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BUILD BACK BETTER ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Aguilar). Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further consideration of the bill (H.R. 5376) to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S.Con.Res 14, as amended, will now resume.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 803, the further amendment printed in House Report 117-175 is considered as adopted.
The text of the further amendment printed in House Report 117-175 is as follows:
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The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) has 9 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) has 11 minutes remaining.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts.
Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader and a real champion of this institution.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it is November 18, 2021. Those of us who serve in the Congress of the United States on this date will be able to tell our children and our children's children that we were there when the United States Congress passed one of the most transformational bills in the history of the Congress for the people.
Tonight, House Democrats will vote on the Build Back Better Act as will House Republicans, legislation to transform our country by making opportunities available and equitable for all Americans.
Its name, of course, refers to the broad recognition that too many Americans are just barely getting by in our economy, and we simply cannot go back to the way things were before the pandemic.
We have to ensure our people can access the tools and resources they need, not just to survive, but to succeed.
This bill does so by making investments in four key areas.
First, it will invest in childcare, universal pre-K, and home care so that more Americans can get back to the workforce and grow our economy.
Secondly, it further expands the Affordable Care Act coverage, reduces out-of-pocket costs, caps insulin at $35 for everyone, and finally gives Medicare the tools and authority to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors just as we do for veterans.
Thirdly, it will bring down the everyday costs for housing and higher education that make it harder for Americans to secure a place in our middle class.
And fourth, the Build Back Better Act makes the largest commitment toward addressing the climate crisis ever considered by any Nation in history.
Mr. Speaker, in all four of these critical areas, the Build Back Better Act will make transformational investments that will help more Americans access opportunities and achieve greater economic security.
This bill is truly for the people, not just those who have much, but those who have too little.
Many Americans are looking at the investments this bill would make in America's workers and families and asking: How are we going to afford it?
My friends on the other side of the aisle have raised that and I am sure will raise it again.
First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, this bill does not raise taxes from households or small businesses earning less than $400,000 a year.
In fact, the Build Back Better Act would provide a tax cut--contrary to the rhetoric I have heard on the other side of the aisle--to 80 percent of American households next year.
Not only that, but it will raise revenue, according to the Treasury Department and outside analyses.
My Republican friends should be excited that we give a tax cut essentially to 80 percent of Americans, not just 1 percent. By most estimates, this bill reduces the deficit. This bill reduces the deficit. It also ensures that all of us will pay our fair share to support our democracy.
The impacts of this historic legislation will be reflected in the greater economic security of millions of families and in the growth and competitiveness of a robust American economy.
President Biden said, in fact, very truthfully, this will be transformational, and it will be measured in the deeper sense of hope that Americans will have when they see their economy working for them instead of holding them back.
I am hopeful that the Senate acts quickly to pass this bill under reconciliation even while Republicans all sit on the sidelines on this historic moment, just as all but 13 of them did when we passed a transformational infrastructure investment bill, which will make America competitive in the 21st century and make businesses in America grow and succeed.
Democrats will not rest until all Americans have the tools to build back better, to access opportunities to get ahead, to achieve real economic security, and to reach for the American Dream that has been this country's promise for generations.
This bill, Mr. Speaker, as I said at the beginning, is for the people, all the people, the little people, the big people, all the people.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to be able to say on November 18, 2021, I voted for that legislation which made America, as John Kennedy said, a great country even greater.
Mr. BRADY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
So America, the results are in, and now we know it was all nonsense, just nonsense. The claim that this costs zero and reduces the national debt? Nonsense.
This bill, even counting the budget gimmicks, is several hundred billion dollars short today, and the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says over 10 years it is closer to $3 trillion in national debt.
It won't tax the middle class? Nonsense.
The Joint Committee on Taxation and the liberal Tax Policy Center both confirm that up to one-third of middle-class Americans will see a tax increase starting next year.
This will make the wealthy pay their fair share? More nonsense.
Two out of three millionaires in America will see a huge tax cut in this bill.
And this will reduce inflation? Nonsense.
Even the President's own favorite analyst, Moody's, admits that Americans ought to brace for higher prices for the next decade because of this bill and the infrastructure bill and the COVID stimulus bill.
But there is more than just nonsense in this bill. There are dangerous provisions dealing with the IRS.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will offer a motion to recommit the bill to the Budget Committee.
I will also ask to include the text of an amendment in the Record that I would have offered had the rules allowed me to offer instructions with my motion to recommit.
And my amendment is simple. It stops Democrats from unleashing 80,000 new IRS agents on American taxpayers. And more importantly, it blocks the House and the Senate from ever imposing a dangerous bank surveillance scheme targeting America's families, farmers, and small businesses.
The truth is the IRS doesn't need your private information. It has a record of targeting Americans based on their political beliefs. In fact, this year, they discriminated against a nonprofit focused on biblical teachings and continues to fail to stop massive leaks of private taxpayer returns to the media.
Our Democratic colleagues claim bank surveillance is not in there. Yet. The Biden White House is still insisting.
So join with us, accept this motion, and stop it right now, once and for all.
Mr. Speaker, you know, Americans need to know what is in this bill. And under this $4 trillion Biden-Pelosi scheme, let's look at a day in your life.
So you wake up in the morning and pay a ``heat your home tax.'' You shower and get ready and pay a consumer products tax.
You drop your kids off at childcare and pay a ``toddler tax.''
You drive to work paying higher gas prices. You take a break and pay a bigger nicotine tax. At work your company pays a Made in America tax, a ``small business surtax,'' or a tax on your retirement plan.
On the way home, you swing through your pharmacy and pay a ``no generics'' tax. Stop for groceries and pay the ``Bidenflation'' tax on everything you need. And then you get your mail on the way home, and you get a letter from the IRS; you are being audited.
And then you are getting the kids ready for bed, and you realize Democrats are forcing you to send $12,500 of your taxes to the wealthy neighbor to subsidize their luxury Beemer electric vehicle.
Plus, they are getting a massive SALT tax windfall for the wealthy while you get nothing, except 80,000 new IRS agents to make sure ``you pay your fair share.''
So when your head finally hits the pillow, as you lie awake in bed too worried to sleep in a community less safe, in housing more expensive, in a country that lurches from crisis to crisis, ask yourself this question: Under Joe Biden is my life truly built back better?
Americans already know the answer, and that is why this President's polling is at the bottom of the heap and why Americans have lost any confidence in his competence to heal this economy.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Just before I recognize the distinguished majority whip, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the around-the-clock work of the staff who made this evening possible.
First, my team on the Ways and Means Committee that have helped bring about this evening. They have poured their hearts into developing these policies that will make America a better place. In their pursuit, they have sacrificed holidays, sleep, and time with loved ones, and their service to our country will not be forgotten.
Let me also acknowledge the CBO with a round of applause because of the great work that they have done this evening, as well as legislative counsel--who have not put down their pencils--to make sure that this extraordinary pressure that they have been under has helped to get us here.
Now, it is always a pleasure to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the majority whip.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Neal for yielding.
This Build Back Better bill is the third leg of a three-legged stool that balances the American Rescue Plan signed by President Biden last March and the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by President Biden last Monday.
These three bills provide the wherewithal to fix our roads and bridges, repair our rails, deepen our harbors, and provide long awaited broadband to households and neighborhoods.
Mr. Speaker, I have often remarked that America is not in need of being made great. It is great and has been for a long time.
{time} 2030
I often quote Alexis De Tocqueville's observation that America's greatness is not that it is more enlightened than any other nation, but rather, that it has always been able to repair its faults.
The Build Back Better Act will repair some longstanding faults, many of which have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and our feckless early response to it.
This Build Back Better legislation will make healthcare accessible and affordable for 2.2 million low-income, uninsured Americans that exist in the Medicaid coverage gap. It makes benefits accessible and affordable to millions of children who will be able to continue receiving the child tax credit. It will make childcare and preschool accessible and affordable for children who have been struggling to get a fair start in life; and it will make housing accessible and affordable for their parents.
The Build Back Better Act will make clean air and plant life on this planet accessible and affordable for future generations by taking historic steps to combat the climate change.
The coronavirus pandemic didn't just cause great harm for some; it exposed great harm that has existed for far too long, denying far too many of our citizens access to America's greatness.
Build Back Better provides an opportunity to make more of our Nation's greatness accessible and affordable for all.
Mr. BRADY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the chief minority whip of the Republican Conference.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas for his leadership and for yielding time.
Mr. Speaker, we are facing in America crisis after crisis after crisis created by President Biden's policies. Just look at some of the crises we are facing:
There is an inflation crisis that has probably the worst effect on lower- and middle-income families. They are paying 50 percent more for gas. They are paying more for everything they buy at the grocery store. This Thanksgiving is expected to be the most expensive ever because of President Biden's radical agenda and all the spending, the trillions in spending that has already been done.
So what is the answer of this majority? To raise more taxes, to spend trillions more dollars, jacking up inflation even higher.
And who is it to benefit? Let's look at the Joint Committee on Taxation who just came out with an assessment of this.
You know who benefits the most in this bill? The largest decreases go to those making a million dollars or more. That is right. The largest tax cuts go to the multimillionaires.
Do you know who gets the smallest tax cuts? The smallest goes to those making $40,000 to $50,000. They get the least amount. And where are they paying for it? They are paying for it in a natural gas tax. Everybody who uses natural gas to heat their home this winter is going to be paying about 30 percent more. For what? To give tax breaks to millionaires in five States.
And don't just take the Joint Committee on Taxation's word for it. Let's listen to Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the Committee on the Budget.
Do you know what he just said yesterday about this? ``You can't be a political party that talks about demanding the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, and then end up with a bill that gives large tax breaks to millionaires.'' That is what Bernie Sanders said.
He also said the hypocrisy of that is too strong, giving tax breaks to millionaires in this bill. And for what? So that low-income families who are paying it can then see their tax dollars go to give $450,000 checks to people that come here illegally. That is right. You are going to be paying 30 percent on your household electricity bills for 87,000 more IRS agents, who President Biden says want to comb through your bank accounts.
If you make more than $10,000--not the millionaires and billionaires--if your grandmother on a fixed income, makes $10,000, 87,000 IRS agents will be unleashed on her bank account to then go and give $450,000 checks to people who came here illegally.
Stop this madness. Did you not pay attention to the results of the Virginia election just two weeks ago? They said enough of the spending in Washington. Let's focus on helping those hardworking families who are being crippled by this inflation. This will only be made worse if you throw trillions more dollars in taxes and spending onto this dumpster fire.
Let's save America. Stop. Defeat this bill.
Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. There are a lot of reasons tonight that this legislation has come forth. We can argue about why income inequality in America happened; globalization, technology, skill set, the decline of unions. But what we can't argue about is it happened. And we have a chance tonight to reverse that course.
We speak frequently in this institution, sometimes in terms of hyperbolic rhetoric about history. Tonight, the vote we cast is about history. And the Committee on Ways and Means, since spring of a year ago, wrote much of this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I call attention to 33 years ago when I joined this institution, to just above the Speaker's rostrum. It is very hard to visualize; it was easier 33 years ago for me to read it than it is now when I walk in. But Daniel Webster said, here in this Chamber, ``Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its great powers, build up its institutions, promote all of its great interests and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.''
Mr. Speaker, tonight, that is what we intend to do. We are going to make transformational changes that are going to lift the people of America to a new sense, born of optimism, as that son of Massachusetts, Mr. Webster, acknowledged. We are going to change the lives and livelihoods of Americans for generations to come; and as he noted, we will do something tonight that truly will be worth remembering.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BRADY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), Republican leader of our Conference.
Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Brady for his work.
Mr. Speaker, we are minutes away from voting on a $5 trillion, more than 2,000-page, bill. A bill that the White House Chief of Staff recently bragged is twice as big in real dollars as the New Deal was.
Mr. Speaker, I just listened to Congressman Neal, ``to build up the institutions.'' I have heard that in a lot of different countries, countries that have a different philosophy than America. Let that sink in for 1 minute. Let that sink in: More than 2,000 pages, $5 trillion; twice as big in real dollars as the New Deal was.
Let me be clear. Never in American history has so much been spent at one time. Never in American history will so many taxes be raised and so much borrowing be needed to pay for all this reckless spending.
I listened to my friend, Steny Hoyer, earlier. He started his speech by stating this date, because this is the day he is going to tell his children's children where he spent all that money. Every page of all this new Washington spending will be paid for or borrowed from you, the American hardworking taxpayer.
Every page of this new Washington spending supports more waste, more fraud, more abuse, and more corruption. And every page of this new Washington spending shows just how irresponsible and out of touch the Democrats are to the challenges that America faces today.
Nowhere in 2,000 pages and $5 trillion in spending are measures for more efficiency, better results, or just genuine accountability. This is the single most reckless and irresponsible spending bill in our Nation's history. Some of its effects will be quickly felt, others not for a few years. But I guarantee you that no matter the time frame, all the new Washington spending in this bill is only the beginning of disaster being thrust upon us.
This year, Washington has reached the highest level of sustained Federal spending since World War II. That is this Congress' history. It took 4 years and $4.1 trillion to end World War II, in dollar terms. It was the most expensive war in history.
By contrast, in the fiscal year we just finished, Washington, under a one-party rule, has spent $6.8 trillion. And that is on top of the trillions of dollars Congress spent the year before in the heart of the pandemic to offer relief to struggling Americans.
Today, House Democrats want to pass more wasteful, unnecessary spending by Washington. The American people obviously know this bill won't cost zero dollars.
Mr. Speaker, I wonder why people waited for the CBO score. They said it costs more but still want to vote for it. The CBO score says in 5 years it is going to cost $800 billion; in 10, only $367 billion. That is what your children's children will have to pay. And they will mark this day that it happened.
We know it means more crushing debt for the 330 million Americans and generations to come. The Democrats are showing once again that they are not focused on the financial health and well-being of the citizens of our economy. Instead, Democrats are focused on themselves, their lobbyists, and their special interests group.
If I sound angry, I am. I don't think the generations will laugh at the spending and what you do tonight. I don't think they will laugh about the continuing inflation you will create. I don't think they will laugh about not one dollar going to support or defend the border. I do not think they will laugh at the benefit that China will get from this bill.
It is clear to us that this bill is wrong on the merits, and they have responded with a single word the American public have said; enough. Enough with Washington waste. Enough with fraud, Washington abuse, and Washington corruption; enough with higher taxes, higher prices, and higher borrowing. Simply enough.
{time} 2045
Today, millions of Americans are struggling with higher energy costs, higher grocery prices, and higher crime. This isn't politics, as the Democrats claim. This is real life in America today under one-party rule in 1 year.
When our country doesn't have the resources or won't commit them to fund the basic needs of our citizens, like basic human security, nothing else matters. Yet, at this very moment, the Democrats are preparing to go on yet another unnecessary spending binge. Then, in a couple of weeks, they will have the audacity to ask Congress to raise the debt limit to borrow more on the overspending. I look forward to that debate as well.
My colleagues on the other side often say that what Washington borrows and spends doesn't matter, that the lessons of history don't apply here. They also said the bill wouldn't cost money. Those Democrats are wrong, plain and simple.
Spending your money that we do not have on programs you do not want is not the solution. In fact, it is the problem with Washington. It is getting worse every single day one-party rule is in this city.
So many Democrats refuse to fund our police. So many Democrats refuse to fund genuine security at our borders. They only want to spend your tax dollars on programs that benefit them politically.
As the leader of the Republicans in the House, I say, on behalf of the tens of millions of citizens we proudly represent, enough already.
My principle is simple. Don't spend what you don't have and, certainly, on what you don't want and need.
My fellow Americans, we don't have trillions of dollars to spend on programs that will never go away.
The American people understand what this out-of-control spending will do because they felt it from your very first bill you passed. You created inflation.
The first thing that was said: It is just temporary. Our own President said he doesn't know of any economist that is worried about inflation.
Go to the grocery store. Stand in line at your gas station. Talk to one of your constituents. They will tell you because they feel it every single day.
The American people understand what will happen. They understand because they live it in their own lives responsibly, because they set priorities, and because they live within their means.
If they do it every day, why can't Washington? Why can't Washington ever say no?
Many of you said you were going to say, no, you couldn't vote for it until you got the CBO score because you wanted to hold them accountable that it couldn't cost money. You got the CBO score, and it cost $800 billion in the first 5 years.
What are you going to say to your constituents when they ask you that question of why you held it up? Why did you want the paper? Why did you want to know? Math is hard, I guess.
Make no mistake, overspending is just the start of how this bill is so completely out of touch with the needs of our people. Its destructive policies should also alarm every single American. I think we should talk about that since we debated all during the day, but a new bill came tonight. You let us have 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each side, to further that debate. Much of that was to pat yourselves on the back.
In my remarks, I will go through each of these provisions in more detail.
First, let me tell you why I oppose this bill. It will crush American industries. It will destroy countless American jobs, more than have already been shut down while you destroyed energy independence and rely on OPEC. As the price of gas goes higher, I hear from the White House that that might be a good thing.
Mr. Speaker, you are from my home State. We are both from California.
$4.50 is the average. You and I drive past those gas stations. We see them even higher than $5. Do you know who that hurts the most? The hardest working Americans. That was driven by many of the policies from this administration.
I heard my good friend, Steny Hoyer--and he is my friend, and we disagree, but we disagree respectfully. There is something I disagree with that Mr. Hoyer said earlier. He said we can't go back to where we were before the pandemic.
I want to go back to when we didn't have inflation. I want to go back to when the border was secure. I want to go back to when I didn't pay
$4.50 for gas. I want to go back to when people were employed. I want to go back to when we didn't have Americans held hostage in Afghanistan.
I want to go back to when we were respected around the world. I want to go back to when we didn't have North Korea testing nuclear weapons. I want to go back to when China wasn't flying over Taiwan every day and threatening and rattling, and when China would not offend us on our own soil. I want to go back to when Russia didn't have thousands of their troops along the Ukraine border.
Yes, I want to go back because if we go forward with this bill, we won't have the resources for the things we need.
I want to go back to when we caught those on the terrorist watch list coming across our border.
I think if you simply read the polls, America wants to go back. If you listen to the last two Tuesdays ago, I think they said they want to go forward but back to what they knew, the policies that worked.
History sometimes repeats itself. I wasn't here 33 years ago--I don't know if I was old enough 33 years ago to run--but I was here in 2010. I watched the wake-up call in Virginia and New Jersey, and I watched this exact same Speaker 4 days later walk the Democratic Members right down here and pass ObamaCare and lose 63 seats.
I wondered why she wouldn't wake up to what the American people said. She just got a bigger wake-up call in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. In Minneapolis, where this body of the majority championed defunding the police, they said no. In Seattle--
yes, I say Seattle--they elected a Republican as the city attorney that believes in law and order.
In New Jersey, we got good news and bad news out of New Jersey. I hope you listen to the good news. Did you hear about a guy who has never run before, who was just a truck driver? He was a Republican. He spent less than $200, and he defeated the second-most powerful politician who happened to be a Democrat in the Senate, the President of the Senate.
That is the good news. Do you want to know what the bad news is? In this new Biden administration, we just lost another truck driver. I thought that was pretty good.
Its destructive policies need to alarm you all. It would pave a glide path for China while placing a devastating weight on American companies. It will hammer American workers and American families in bruising inflation.
It wasn't just Republicans who warned you about the $2 trillion you spent earlier in your one-party control. We warned you it would be inflation. It wasn't just us. Summers, who worked for Clinton and Obama, warned you, but you felt you had to go forward. You felt it was good for the American public to pay more. And it will infringe on our fundamental American rights and liberties.
Here are some of the worst provisions.
First, this bill massively raises prices on all products made and manufactured in the United States. It is placing a massive burden on American workers and consumers at the very moment we are under attack by the Chinese Communist Party and the companies they support.
My friend who is sitting in the Speaker's chair right now, his district is in California just like mine. We see those hundreds of tankers sitting off our coast. One-party rule created a supply chain problem. One-party rule is going to empower China to even have more of those tankers because you are benefiting China over American workers. You are pushing American companies away from America.
I guess you did that in energy as well. You just asked OPEC to produce more, and you will ask China to produce more. This Made in America tax will send our jobs overseas, send the rest of our supply chain to China, and make us dependent on foreign producers, foreign countries, and foreign dictators.
Every single American will pay for it every single day in every single purchase they make. The Americans don't want to be punished, American employers and American job creators. But that is exactly what will happen with this vote. That alone is reason enough to defeat the bill.
Second, this bill provides amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants and visa overstays. It provides this massive grant of amnesty in the middle of the worst border crisis a country has ever seen; indeed, the worst border crisis in recorded history, period.
I know President Biden has been in office for more than 40 years, and I know he drove by El Paso one time in those years, but now is the moment he should go. He should see what the policies in a one-party rule in this Nation's Capital have created. He should see it is not just those coming across the border. They are not just coming from Central America. We catch people on the terrorist watch list from Yemen and others.
Ask yourself this: Why is somebody that is on the terrorist watch list from a faraway land, why would they want to come to America? Who are they talking to? What do they have planned?
It is not just people; it is fentanyl. Fentanyl is killing Americans, more so than any other place. Where does it come from? China through Mexico and across the border.
Many of these same Democrats who support amnesty also support giving illegal immigrant families nearly half a million dollars each. If they are successful, a billion dollars of hardworking taxpayer American money will be given to illegal immigrants. At the same time they have to pay more in taxes, they have to pay more for milk and more for gas.
The answer from the White House: Expect less for Christmas. I remember back in the late 1970s, in 1980, we had a President in office. I was in the sixth grade. He put a sweater on and told us to turn our heater down, and the best days of America were behind us. It is interesting; some of that same language and same ideas seem to be coming from this White House.
This is just outrageous. By comparison, if an American servicemember is killed defending this country, his or her family gets less than a
$400,000 insurance payment, those 13 Gold Star families. Those killed by a suicide bomber when Bagram was shut down before Americans were out. The prison was released. They killed 13 American men and women servicemembers. They didn't get $450,000, but you are going to give more.
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This alone is reason enough to defeat the bill.
How can you look at your constituents in the eye?
With one-party rule in 1 year you created inflation we haven't seen in 31 years. You made gas prices higher than it has been in 7.
You are passing a bill that gives amnesty to illegals. You are going to reward people who came here illegally with $450,000 from hardworking, taxpaying Americans. But for those who died, those 13 Gold Star families only get $400.
You are charging more than $5 trillion in this bill. It is more than 2,000 pages. Enough.
You are empowering China to be even stronger.
This bill spends billions of dollars to hire 87,000 IRS agents. You are hiring 87,000 IRS agents, but you are not hiring one new person to protect the border.
And what is the job of the IRS agents?
They are going after Americans.
And what Americans are they going after?
Anyone who spends $28 in one single day. If you go to Starbucks, if you simply put 3 gallons of gas in your car and you go through a drive-
through, maybe you get a dollar meal at McDonald's, the IRS is coming for you.
You are proud of that fact. That is what you held the CBO up for: How much money can we get from Americans by auditing them?
Do you know what you just provided, whom you are auditing?
You are auditing 1.2 million more Americans. You are bringing this bill on the premise that you don't trust Americans.
Do you know what Americans you are going after?
One half of those 1.2 million are people who earn $75,000 or less. That is what you are trying to pay this bill from.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. McCARTHY. Yes, Mr. Speaker, do you know where 25 percent of those 1.2 million audits are going?
To Americans earning less than $25,000.
Sometimes math is hard, Mr. Speaker.
It will double the size of the most intrusive bureaucracy.
So when you tell your children's children what you spent the money on or you talk and you listen to the speeches tonight, Mr. Speaker, and you listen to the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, where he was proud of the fact that he was going to build up these agencies, he is building up the IRS to go after every American who spends $28 a day.
Mr. Speaker, that is not what America asked for. Make no mistake. Under this provision, every single American is a target. In the eyes of the IRS, you are guilty until proven innocent. That alone is enough to defeat this bill.
This bill imposes a tax to heat your home. It puts American gas prices in the hands of OPEC.
Mr. Speaker, I remember back when Jimmy Carter was President, I wanted to go visit my grandmother down in southern California. I asked my mom and dad if we could go--this is the same President, Mr. Speaker, who put a sweater on and told me to turn the heater down and that as Americans we are supposed to expect less.
I can look anywhere I want, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot believe the amount of control one-party rule wants. They now want to dictate to a Member of the floor where I can look?
Are you afraid of the basis of the information in the bill?
I am glad we can look at you, Mr. Speaker. There is a difference between addressing and looking. I know one-party rule wants to control every element of our lives.
Mr. Speaker, this President put into effect that you could only get gas on the even days when your license plate ended that way. So, no, I couldn't go see my grandmother that weekend.
I wonder how many people this winter may not make it through because they can't pay the price of their heating bill.
Mr. Speaker, I know you wouldn't want that to happen. But maybe we could ask OPEC to produce a little more.
Mr. Speaker, did you know that American natural gas is 42 percent cleaner than Russian natural gas?
Mr. Speaker, they are importing Russian natural gas into America.
Why?
Because, Mr. Speaker, our administration is allowing Putin to have a pipeline but not America.
Do you know who works on American pipelines?
American workers.
Do you know what they do with their money?
They buy a home, they send their kids to school, they buy trucks, they buy cars, they stay in hotels, and they eat out at night. But those more than 1 million people lost their job after President Biden was sworn in because he shut down a pipeline that would make America independent but allowed Putin to produce more.
That is going to make prices higher this winter. In other words, every moment you heat your home in the winter or cool it in the summer, you will pay more. And every time you start your car, you will pay more. That alone is reason enough to defeat the bill.
This bill will make the labor crisis worse by fundamentally transforming the child tax credit into welfare without any work requirement. It will place small business owners into direct competition with the Federal Government's unlimited printing press. This alone is reason enough to defeat the bill.
Mr. Speaker, did we not learn that if we pay people more to stay home and not go to work that is what would happen? We learned that this year, did we not?
Mr. Speaker, small businesses are hard. I started my first small business when I was 20 years old. There are three lessons I learned. I was the first to work, I was the last to leave, and I was last to be paid. I don't know if I could start that business again.
As prices rose on everything, Mr. Speaker, the White House told us that is probably a good thing.
Mr. Speaker, I even heard from MSNBC that it was good you had to pay more. People should.
They are going to have to pay more as they get audited.
This bill abandons the longstanding, bipartisan Hyde amendment.
Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of people who have been in this Chamber for quite some time. Mr. Speaker, I heard the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee say he has been here more than 30 years. How many times has he voted for that Hyde amendment?
I don't know what changed this year. Maybe it was one-party rule. They are now allowing taxpayer funded abortion on demand and violating the rights of the conscience of millions of Americans. This alone is enough reason to defeat this bill.
This bill dictates our children's education standards, giving Washington the final say in what our children learn. Parents should make that decision, not government bureaucrats.
I don't know if you dictate in this bill where children can look, like you tried to on this floor, but, Mr. Speaker, I don't think that would be right either.
Mr. Speaker, I listened to a prominent Democrat run for the office of Governor again in Virginia where he said that parents should not have a say in their children's education.
It doesn't matter whether you are Republican, Democrat, wealthy, poor, or the color of your skin. The moment you have that child, you will do anything. It is no longer what you become; it is what opportunities your children will have. It is not a place government should dictate.
This nationalized, Washington-centered education will take away parents' choice of local control of parents across the country, instead of supporting and empowering them.
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Mr. Speaker, remember when I talked about Terry McAuliffe, what he said. This takes it a giant leap further by putting the Federal Government in full control of every education.
I am not sure if that is what the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was meaning why we should build up more bureaucracy, but it seems to fit in this bill. That alone is reason enough to defeat the bill.
Mr. Speaker, from bank surveillance to bailouts, this bill takes the problems President Biden and Democrats have already created and makes them much, much worse.
It is no secret that this bill is too extreme, too costly, and too liberal for the United States. My colleagues here in the House and in the Senate know it, and staunch liberals in the press know it as well. Just a few weeks ago, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger said, nobody elected Joe Biden to be FDR. This even spends more than FDR while he was fighting a world war.
Senator Manchin echoed that sentiment. This is not a center left or a left country. We are a center, if anything, a little center right. That is being shown, and we ought to be able to recognize that.
The New York Times editorial board, they even went further. I am not a big fan of the New York Times. I read a headline yesterday. Mr. Speaker, you know what it said? It was talking about your party. It said, after the election last Tuesday, Democrats should not panic. Don't panic. Because they think it is already over. This bill is going to seal the deal.
The New York Times, in a blistering editorial said, the Democratic Party ``has become distracted from crucial issues like the economy, inflation, ending the coronavirus pandemic, and restoring normalcy in schools.'' That is a quote, Mr. Speaker. That is the New York Times.
The Times went on to describe this bill, not as a solution, but as part of a sharp leftward push in the party which, as they point out, most Americans don't want nor need.
But despite those overwhelming warnings from moderates in their party, from liberals in the press, and from the American people at the polls, House Democrats are plugging their ears.
Mr. Speaker, even if somebody looks at them and tells them what is in the bill, they want you to look away. Why? Why wouldn't they be proud of it?
The Democrats aren't just ignoring what is going on. It is worse. They aren't even pretending to listen.
Don't take my word for it. Listen to what a member of your own party, Congresswoman Spanberger, said recently. We are not willing to say, yeah, inflation is a problem, and supply chain is a problem, and we don't have enough workers in our workforce. We gloss over it.
Clearly, the challenges Americans are waking up to every day are not concerns, Mr. Speaker, of the Democrats. And that is the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans.
House Democrats are focused on securing the Speaker's legacy. House Republicans are focused on solving the labor crisis.
Mr. Speaker, House Democrats are focused on mandates. House Republicans are focused on more freedom.
House Democrats are focused on so-called equality. House Republicans are focused on quality education.
House Democrats are focused on payoffs for illegal immigrants. House Republicans are focused on protecting the border.
And House Democrats are focused on the Green New Deal. House Republicans are focused on lowering gas prices.
When you look at those differences, it is no wonder the American people want new leadership.
Mr. Speaker, Democrats have no clue about the damage they have done to America with one party, with one rule, in 1 year. But if the Democrats won't listen to our fellow citizens, they will have to listen here.
Before I describe in greater detail the contents of this bill, let's take a step back and understand how we got into this mess.
Mr. Speaker, we want to explain it to our children's children. When President Biden walked into the Oval Office on January 20, 2021, he was handed every single ingredient he needed for unprecedented success.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure, but I know Speaker Pelosi likes to remove people from committees if they don't reach the higher standards. I would be worried, with the much interruptions, that something may happen to somebody. Mr. Speaker, I am worried for them.
All President Biden had to do was nothing. Just think about where we would be today if he had done nothing. Our economy would be booming. Our supply chain would be intact. Our Nation would be energy independent. Our children would be free from burdensome mandates.
Our borders would be completely secure, without those on the terrorist watch list coming across. Our dollar would be sound, with no inflation. Our enemies would be on notice, not on advance.
But what happened instead? The last 10 months have been the most radical, the most extreme, and the most incompetent 10 months in American history.
Mr. Speaker, it is one-party rule in 1 year that created all this. From the first day in office, the Biden administration has waged war on American workers, American values, American borders, American energy, and worst of all, American families. We have never seen anything like this before.
Biden terminated every successful immigration policy put into place by President Trump, triggering the largest wave of illegal immigration in all of history. Mr. Speaker, I know he put the Vice President in charge.
Biden shut down the production of American energy and closed down American pipelines, surrendering the energy independence that was achieved during the Trump administration.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know if you can remember back 10 months ago what the price of gas was, but I know every American can. When we were energy independent, it was a time when price was low. Today, the new Biden administration is making us reliant on foreign producers once again. He is literally begging OPEC to produce the energy that we could easily produce right here on our own shores.
President Biden spent trillions of dollars on left-wing social engineering and printed money we did not have for projects we did not need, leading to massive runaway inflation.
Mr. Speaker, Larry Summers warned the Nation about this in February.
Mr. Speaker, in June or July, on a CNN townhall meeting, the President said he wasn't worried about inflation.
Mr. Speaker, President Biden launched a campaign to dramatically raise taxes and regulations on our workers and manufacturers, destroying the amazing record of economic growth and job creation he inherited.
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Mr. Speaker, President Biden paid workers not to work and fired workers who were working because they wouldn't comply with his COVID mandates. These were the same people who were heroes a year before when we didn't have one-party rule. These were the same people who showed up to care for us and risk their lives.
The supply chain crisis was dramatically worsened by the return to the failed tax, regulatory, trade, and foreign policies of the past.
Mr. Speaker, President Biden used the FBI to target parents as domestic terrorists. Can you imagine that? To use the FBI to go after parents, calling them domestic terrorists, without any evidence, simply aiming to silence their First Amendment rights. A whistleblower just confirmed it.
The President's rhetoric is dividing and inflaming us rather than uniting us, like he promised to do.
And when his administration missteps, and it does often, President Biden will blame the military, our allies, the Vice President, Congress, ordinary Americans, anyone but himself. That is not what leaders do. That is not what leaders do. Leaders take responsibility and then take action.
As elected leaders, it is our job to take action that makes life better for all Americans. That is badly needed today, Mr. Speaker. But President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have failed at that basic duty. Let's look at how.
President Biden has defaulted to a failed economic agenda of the past. This administration is plainly incompetent and is growing the government at the American people's expense.
Americans are paying more for things they need today than they can afford. The latest CPI report is stunning news. Mr. Speaker, the Consumer Price Index soared 6.2 percent in the last year under one-
party rule in Washington and almost 1 percent in October alone. It is the fastest pace in 30 years. Do you know what the common denominator is? One-party rule for 1 year.
Last week's inflation results undercut the idea that inflation is temporary or transitory. If you look under the hood, the numbers suggest that higher prices are not only being passed on to consumers; they are becoming the new normal.
Even the politicians responsible for inflation now concede that Americans will continue to live with it for at least another year.
Make no mistake, inflation is becoming implanted in our economy. Too much money is chasing too few goods. It all started with one-party rule for 1 year in Washington. It first started with $2 trillion; now it is
$5 trillion.
Americans are also witnessing shortages and supply chain problems, too. Again, put politics aside and just look at the numbers. They are jaw-dropping.
Americans are paying $20 to $30 more for groceries per week. Thanksgiving is coming, a time when Americans gather together with family and friends. I will guarantee you what they will talk about around that table: This is the most expensive Thanksgiving they have ever had.
I know those in Virginia and New Jersey realize what one-party rule in 1 year can do. Americans are paying more for gasoline, the highest price in 7 years--Mr. Speaker, that was the last time President Biden was down in the White House--to get to and from work, to drive their kids to school, or to take their elderly parents to a doctor's appointment.
Americans are paying more for materials their businesses need to operate, which means higher prices for consumers and less opportunity for wage increases.
Inflation is a tax on all Americans. Inflation is robbing families of the future they deserve. Mr. Speaker, when Majority Leader Steny Hoyer mentioned this date and what our children's children will learn, they will probably be the first generation in 30 years to learn about when inflation came back. It was one-party rule in 1 year.
Americans are bracing for higher costs to come. They realize our economic future is grim under President Biden. The Biden administration has proven themselves untrustworthy when it comes to handling the economy. He pursues counterproductive policies and does not keep the promises he makes.
As a candidate, President Biden pledged nobody making under 400,000 bucks would have their taxes raised, period, bingo. Mr. Speaker, then, on the eve of the election, he promised that those making less than
$400,000 wouldn't pay a penny more. Mr. Speaker, as President, he said: I give you my word. If you make under $400,000 a year, I will never raise your taxes one cent.
Each of these statements claimed to have no exceptions, no qualifications, and no conditions. But here we are, just 40 weeks later, with one-party rule, and the President has already broken these promises to the American people. He has broken them because inflation is a tax on every American.
President Trump and congressional Republicans took a better path. We cut taxes and left Americans with more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. Mr. Speaker, it led to the best economy in 50 years.
When taxes go up through inflation or otherwise, Americans have less for utilities, prescriptions, and other things they need. As prices continue to soar, the inflation tax is hitting hardworking, middle-class families the hardest.
What do you think is going to happen to inflation if this bill becomes law? It is only going to be greater than the first $2 trillion this body wasted, Mr. Speaker.
But here is the dirty secret. Most Democrats who vote for these policies won't be affected by the inflation rate. But seniors, working families, and those living paycheck to paycheck have been and will continue to be, even in a greater sense.
Through no fault of their own, good, hardworking Americans are being hurt by their own government. And, Mr. Speaker, that is just wrong.
What is the White House and the liberal media's response? Telling Americans to just accept it, lecturing us to be more like Europe, to build our bureaucracies, saying we should lower our expectations.
Lowering expectations is what it means to be an American? I think not. No, this is a Nation that conquered the wilderness, sent a man to the Moon, and developed a lifesaving vaccine to COVID-19 in less than a year. Americans don't lower expectations; we rise to the occasion.
But under one-party rule, in 1 year, we have inflation we haven't seen in 31 years; we have gas prices higher than we have seen in the last 7 years; we have Americans stranded once again in the Middle East, being held hostage; we have a border unsecured, with fentanyl coming across, increasing by 300 percent. Every city in America is a border city now.
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We have Putin with a pipeline, but a President who tells Americans no. We have a President who looks to OPEC to produce more, not American energy.
Mr. Speaker, another area where President Biden and Democrats in Congress are failing is in the energy crisis. The American people want to afford gasoline, afford to heat their homes, and enjoy the upcoming holidays together.
But what are they going to have?
The most expensive Thanksgiving in the history of America. God forbid you have to drive for Thanksgiving because you are going to pay more.
Americans don't need their government spending billions of dollars to subsidize car chargers or parks for the wealthiest people in the country.
Mr. Speaker, it is not just Republicans who warn you. Mr. Speaker, even Jared Golden on November 17, a Member of the Democratic Party, said, ``If you'd told me a year ago that the second-biggest piece of a signature bill of this Congress was $280 billion in tax giveaways to millionaires, I'd have told you the Republicans were in charge.
``Proponents have been saying that the BBB taxes the rich. But the more we learn about the SALT provisions, the more it looks like another giant tax break for millionaires.
``The fact that more people and organizations on the Democratic side aren't up in arms about this is wild.''
Mr. Speaker, maybe they are not up in arms because they just got the bill. And you allow 10 minutes on one side and 10 minutes on the other to debate it.
Mr. Speaker, I know at times it is hard to hear what is in the bill, but I think the American people have a right to know.
Over the last 9 months with one-party rule in this city, families have watched energy prices rise dramatically. West Texas intermediate has doubled since President Biden took office, and a gallon at the pump costs 60 percent more.
You know where that comes from?
The hardworking taxpayers who have to live in a lower standard because of one-party rule in Washington.
What does that mean in everyday life?
It means that when families fill up at the gas station, they are seeing the highest price of a gallon of gas in 7 years. That is the last time Joe Biden was in office, Mr. Speaker.
It means that from the factories making new products to the trucks that transport them to the retail stores that sell them, every part of the supply chain is paying more for energy.
In every State in America the average price of a gallon of gas is now over $3 for the first time in years. In my home State of California, Mr. Speaker, the average price is over $4.50, and in some parts it is as high as $7.
Mr. Speaker, when I listened to the White House, I thought they would be concerned. They said it was good, people should pay more.
The pain is being felt beyond the pump, too, Mr. Speaker. When families turn on the lights or heat their home this winter, they are expecting the price of heat will be 54 percent higher.
Mr. Speaker, when we are back in these Chambers next year, I will wonder how somebody on a fixed income chooses to pay their heating bill or maybe go cold throughout the night.
The energy crisis we face today is devastating for working families. Every dollar spent on gasoline is a dollar that isn't spent on groceries or other essential goods.
And yet, the reaction from this administration, who kneecapped oil and natural gas production by canceling new pipelines and freezing new lessees altogether, when asked if the United States would increase energy production, the Secretary of Energy told CNBC, ``That is hilarious.''
Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, that is not funny to the American public. That is not funny. They expect more from their leaders. They expect their leaders to look out for them, not Washington and one-party rule looking out for themselves.
Go watch the video for yourself. It is just a few seconds. It perfectly captures the Biden administration's incompetent contempt for the American people.
Mr. Speaker, as I listened to the other side make their comments, not once did I say something. I disagreed with what they said, but I knew there was a moment in time when I could speak.
I know, Mr. Speaker, that people might disagree with what I say, but we are in America. We are in Congress. I respect their position, even though I believe it is wrong.
I respect that they may believe they want to build up these bureaucracies.
I respect that they think spending more with inflation, that somehow that won't cause more.
I respect the idea that you shut down an American pipeline and allow Putin to have one and the prices go up. I think you are wrong, but I respect the right for you to say it.
Mr. Speaker, not once did I look at Chairman Neal and tell him he couldn't look at me. Not once did I say something to him as he made his point.
Mr. Speaker, just last week we set a record here twice by holding a vote open longer than this Congress ever has. We have changed more of the history in Congress than at any time of any Congress under one party and one rule.
Members get fined $5,000 when somehow they walk through a magnetometer and they didn't hear. Do they get any recourse?
No, they get a letter.
Mr. Speaker, you may have set a record tonight for trying to control the House. Maybe they don't like hearing what is in the bill because they haven't read it, but I think, regardless, Mr. Speaker, the American public has a right to hear it.
Mr. Speaker, I will tell you this: I don't care how many times I am interrupted. I am not going to stop until the American people hear it.
Mr. Speaker, I know the Speaker says we have higher standards. I am just hoping to see them.
It also isn't funny for Californians like Scott Daniel, who runs Young's Commercial Transfer in Porterville, California. Scott told me that higher prices are making it hard to stay in business. Scott says, Mr. Speaker, ``My company alone will burn around 3 million gallons of fuel this year. And with fuel as expensive as it is right now, that adds millions of dollars to our bottom line, which makes it really hard to stay in business and keep this going. More importantly . . . it's immediately going to hit all of your food at the grocery store.''
Mr. Speaker, that is why your Thanksgiving in America is going to be the most expensive.
The President talks about a world where every nation plays by the same rules, but when it comes to global elites, he makes sure the rules he applies to us don't apply to them. That is how socialism works. You see, they build up the bureaucracies. They spend more than they spent during World War II. It creates inflation, creates supply chain problems.
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By the way, those who run society, get ahead; while those who make society run, are pushed back.
Republicans know there is a better path. Instead of wasting the energy potential in this country, we want to unleash it. We don't want to build up government, we want to build up American families.
Instead of killing good-paying jobs, we want to create them. Instead of canceling the Keystone Pipeline, we want to complete it. Republicans will make America energy independent again through innovation so working families have affordable, abundant energy.
So the answer won't come as you will have to pay more. What they will hear is they will pay less and have more for themselves.
You know, I just mentioned Scott Daniel, the owner of a commercial transportation company, who talked about how high prices are hurting his ability to do business and deliver goods. But that is not the only way Democrat policies are making it harder for businesses to survive.
Another is a labor shortage. Walk down any Main Street, if the crime is not too bad for you to do it, or a city avenue in America, and I guarantee there will be help wanted signs. Ask a waiter how many shifts she or he does in a week, and I bet they are covering for someone else because they are short-staffed. Ask if they had to take anything off the menu because the restaurant can't afford to find it anymore. I bet they have. This is what our small businesses are dealing with. As a former small business owner, I know these conditions aren't sustainable.
And, Mr. Speaker, if Democrats just cared to listen, they would know that, too. Instead, the Democrats' idea of an economic plan is to punish citizens who are producing for our country and working to support their families while rewarding themselves and others for staying home.
Americans don't deserve to bear the brunt of policies pushed by one-
party rule in Washington who will never feel the effects of them and who will receive a solid paycheck every month even if they show up to vote or not.
Joe Biden's Presidency has often been compared to Jimmy Carter's Presidency. He has proven that comparison wrong every step of that way. That comparison now is unfair to Jimmy Carter.
Mr. Speaker, when you study the history of America in the late seventies and in 1980, Americans were held hostage in the Middle East. Today, we have hundreds of Americans being held hostage in Afghanistan.
Mr. Speaker, in 1979 we had inflation, taxing of every American. Today we have inflation we haven't seen in 31 years.
Mr. Speaker, in the late seventies, we were beholden to OPEC. Today, Mr. Speaker, we have a President who begs OPEC. Mr. Speaker, in the late seventies President Jimmy Carter told us the heater had to go down because the price is going up, and we needed to expect less as Americans. Mr. Speaker, today the White House laughs if you ask them what their plan is for America to become energy independent and lower gas prices.
Mr. Speaker, in the late seventies, we were concerned about the Soviet Union, of the buildup in Europe. Today, Mr. Speaker, Russia is building up along Ukraine. They have more money for more soldiers because they got a new pipeline while America was denied.
Mr. Speaker, after the 1980 election, those problems went away because you no longer had one-party rule in Washington, D.C. You had policies that didn't talk about building up the bureaucracy. You had policies that unshackled what held back the American worker. When those policies were enacted a decade later there was no longer a Soviet Union. There were no longer two Germanys. The Berlin Wall had collapsed. The shipyard workers of Poland understood. They knew that America was more than a country, that America is an idea.
Thirty-two years ago, one million students went to Tiananmen Square. They built the Goddess of Democracy, Mr. Speaker, that looked just like the Statue of Liberty. They put it directly across from the portrait of Mao. They understood the greatness of America. Who doesn't remember that man standing in front of the tank when China was rolling in? He stood in front of that tank. When the tank moved to the right, he moved to the right. When the tank moved to the left, he moved to the left. Then he climbed on top of that tank. I cannot tell you his name, Mr. Speaker, because I doubt he is alive. They respected America. They knew what America stood for.
Mr. Speaker, now we have a bill that will bring more ships from China to America because it will give them an incentive.
Mr. Speaker, I hear your party talk a lot about a Green New Deal. Ninety percent of all those are being built in China. So you are taking the hard-earned tax dollars of Americans, you are shutting down the policies you don't like, the energy you don't care for, and laying those off while making the gasoline prices higher and taking their tax dollars and shipping it to China. And you are creating a greater inflation, Mr. Speaker. One-party rule for 1 year.
Mr. Speaker, if there is good news for America, it is less than a year away. It is less than a year away. And I tell you, America, help is on the way. History repeats itself, and, oh, it is going to repeat itself big next November.
Mr. Speaker, while the Democrats' action on our economy such as antiwork welfare programs and massive unneeded stimulus has left Americans worse off, it is their inaction along the southern border that has left our country less safe.
You see, Mr. Speaker, it wasn't just Americans left behind in Afghanistan, it was billions of dollars of our military equipment.
Mr. Speaker, do you realize that the Taliban has more Black Hawk helicopters than two-thirds of the NATO countries? More than Australia? Mr. Speaker, do you realize when Bagram shut down and 5,000 of some of the worst human beings escaped, Mr. Speaker, do you realize by the Biden administration opening up our border, more than 160 countries of people have come across that border?
Mr. Speaker, they don't have to wear a mask or be fined. They don't have to be tested. The government actually pays them for a trip somewhere in America.
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Inaction on the southern border.
Mr. Speaker, almost every single Republican on this side of the aisle has been to visit the border, almost more than once.
Mr. Speaker, I heard the President, who has been in office more than 40 years, say he drove by El Paso one time. But when we went to the border earlier this year, after one-party rule in Washington, that changed by executive order.
I can wait, Mr. Speaker. They can finish their conversation. You can finish.
Don't lower your mask, you will get fined.
Mr. Speaker, I know you hold the gavel, but I heard from your side of the aisle tell me when to speak, where to look, and what to do, and interrupted many times.
I heard your Speaker talk about a higher standard. Mr. Speaker, I am waiting to see it.
Are you going to laugh, too, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, I know your side of the aisle has no problem removing people from committee. I wonder if people keep talking they should be removed from the floor.
Mr. Speaker, when we traveled to the border in February, we watched something we have never seen before. We sat and we interviewed a new facility that just was built, and it is built in the capacity that it would never be filled. It hit a record that day. And we interviewed the families and asked how long they had been on the road. They said ever since President Biden told us to come.
As we sat with those brave men and women of our border protection, we watched what they had to do, the job they were doing day in and day out, the conditions, when COVID was rampant and nobody being tested. And we went up along the line, against the wall.
Mr. Speaker, this is important. I think people should listen, and I will show you the point why.
As we talked to the border agents, they told us they are seeing something they have never seen before, where people would rush the wall. So everybody would go there, then they would come the other way, the cartel, bringing fentanyl across. They said they had never seen anything like it.
And I asked them--I listened to the Vice President. One-party rule; one year. And I sat and I talked to the border agents. They told me of the border cities that had to close their schools because of the cartels coming through and shooting; of the ranchers who are having their houses burned or their grandchildren kidnapped. Then they said something so shocking, I had to ask them twice.
You see, I heard the Vice President say, This is just a Central America problem. I said, Is that really what is happening? Oh, they told me people were coming from 160 countries. They said they just caught people on the terrorist watch list.
I came down and we did a press conference. In the press conference, I mentioned that we had caught people on the terrorist watch list from Yemen. Do you remember the USS Cole, the American Navy ship that was bombed? Or maybe you need to refresh your memory. It was recently.
You know the U.S. Embassy that was overtaken? No, I am not talking about back in Iran in 1979. I am talking about the comparison to today. And as I said that to the American public--I respect all of you, you come here because you want to legislate; I expect you would be shocked, too, that you would probably call me up, What can we do? You want to protect your constituents. I know you do.
Mr. Speaker, there was a Member of the Democratic Party on the Intel Committee, tweeted, said I was lying, said he gets the same intel as I do because I am on the Gang of 8. Interesting, when I put the facts out--I don't know, maybe the mail is slow--I never once heard him apologize. Or worse yet, I never once heard him say, How can we stop it? How can we stop it?
I didn't even see an amendment added to this bill--think about that for one moment, for the American public. You are spending more money than we spent to end World War II. You are hiring 87,000 IRS agents, not one Border Patrol agent, not one new dollar.
You are providing money for amnesty. You are providing money,
$450,000, for people who came here illegally, and you are taking it from American hardworking taxpayers. But you do nothing to stop those on the terrorist watch list from coming across this border. Nothing.
There has been nearly 1.7 illegal border encounters at the southern border since President Joe Biden became President. And our border czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, still has no plan to support our Border Patrol.
Now, let's put this in perspective. There has been more illegal border crossings between the months of February and October under Joe Biden than in 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined. So when somebody asks me what does it mean if you have one-party rule for 1 year, you get more illegal crossings simply from February to October than you did in 2018, 2019, and 2020, all combined.
What do you think is going to happen after the billions of dollars you spend in this bill providing amnesty? That number will look small to you.
Mr. Speaker, but I am sure some people will say let's wait to see what the CBO says. So when the CBO comes back and tells you you got millions more, it is okay; we will still vote.
Let that sink in. What is the Biden administration's reaction? To now consider paying illegal immigrants $450,000 per family, an action that President Biden admits would incentivize more people to come over illegally.
Mr. Speaker, when we tell our children's children about this night, we will tell them that is where their future went. When they ask us why did they pay such high taxes, we will remind them about this night, because we built up our bureaucracy.
Mr. Speaker, you are actually celebrating this bill.
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That is more than some of the 9/11 victims received. Think about that. Mr. Speaker, my friend Steny Hoyer said so proudly, he mentioned today ``our children's children.'' How do we explain that those who were killed on that fateful day of 9/11 received less than those who came across illegally?
It is okay. I will be here a long time.
Mr. Speaker, I have to apologize to you. I think I am upsetting people on the other side of the aisle when I tell them what is in the bill. They just yelled at me that they are leaving. I apologize. Mr. Speaker, nobody on this side of the aisle wrote this bill.
I thought that was going to be different, Mr. Speaker, because I took President Biden at his word. I took him at his word when he said he was going to get COVID under control. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, more Americans have died this year than last year under COVID.
Mr. Speaker, the $450,000, that is more than some of the 9/11 victims received. It is more than the next of kin receives in insurance to those 13 Gold Star families of those killed by a suicide bomber, who was in the prison at Bagram.
Mr. Speaker, I watched in disbelief as President Biden said he would do nothing different. I watched in disbelief, Mr. Speaker, when he had a press conference and told Americans it was safe to come to the airport. In less than 30 minutes--you were on that conference call, too, Mr. Speaker. The Secretary of State and Joint Chiefs said, no, it wasn't safe to come to the airport.
Mr. Speaker, there are many people who have served this Nation, served in the armed services on both sides of this aisle. I have never watched Members work so hard to get the American hostages out of Afghanistan to only be shut down by our own State Department.
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you a personal story. Mr. Speaker, I picked up the phone one morning when this first started, and I called the regular number to the White House. I said I would like to talk to the President about what is happening in Afghanistan. The White House recently called and wanted to know if it was really me. To the President's credit, he called me back.
I said: Mr. President, I know you are trying to hold this deadline for the Taliban, but what about our allies? What about those from the U.K. and France who fought side by side, not because their country was attacked, but because we were attacked?
He told me he wasn't going to budge.
I said: Mr. President, there are thousands of Americans who are held there that can't get out.
He said: Kevin, no, no. The number is much smaller.
I said: Mr. President, what is the number?
Oh, it is just smaller.
I have watched the President look America in the eye and tell us he would not leave until every American is out. What do you say to those Americans who are still stuck there? The last time we felt like this, Jimmy Carter was President.
Mr. Speaker, what does it say to those Gold Star families? Mr. Speaker, I had one in my office, a father whose daughter wasn't even supposed to be there but volunteered. She was an electrician. Just days before, you see photos of her holding a young child. She told her sister: I am going out in front of the wall because you can't believe it. Someone needs to be there for them.
She wasn't supposed to be out in front of that wall.
That suicide bomber that was locked up in Bagram who never should have gotten out--and that we never should have shut down--killed 13 of the finest Americans we know. Do you know what this bill does? Nothing for them.
It gives more money to an illegal person who crossed this border. I am sorry, Americans expect more. Our priorities should be different. These people risk their lives every day for us. Just let that sink in, to your children's children.
One-party rule for 1 year has brought us inflation we haven't seen in 31 years; gas prices are the highest since the last time President Biden was down at the White House; a Thanksgiving that is going to cost you more than at any time in your life.
A border where there are 1.7 million encounters, a border between February and October that more people have crossed than 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined--Mr. Speaker, the closest the President has ever been to the border in 42 years is to drive through El Paso. Mr. Speaker, the Vice President is the czar of the border.
This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue; this is the safety of this Nation. What do you think is going to happen to that border when you provide a billion dollars in amnesty? What do you think is going to happen when you reward people with $450,000?
Where do you get the money? From the hardworking taxpayers of America who have less to give. Do you know what? They are going to have to give more because you are hiring 87,000 IRS agents to come after them--1.2 million more audits. And half of all those 1.2 million are going after Americans who make $75,000 or less.
That is what you base this entire bill on. That is what you waited for the CBO to tell you, how much money can we get from them.
How is that possible? The payments for illegal immigrants are just the latest data point in a much larger trend of failures on this border, cheered on by leftwing activists. President Biden and Vice President Harris have presided over the greatest series of border security blunders in American history.
Mr. Speaker, if 160 different countries had people come across that border illegally, if we have caught people on the terrorist watch list, if a suicide bomber got out of Bagram in 1 week and killed 13 American soldiers, do you think they know how to get into America? Do you think they know where to go?
Maybe they have to go at night. They have a better chance now because they have night goggles that we had. They have Black Hawk helicopters. The Taliban has more Black Hawk than two-thirds of our NATO countries. They have more than Australia.
In that phone call with the President, do you know what he told me? Oh, Kevin, we are going to have a lot of leverage with the Taliban because they are going to need help running their country.
Why don't you tell that to the hundreds of Americans who are still there trying to get out?
Every time there is a Member on this side of the aisle--because they care about their constituents, they try to get that American out--the State Department attacks them. You try to criticize them. They risk their own life.
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Mr. Speaker, even in our own hearings, I respect greatly anyone who served in uniform, and you have some tremendous Members on the other side of the aisle who have. I have watched them question the Secretary of State and still not get an answer.
Mr. Speaker, that Member on your side of the aisle who sits on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who said I wasn't telling the truth that we are catching people on the terrorist watch list and haven't done anything about it since. I wonder if he should serve on the Permanent Select Committee next term. Because America needs to be protected.
For anyone who thinks they are not a border city, just look up how many deaths you have from fentanyl. Let me tell you where fentanyl comes from. It comes across that border, but it comes from China.
Mr. Speaker, let me tell you another story. I have a friend who serves in the Senate. Right before COVID he was on a codel with other Senators, and he was sitting and having a communication--maybe you have experienced this as well--with a military general in the Chinese Communist Army.
Do you know what that general said to him?
America, you are weak. You are weak, America. You are weak because you believe in God and you take fentanyl.
Fentanyl has increased 300 percent only because the border is not secure. There is no city in America that is safe. This is deadly. They have handed the border over to the cartels, unleashing these monsters onto our people. They compromised our national security.
Answer me this question, Mr. Speaker: If somebody is on the terrorist watch list--and Mr. Speaker, they entered our State of California. They weren't together. They came on different days. And do you know, right now, if you are a Member of Congress and you ask them: How many more you got?
They don't want to tell you, just as they don't want to give us the number of how many Americans are still stuck there. They are hoping if we don't pay attention anymore, we will forget. I promise you this: we will not forget, and we will not stop.
Here is what the National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told us, ``This administration says it is just Central American countries, but in just one week in the Yuma, Arizona, sector we have seen people illegally enter from countries like Egypt, Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Haiti, Niger, Portugal, and Uzbekistan. . . . There is no better time for them to come into our country than now.''
I didn't think Egypt and Russia were in Central America.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer this invitation: We have Thanksgiving coming. We are both from California. Why don't we invite the Vice President to come down to the border with you and me both, and let's take a tour.
And while we are there, let's go to the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach and talk about the supply chain. Let them see that these ships that are waiting and coming in when they unload, they go back empty to pick up more from China. They don't load American products.
Now, it may take a little while to get from the border of San Diego up to Long Beach, so we may have to stop to get gas. I will split it with you because I know it is not cheap. But I am willing to make that offer.
These patrol members along the border bear the brunt of dangerous policies. While the Democrats act like there is nothing going on, Texas Mayor Don McLaughlin told us, Mr. Speaker, just a few months ago, that nearby cities are expected to see an inflow of migrants much larger than the size of the towns themselves.
He said, ``We're not equipped in our area to handle this. Our resources are strapped as it is because of the pandemic.''
The mayor said his own town will try to quarantine COVID-positive migrants in hotels. But when they come back to check on them or bring them food, some of the migrants are gone.
That is just not here, Mr. Speaker. When we departed Afghanistan, a lot of people got on that were never searched or had gone through any process. We put them on military bases in America. Some just depart. Some people have already been arrested for crimes they committed.
We heard from our constituents who were stuck in Afghanistan who said they went to the airport because they watched the President tell them. And the Taliban grabbed their papers, tore them up, and shot at them. Or they are hiding in the halfway houses, and the State Department denied just letting them get across the border so they can get out.
Aside from the health risks, these circumstances create physical risks for innocent bystanders. There are not enough officers or agents to handle the intake and regular patrol, so the issues are spilling onto the streets.
Now, I am sure in your committees, Mr. Speaker, as you went through this bill, as you knew you were going to spend more than at any time in American history because the Chief of Staff to the White House--and many times, Mr. Speaker, people refer to him as the prime minister--
said, ``It's twice as big, in real dollars, as the New Deal was.'' You must have thought somewhere when you saw these statistics, it is okay, we have so much money, let's give them some and help those border agents.
I am sure somebody raised that issue, did they not?
They must have been voted down because it is not in the bill. But whoever raised their hand and said: Let's spend $1 billion to give people amnesty, that made it in.
The only thing I question, Mr. Speaker, is why did you stop there? Because there are going to be billions more coming.
You were able to do in one-party rule in 1 year just between February and October more than everybody has been able to do in 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if that is what you talked about, building bigger bureaucracies, but this bill does it.
Mayor McLaughlin said that they had about two to three car chases a week back in 2019, then none for a few weeks. Now it is every single day, roughly 10 to 12 high-speed car chases per week. He says, ``It's escalating. We've had houses broken into, we've had to put our schools on lockdown because they're armed out in town near the schools. When that happens, then we have to pull all of our officers out on a manhunt.''
Mr. Speaker, how would you like to represent a city where every single day there are roughly 10 to 12 high-speed car chases?
I remember on the news when there was one, the whole Nation would watch. They don't even put them on because they are every day.
But where are they running by? And it is not just a car chase, just a cop chasing them. It is a cartel with weaponry. They are going by schools in America.
In America they have to shut down American schools because you opened the border. You do nothing to protect it in this bill. You only incentivize more people to come.
Did you put any money in here for car chases?
Did you put any money in here for the schools?
I hope you put money in here for drug treatment because, Mr. Speaker, there is sure a lot of fentanyl coming across that border.
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He told us recently that just last spring they had to put schools on lockdown 48 times. Think about that. Your child goes to a school--just in spring--48 times they are on lockdown. Do you think your child feels safe? Do you think your child is learning?
What do you think those parents are going to think when they hear about this bill?
I don't think they could just leave the Chamber. I think they will probably want to come to a school board meeting. Maybe the FBI will investigate them for terrorism because they care about their children's safety.
One-party rule in 1 year has brought America to this. Our children's education and lives are being interrupted nearly 50 times in just a few months. That is in America.
When personnel and resources are pulled from one area to another along our border communities, it leaves families like Russell Johnson's in danger. You see, Russell lives on a ranch with his family in New Mexico, just miles from the border.
I am proud of my family. My family emigrated from Ireland and Italy. They worked on the railroad, and they became a cattle rancher. It was a tough life. My grandfather got married, lived with his brother on the ranch, but the ranch didn't make enough to pay for both, so he went back to working on the railroad.
To make money as a rancher, they never had to worry about a cartel, they just had to worry if it rained enough, or if the cattle price was high enough.
Russell Johnson, it is remote, and he gets little service where he lives, making it a prime place to illegally enter the country.
This is what Russell told me, with the way things are right now, we don't let our kids play outside by themselves. They can't play outside by themselves.
This isn't Chicago. This is on a cattle ranch. There is no telling who they might encounter while they are out there.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to invite Russell Johnson to come to D.C., and I want to invite anybody on the other side of the aisle that votes for this bill, and I would ask you to take his questions. I would ask that you point out in this bill where does it protect his children as an American?
I don't think you will argue that you are going to cost him more. You see, the interesting thing is I am okay paying taxes if they go to something.
Richie Neal says it is going to build a bigger bureaucracy. Not along the border it is not. It is tearing down walls. Schools are closing.
You know, for the first time in the country, Mr. Speaker, this generation doesn't believe they will be better off than the generation before them, and this bill almost guarantees it. They are guaranteed they are going to have to pay more and get less.
I will be sure and let you all know of that date. You are celebrating the bill. Celebrate with Russell and tell him where he is better off.
Just think for a moment that, in America, children can't play outside on their own property for fear of their safety from cartels and traffickers. I am not talking about the city where you defunded the police. I am talking about remote cattle ranches in a place I think every American dreams they can retire one day, on a ranch.
Build back. We are going all the way back to the westerns, I guess. People have to fend for themselves.
I can't believe that is America. I don't accept it. I know we are better than that.
I know some of you are mad at me, think I spoke too long. But I have had enough. America has had enough.
Not only do communities at the border deserve protection, the selfless men and women of our Border Patrol deserve more support to do their job. I don't know if you have been down to tour with them. If any of you are going and you want to make it bipartisan, I will go. I know a lot of people on this side of the aisle will go with you, because we think it is an American problem. We want to solve it together.
But when someone comes across the border and you have children--it is interesting, Mr. Speaker, when it became one party with 1 year, you changed the definition, they are no longer cages. It is still the same place. But it is the border agents who have to go off the border and inside to care for them, so the border is less secure.
And now you are providing more money for them to come, less agents there, and it is just a spiraling effect.
You know, between inflation, gas prices, the border, crime, there is a common denominator; one-party rule in Washington for 1 year.
U.S. Border Patrol members from the southwest division of the border alone saved 4,920 lives in 2019; 5,071 lives in FY20; 12,833 lives in
`21; and 836 in FY22 so far.
Why don't we pass a bill to honor our Border Patrol agents? Why don't we bring them here to Washington? Better yet, why don't we go to them?
It is our job to secure the border. You are spending trillions of dollars. You know what you are spending money on? Not to build the wall. You are taking taxpayer money or material they already have there and paying them not to build it.
So Russell Johnson's children can't play. That is what you are taking taxpayers money for.
That is why you are hiring more IRS agents to audit more Americans to get more out of them, because you don't trust that they are honest.
There is not a day that doesn't go by--just this week--of a 5-year old child all by himself. You know, on one of the trips down to the border, I was talking to this Border Patrol agent, and I was asking about her job. You could tell the stress that she has felt to work under these conditions, the threat of the cartel, the crime coming across, the families, the children.
And she told a story of three young children. She saw them in the distance. The oldest was five, the next was three, and the other was 11 months.
I said, where was the parent? There was no parent. What crowd were they with? No, they were all alone. If she had not found them, they would not have lived.
So let this sink in. You are encouraging more of them to come. People don't make it all the time. People are raped. Human trafficking happens because they don't have the money to pay the cartel. Then when they come to America, they have to work to keep paying them. You are incentivizing that. And while you incentivize that, you make Americans unsafe.
I don't know, Mr. Speaker, if it is something that the administration does in the Cabinet or everywhere when they are asked a question--I know what the Secretary of Energy did when she was asked about how to lower prices; she just laughed.
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But I remember, Mr. Speaker, when Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about the border. She has a very definite laugh. Do you know what her answer was? Well, I haven't been to Europe, either.
Well, she could go to Europe because people from Europe are coming across that border, too. She could go to Russia, Egypt, Yemen. She could go around the world.
Now, speaking of safety and security, as hardworking Americans are being ignored by Democrat politicians, let's talk about law enforcement. Because, Mr. Speaker, I remember on this floor, in the last Congress, the chant ``defund the police.'' I remember what this city looked like. I remember one night looking out on the rioters. I remember the Speaker yelling about having the National Guard at the Lincoln Memorial.
That spread across America. I can't keep count of how many people die in Chicago in one weekend. In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered--and he shouldn't have been--when they decided to defund the police, it was on the ballot 2 weeks ago on Tuesday. It failed.
Mr. Speaker, you and I have known each other a long time. We are competitive. I know you didn't get to Congress your first time out. We beat you that first time, but you came back. You are competitive. You work hard. It is not my job to give you political advice. I don't know if you have seen the numbers. It is nothing we are doing. You know, 110 polls have been taken since 1981. Never, never have they reflected what they reflect today.
But it is not just that. You see, we all have the pleasure and the honor--less than 13,000 people have ever had this honor to represent in this Chamber, the debates that have taken place here. And on the biggest of items, it is always bipartisan. The President promised he would bring that back. There hasn't been one time, not one time. Tonight is not bipartisan. He didn't work with anybody.
You are spending the most money ever spent in a single bill in the history of America, the greatest Nation ever on the face of the Earth, and your children's children will read it was one-party rule for 1 year.
Mr. Speaker, I watched the American voters in States that are blue States overwhelmingly, from Seattle to Minneapolis to New York to New Jersey to Virginia, reject exactly what is in this bill.
Look, it would be beneficial for me to cheer you on, but I care too much about this country. If you turn back now, you might be able to survive. But I know what will be more important. America could survive.
But I know you are down on this floor, just 10 minutes debate on each side, and the bill just came. I know my friends on the other side of the aisle are mad. I know some of them have to get to Puerto Rico for a fundraiser.
I am sorry. That may be one of them. It sounds like a couple of them.
This is too important to America. It is a moment in time.
At a time when violent crime is spiking nationally, cities under Democratic rule have or are seeking to defund their police departments. It is just another move lacking common sense, logic, or leadership.
In Los Angeles, I represent a little of it. I don't think you have any of it, right? Just outside? You are to the east. The LAPD budget is set to be cut by $150 million, a decision triggered by widespread protests.
My son just moved to San Francisco with his new wife. Do you know what he told me? He had to buy a car when he moved up there. He said: Dad, I am excited. I got car insurance. I didn't think that was a big deal. But my street is the safest street in San Francisco. I got a little savings.
Do you know what people put on their windows in San Francisco on their cars? ``Please don't break the window again. Nothing is inside.''
You know, if you want to walk to a Walgreens in San Francisco, it is closed. They can't make money because people just come in and take. That is how you build up bureaucracy. That is how you cut police.
In Austin, the city council voted to cut $150 million from the police department. Mr. Speaker, you and I have seen a lot of businesses in California leave and go to the city of Austin.
A good friend of mine, Elon Musk, built a car company when others were already developed. They said he couldn't do it. He risked his wealth to do it. He is pretty dang successful.
A State rep from California--I can't use the language he used on the floor because it started with an f--tweeted at Elon because he wanted to expand his business, so he left.
Do you know what California does? They raise their price. They tax you more. They cut their police.
When Elon got to Austin, he said if you cut the police and make crime like the place he just left, he won't stay.
In Baltimore, the city council eliminated $22 million from the police department. New York City wants to take $1 billion from the police budget. And here is the kicker: Many Democrats don't think that goes far enough.
These efforts to defund the police send a dangerous message that public safety is not a priority in Democrat-run cities. Worse, these attacks on law enforcement demoralize officers and dismantle police departments. Retirements are surging. Recruitment is sinking.
My father was a first responder. He wasn't a police officer; he was a fireman. My uncle was a fireman, too. I did 3 years as a seasonal firefighter. I wanted to be a first responder, but there was a nepotism clause. I don't think my mom thought I was successful because I wasn't a firefighter.
These are people who 1 year ago we celebrated on this floor. We touted them. We touted the first responders, the medical community, the checkers. Why? Because they went to work in the middle of a pandemic. They looked after people. And after we got one-party rule in Washington, a lot of them are now fired; they are no longer heroes.
President Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress can send a message to local officers that this lawlessness is unacceptable. Instead, you are enabling it.
The Biden Justice Department dropped nearly half of the cases against rioters in Portland. Can you imagine that? Half the cases.
We all watched it, burning buildings. I remember one of my constituents came to testify. Mr. Nadler and Jim Jordan were there. Do you know why she had to testify? Because her brother was killed protecting a Federal courthouse. He was protecting a Federal courthouse in a riot.
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You know what is worse?
There are people in the administration at the highest of offices that gave money to bail these people out. I wonder why Russell Johnson worries about his kids playing outside.
Biden also supports a bill passed by the House Democrats which would cost police departments hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is not a Democrat, Green Party, or Republican idea. American people want safe streets. I don't care if you live in the poorest neighborhood or the wealthiest. You want your kids to be able to walk down that street.
I can't forget that video of those two young kids in New York walking while one man is shooting another man.
They want law and order.
Is it any surprise they overwhelmingly rejected defunding the police when it was on the ballot?
The only place that passes defunding police is on this floor. But if you let the people vote, they say no.
Why? They want to be safe. That is not rocket science.
In the liberal enclave of Seattle--former home of the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Remember that, where they took over entire streets?
Why did they do it?
Because they were building a bigger bureaucracy. See, they didn't believe in private property. They celebrated it, just like you celebrate this bill--the voters elected a Republican as a city attorney over a self-described police apologist. Think about that. Seattle.
Look, we are in the only occupation where on a given day we learn how many people like and dislike us. Come next November we will know. That is 435 seats. We are all competitive. We will work in all sorts of districts trying to capture that majority.
I don't spend much money in Seattle. There are not a lot of Republicans there. But it doesn't matter when it comes to safety. Every American wants it except, Mr. Speaker, in this House.
In Minneapolis, where violent crime has surged over the past year, voters resoundingly rejected a ballot initiative to defund the police. In Minneapolis.
These results give me hope. I want the American people to know, one-
party rule will not be in one year.
It is clear to most Americans that defunding the police is wrong. The American public is getting this issue right despite the Democrats' best efforts.
While our inflation rises, chaos engulfs our southern border, and crime overruns our cities, Xi Jinping is watching us and laughing. China is being rewarded with the Olympics. I didn't get to get on the Zoom with President Biden and Xi Jinping. But did any of us hear?
Did he ask China why won't they be more open or let our scientists in to see where COVID started?
Did he ask Xi Jinping about his promise to stop producing fentanyl? Because it has increased by 300 percent.
Did he ask Xi Jinping why does he continue to fly his jets over Taiwan? And how much technology have you stolen from us today?
Just this August we were reminded of the seriousness of the China threat after Beijing launched an advanced hypersonic missile into orbit. I know you all don't serve on Armed Services. I don't. And you are not on Intel. But hypersonic is a first-strike weapon.
When President Biden was Vice President, they cut R&D for hypersonics for America. You see, China has tested more than 200 hypersonics, America about 9. We have a missile defense. But you see, hypersonics don't go high. They go five times the speed and low. You don't have 30 minutes to calculate where they are.
You know what China does, too? They build replicas of American aircraft carriers in the desert. I don't think it is to teach their sailors. I think it is to teach their Air Force how to bomb them.
I am not sure, President Biden, if you asked Xi Jinping, why did you lie to President Obama when you built those islands and said you wouldn't weaponize them?
I don't know if you watched the reports of the number of nuclear weapons in silos that China is building not far from Afghanistan. I am not sure we can keep track of it anymore because we don't have Bagram. We don't have Afghanistan. But we are going to look over the horizon. I don't know how. We don't even have light goggles anymore. We left them for the Taliban.
Hypersonics are unpredictable. They are fast, and they are nuclear capable. If deployed correctly, they can beat our missile defenses.
Now, earlier in this conversation I told you, Mr. Speaker, what the Chief of Staff of the White House said, This is bigger than a bill we spent on the New Deal.
So there must be some money in here for hypersonics. I know you don't want to protect the border, but you surely want to protect us for our defense, do you not? Because it is going to lose $800 billion in 5 years.
But you can tell your children's children that the reason why you borrowed the money is so they can be alive in America and not in China.
But that is not in here.
So, Mr. Speaker, what are you going to tell the children's children?
You got a really big bill, and we can't protect you. But you have got a lot of good products you can buy made in China.
General Milley described the launch as a near-Sputnik moment. Mr. Speaker, I imagine you and I weren't alive in Sputnik. But you know what happened after that?
America acted as one. They knew the threat of the future. So when someone on the floor that night that focused, they said our children's children would remember this night. We thank them for that.
We won the Cold War, not because we rewarded people who came here illegally with $450,000.
We won that war because we invested in the future.
We won that war not because we built up bureaucracy, but because we unshackled our private sector.
We won that war not because we kept having inflation. We ended one-
party rule and had the biggest economy we have had since the last time Republicans were in power and passed the tax cuts.
{time} 2250
The sad part, Mr. Speaker, is President Biden could have done nothing. Part of me feels sorry, Mr. Speaker, for all of you. Because had he done nothing, I don't know if we could win in a year. But because of his actions, America is weaker.
When Russia launched Sputnik, the United States responded with a sense of urgency and a show of industrial force. So when China did this hypersonic, what did we do? You are passing a bill that is incentivizing companies to leave America to be in China. The global minimal tax? You make more going to China. That is what your children's children will learn.
But don't worry, you can celebrate. You are going to have a big bureaucracy in America. Remember, that is what the Soviet Union had.
But, today, the Biden administration has responded with weakness, not strength. They actually said that stiff competition between China and America is welcome. I would like competition, but why don't we have it on a level playing field? Why is China given an advantage?
Now, I was in a classroom a little while back, and we were talking about California, the Golden State where everybody wanted to be. Why is Toyota, why is Tesla, why is everybody leaving California? Then they got into the aspect of America. How did China rise?
Well, a student asked me, and I asked her if she played a sport. She said she was a swimmer. I said, well, let me try to answer your question with an analogy of swimming. Picture America at a swim meet after World War II against every other country. We jump into the water. Not only do we win; we dry off before second and third arrive.
So in the next year we think, you know, that is a little unfair. The other countries got destroyed a little more than America. Why don't we put a tax on ourselves to help the others? So we put a little weight belt on. We still win, but we don't swim as fast.
As the years progress, last time we had one-party rule in 2010, you made this stimulus bill, so you put a 50-pound weight on. So now, when we jump into the pool after this bill, we don't win.
Everybody says, why don't you swim like you used to? But the real question is, why don't you take off the weight belt and let us compete?
You are adding another 50 pounds of weight to America, and you are enhancing China. I promise you this: China is not adding 87,000 IRS agents to go after their people.
All you have to do as an American is spend $28, and the IRS is going to knock on your door. Don't think it is only going to happen to those millionaires.
You are a family struggling, making $75,000, and you used to take that vacation every year. But with inflation and gas prices and heating oil going up, you tell your kids you can't. But we built a bureaucracy, so they are going to knock on your door.
This bill, if you measure all the things it does in it, it rewards millionaires. It adds 1.2 million new audits by the IRS, and half of that goes after people making $75,000 or less.
I know so many people like that. I worship with them, play sports. Our kids interact. I don't know how I tell them I work in a body that celebrated doing that to them. I know what their struggles are.
You know, it is interesting. These people work hard. They dream of the American Dream, and you just put hurdles in front of them. You put struggles. Families are going to have to move in together.
But I am going to tell them what you did. You helped everybody making
$800,000 to get that electric car, that Tesla.
I still live in the very first house I ever bought. I can't afford a Tesla. The people on my street where I live, if somebody's car breaks down, we work on it together. We help one another.
I remember driving home just the other day, and there was a young family. It was the grandmom, the mom, and the daughter. She pulled over at the side of the entrance to my neighborhood. Her hood was up. Her car was overheating.
I pulled up. I asked her if she needed help. She wasn't sure what was happening. I said: Wait, I am going to go right over to my house. It is a block away. I will get some antifreeze. I will get a towel. We will open this up, and we will fix this.
I come back, and as I go to work on that car, another neighbor comes by. She is a grandmother. I have known her for years. She gets out with water bottles to give to the family. My daughter had made cookies. I brought cookies for the young child in the back.
My other neighbor works in the oil business. But do you know what? He won't be my neighbor long because, you see, you shut down his business. He told me he has to move. He doesn't live alone. His brother lives with him. He has roommates, and young kids, just to afford to live there.
He pulls up. He gets some antifreeze. And everybody works together to get her back on her way.
That is the American way. It is not building up big bureaucracies or raising gas prices because the White House will tell you that is a good thing because you can afford a Tesla. We are going to take taxes from you so somebody who makes $800,000 can get a tax break to buy a Tesla. I can't even afford to test drive a Tesla, and Elon is one of my best friends.
How is the competition going? For the Chinese Communist Party, it is not much of a fight. You see, Xi Jinping is not going to abide by the term limits of his constitution. But we should trust him. We should just compete together because when he told President Biden he wouldn't weaponize those islands and he did, oh, Xi Jinping, you old friend, you.
When he builds those aircraft carriers in the desert that look just like the American aircraft carriers, that Xi Jinping, he just likes the Navy.
When he tells Australia, when Australia asks where did COVID come from, we are sending our nuclear weapons right down to you.
Lithuania opened a consulate for Taiwan this week. You see, Lithuania has a long history of big, controlling countries next to them that try to push them around. But they know what freedom is.
Do you know what Taiwan is? Taiwan is that young man who stood in front of that tank 32 years ago, who craved the freedom of speech, who understood America is more than a country.
When I look at this bill, it angers me. We are so better than this. You are spending so much money. Never before--think of our history books. Think of how we honor the Honor Flight. Think about the Greatest Generation that sacrificed so much.
We spent less to feed Hitler, Mussolini, and Japan than you are spending tonight. We spent less, but it cost us lives. And you are celebrating it. You are celebrating it when inflation is at a 31-year high.
{time} 2300
Gas prices, Thanksgiving, a border that, in a few months, breaks every record of the last three years combined. And not one dollar is going to protect the border or make our children's children safer for the next generation.
You know, I admire everybody with a job. My first job was at the Quick and Handy Market, and people brought bottles back for deposit. And my job, in 110-degree temperature, was to sort those bottles. It gave me a sense of worth.
You may all admire Europe, you may admire building big bureaucracies. I know you even thought of a plan in here to tax people just on what you thought their world was worth. France did that, and it failed.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot become a socialist country. They have all failed. There is a reason America should lead, but we cannot lead if we are weakened.
A lot of you have been to my office. In my office, I keep portraits.
I don't know if you know this, but I wasn't born a Republican. My family were all Democrats. If anybody questions me about my beliefs, I left what I heard at home because I knew there was something better.
There are two leaders in this Nation that still inspire me to this day, and I am proud of who they are and what they did. And if you come to my office, you are welcome. We can disagree, but we should sit and talk. The problems in America are too big. We can find common ground. We would have found common ground here, if we were welcomed.
You see, I have this portrait of Abraham Lincoln. It is in black and white. A friend of mine painted it; his name is Penley. It is large, too. It is in black and white for a reason.
The greatest challenge ever to our Constitution was the Civil War. While you are celebrating this bill tonight, you are doing it on the exact same floor we debated the Thirteenth Amendment, or the day that would live in infamy, or the civil rights.
Mr. Speaker, the best thing you say is we are going to build a bureaucracy. You know, it is the anniversary just this week of the Gettysburg Address.
Could you imagine being President of the United States; you are not the keynote speaker. The keynote speaker speaks for 2 hours. I think I have already broken that record. I am sorry if you are missing Puerto Rico's fundraiser.
There weren't a lot of words, but this is what Lincoln said, believe in exceptionalism of America. Why? Because we are conceived in liberty and we are dedicated to the proposition that we are all equal. He goes on to say, but if we fail, ``government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from Earth.''
We were not the world power at that moment, but he knew that America was more than a country, that when we work for and by and of the people, we will always lead. There is no other nation in the world that is conceived in liberty and dedicated that everybody is equal.
So when you spend this new green deal money and you send it to China to buy the solar panels and the batteries, look at the slaves they make work there. Look at the slaves they make work there.
I am proud Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President. And I will tell you, at night I look at these two paintings, and I wonder in moments and time what if Abraham Lincoln was not assassinated.
Malice towards none. There would be no Jim Crow laws.
Mr. Speaker, I would love to debate Jim Crow one day, because another portrait just hanging down from Lincoln is Joseph Rainey, the first Black American to get elected to Congress. He was a Republican.
Mr. Speaker, 60 years later, the first Black Democrat was elected to Congress. You see, Joseph Rainey was a slave and broke free and came back after the Civil War and got elected in Charleston, South Carolina. We defeated that original sin. But Joseph Rainey wasn't the only Black Republican elected. More started getting elected. And in the South, we had a competitive Presidential election. But the Democrats said they would recognize the Republicans if they moved the Federal troops out of the South. And when they did, the Democrats won the States and they enacted Jim Crow laws--one of the darkest moments in our history. Had Abraham Lincoln not been assassinated, we would not have to wait until the 1950s for the civil rights.
Abraham Lincoln, if he was here today, he would tell you--and Mr. Speaker, I believe he would look to your side of the aisle, he would say, be fearless when it comes to votes; don't blame others.
You see, when Lincoln was elected in November 1860, he wasn't sworn in until March 1861. It is late, so I am not sure if my math is right, if it was seven or nine States that left the Union before he was sworn in. Never once did he blame Buchanan.
Mr. Speaker, today, I heard our border czar blame Trump for the border. I don't know, in the short months of one-party rule, they have broken all records. He would tell you this, though: Your children's children, do not put off tomorrow what you could do today.
The debate of slavery didn't start in the 1850s. That original sin started at the creation of our country. Our forefathers thought it was too divisive so they said, put it to the side. Hundreds of thousands of their grandchildren had to die. We don't have that same debate today, but you got a big debate on this floor.
Do not blame others when inflation is higher. Do not blame others when your children's children ask you, why did you make the bureaucracy so big, but keep the borders open, and empower China? Why did my father and mother lose their jobs? Why can we not go downtown? Because there is no police to protect us. Or that Russell Johnson's grandson or granddaughter, who can't carry on the legacy of a generation of a rancher. They will point to this night, this time, and this moment.
The other portrait that hangs behind my desk is Ronald Reagan. You see, Ronald Reagan was a Democrat, too, but taxes became so high, you know what he did? He stopped working. He took the incentive away.
Sound familiar? If you pay people more to stay home, they will stay home. If you take away the work requirement--this bill now creates 90 percent of all Americans qualify for the child tax credit. But what did you do? You took away the requirement to work; hurting the small business. Then you took away the Social Security. You might as well take more American taxpayer money, because you got all these IRS agents but you are giving it to people who are not Americans.
Reagan would tell us this--Reagan is in color and Reagan is smiling.
{time} 2310
Mr. Speaker, I think at moments of the times Reagan would talk to my party. We are not perfect by any means. He would tell us: If you believe your principles bring people more freedom, be happy about it. People will wonder what you are drinking. I am a happy conservative, but not tonight.
Reagan would tell us this--and he would talk to this entire body. He would tell us, Mr. Speaker, peace without freedom is meaningless. Think about that for one moment: Peace without freedom is meaningless. It is human nature that we crave peace, but we only attain it with freedom.
Reagan came into office after Jimmy Carter made inflation high; Americans were held hostage; gas prices, you could only go to the station on odd and even days. He was happy and honored to be able to do it. People had written us off.
There were two Germanys. I remember, in my high school, they had one of those Hallmark shows about the Soviet Union invading us, ``Red Dawn.'' People on my street built bomb shelters because there was a Sputnik moment, much like a moment we just had. That is what our top military agents tell us, Mr. Speaker.
Reagan had the same dilemma. He was in his second term, and I believe he was in Iceland, sitting directly across from Gorbachev. They didn't take staff into the room. Mr. Speaker, he started negotiating a nuclear reduction. He was getting most everything he wanted, then Gorbachev asked him one thing: Would Reagan end the SDI program?
Remember what the SDI program was at that moment? It was made fun of, Mr. Speaker, by the Democrats. It was called Star Wars. Today, it is part of the Iron Dome.
Mr. Speaker, you might remember the Iron Dome. Your party actually defunded that along with the police.
Reagan didn't hesitate. He didn't ask Congress; he didn't ask the Senate. He said, no, I will not end the SDI, but what I will do is I will share with you so the world could be safe. Gorbachev declined.
Reagan looked at everything in there, and he thought it was a pretty good agreement. He paused for a moment. It did nothing for those who were in the Gulags. It did nothing for Lech Walesa and the shipyards of Poland.
He did something that most politicians couldn't do. He got up and walked away. Had Reagan not at that moment walked away, the Berlin Wall would have never collapsed in the Soviet Union.
I tell you that story because I hope five of you listen. I hope five of you walk away from this bill. It doesn't bring more freedom. You cannot have peace without freedom.
Do you know what is interesting? In modern history, there have been two U.S. Presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, not Ronald Reagan and not Donald Trump after the Abraham Accords.
All elite press criticized Reagan, but he knew his principles. Reagan didn't have one-party rule. Speaker Tip O'Neill would spend time with him, would talk about the challenges. When they talked about the challenges, they invested not for more illegals coming across the border but to compete against Russia.
Mr. Speaker, inside my conference room, I have another portrait. It is a big one, 8 by 16. It is a portrait of Washington crossing the Delaware. You all know that painting, do you not? This is a replica.
Do you know who painted that painting? It happened Christmas 1776. The person who painted it wasn't there that day. He painted it from 1850 to 1851. He wasn't even an American. He was a German immigrant who lived in America, Emanuel Leutze. He lived here for about 10 years, I believe, and then he went back to Germany.
He knew the same thing that Lincoln knew about America, that America is more than a country, that we are an idea, an idea not of more bureaucracy but of more freedom.
His talent was art, so he thought: I will paint this painting to inspire my country to have a revolution based upon the freedoms of American democracy.
He gets it historically incorrect. If you look at the painting, it doesn't look like the Delaware. It looks like the Rhine. He is German, so we will give him a break, right?
He puts Washington in a rowboat. Historians will tell you he probably crossed in a Durham boat. He puts 13 people in the rowboat. Why? Thirteen Colonies. He only shows you 12 faces.
If you ever look at the painting--and please come to the office. You can bring your constituents. I don't have to be there.
He has Washington in a ceremonial uniform, standing up in a rowboat in the middle of winter with his hand on his chest. If you look at our Founding Father, you would say that man is bigger than life. He is so stoic, I bet he has never lost a battle.
Do you know what history tells us? At that moment in time, Washington had only been a loser. He had never won a fight. But google this painting to see if I am right. You have your phones, and you are welcome to do it. I don't want you to look at Washington. I want you to look at who is in the boat.
The second person is wearing a beret. He is Scottish. The person in the green directly across from him rowing in the exact same cadence is African American. You come down the boat and in the middle is this person in red. They look like they are the strongest. It is a woman. In the very back is a Native American.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot tell you if that diversity was in the boat that night, but to this young immigrant who had lived in America, that is who he believed would be in the boat.
The second to last person was a rancher, a farmer. I don't know if he was related to Russell Johnson or not, but the same occupation. He has his hand across his face. You see that it is the hand of the 13th person nobody sees.
This artist was saying: Here we are, not a country but an idea. Having lost every battle before us but willing to risk everything on our holiest of nights for the idea of freedom, here is a hand. Would you get in and join us?
I wish we hung that portrait in here. I wish we would look at that portrait, that when we brought bills to the floor, we were all rowing together.
I will tell you the challenge that Washington faced that night. Our two biggest challenges for the future are the debt and China. This bill makes us a loser on both. Mr. Speaker, it spends more money than we spent for the entire World War II. It sends our jobs to China. It does nothing to stand up to them.
I know this: It is not too late. It might be late into the night. Mr. Speaker, Members on your side of the aisle, they have staff. They can get a new plane to Puerto Rico. This is too important.
{time} 2320
There are moments in time in history that change the course of this country, and they have happened on this floor--the 13th Amendment and the day that will live in infamy. We were bombed by Japan, and it almost wiped out our Navy. That Congress didn't turn around and say, Let's take away work requirements, let's give incentives to people who are coming illegally, and let's spend nothing on our defense; but let's make it bigger than any other bill we have ever had, and let's make sure nobody on the other side works with us. Now we are going into war, so we should send a letter to OPEC and to Putin because he can lower our gas prices and help us out.
This is that moment. We can have that courage. We can have that ability. It is not too late. Aside from hypersonics, the Pentagon is estimating China could have 1,000 nuclear warheads by the end of the decade. Last year they built 38 gigawatts of coal-powered plants. That is one large coal plant every week.
I know a lot of Members on both sides of the aisle went overseas. Mr. Speaker, I know Speaker Pelosi has been able to go to Europe three times in the last 3 months. I don't know if it is a farewell tour. But if it is, I want a T-shirt.
Mr. Speaker, we have been limited on what we can build nuclearly because of our agreement with Russia. China makes no qualms about what they want to do with Taiwan. If you wonder, look at Hong Kong. My first trip ever to China was back in 1995. Some of you have probably gone with the American Council of Young Political Leaders. They pick five Republicans and five Democrats under the age of 40 to go to China to interact to find their leader.
I remember sitting in a room with a former U.N. ambassador, and he told me they became Communist because they had always been conquered by somebody else. There used to be signs reading no children or dogs in Tiananmen Square. He said, We have no fear of being conquered now, so I don't know what binds us together.
When I went to Tiananmen Square it was moving for me because I remember that moment in time. There are two parts in history I wish I could have been a part of: I wish I could have been in Tiananmen Square and I wish I could have been there knocking down that Berlin Wall.
There was a sign there in Tiananmen Square, Mr. Speaker. It had two moments: the number of days and the number of minutes until Hong Kong came under their control. They said that for 50 years nothing would change. Mr. Speaker, after unleashing COVID on the world, it all changed.
But do you know what happened prior to that, Mr. Speaker?
I am not sure; I think Hong Kong had about 8 million people. Even on rainy Saturdays 3 million of them would show up and bring umbrellas.
Do you know what else they would bring?
American flags. They knew the exact same thing as Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Rainey, and Frederick Douglass: that America is more than a country, that it is an idea. They stood out in the rain knowing what China would do for freedom of speech but not for more bureaucracy.
The moment China came in, did we do anything?
We are going to buy more batteries from them. They use slave labor to create them.
If you question where COVID came from, they say they are going to send their nuclear weapons to you. Mr. Speaker, I don't know if we know how many nuclear weapons they have because we can't fly over them much anymore.
But, Mr. Speaker, do you ever wonder and start to think, you have these nuclear weapons, you have hypersonics, and then you invade Taiwan.
Do you think that may keep more people at bay?
I don't know. When Putin took Crimea, he said he took it because no one said he couldn't. He has built up, along the road, Ukraine.
Mr. Speaker, does it make you wonder after Afghanistan where Americans were left behind, that China flies more of their aircraft over Taiwan? That China did not show up at the global warming party?
There are so many things to be proud of about our country. I am worried about the environment. I wish every country was like America. We lowered our CO2 emissions. We didn't mandate.
Do you know what we did while we lowered them?
We became energy independent.
But do you know what happens when you shut down an American pipeline and you allow a Russian pipeline to go?
You make the air dirtier. American natural gas is 42 percent cleaner.
Do you know what else comes with American natural gas?
American jobs. American kids can pay for college, they can buy a car, and they can buy a house. I don't know if in today's America they can afford to fill it up.
But you are going to restrict America. Mr. Speaker, I have heard a lot of people brag about this bill. They are really happy about the Green New Deal. I don't know if many read the Chinese paper, they are happier. Because that is where you are sending Americans' hard-earned taxpayer dollars. And if you don't get enough, the IRS agents are going to pound on their door.
Meanwhile, President Biden is acting like there is no competition at all. Today, on a few important issues Biden has folded on, he bailed out Huawei and refuses to investigate the origins of coronavirus or hold China accountable for its actions.
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you another story. This is a personal story with your leadership and ours. Many of us had the pleasure and the honor of going to the 75th anniversary of D-day. I think every American should go and read the headstones with the ages of the thousands upon thousands of Americans who all died in a short timeframe. Look at the Stars of David and crosses.
I traveled with the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. As we flew in on a helicopter and we went down the path with the doors open, we wondered about those brave men. You still saw the guns of the Germans. They had to land, and they were sitting ducks. They had to climb up, and they were just being shot one after the other. They were so young. But their children's children are proud of them.
When I looked at those headstones, I looked at the Speaker, and I wondered: what could America have done before then so that they would not have lost their lives?
What could we have done before the rise of Hitler or Mussolini?
Where could we have made that investment?
Then I thought to the future of us as policymakers. History repeats itself. I watch China steal our technology. I watch them test hypersonics. I watch them build a new coal plant and shut ours down. This isn't like the Soviet Union. We are not going to outspend them.
When I asked the Speaker: Could we create a committee with an equal number of Republicans and an equal number of Democrats to just focus on China?
She thought it was an interesting idea. I called Steny, the majority leader. I presented the same idea to him. I spent 8 months on this.
And do you know what, Mr. Speaker?
They agreed.
{time} 2330
So we agreed. We picked the number of members, and then they came back to me and said, no, we had to shrink it. That is okay. That is okay. I just really want to have this happen. Because you know Xi Jinping isn't going to abide by the term limits; he tries to wait everybody out, Mr. Speaker.
We got so close; we invited the Washington Post reporter in to interview the members who were going to be on this committee. They pre-
interviewed it so we would be able to introduce it. The night before that moment, like the time in the boat, I was proud of Congress. We were going to do this together in one of our greatest challenges.
I got a phone call. They said, we are not doing the committee. I said, what are you talking about? We spent 8 months at this.
You see, COVID had hit, and they thought it might give a political advantage if we focused on China. I went ahead anyway and started the China Task Force. And in that China Task Force, all the ideas that we came up with, two-thirds of them, were bipartisan.
Mr. Speaker, we talk a lot about the future. If this body changes power, we will have a committee that focuses on the future of America and China. We need to plan.
This is going to do a lot of damage to us. I hope five of you change your mind. And you know what? I am going to welcome you to serve on it, too.
I want one American policy. I don't want to look out in California and see all those ships anymore. I want to look at California and see all those ships leaving with American products going to other countries.
We need to hold them accountable. Why would the world stay silent after the millions upon millions who have died from COVID?
Would it not raise a question if China shut down their domestic flights but kept their international open?
Welcome, Madam Speaker. I am just getting geared up. It is good you sit.
Now, Republicans are offering a better approach; instead of cooperating with China from a position of weakness, we need to compete from a position of strength.
Madam Speaker, you are new, and I am not sure you have been listening. I hope you were.
I would think, Madam Speaker, why don't we have a full Congress briefing on China's hypersonics?
Why don't we do one thing? Why don't we pause this bill? If this bill is going to spend $5 trillion, more than any other bill we have ever spent, more than what we spent to end World War II, why don't we pause this bill, have a briefing of all of us together about that Sputnik moment that our top military tells us?
And why don't we rise to the occasion? Why don't we do what America did at that moment, with our children's children? Witness one Germany?
Why don't we pause and let's see if we ought to spend the money there?
You see, with one-party rule, the last time you had it, you cut the funding for hypersonics. Now, I don't remember the debate, and I don't know, Madam Speaker, if somebody on the other side said, by this cut, our children's children will be excited about this tonight.
But I do know where we stand today, more than 12 years later; in a weaker position, more dependent, and more vulnerable.
You know what that means if we want to do something different? That means strengthening our military, rebuilding our economy, and regaining our position of leadership in the world.
I don't know how many of you are historians, but if you study the entire world, there have only been two nations that have had the largest economy, China and America. You know, in the last year, ours grew faster than them. But they are catching us. After this bill, they put a weight belt on it. You gave an advantage to them.
What if we did this, too? What if we paused, and what if we, together, inspired the rest of the nations in the world and said, let's not reward China with the Olympics. Do you want to reward them?
I will guarantee you their economy will be stronger after this bill.
We can't keep being nice. We can't let them continue to lie, to steal.
It also means delivering truth and accountability when it comes to the coronavirus.
There is not one in this Chamber that does not know somebody who died from COVID. I was talking to a friend last night. He is about my age, but he had these two mentors. They are older men. They are farmers. He is a farmer. And he had been calling them. He was down looking for them; couldn't find them. I never heard this friend of mine get emotional. He said he just got a call back. One of them died from COVID. His father is no longer alive, but he felt he lost his father that night.
You know who he was most mad at? China. I never heard him cuss until that night. He just felt it was so unfair. Don't we all?
Don't we remember being in this Chamber, struggling in our own community, trying to find PPE just for our hospitals? You know, some of the brightest moments of America happened at that time. We watched people risk their lives. We watched what America does best, ingenuity, invest. We don't have one vaccine, we have three.
You ask anybody in the world, do they want a vaccine from Russia or China? They want America's. We did that. We did it faster than Fauci ever said we could.
You know what else we could do? We could do hypersonics, too. We are not going to gain on China if they tested it 200 times and we are at 9.
Madam Speaker, hypersonics is a first-strike weapon.
Look, I was a smart aleck growing up, and I got in a few fights. But the one thing I will tell you, in a schoolyard, I never won one that someone got to punch me five times before I could swing. But that is what your children's children are going to learn tonight. They could strike us before they could defend us.
Are we weaker based upon what happened in Afghanistan? Oh, yes, we are. If you don't read China's papers, you know what they told Taiwan the next day? See, America won't be there for you.
I was speaking soft, Madam Speaker, but I wasn't imitating President Biden.
I imagine the papers in China will read, soon after this bill passes, that America is going to ask them, the Chinese to buy our bonds so they have greater control over us; that America is going to be weaker; that they did nothing to stop the flow of fentanyl made in China coming to America.
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We cannot lose sight of the ultimate goal. We will not allow America to fall further behind like the Biden administration has.
Madam Speaker, when they study history, our children's children, I am sure the chapter will read ``One-party control for one term: The damage that was done.''
There will be college courses. There will be people who are nominated to the Fed simply because they studied the inflation that came back today. I don't know about you, but if you study history, there is no easy way of getting out of inflation. There is only pain. Don't take my word for it. Just pick up The Wall Street Journal and read the story of Turkey today.
Madam Speaker, I know my friend, Mr. Neal, has been here 33 years. He has to remember what inflation looked like in the 1970s, interest rates in double digits.
Madam Speaker, it is different today. For all of those Democrats, Madam Speaker, that would not vote for the bill unless they got the CBO report that told them it paid for itself--I watched some of them on TV--I feel sorry for them. I don't know how they will face their constituents again.
But what about those 21 Members, Madam Speaker, in your Caucus that sent a letter to the Speaker that said to take out the IRS agents. I guess if you send a letter, it is okay to vote the opposite. I don't know. Where I grew up, in my family, that is not what we were taught.
The CBO came back. In 5 years, it costs $800 billion, and that is after you have played all the tricks with all the dials where you don't pay for everything.
The difference today is our debt is larger than our GDP. When that happened before, we weren't fighting for a Green New Deal; we were fighting to save America and the world. The minute World War II was over, it dropped.
Madam Speaker, I think you are fighting to make this country a socialist country.
Margaret Thatcher said it well: You are going to run out of everybody else's money. The difference now, though, is you have inflation. What is so sad is, you were warned that would happen. I know you don't want to listen to me. I know you don't like me. That is okay.
But Larry Summers worked in two Democrat administrations. He serves in one of the most prestigious universities in America. He is partisan, partisan, but he is an economist.
Before you passed that $2 trillion--and remember what happened. It is similar to this bill. It was not bipartisan. What is so unusual, when COVID hit, all of those bills we did, we did it together. But when January 20 hit, when it was one-party rule, all changed. We were no longer welcome. So we warned you, but you thought it was politics.
But then Larry Summers warned you in February. You passed it anyway. Nine percent went to COVID. The school money, a lot of it didn't last but 2 or 3 months. Then we read all about these schools. They had too much money. They were giving bonuses to people who didn't even work.
You passed rules that said bills didn't have to go through committee. You made proxy voting. I remember the negotiation on proxy.
I remember, Madam Speaker, talking to the Speaker and the majority leader at the very beginning, saying: We will never do proxy. It will destroy the body of Congress.
Historians will tell you that. Even when the Confederacy wasn't that far away, we still met. August 24, 1814, when the British burned this building down, we still met. Through every pandemic, we still met.
But what we thought was that, and I disagreed, it was only those few people who have respiratory problems. We are going to make it tough. Only a few people are going to do it for a short time, and they are going to sign a letter that says they just can't make it here.
Madam Speaker, I was shocked when I saw a Member on your side of the aisle. He must have been really fearful of COVID because he was on a boat. It looked like a vacation to me.
Madam Speaker, today, I got my booster shot, my third shot. I have had COVID. I have had three shots. I went down to see Dr. Monahan. I said, will I have any side effects? I got my second shot the morning of January 6, and I got the chills. I got the shakes that day for a lot of reasons. I wondered if it was the best idea to get that shot today. I took it anyway. I didn't know if I was going to be too tired. I might have a little headache now.
But this is too important. This is just too important. This is a turning point in our country. We are at a tipping point because let me tell you what happens: You cannot curb inflation without devaluing the dollar or raising the interest rate. We raised it high after the last time the Democrats had one-party control in the late 1970s. But do you know what? It will cut all the economy, but we won't be able to pay our bills. We have too big of a debt now.
The Wharton School is an amazing school. They would never accept me. They studied this bill. You didn't have to wait for the CBO. You know it costs $4 trillion. It also tells you it is going to lower our growth.
Only two countries in the world have had the largest economy. If our currency is not the world currency, if our debt is too big, unfortunately, Madam Speaker, what the majority leader said to start this out, that our children's children will remember this night, oh, they will remember this night.
We are a great Nation. We are exceptional. This body has risen to so many occasions. But on the occasions they rose before, they didn't do it with one party.
If America asked me what went wrong: one-party rule for one term. Divided government makes you have to find compromise.
Madam Speaker, when I came to this body, I came at a time in 2006 when Republicans lost the majority for a lot of different reasons. There were only 13 Republicans, the smallest freshman class since 1914, and that is when they enlarged this body.
I have made friends on both sides of the aisle. I believe in competition. I believe in debate. But I believe in respect.
Four years later, it was a big night in Virginia and New Jersey. If you study history, Virginia and New Jersey are off-year elections.
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Madam Speaker, your party had had power for a long time in Congress, for 40 years. Before 1994, there was an election in 1993, and it was a shock in Virginia and New Jersey, and in 1994, something unheard of happened. Republicans won the majority.
I should have known in 2006 that was going to happen because in 2005 there was an election in Virginia and New Jersey. Democrats won, and it flipped.
In 2009, I was in my second term. I was a deputy whip. I remember certain moments. I didn't know Steny Hoyer at that moment. I respected him. I respected his years of service. I respected the leadership in which he served.
I remember it like it was slow motion. It was back when you could speak in the well. President Obama had just become President. We invited him to our conference. He wanted to do a stimulus bill, and I was proud of our conference that day. President Obama treated us with respect. We even met in HT5, where you meet now.
We got up one by one. I remember Kevin Brady. The President said, ``I want to hear your ideas.'' We didn't play political games. We gave him ideas. And with respect to President Obama, you know what he said: That is a good one. No, I am not going to do that one.
I liked that. He said we were going to work together. As he walked out, we thought we were going to work together that day. Henry Waxman was the chairman at the time. He dropped the stimulus bill, as the President left us saying he was going to work with us.
I used to spend my time down on the floor. I thank you for being here. I know it is late. But I would spend my time on the floor because most Democrats didn't know who I was, and sometimes I would sit over there, and I would listen, so I could learn.
It is like slow motion, what Steny Hoyer was saying. When that stimulus came to the floor, it was a lot of money. It was a lot of money. He said, I don't know if this will work, but I do know, you are going to have to go home and tell your constituents why you voted no, why you wouldn't help them.
I didn't want to be the party of ``no.'' So I remember sitting up in Eric Cantor's office, and we would bring people. Brady was there and Camp and Lott. He said, The President meant well, but his own party won't let him work with us. So let's make our own bill. Let's compete on the power of the idea.
So we produced our own bill. We had outside score it, created jobs with less money, and 30 seconds before that gavel went down, I remember talking to two Republicans right here. President Obama thought he was going to get 60 Republicans to vote for it. He was literally calling Members back in the Chamber.
That bill passed. It was popular. It is kind of like your COVID bill when it first passed. I don't know if you looked at the polling today. This was early on in that majority.
And I remembered the whole time what Steny Hoyer said. And right before that election, after Virginia and New Jersey, do you realize more people in America thought Elvis was alive than the stimulus created a job?
If you look at your COVID bill, the $2 trillion--there are other moments I have had in here. You know, I came in, and one of the most moving votes we have ever had--I wasn't here to vote on whether we went to Iraq or Afghanistan, but I was here to vote about the surge. And I came in when we lost the majority, and a lot of that had to do with the continuing war.
I wanted to do something different, so I invited anybody who had an opinion, that was opposed, that was for it, foreign ambassadors, and I remember the ambassadors telling us, ``We did not agree with you coming, but you better not leave it this way.''
And for anyone who serves in a body--and I served in the legislature before I came--nobody can prepare you for a vote like that. You know when you take a vote like that you are going to look a mother and a father or a husband or a wife in the eye, and you are going to have to explain why their loved one gave their life.
So I did not want the administration to tell me anything. I was going to come to this conclusion because I had to make the decision myself. I had to look people in the eye. I voted for the surge that night. It was packed. It was one of the first times I spoke on the floor. I remember calling home. I was nervous.
That April I went to Iraq, Afghanistan. A group of us, bipartisan, we spent Christmas morning with General Petraeus in one of the little amazing houses in there.
And I remember that was bipartisan. I remember respecting the other side. I remember America coming together. It was tough. You had just won the majority. The debate was about war. Men and women were losing their lives, but we didn't think America should lead that way. There were people on both sides of the aisle. You were in the majority. President Bush was still President, and we came to what was best for the future together.
Then I remember the financial collapse. I remember being on this floor with TARP. For any of you that were here, it was all packed. Do you remember the chant? 100, 200, 300, 400, the Dow Jones going down. The Dow Jones, I think, went past 1000.
Ever since my days as deputy whip, I have this philosophy, the first one to 200 wins on any big bill. Now that proxy is here, it doesn't work, but for those voting in here, if you get to 200 first, that is usually where it is going to go.
At that moment, more than 1000 down, the noes were at 200. Then it collapsed, and the market went up a little more, only down maybe 800.
Do you remember how big that was? The world's largest economy on a financial meltdown, and we both came together. Because it was a big vote, right? Do you know how much we spent then? $800 billion. $800 billion.
You are spending $5 trillion. While we have inflation. $800 billion was enough to save the financial markets of America. We have got 10 million jobs out there for people to work on. You are doing nothing for the border, nothing for the children's future when it comes to China. No incentive to go to work. You are incentivizing people to come here illegally. You are incentivizing people to stay home and get a check.
I like to study history. Every great society that has overextended themselves has collapsed.
Madam Speaker, I don't mean to go back to what my friend Steny Hoyer said, but tonight will be the night that our children's children--oh, I apologize, it is you back in the chair, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, may I ask you a question? Did you get to take a bathroom break and I didn't? But I understand. It's okay.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 201(1), Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 201(2)
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