But what I like to do is I like to stand right on that tile, and I take the constituent and say: I want you to stand right here. This is where Abraham Lincoln, a young Congressman--the country was not so big. They were in chairs, and he sat right there.
Then I tell them: I want you to look over your shoulder. I want you to look at the clock. There is a muse there. If you look at that artwork, she is supposed to be inscribing what is being said on the floor. I ask them, what time is it? If they look now, they would say 3:40 in the morning. I ask them twice: 3:40. I say, do you know what? Do you know why I asked you to do that? Because that is the exact same view, the exact same clock, that Abraham Lincoln looked at.
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That is what this House means. It doesn't mean what has happened with one-party rule in 1 year to destroy so much.
And you know, you can go up--you take a door by my office and you go up, you go up in the pillars up above; and when you look down, that floor looks really clean. It wasn't at that time. They had spittoons.
They fought. Democrats fought because they wanted to maintain slavery; Republicans said no. Divided the Nation. I could only imagine in a war, family against family, more lives lost as Americans than you could ever imagine. But Abraham Lincoln says ``malice towards none.''
It is the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Can you imagine being invited to be a speaker, and you are the President of the United States, and you are not the main speaker? The person before him went for two hours. I will give 100 bucks to anyone who can quote what that person said. Abraham Lincoln just spoke a few words.
If you go to the Library of Congress every five years, they will put out this exhibit of what was in Abraham Lincoln's pockets that day when he was assassinated.
He had two pair of glasses. Some had a little rubber band put together. He had some Confederate money because he had just been down to Richmond. But he scribbled, and he wrote a couple. You know, Abraham Lincoln, they didn't think he could become President. He didn't run again because he was going to lose. He didn't win on the first ballot to be the nominee. He gets elected 1860. He is not sworn in until March, but he is sworn in right outside there, on the east side.
His own rivals he puts into his cabinets. You know why? Because he trusted Americans. He was so compassionate; when a soldier wouldn't do what they wanted, when they wanted to hang him, many times he said to let them go.
If you go to the Library of Congress, they have--for the President, it is like his library card. They tell you what he checked out. Think about the time and place that he served.
And he checked out this book. The best way to describe it, it is like fighting wars for dummies. And he checked out this book because general after general was losing. It wasn't until he hired Grant that he returned the book.
At the same time war was going on, not knowing if we would win, just down the road, the Confederates. They had wealth; they had the South.
He built the intercontinental railway, because no matter how dire the country looked, in those words of Gettysburg, he said, but if we fail,
``government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from Earth.''
Think about the time and place. We were not the world power. But he knew where our power came from; the people. All I am asking you tonight is to listen to them. They are trying to tell you--two weeks ago. I don't know how clearer they can be.
He knew we could not fail. He knew that tomorrow would be better than today. He risked building an intercontinental railway to bring the country together. That is the first President of this party. That is the philosophy that is instilled in us.
You know, we hung a portrait here. He is not an American, but we couldn't have been a country without him. Those two men, he loved George Washington so much. He only had one son, and he named him George. They came to our time of need when we weren't even a country but an idea. And what did we do to them just this year? When they had their soldiers, once again, in Afghanistan, when they had their own citizens, because they have been there for 20 years, side by side, just like they were when we tried to create a nation.
And what did we tell them? Sorry, the Taliban picked the day. I am sure they have just as many of their citizens stuck there as we do. And what is interesting, their country has helped us get some Americans out. I never thought in my entire life, I would have to go to another country to help an American.
At your own State Department, if you told them of an American that wants out, they work against you to make sure they couldn't get there. But the Taliban literally told us, They can leave if you get the Secretary of State to say it is okay.
Inflation now is at the highest rate in years, which is now impacting all Americans. Housing, food, furniture, groceries, and many other goods are more expensive and disproportionately higher burdening on lower-income families.
The cost of home heating is projected to rise even as much as 50 percent in the coming months. That is reducing buying power for the household expenses. It is especially hard on the low-income households and seniors on fixed incomes. What do you think is going to happen when the big storm comes in and somebody on a fixed income is going to make a determination on their prescriptions, their food, or heating.
I am scared about that. Because you know what compassion is going to be? There are some that are going to make the wrong decision and freeze to death.
We have not talked enough about how the massive increases in home heating costs are going to impact people. This winter, the poor and senior citizens will likely face a choice. You heat or eat.
I don't have any of my grandparents left. I have my mother. My mother called me the other day; she was mad. She had just gone to Costco. She fills up once a week. She could tell me exactly how much more she had to pay. She wasn't the only one.
Literally, the threat of winter deaths are real when the high cost of heating homes forces them to live in homes that are too cold.
Research has shown that energy insecurity is associated with poor sleep quality, mental strain, respiratory illness. Others have found that cold stress is connected to cardiovascular risk and declines in neurological function.
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Our seniors in America struggle enough without having the policies of one-party rule in 1 year cost them so much. It is not just costing them money; it could cost their lives.
In fact, it has been reported that excess winter deaths caused potentially by fuel poverty kill more from Vermont each year than car crashes. Think about that. Fuel poverty will kill more people in Vermont each year than a car crash. What do you think a 50 percent increase will do this year? Oh, I sure hope OPEC helps us. Maybe if he sends another letter.
The projected use increases for natural gas, propane, heating oil, and electricity--low-income families and the elderly with preexisting conditions are going to be in great danger this winter. Your bill makes this plight even worse. It is by no means an exaggeration to expect thousands of excess winter deaths as a result of President Biden's energy policies and what you have put in this bill.
At least the elderly will suffer at home and not be forced to suffer and die in a COVID-infected nursing home, like thousands of senior citizens.
Madam Speaker, I watched families who lived in New York, their loved ones pushed into a home, infected. I watched that Governor write a book and win an Emmy. I watched those families. I hope they get some of the royalties from that book. I don't think they will get $450,000, but I think they need something.
What my Republican colleagues and I want to know, what the American people have a right to know, is this: Did you fail to take these people into consideration when you wrote this bill? Madam Speaker, do we just consider them collateral damage? Are all of them just part of the cost for ramming through your agenda?
I am wondering, how many hearings did we bring senior citizens in to tell us so we can listen? We have all been waiting on a CBO score for this bill, and they did. They projected billions of dollars in deficit spending. Did you consider another CBO report that was released earlier this fall?
Here is what that report says about the direction we are heading. It kind of goes to the point that the majority leader brought up on this day. In the future, our children's children, that would be 2051, America's debt-to-GDP ratio will be over 200 percent, twice the size of our entire economy.
Madam Speaker, I got an MBA, but I will tell you this, if we have a 200 percent debt-to-GDP ratio, we will not be the world power. We will not have the next generation doing better than the generation before it.
Every great society has collapsed when they overextended themselves. Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, Steny Hoyer and I disagree. He thinks the children's children will love this day. I am fearful. I am fearful. I just hope they teach it in school. I hope they can look at each other when they talk.
That CBO report said a growing debt burden could increase the risk of a fiscal crisis and higher inflation, as well as undermining confidence in the U.S. dollar, making it more costly to finance public and private activity in the international market. I will guarantee you this, Madam Speaker, the dollar won't be the world currency then.
The CBO reported that with a growing debt and rising interest rates, the net spending for interest more than triples the relative size of the economy over the last two decades of the projection period, accounting for most of the growth in total deficits. I guess you are going to have hire more IRS agents.
A New York Times article reported that the CBO warned that such high debt levels would lift borrowing costs, slow economic output, and raise the risk of a financial crisis.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog group, warned after a preliminary forecast was released last month that the Nation's long-term outlook was an air raid siren that can be heard for miles. It said that the mounting debt would make it harder to address income inequality and to make needed infrastructure improvements. I don't know if Buttigieg is going to solve all that.
This is the second time tonight that I have quoted The New York Times. What I want to know is, does it concern you that even The New York Times is raising the alarm about your excessive spending?
Madam Speaker, I don't know if you have had the opportunity--I know you have been here a short time--but have you ever met Larry Summers? Larry Summers worked in the Clinton administration and the Obama administration. He is highly respected on economic policy. He is a strong Democrat, a strong Democrat. He works hard to elect Democrats.
He realized you had one-party rule in this country again. He wants you to succeed. He wants the best for you. He warned you in February: Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't take $2 trillion and tell the American public it is about COVID when only 9 percent goes to it because you will get inflation. He knows his business.
There was another. It is a long night for me. It starts with an r, Ratner? He just came out with a warning, did he not?
We have amazing people on this side of the aisle. Madam Speaker, I don't know if you ever had a chance to meet French Hill, but this isn't the first job he ever had. This isn't the first time he served his country.
He was in the Treasury Department. He was in the time they had to clean up from the last time the Democrats had one-party rule. Then he went out and made capital. He created capital for people to grow jobs.
I went to his district. He has a very unique district, a lot of history in that district and in that school.
You took me to those entrepreneurs. They are all in this facility. They had such hope. They had great ideas.
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But I wonder, if this bill passes, will they still take that risk? Or can they?
I am not sure. I fear that the majority, Madam Speaker, doesn't care. Maybe the 21 who signed the letter to the Speaker care. I guess we will find out when we vote. Maybe five of them will have the moral courage to say ``no'' to the bill. They said it in a letter. I respect them. I take them at their word.
Madam Speaker, I talk a lot about this bill, and I want to save this for later.
Madam Speaker, I got a new binder. There are a couple pages. I want to save that for last. That is the closing.
But, Madam Speaker, I have just spent almost a full minute covering this bill's partisan, extreme, self-focused, and ultimately destructive policies. For every one of those policies there is a reason to defeat this bill on the merits. Another reason is that Democrats kept bipartisan, commonsense amendments out of the final text.
Do you know what is interesting, Madam Speaker?
How many of you grew up--and I am much older than you, Madam Speaker--I don't know if they had it, but Schoolhouse Rock.
Didn't you love that?
Conjunction junction, what is your function?
Hooking up phrases and cars. Or the Preamble, We the People in order to form a more perfect Union. But my favorite was: I am just a bill on Capitol Hill and I sit here and wait.
That bill, Madam Speaker, taught you a lot about Congress, and in less than 1 year with one-party rule, they changed all the rules. I don't know if we can show it anymore. But that bill says you have got to have compromise. You have got to be in committee.
I am afraid that this House has been closed for so long that the public hasn't been able to be a part of it. Luckily, I talk fast and I can get this all in in a minute. But I can show you and tell the American public, take them on the inside.
What was offered?
What was the offer, but what was rejected?
Because maybe they would end up liking the bill. What would be good, Madam Speaker, when we do that townhall meeting, we could bring some of these, too, because everything I am going to talk about is an amendment that was brought up in committee, and House Democrats rejected every one of them because of the enthrallment of power. I am not sure anyone was told not to look at each other. That may just be a rule for the floor.
This is just another way Democrats aren't listening to the American people. But Republicans have listened. We are listening, and throughout this process, we offered a different path. We wanted to participate. Every amendment I will read offered by Republicans was rejected. This is a record of what is not in the bill.
As I read this record, I want my colleagues on the other side to answer a simple question when you are on the beach in Puerto Rico: When you said the House would consider the best ideas no matter where they came from, did you really mean it?
So let's start with Kevin Hern's committee, the Ways and Means Committee. What a powerful committee. I wanted to be on that committee. They never let me.
Article I, section 7 of the Constitution says that all tax reform starts in the House.
Do you know what our rules say?
All taxes start in Ways and Means. So it doesn't matter the power of the Senate. It starts right here.
Now, this is an amendment offered by Congresswoman Jackie Walorski. She is from Indiana, too. Boy, she works hard. When she first got here, she made sure women in the military were not abused. She fought.
But do you know what she did?
She worked across the aisle. She got something done. You see, Madam Speaker, when you work together, you can achieve so much. And I don't know, she is so optimistic. She probably thought this would pass. But let me read to you what she said.
She works in Indiana, and in Indiana-2 they build a lot of RVs. She talks to her businesses. I have been there many times with her. She has got Notre Dame in there, too, Touchdown Jesus. When she talks to the families, what they tell her is they want flexibility.
In today's world somebody needs to drive an Uber to buy a refrigerator. My kids need to be somewhere. Can I have flexibility?
But the hard part, Madam Speaker, for your side of the aisle is that means you would have to release control.
So this is what it said: Defending worker paychecks and family choice. Now, this would improve the existing 45(S) tax credit to better support employers in meeting the costs to provide paid leave benefits to employees.
That sounds pretty good, right?
This would allow employers and employees--you see, Madam Speaker, that is working together--employers and employees to negotiate. It is not government telling you. It says you guys work together, you work it out.
What type of leave makes the best sense for them and their families?
Boy, that is nice, rather than impose a one-size-fits-all Federal mandate that would reduce flexibility and hurt workers' ability to grow in their careers and provide for their family. That is reasonable. I actually think that could have been in Schoolhouse Rock because it would illustrate how government wouldn't build these big bureaucracies but would unshackle business, employers and employees. It would empower the employee.
My daughter has practice here and there, so I will work this hour instead of there because it is better for me.
Do you know what happens when you have happy employees?
Productivity goes up.
I will promise you this. I am a former employer. Kevin Hern has employed hundreds. You want to help your employees. But the Federal Government is telling you ``no'' now. So she offered it as an amendment.
Do you know what happened, Madam Speaker?
It was rejected by the Democrats. This could have been in the bill. The American public has to understand: this could have been in the bill. All they had to do was vote for it.
But that would have relinquished control.
Now, this is an amendment offered by Mike Kelly. I love to hear Mike Kelly talk. He is not from Indiana, but he went to Notre Dame. He is from Pennsylvania. Oh, he and Victoria have a beautiful family. They work hard and employ a lot of people. When he talks, he says, What does it take to put you in this car today?
Okay. So his amendment--because he wanted to work with the other side of the aisle--was making government work more efficiently and effectively. Whoa. I bet you that statement is almost in every mailer of everybody who runs for Congress. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you are on. So this is starting out pretty good. That would have changed the effective date to 6 months after the Treasury could certify they have expertise to stand up a new entitlement program.
Now, I actually believe he is helping.
Do you know why?
Because he is remembering what happened in ObamaCare. Remember the website?
Oh, my God, never been so embarrassed.
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I mean, when I read this, I think, whoa, why didn't a Democrat think of that? And here is Mike Kelly helping you out.
But it is not over. Let's finish it. If the government plans to spend an enormous amount of money, the least one-party rule in Washington could do is make sure it has the capability to effectively spend the money. Boy, that is harsh.
You want to know what happened? The Democrats rejected it. So don't blame us if you make another website.
All right. Here is an amendment offered by our Budget ranking member, Jason Smith. Is Jason still here? You know what? Somebody call Jason on the phone and wake him up. It is not very often I talk about him, in a positive sense, too.
He is a really nice guy, Madam Speaker, you need to meet him.
Okay. He is from Missouri, works hard. Helping hardworking families. Who is opposed to that? That would means test--means test, that is good, right?
So you make sure--I mean, you would be embarrassed if you spent so much money in here and it just went to the millionaires because what would happen is, in the election, people would say, wait a minute. You said that wasn't going to happen. So here is Jason helping you out.
It would means test the new paid leave benefit, limiting it to families with incomes under $100,000. I think that is pretty good, wouldn't you?
I mean, I know, Madam Speaker, you raised the limit now to $800,000 for those people to be able to have taxpayers benefit them for buying a Tesla. So I don't know, you may be upset with this; it is just limiting it at $100,000.
And guarantee a minimum benefit for lower-income families. So what you are doing is, you are guaranteeing the benefit for the lower-income families. Isn't that what we want to do? We want to help the needy, right? And if somebody doesn't need it, why should they get it?
Under the bill as it was marked up, the Democrat program would benefit substantial benefits to families--get this: Did you know this? Oh, my God.
The bill you are going to vote for, listen to this, it is going to benefit families with incomes up to $500,000. Oh, my God.
So you are hiring the 87,000 IRS agents to go after that poor husband and wife working so hard making $75,000 to give the benefit to them. Man, Jason was really trying to help you. But it wouldn't guarantee any minimum benefit to families on the low end. You are not even guaranteeing to those who need it.
Man, it is anticipation, huh? You are wondering what happened. It was rejected. It was rejected.
You know what is interesting? These would be good things to show to constituents for those who thought this wasn't good, because it would help them with those making $500,000. It really would. It really would.
Okay. Here we go. Here is another amendment in Ways and Means by a Member that would limit benefits to one caregiver per household for the same caregiving days. Okay. Let's think about that. That's kind of accountability, right?
Should the Federal Government pay more than one caregiver on the same caregiving day? That would seem like it would be fraud, would it not? You would think.
It was rejected. You know these Members never talked to me ahead of time, but they were really helping you out. I am surprised you didn't take some of these.
Lloyd Smucker, Pennsylvania 11. You know, I was just in his district the other day. We were in a barn that the Amish built; every walk of life in there. I wish you would have gone with me. I think had you gone with me you probably wouldn't vote for the bill. These are hardworking people.
Now, he wants to strengthen our workforce. You know, he had nothing, he had no money, going to school, borrows $1,000 and creates a construction company that is putting up ply board; builds it into something more. So he knows about the workforce.
Now, that would require individuals to be employed in the last 30 days, and have an earnings history in at least four of the last 5 quarters in order to qualify for paid leave benefits.
Now, that is really giving accountability to the taxpayer, would it not? I mean, we want a healthy people. Is it too much to ask, have you been employed in the last 30 days? I guess for the Democrats it doesn't.
Oh, here is Brad Wenstrup. Madam Speaker, you do need to meet Brad Wenstrup. I will tell you a quick story. He is out of Ohio 2.
He joined the military late. He served overseas. He is a doctor. He has a servant's heart. He is an athlete. He plays baseball. And any time you see Steve Scalise, it is because of Brad Wenstrup.
The moment he ran onto that field once that shooter was stopped, he saved his life. Why? Because he served in theater. He knew what that looked like. And I will tell you, that night, I went to the hospital, I waited for Jennifer Scalise to come up. Kevin Brady and I wrote, with the doctor, the press release.
And I will tell you this, it is a miracle that Steve is alive.
On my way home, Brad called me. Many of you called me; I gave you a whole different impression. Oh, he is fine. He is fine.
Brad was the one you couldn't say that to. He saw him. He knows how much blood he lost. He knows where the shrapnel was.
Steve Scalise has possibly the greatest strength. When I watched Jennifer Scalise--I don't know if I shared this with you before, but Steve and I have been friends long before we ever came to Congress. We were in Young Republicans together. I was actually at his swearing in for the State Senate in Louisiana.
Brad Wenstrup, amazing man. He is here for all the right reasons. He has little Brad, cutest little guy. Little Brad likes to wear a uniform like his dad. He will bring him on the floor sometimes. Come say hi.
Now, his is stopping taxpayer theft. Now who could be opposed to that? That would stop the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in our lifetime.
Now, I believe--I am no pollster, but I don't believe any party--I believe they would all support this. If you are going to take hardworking taxpayer money, they don't want it stolen.
As written, the Democrat socialist spending bill--who would have thought this--includes a lot of loopholes. I wonder if they are going to talk about those in Puerto Rico.
Madam Speaker, that would be interesting. Madam Speaker, I wonder--
and I don't have any facts here, but if it is a fundraiser in Puerto Rico, and there are lobbyists down there, would they celebrate if they got a loophole? That was never in Schoolhouse Rock.
It includes a lot of loopholes that could be easily exploited. We don't want that. Republicans identified these vulnerabilities and tried to introduce amendments that would have strengthened the eligibility requirements by requiring a simple proof of identification and certification.
Whoa. How rough is Brad? A simple proof of identification to get taxpayer money? Geez.
You can't eat in New York without showing your COVID ID.
{time} 0420
I can't fly here each week without showing my ID. The gall of Brad. The gall of Brad.
Remember, Madam Speaker, I talked about all of that fraud in California. I think this would help. I don't know if you guessed. You all voted it down.
Now to my friend across from me, Kevin Hern, from Oklahoma's First District. I don't know if you ever met Kevin. Kevin is one of those guys that is an entrepreneur, takes a risk. He is this guy right here.
Do you know what we should do? We should do like a block party, and we should meet each other. Wouldn't that be better?
I appreciate the times I got to eat dinner with you. I really do. You taught me how to do a townhall meeting. I am serious. And when we went through Israel together and you brought your sister, I thought that was fabulous. Oh, yeah, I remember. I think that is what America wants us to do. I really do.
I will tell you what. Madam Speaker, you and I can do this because we are from California. Let's have like potluck dinners because we could get to know each other's district. I have a conference room in there. We don't have to do everybody at once because we want to spend time.
Now, the only thing, it is going to cost us more. You know, inflation. But do you know what the good news is? You don't have to drive to it. I am saving you on gas.
Kevin Hern, that American Dream of owning a McDonald's, he had to go through the pandemic. He knows what it was like. He knows what it is to try to hire somebody. Now, his amendment would protect Americans' existing paid family and medical leave plans and prevent unfairly forcing the middle class to subsidize corporations' paid leave plans.
Here is a guy who worked--and think about his workforce. They are young. He is mentoring them. One of our last Speakers worked in a McDonald's, Paul Ryan. He is trying to look out for the little guy and gal. I won't keep you in suspense any longer. It was rejected.
Now, here we go with Kevin Brady. I can't believe he left us. This is bipartisan retirement options and Main Street protection--this is important for people--that would restore the bipartisan agreement in H.R. 2954 in the 117th Congress. Well, that wasn't very long ago, and we both agreed upon it. Let's find out what it does.
As reported by the Committee on Ways and Means by a voice vote, it protected small businesses from a new Federal retirement mandate. I wonder what changed. One party, one rule, 1 year.
Here is an amendment offered by Vern Buchanan. That is who you really want to meet. It is small business protection. This guy started with nothing. He made a copy company, expanded it. That would exempt from the Federal retirement mandate excise tax on small businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
Well, that is pretty good, right? These are the people just trying to start out. They should not be held to the same standard as some big corporation because it is going to put them out of business. I bet a Democrat probably cosponsored this. Let's see.
Oh, it gets better: minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and veteran-owned businesses. Now, as written, the Democrat bill would apply to any firm with six or more employees. Whoa, whoa.
Remember what happened with ObamaCare? You put that 50 in, and you crushed so many businesses. Now you are going after businesses with just six employees. Friends, I am sorry. I don't think the incubator is going to make it.
The smallest employers lack the financial and logistic ability to provide retirement benefits, and paying the penalty will often be cheaper.
Man, I wonder where you got that idea? Remember, in ObamaCare, you said if they didn't get it, you would just penalize them. It was cheaper, and everybody just took the penalty.
Madam Speaker, you really have to get some new people working on these bills. They are regenerating bad, old ideas.
The Republicans' amendment would have, instead, provided for the retirement support package included in the bipartisan SECURE 2.0 legislation.
That dang Vern. He went back to something we both agreed upon and offered it to you, but now you are one-party rule so you said no. That is interesting. You support it one day, but the next day, no, don't even let us look at them.
Whoa, listen to this one: protecting workers from financial predators. They would strike the requirement that employers must offer employees the option to take half of their retirement account as annuities. This requirement creates a large burden on employees to set up these financial contracts, which at a low-dollar value will end up being a bad deal for retirees who rely on this for their retirement income.
Why can't we let the employee have more choice? We want to determine that everybody makes the same amount? The Democrats rejected that.
An amendment offered by the ranking member of Ways and Means, Kevin Brady: No new mandates from Washington. Whoa, that would be great.
Now, that Kevin, do you know what he is doing? He is offering a bipartisan auto-enrollment that passed the House, where Republicans and Democrats both voted for it. But do you know what changed? One-party rule. They voted it down.
Here is Jackie. She is so optimistic. She didn't quit defending worker paycheck and family choice. Gosh, she keeps fighting for the families, doesn't she? That would strike the Democrats' government takeover of childcare, which would increase costs for families, and instead insert an alternative which would improve the child care tax credit and provide flexibility for families to arrange for the type of childcare that is best suited for their family.
Now, why would Jackie think about that? Madam Speaker, if your party does not believe parents have a say in their education, you definitely don't believe that parents have a say in their childcare. It has to be one size fits all, so you rejected it.
Protecting taxpayers from wasteful duplication is a positive thing. Do you know how much duplication there is in government? People hate that. That would keep States from receiving more unnecessary government spending. The amendment would have required States to spend down their ARP childcare dollars before receiving new funds under this bill. Well, that is pretty smart. Make them spend their money before you give them more.
Here is Mike Kelly back at it. Mike went to Notre Dame. Not all of us could play for Alabama. If you want to find Mike in the morning, even if he is up late, he will be down at Mass. He never misses. I respect that man.
His amendment is the religious freedom amendment. It is personal to him. It is personal to a lot of his friends. It would prevent discrimination against faith-based childcare providers.
{time} 0430
Look, I remember when my kids were young. When we played sporting events and others, we went to the church. Why? Because we knew everybody. They knew us. We knew what was being taught. Isn't that interesting?
I would hate for government to get in the way of raising your children with faith. Wouldn't that go against the founding of our country? I am not a history major, but weren't there a lot of people that helped found the country because of religious freedom? Surely, we can't change that now.
The Democrat bill includes a constitutionally questionable prohibition on religious-affiliated childcare providers from receiving funds under the bill. Whoa. Did you know that, Madam Speaker?
So what is going to happen here to those churches? They don't do it for profit. They do it because their congregation needs it.
Do you know how many people I know that are single parents that take a second job so their children can go to a faith-based school for childcare? Do you know how many work in the church so they can get a discount? I guess it is rules for thee but not for me. The government is going to pick.
You know, I told this story early on about some Senators that went on a codel to China, and this general came and lectured them. It hadn't happened before. He looked these U.S. Senators in the eyes, and he said, ``America is weak because you believe in God, and you take fentanyl.'' I don't know, if China reads this bill, they might not think we believe in God anymore.
This could carve out the most popular and trusted options for working parents. The amendment would have struck the prohibition. You know what that would do? It would allow the parent to decide.
Now, I don't know if this came up in the Virginia Governor's race, too, but it smacks of the exact same philosophy and principle. You can have the children, but government is going to raise them, and you have no say.
I am not sure, I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth, Madam Speaker, but when I heard the chairman of Ways and Means was real excited and said we were going to grow the bureaucracy, I am not sure if he was referring to this, but it meets that criteria.
Here's an amendment by Drew Ferguson from Georgia. He is supporting women-owned and minority-owned businesses over bureaucrats. He is picking the right side. That would provide $1 billion to HHS to support five new childcare grant programs.
Well, that is pretty good, right? You provide that grant so they can start these childcare programs. That helps the economy, too. I don't know, maybe if a Democrat offered that, it would have been accepted. But it got rejected.
All right, I have got to read one from Jodey Arrington. He works too hard, and he would be upset if I didn't. TAA for energy workers. You see, Jodey is from Texas.
I don't know if you have met him yet, Madam Speaker. Nice guy. He will talk a lot, but nice guy. Spend some time with him, though. He is passionate. He is passionate. You know, he served in the administration before. He's got young kids, a beautiful wife. He is out not far from August. This is the energy-producing part of Texas. So he sees the families that are getting hurt.
Now, this would provide assistance to communities and blue-collar workers harmed by President Biden's cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline. I would think the President would even lean into this because he promised those union workers. They endorsed him, they walked for him. He said he was going to take care of them.
This one probably went big. On day one of his administration, President Biden canceled the Keystone pipeline, resulting in thousands of blue-collar workers losing their jobs. That is okay, the government will still see them, they will audit them. The amendment would have allowed those workers who lost their jobs to this political decision to TAA benefits. Don't you think that is fair?
Because they didn't lose their jobs because they didn't work hard. They lost their job because one man became President on January 20. And by one stroke of the pen--it wasn't anything voted on in here. You didn't need to defend that.
Madam Speaker, I see friends over there from Texas. They know what is happening in the oil fields. They know people need help, and I know that. I have seen them work hard for them.
Now, here is an amendment offered by Carol Miller. She is a fabulous lady, great grandma. You know she raised buffalo? She is tough. Small business.
You know what is interesting in West Virginia? She would probably be a good person to talk to on a political basis because West Virginia used to be all Democrats, and she ran, and she won. There was only a couple of them, now they are heavily in the majority. If you ask her what happened, it was Democratic policies. People changed. It is kind of like what happened 2 weeks ago.
This is combating maternal mortality that would take the funding from the ineffective Health Professional Opportunity Grants, that program, and put it towards funding for mothers in poverty. Man. So you take a program that is failing, and let's use that money for women in poverty. And even more, domestic violence prevention as part of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program. Who could be opposed to that? The majority.
All right. I see Adrian Smith here, Madam Speaker. Have you met him yet? We came in together. Adrian, great guy. I was at his wedding. I was going to sing, but I can't sing. But I did a reading.
I don't know, if you want to see some of the cutest kids. He has got this beautiful son; he just adopted this beautiful daughter. We were actually roommates for a while, but he got married and kicked me out. When we ran for office, he got the President and Air Force One to come campaign for him. I didn't get anything. I don't think they liked me. He got on Ways and Means. I didn't. It was tough. It was tough.
His mom and dad are great people. Great people. His brother, a State Farm agent, great kids. Kids went to Liberty, got married, some live here. It is good to meet people we work with. It is good friends you make, lifetime. Lifetime.
You know, he is Scottsbluff. I don't know if you have ever been to Scottsbluff. It is in Nebraska. If he gives you his business card, Nebraska only has three congressional seats. There is Omaha, there is Lincoln, and then there is all Adrian. He has got a big district, big district. He wins by big margins. They like him there.
Let me tell you what he did. He wanted to lower costs for seniors with chronic conditions that would require patients' exposure to supplemental benefit cost to be no more than that of the average Medicare Advantage plan for enrollees with chronic conditions. Well, that is reasonable. They voted it down.
Madam Speaker, I will give you one other idea, if you walk up to Adrian, don't tell him I told you to say this. Just talk about horses. He likes to talk about horses.
{time} 0440
What else do we have here? My eyesight is going. Don't worry, I don't have that much. I just have to get to a certain time. There is a record. I am competitive. You know what is the hardest part of this? I can't tell you.
Now, this is by Ron Estes. Now, Ron is another guy that I met before we ever came to Congress. You know, he was in the Young Republicans from Kansas, and his wife, Susan, oh, my God, fabulous. He comes from Wichita. I am going to be there next week. So I don't know if you're listening but come on down and see me.
So Ron, before he got here, he was State-wide elected. He is really focused. He is a treasure. This guy knows how to do stuff.
Keep our promise to seniors. Now, who could be opposed to that?
That would prevent cuts to benefits for seniors should the Medicare Trust Fund run out.
Whoa. Are you telling me the Democrats voted to cut benefits to seniors if the Medicare Trust Fund runs out? Whoa, I don't think they knew what they were voting on.
Look, I don't know what is going to happen, but I bet you that is going to be a mailer.
An amendment by David Schweikert. This guy is smart. Smart. Always thinking. Oh, my gosh. Madam Speaker, I don't mean to keep bothering you, but this one is good. David Schweikert is one of those individuals that God touched. He was adopted. He has the most beautiful daughter, Olivia. And do you know who her favorite Congressman is? Me. I am not teasing. You come to my office; you'll see the picture. If you see her on the floor, she will run up to me. I have never seen a child like this laugh. Have you spent any time with Olivia? My God. Sweetest thing. And when she comes here, she comes to my office. She sits on the couch.
Now, I am going to be in Arizona, too, in another week, and I hope I get to see Olivia. But David Schweikert, this is an idea guy. He was just in my office tonight. He walked in, and he says, I have another idea for you. But he is fabulous. He has all these ideas. That is what this body should be about.
Now, this one he says, true priorities. It would invest in cures, development, and research at the National Institutes of Health.
Whoa, that sounds pretty good, right? Think about the pandemic. Think about what we have been going through.
Now, what is it going to invest in? Diabetes, minority health, and health disparities, maternal mortality, and postpartum care. This is David Schweikert. Does not seem self-serving there. Do you know what else? Cancer and Alzheimer's and other diseases affecting the brain. Do you know, if we cured cancer and Alzheimer's, we would do a lot for people's lives? It would also do a lot for the budget.
You know, David Schweikert and I, he is in Arizona and I am in California. You have a little of this, too, in your district, and if you want to join us, you can.
We have a Valley Fever Caucus. Now, Valley fever is an orphan disease. And the hard part is people don't know when they get it, they think they just have the flu, but it comes from the spores of the Earth and the dirt, right? And two-thirds of all of it is in David's and my district. And we got together, and we were thinking, and we created a symposium. And do you know, the director of NIH, the director of CDC came to the district, and we had a townhall meeting. And here are some of the brightest minds. And I said, whoa, we didn't know it was this big. Afterwards they invested $7 million to see how best to treat it, because an orphan disease, they really don't want to work with, and David and I have worked really hard on this. And it is not just people who get it, animals get it. And so there is a vaccine that is being tested for dogs right now. But it can kill you.
And what happens is you could be driving through our district, a spore could come through the air conditioner and go inside, you never know, you go back to New York, and the doctor would never know to look for it because they don't know. So we have got to bring awareness to it. And David works hard on that. He really does.
Okay. Tom Reed. I remember Tom. Have you guys ever met Tom? He is going to retire after the end of this term, but he came in from New York, came in the majority, serves on Ways and Means, really good man.
He has a son and a daughter. His son has some health issues. His son, when he was young, would come down to the gym and we would play ping-
pong. His wife, she is fabulous.
Now, Tom has no tax shelters for Ivy League elites. That is right up your alley, right? That is right up your alley. Let's make sure this bill is not going to help Ivy League elites.
Now, I know you made a mistake, and you are helping those $500,000 people and those 800,000, but this time you have a chance to correct it. Now, this would strike out the carveout for the college endowment anti-abuse tax.
The change proposed in the Democrat bill would carve the highest cost schools that inflate tuition and aid amounts back out of the endowment tax. That is dirty. That is not right.
It was enacted by the Republican-led Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to ensure that endowments were being used to fund their charitable purposes of educating students, not simply as tax shelters for donors, pet projects, and vanity buildings. Now, how many of us--these Ivy Leagues, do you know how much money they have in their endowments? We are talking billions.
The first moment I found out that I was going to have a son, I don't have wealth, but I believe what Einstein told me: There is only one miracle in this world, the compounding of interest. I don't think I was making more than $35,000 a year. I started taking $50 every time, and I bought this mutual fund. And by the time Connor could make it to college--I wanted him to go to any college he could get into. Smart kid. Good kid. Proud of him. He and Meghan, God blessed us tremendously. I tried to talk him out of going to Georgetown. I said, Why do you want to go there? Why don't you go to a California school? I have enough money saved up. We were able to scrounge and put together--
and we were fortunate his grandmother gave him some money one time. We had about $150,000. And this was important to us because we had to pay our own way through college. I wanted something better for my son and daughter.
So we went and we toured all these campuses. But I remember when we walked through Georgetown, he said this is where he was meant to be. So I said, okay. And do you know it was a great decision. I believe you end up at the college you are supposed to be. It is tough. It is tough on parents. It is tough on students. You get rejected or something else. That wasn't enough money. I am still paying on a $90,000 loan. He is a smart kid. He got scholarships. He got help. Every year it went up higher. Every year.
So if these Ivy Leagues are telling their donors they are going to help the kids who can't afford it, we are going to be the great equalizer. We are going to allow people who have never been to the Ivy League not to be stopped by their brain but the dollar.
{time} 0450
But now, we find out they're not using it for that. They use it for tax shelters, for pet projects, for vanity buildings.
Madam Speaker, I don't know, but is there somebody lobbying for these people? Because that would be wrong. That would be wrong.
Madam Speaker, I am going to chock this up that you guys didn't even know this was in here. I can't believe you would vote against that. Now if you want, now that I have explained it, it only takes five to say, Whoa, whoa. We could still go to Puerto Rico. Let's just add this in. It is okay.
Don't worry, Tom is retiring. He is not going to use it for campaigns. He is just using it because it is good policy. I am giving Committee on Ways and Means a lot of attention. I need to--let's see.
All right. This is a good one. I am going to give Adrian another one:
Cancer cures instead of SALT tax shelters for millionaires.
Whoa, I bet you this is what Jared was talking about. You see, Jared doesn't even serve on the Committee on Ways and Means. Did you tell him about this?
Now, this would make permanent the SALT deduction cap for millionaires. Because I remember, I listened. I listened closely. That this bill was going to help those under $400,000. Now, don't take my words.
Madam Speaker, surely you know Jared Golden. He is in your conference. Have you talked to him today? He has been reading the bill. He is pretty concerned about it. He literally was shocked. He makes a quote, and I may not get it right, so don't hold me to it, but he said, If you would have told me a year ago that the second most amount of money in this thing was going to go to millionaires, I would have said you guys were Republicans.
No, no, no, no. You are a one-party rule in 1 year. I can't believe it. They rejected it. We will bring it up next year, Adrian.
All right. Hold on. I got to thank staff for putting this all together. Not bad.
Oh, here is a good one. John Curtis, what a nice man.
Madam Speaker, if you meet John Curtis, he is a former mayor, transformed his city. He will bring you a pair of socks. He is literally one of the nicest men you would ever meet; he is from Utah. He works across the aisle; he cares about so much stuff. He is on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, great committee, important committee.
Now, this amendment that would prevent millionaires--and there is that word again, millionaires, I think they are sneaking into your bill--prevent millionaires from receiving taxpayer dollars to replace their plumbing. Holy moly.
Now, I don't know if you met Markwayne back here, but this guy is a plumber; a pretty good one. Madam Speaker, if you ask Markwayne--I got to highlight him for a second. He is an amazing guy. I don't know if they opened the gym back up, but we do a bipartisan workout. He is a former cage fighter. He teaches me boxing at night.
I want to brag on myself. Is it okay if I brag on myself?
So we were boxing. The rule was you can't hit me in the face, and I could try to hit him anywhere. The boxing match had to stop. You know why? His nose was bleeding. Not bad, right? He scratched it on my glove. But think about this, on a very serious note, I will give 100 bucks to anybody in Congress that can tell me they knew millionaires were going to get money for their plumbing. That is outrageous. Well, they need plumbing, too, I guess.
I didn't finish about Markwayne. You know, I met Markwayne when he first came in. And on his very first day, he missed his first vote. I had to call him back to come in. And Christie, his wife, oh, she is a saint. Now this has been written about in a lot of magazines. What magazine, Markwayne? Women's Health? What was it? The story of your daughters. Well, I know it better than he does.
So I met him, he has these two wonderful boys, when he first came here--and a daughter. And, oh, my gosh, if you see the two twins. You see, these two twins were related to him but they weren't his. And they were being raised by separate grandparents. And here is Markwayne coming to D.C., Christie is back there working on everything. And she kept asking Markwayne, Let's adopt these two. Markwayne said, Oh, that is hard, that is hard.
You know what Christie did? She came to him one day and she didn't ask that. She just said, Markwayne, I want you to pray about it. Markwayne looks at me--I am still the before guy; he is the after. We were working out late one night--if you wonder how that mirror in the gym got broke, we dropped a weight one night.
But what am I going to say? Dear God, make me selfish? Those two little girls, sometimes you will sit here and they jump into your heart, just there. But that wasn't the only thing. You see, Markwayne is a good wrestler, too. His boys, Jim, oh, my gosh.
And I got to spend a lot of time with Jim and Markwayne because Jim had an accident in wrestling that could have killed him. Took the oxygen out from his brain. And you know what? One week, I think he was in Kansas. I just happened to call him that morning to check on him. I said, Markwayne, it just so happens the best brain rehabilitation center happens to be in Bakersfield, California. It was almost like it was just on my heart.
He got in that camper and he drove all the way to California. And I am not telling personal stories. They put this out and it has been in magazines. But I am just so proud of Jim. When Jim first got there, this is an elite athlete. This kid was only a freshman or sophomore but colleges were looking at him. And he couldn't touch his toes. He couldn't remember anything he read. You would never know it today.
And I remember the first time he was reading a Bible verse and he could remember. Well, Jim had some other friends who wrestled, too. And this guy, he is a year younger than Jim. I don't know why things happen, but his father got sick; his father died. It is Markwayne and Christie, with a good number of kids, didn't bat an eye and brought them right back into the family.
Madam Speaker, these are the people we work with. These are the people sometimes that the press tries to demonize without ever telling the true story behind something or the passion of why.
If he gets a phone call from a woman with young kids stuck in Afghanistan that he would risk his own life, but his own country attacked him for it. He has a giving heart. He really does. He really, really does.
All right. Who didn't I--there has got to be somebody. Who has been sitting the whole time that didn't get one read?
{time} 0500
Let's do Greg Pence. He is not here, is he? He needs his sleep. Greg is a very good guy. His wife is hilarious. His kids are great. He is on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He offered an amendment that would ensure policies in this bill would not lead to job losses or transition to lower paying jobs. Who could be opposed to that? The majority.
Gary Palmer. Nobody works harder. He is the head of our policy. I don't know if you know the background for Gary. He played for Alabama football, Bear Bryant. Pretty impressive. He ran think tanks for years, so it is ideal to be a Member of Congress. His whole life is trying to find solutions.
His amendment that he offered would require funds to be used on domestically produced critical minerals. Whoa. This guy is thinking in the future, is he not?
This bill is going to empower China, but he is now thinking about the children's children so we could have the critical minerals.
Madam Speaker, I would actually like to work with any Democrat that wants to work on critical minerals. I think it is very important, really important.
Debbie Lesko. If you spend some time with Debbie, take her to dinner. I am not going to share it here, but just have her tell you her story of growing up. There is no stronger woman than Debbie Lesko.
Her amendment would prohibit funds from going to entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party. Come on. Seriously? I am serious. This is an amendment that was rejected. I should have started with this one from the very beginning. That has to get five votes to say ``no.'' It has just got to.
Seriously, if you vote for this bill, there is nothing that prohibits it for the Chinese Communist Party. Let me tell you this. When you spend $5 trillion, that party is going to be celebrating. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
I want to apologize to the staff. You do a great job. I owe you another dinner. We might make her pay if I win the bet. You are working late. You didn't count on this. Personally, I didn't think I could go this long.
Madam Speaker, my 1 minute is almost up. Madam Speaker and Parliamentarian, is there any way that you can verify--I guess you can't say that because that would be past a minute. How far over? I can still tell some family stories.
No. I will not yield. I am not trying to be rude. You are trying to trick me. I watched ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' I just need the Boy Scouts. It is important.
I am a competitive guy. I am a competitive guy.
Madam Speaker, this 1 minute feels almost like 8 hours now. I want to thank my colleagues for standing with me, for standing with their constituents, as we do everything in our power to stop this bill.
I hope the American public learned a little more. I hope my colleagues did, too. While it has been a long night for many of us who have been on this floor, my Democratic colleagues chose to handle this debate differently.
There have been good moments and bad. I just never thought power would go so far as to tell another Member where they can look. Maybe he was having a bad night.
I want to thank my colleagues on the other side for being here. I have enjoyed your company. I probably owe you dinner, too. Will you get in trouble if you have dinner with me? We don't have to tell people. You can pick the restaurant.
Democrats were so unnerved with the truth behind this bill they booed, they yelled, they heckled, they even mocked me. Quite honestly, it was shameful behavior. It was shameful. I am not sure, but if it was on the other side, they probably would have lost their committees.
Not long after that, Speaker Pelosi heard enough of how this bill will hurt hardworking Americans. She came to this floor and directed her Members to leave. Why are we afraid of debate? Why are we afraid to learn? I imagine there are Members--they are not on all the same committees. They didn't know they were funding the Communist Party. They didn't know they were paying for millionaires' plumbing. They may change their votes.
Maybe that is why the CBO says it costs so much. Could you only imagine some senior paying a lot for their heating, but choosing not to, and some millionaire getting their plumbing paid for. It just doesn't seem fair to me. It just doesn't seem fair.
She decided it wasn't worth their time to hear how their fellow Americans would be affected by this bill. That is exactly what the Democrats don't understand. It is not about them. It is about you, the American people.
This is the longest 1 minute I have ever given. It is the longest 1 minute ever given in this body. There is a reason why. This is a tipping point. This is a point of not coming back from. The American people have spoken, but unfortunately, Madam Speaker, the Democrats have not listened.
I tried to stick to the facts. I did not yell back when someone told me I couldn't look at them or when they heckled me. I simply asked the Speaker that the House was not in order. I don't know if he set a record this night, but I imagine it came close, to try to get the House in order.
There have been times in people's lives when they act emotionally, when they don't want to hear the truth coming at them. I don't know if that is the reason why they acted the way they did; it could be.
{time} 0510
I don't believe there is ill will. I won't bring a censure. I am not sure if they will be back here next time.
Madam Speaker, this evening showed that no matter the time, the day, or the circumstances, House Republicans will always fight for you, fight for your family, and fight our country.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Jacobs of California). Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further consideration of H.R. 5376 is postponed.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 201(1), Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 201(2)
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