Madam Speaker, right now, we are facing a critical question for our country. It is a question about whether our country wants to be first or last. A lot has been made, obviously, of the former President's agenda, which he referred to as…
Madam Speaker, right now, we are facing a critical question for our country. It is a question about whether our country wants to be first or last.
A lot has been made, obviously, of the former President's agenda, which he referred to as ``America First.''
I think, unfortunately, we are sitting here right now, and our country is now too often looking at America last.
There are a number of issues that are facing the constituents that I represent, but I believe this is true for people all across the country. I have spoken many times here on this floor about this.
In Texas, our border is under siege. In Texas, it is a very real impact on our life, our communities. I share that with my colleagues all across the country, all 50 States represented here.
It is very real in Texas, but it is very real in our country about the impact of the broken border. It is very real right now with people who run small businesses and need to hire people and they can't because we are paying people more not to work than to work.
It is very real when people are going to buy gas at the pump, and it is well over $3 a gallon.
It is very real when you try to buy a house, and lumber is up 470 percent.
It is very real when you want to go get the healthcare of your choice and you can't.
It is very real when you turn on the TV, and you watch what was Middle East peace now turning into chaos as our friends in Israel are being attacked.
There are consequences to our choices in elections. There are consequences to the leadership you have in your country. There are consequences to the decisions we make.
I would think that all Americans, regardless of which side of the aisle you fall, whether you are in Congress or you are back home watching, you want America to be first. You want America to succeed. You want America to do well. You want our allies to succeed.
As you see, I am putting a comparison here of what the world looks like with America first and what the world looks like with America last.
Admittedly, we had the intermittent reality of dealing with the pandemic. But just over a year ago, we were dealing with record low unemployment, record levels of employment for minority communities in our country, a booming economy, with strong economic growth. America was leading and moving the world forward.
Today, we have jobs that are vacant, not being filled. Small businesses coming up to me, saying: ``Our whole livelihoods are getting destroyed; we are going to lose everything we have built, because we can't hire anybody.''
I go to restaurants and I see ``help wanted'' signs. They are struggling to have anybody there to serve. People are going back. It is not the virus. People are going back. They just can't get service. Every businessperson I talk to in the State of Texas faces the same dilemma, the same problem: They can't hire anybody.
Now why might that be? Could it be that in the infinite wisdom of this body that we have spent $6 trillion over the last year--$6 trillion over the last year--and that, as part of doing that, we have funded unemployment at levels that is making it more attractive for Americans to choose not to work than to work. Americans are logical human beings. When presented with that choice, they are going to make that choice. Some aren't, but many do.
And now, you are owning a restaurant and you are trying to have wait staff or people to bus tables or cooks, and you can't hire them. You are trying to run a landscaping company, you can't hire them. You are trying to run a cleaning business, you can't hire them.
This is real, and it is happening right now in real time. The result, an economy stagnating. We are not taking off with growth. Now we have got inflationary pressures because we just spent $6 trillion. You run the risk of stagflation, low economic growth, higher cost of goods, all while we are now dealing with the uncertainty of a world in chaos.
A year ago, small businesses were thriving. Now, small businesses are getting crushed. A year ago, not too long ago, gas was $1.77 a gallon. Now we are looking at gas over $3 per gallon. As I said, lumber prices are up 478 percent; copper is up, I think, 50 to 70 percent.
My parents right now are trying to go through building a house, and they are not sure if the dollars they have got set aside to do it are going to work, because all of these prices are going up, up, up at extraordinary rates.
There is a cost to bad leadership and bad decision-making. Our border was well on its way to becoming secure. In April last year, we had 20,000 apprehensions. How many apprehensions did we
have this year in April? 178,000. We have had over 530-something thousand apprehensions from January 1 through the end of April. We have had almost 600,000 apprehensions to date, based on the information I have through mid-May. My sources at the border tell me that we have had 300,000 individuals who have gotten away or who have been released.
I went down to the border, one of the many trips I have taken to the border because the district I represent is about 150 miles away. I went down at night, and I met with about 50 different migrants who had just come across the Rio Grande. This was a group that I just met with, and they are driving back down the road. I actually followed them in my truck with the headlights on, so they weren't just walking in the middle of the darkness to go get over to where the processing center is.
America first looks like this. Significant amounts of immigration. Legal immigration hasn't dipped below a million per year in some 20 years. America's doors are open, you-all. The idea that people want to say ``Close our doors,'' that is not the case. But you want to have operational control of your border.
I am going to talk about Israel in a minute. Israel put fences in place because they wanted to control their borders. You know what? They worked. Of course they worked.
We have fences in place in southern California. Illegal immigration in the 1990s, which was astronomical, over half a million, dropped to 40- or 50,000. Why? Fences work. In Brownsville-McAllen, there is fences and there is infrastructure around Brownsville. There isn't in McAllen. Guess where the traffic goes? McAllen.
This is not rocket science. When you are putting America first, you put in infrastructure. Border Patrol wants it, they have asked for it. It works. Yes, some people go around, yes, some people try to go over, but if you have ever spent a minute at our southern border--side note I would offer to the Vice President of the United States, that should she actually wish to do her job in supposedly running this whole border security task force, come on down to Texas. So far she hasn't. In the 2 months that she has been allegedly in charge, our Madam Vice President could come see that instead of security, we have utter chaos.
Here is the thing. These are human beings. These are not political pawns. These are human beings, seeking a better life. I don't begrudge any one of these immigrants who are seeking to come to our country. God bless them. I would try to help any one of them that were coming across to figure out where they needed to go. They are human beings, all of God's creatures, but they shouldn't be endangered because we are sending up false signals that it is a good idea for people like the 7- year-old girl that I talked to on the border who was all by herself coming from Guatemala to America. She didn't have a parent, didn't have an uncle, didn't have an aunt, didn't have a brother, didn't have a sister. She was by herself. The young man who was right next to her, I said, ``Where did you meet this young girl?'' He said, ``Midway through Mexico.'' She was 7, you-all, 7.
Depending on which nonprofit, nonpartisan groups you listen to, we know that upwards of 20 to 30 percent of women that are on this journey get abused. We know the cartels are making massive amounts of money moving human beings for profit.
We know that fentanyl, the most dangerous narcotic that is currently out there, or one of the most, we have now had more in 2021 in this calendar year in 4\1/2\ months than in all of 2020. Fentanyl. Our kids are dying. There is an opioid epidemic.
What does this administration do? Hey, I have got a good idea, let's have processing centers in McAllen, let's have all of the Border Patrol go down to McAllen and have to run processing centers instead of actually policing our borders between the ports of entry and trying to stop the flow of fentanyl and dangerous narcotics into our country.
There is a consequence to not doing your job. This administration is not doing its job. This administration, worse than not doing its job, it is purposely harming our country in the false name of compassion. Instead of having secure borders, instead of allowing people to come to our country legally, safely, we endanger immigrants and say that that is somehow being compassionate.
How is that compassionate? How is it compassionate when the Gulf Cartel, the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel is making millions of dollars moving human beings for profit? How is it compassionate when the Cartel del Noreste of Los Zetas in Nuevo Laredo is making millions of dollars moving human beings for profit?
When the district attorney in Kendall County, Nicole Bishop, a county I represent, and I visited, and she talked about the nine illegal immigrants found in an automobile being driven by an American citizen employee of that Cartel del Noreste. It had nine illegal immigrants in there, two tied up in the trunk, and they were being taken to a stash house in Houston, Texas, to be put into the human trafficking and sex trafficking trade.
America first is about jobs, economic growth, a strong border, standing with our friends in Israel, affordable commodities like gas. America last is a wide open border in which Americans are endangered, ranches are overrun, cartels are empowered, immigrants are abused, prices go up, commodity prices go up, businesses can't hire people, and we abandon Israel.
America first versus America last. I have got more to say about this, which will surprise no one. But my friend from Pennsylvania is here, and I would certainly love to turn the floor over to my good friend from Pennsylvania should he wish to opine.
Is the gentleman aware that the Vice President was tapped by the President to take charge of this crisis?
To your knowledge, has the Vice President visited the southern border of the United States in the now almost 2 months that she has been allegedly in charge?
When you think about the various things it is impacting--you represent constituents in Pennsylvania, and I in Texas--you talked about the reach of illegal immigration, narcotics, cartels, and gangs into Pennsylvania.
Does the gentleman agree, when we had the previous administration putting America first, does the gentleman agree that our economic situation and job situation and price of goods and services situation was far better and that small businesses were thriving versus today when small businesses can't hire anybody?
Does the gentleman agree that commodities--gasoline, wood, housing supplies--were cheaper and more affordable, and today they are now skyrocketing through the roof after $6 trillion of spending?
Does the gentleman agree that the border was becoming secure under an America First agenda, and now it is wide open and being abused?
Does the gentleman agree that we had historic Middle East peace with our friends in Israel, and making our country safer, by the way, in the process in holding the line against Iran and our enemies, and now we have got Israel under attack and an administration saddling up with our stated enemy, Iran?
Does the gentleman agree that all of these are stark contrasts?
I will be mindful of your time whenever you have to go on, but would you agree that if you go back and say, all right, let's go look at how the America First agenda was performing a couple of years ago, that the unemployment rate in April 2018 was 3.6 percent, that today the unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, that the poverty rate in 2019 was 10\1/2\ percent, that the poverty rate today is 13.7 percent projected, that the Consumer Price Index in April 2019 was 2 percent, that today the Consumer Price Index is at 4.2 percent and skyrocketing.
If you compare where we were with respect to energy a couple of years ago--and I know that my friend has a heart for energy; obviously, it is very important to his State as it is to mine in Texas--that under the Trump administration for the first time in nearly 70 years, the United States became a net energy exporter, right?
Making us freer, stronger, with more abundant, more affordable energy, we became the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Natural gas production reached a record high of 34.9 quads in 2019 following record production in 2018 and 2017. The average American family saved $2,500 a year in lower electric bills.
Now, what do we have? A shutdown Keystone pipeline, and an administration saying we can't frack in Western lands.
We rejoined the Paris climate agreement to have the United States foot the bill, billions to the United Nations climate fund.
We have suspended the leases on Federal lands. As I said, a complete Federal land ban would increase foreign dependence by 2 million barrels a day. Gas prices are at a 7-year high. I could go on and on.
Does the gentleman agree that there are consequences to an agenda like the previous administration's that puts the country first versus an administration that is perfectly fine putting the country last in order to go achieve some sort of, I don't know, fealty to the European social welfare state and make yourself seem, I don't know, welcomed in Davos?
Yes, a piece of plywood.
I was just explaining, before the gentleman arrived, that my parents are in the midst of building a house. They are beginning to wonder now whether or not they are going to be able to afford it by the end of the build because of the price of lumber, because of the price of concrete that is going up, because you have to have forms for the concrete and you have to have labor.
Now, we are having a shortage of labor because we are paying people more to not work than to work, in the infinite wisdom of my colleagues on the other side of aisle who believe you can throw $6 trillion into the economy and not have consequences.
Is the gentleman aware that it only took us $4.1 trillion in today's dollars to win all of World War II from beginning to end? Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle felt like it would be a good idea to dump $6 trillion into the economy and believe that it wouldn't have the consequence of inflation, that it wouldn't have the consequence of paying people more not to work than to work, and destroy jobs, destroy livelihoods, destroy small businesses.
Now, we see the America First energy policy under the previous administration where we had abundant oil, abundant energy, and now an America last where you have lines. I mean, who is President? Is it Jimmy Carter or Joe Biden?
I saw a photograph today that had a person who was driving a Tesla. And God bless Tesla for making technology. I am all for it. But the person in their virtue-signaling, self-congratulation of driving their Tesla is driving around with a license plate that says: ``NO FUEL,'' right? Does somebody want to go, ``Wait. Hold on,'' knock on the door and say: ``Excuse me, where do you think the power is coming from?'' Is it magic power? ``Well, we just get power from electricity,'' as if the electricity comes from nothing, as if the Tesla is just magically powered and suddenly just drives around without having abundant availability of energy.
Is the gentleman aware and would he agree with me that China has about 70 percent of the world's rare-earth reserves, and that when we are going down the road of solar panels and other alternative forms of energy--and, again, Texas embraced wind power; Texas embraced solar power. We can have these as part of our grid, but then what happens on a windless, cloudy day? You have China being empowered.
One more question for the gentleman: Is the gentleman aware that we just saw a report that China is producing more of the emissions and CO2 than the rest of the world combined? My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want us to join the Paris Agreement, which we were outperforming without being a part of it. They want us to bow down to the altar of the Chinese and say: ``Oh, please let us be a part of this whole exercise,'' while China is pumping out more actual pollutants and more CO2 than anybody else in the world.
Is the gentleman aware that human life expectancy, if you track it on a chart, is almost directly correlated to the availability of abundant energy and that we have seen the lifesaving advances that cause human flourishing, the ability to save people's lives, the advancement of modern technology for medicine, to be able to spread that around the world?
There are still 3 billion people in the world right now who are not living with abundant energy, and what do we want to do as the greatest country in the history of the world? We want to slam the brakes on this great economy with this magic unicorn dust of a view toward how we are going to have our energy policy while we throttle us back, empower China, allow China to be able to continue to pollute what they want to in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, human beings suffer.
I heard the gentleman, who I should thank for his military service, his long career in serving in our Armed Forces. I appreciate your service. I know the gentleman is concerned a lot about national security, as well.
With respect to pipelines, you alluded to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. I believe today we learned that the administration was backing away from sanctions,
which is perfectly fine, having the Nord Stream 2 pipeline funneling all sorts of fossil fuels to Germany, but forsaking our friends in Ukraine, by the way, in doing so.
You get a twofer out of this administration: undermine our national security while harming our friends in Ukraine who are trying to push back against Putin. But, oh, by the way, you are advancing a pipeline over there while you refuse to have pipelines in the United States of America.
I know the gentleman probably has things he needs to do, but before he leaves, I wanted to address one other issue on national security because I know he has a passion for this, as well.
We have talked about the impact on our economy of America First versus America last. We talked about the impact on the border of America First versus America last. We talked about the impact on energy and availability of energy of America First versus America last.
Now, let's talk a little bit about the impact on the stability in the world on Middle East peace, on our national security and the national security of our friends and allies, and, in particular, our friends in Israel.
I know the gentleman, like I, has traveled to Israel. I have been there a couple of times. I am sure the gentleman has been there a few times. In my experience in Israel, it is an extraordinary place with extraordinary people with a pluralistic culture, a multifaith culture. But it is a burgeoning democracy, a strong economy, and it is probably our strongest ally in the world--if not in the world, certainly in the Middle East. The previous administration was doing what for decades previous administrations had said was impossible and was striking historic peace deals with Arab nations, working and interacting with Israel, with direct flights from Arab nations to Israel occurring. The Abraham Accords, we had significant peace in the Middle East, yet what do we have today? In a few short months under the wisdom of the current administration, we have massive attacks on our friends in Israel.
We have massive loss of life. And God bless the previous relationships with our country and Israel to produce the technology that Iron Dome offers to the people of Israel so that they are not getting slaughtered by the rockets that are coming from Hamas, being supported, by the way, by the policies of this administration, in empowering Hamas to be taking shots at our friends in Israel, where our friends in Israel are under attack.
Thank the good Lord above that we have Iron Dome and the ability to protect our friends in Israel and work with them so that we also have strong missile defense technology.
Would the gentleman agree that that is the current state of affairs?
I saw the same stories that my friend from Pennsylvania saw about some of our democratic colleagues, I think here in the House and in the Senate, who were starting to say that we needed to back off of that and not provide the hellfire missiles or any of the resources that we worked in collaboration with our friends in Israel in order to make sure they are protected, and particularly in the use of the Iron Dome. Literally protecting millions of people, by the way.
There is 150,000 rockets sitting in Lebanon, sitting and pointing right at northern Israel. By the way, the populated area in that northern part of Israel is about the size of a portion of the district I represent in that stretch between San Antonio and Austin.
I took a helicopter tour going up to Jordan, up the north side of Israel, back down to Tel Aviv and back down to Jerusalem in a few hours.
Can you imagine? That is the size of Israel.
And they have 150,000 rockets in Lebanon pointing from the north, and they have got Gaza over here firing all these missiles coming in from Gaza. Hamas launching them in at Israel, and they are actually benefiting from the technology we are providing. And now you have got Democrats saying they want to pull that away.
Now, the good news is I also saw a story today with a couple of them starting to walk that back, because hopefully they are starting to feel the pressure the American people want us to stand with Israel. The American people want us to stand with our allies who stand with us, and that is what Israel has done.
And I would tell the gentleman, I am sure he has experienced what I experienced when I was at the Sea of Galilee. And I was on the floor the other night with Brian Mast, your fellow veteran, who lost his legs in service to our country. He also served 2 years in the Israel Defense Forces. Well, Brian and I were both sharing the story about when we were sitting on a pier in the Sea of Galilee, and the Israelis, who were on that pier, stood up and looked at us and they all sang ``God Bless America.'' And they all stood up and thanked us one by one for what we do in defense of Israel and our partnership with them.
And this administration is walking away from that. This administration is hugging Iran. This administration wants to cut deals with Iran, provide resources to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which undermines Israel and undermines our national security. And the American people, when they know this, they don't want it.
It has been great.
You know something about that?
Is the gentleman aware that a few of our colleagues actually were lamenting that Iron Dome was preventing casualties in Israel because, for some reason, that might be seen as disproportionate with respect to whatever damage and casualties might be occurring in Gaza?
And it seemed to me that the simple answer--I mean, just color me crazy here, my friend from Pennsylvania--might be stop firing rockets from Gaza, stop firing rockets at Israel.
Would the gentleman also agree that our friends in Israel, the Israelis, call ahead, give them notice, tell them the missiles are coming in?
They say, ``vacate the block because in 15 minutes that building is going to be gone.''
And then we heard our colleagues on the other side of the aisle lamenting that somehow AP or Al Jazeera were in a building that was taken out.
Yet there is ample evidence that they knew full well that Hamas was operating in that building. They knew it, yet they were doing it anyway and they didn't care.
Does the gentleman agree that Israel not only has a right to defend itself--and I was thankful to hear the President at least utter those words, that they have a right to defend themselves.
Does he not agree with me that they have a duty, a responsibility to defend themselves in the same way that we would if 1,500--well, actually, up to 3,300 rockets have been launched by Hamas in the last 8 days.
Can you imagine what the American people will be saying and doing if I was sitting in San Antonio or Austin and 3,300 rockets were coming at us from Nuevo Laredo, from across the border in Mexico?
Would we just be sitting back and saying, well, I mean, I wonder what kind of proportionate response should look like?
Or would you just be responding back with overwhelming force to say under no circumstances do you shoot one rocket into our country, much less 3,300?
The gentleman is welcome to stay as long as he wants, but I think he has other places to go. But I would just say that I appreciate the gentleman joining me.
I know he agrees with me that an ``America first'' agenda that is pro-jobs, pro-affordable prices, pro-border security, pro-Israel, pro- national security, pro-abundant energy is much better than an ``America last'' agenda in which we abandon our own allies, abandon our own national security, have wide open borders, have skyrocketing prices, inflation going through the roof, and joblessness because people can't find jobs, because people are getting paid more not to work than to work.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
Madam Speaker, I would close a little bit here out on Israel by saying just a few things I didn't get into in terms of the details, because these matters. These details matter.
I said before, in the last 8 days, Hamas has launched more than 3,300 rockets at our friends in Israel. Think about that. We have had 10 people in Israel been killed--both Jews and Arabs.
I read a story of a young Indian woman, who was visiting Israel, who also lost her life.
Iron Dome has intercepted 90 percent of the rockets. Hamas is trying to overwhelm the defense system and destroy Israel.
Madam Speaker, 70 percent of Israel civilians have run into a bomb shelter this week. Parents and children were being woken up in the middle the night by sirens alerting them that they have 90 seconds to get inside a bomb shelter.
We had Esther Schlesinger huddled with her 1-year-old son on Tuesday. When speaking about the event, Esther said: I didn't have time to grab anything. I didn't have time to grab my phone. We just ran into the shelter and kept hearing explosion after explosion. I feel terrible for these parents who have to try and explain what is going on. I literally was holding my son in the bomb shelter, and I am thinking I am grateful he isn't old enough to understand why I had to quickly grab him. Despite all this, I don't doubt my decision to live here. Even in these crazy times. It is so important for me to be here as a Jew.
Madam Speaker, we are seeing the result of a failed policy of this administration. When you think about it, President Trump called Prime Minister Netanyahu 2 days after his inauguration. The current President took over a month to call the Prime Minister of Israel--arguably, our closest ally in the world, certainly our closest ally in the Middle East.
When asked, President Biden's secretary couldn't even say whether Israel remains, ``important ally of the United States.''
The Biden administration has emboldened Iran, the number one state sponsor of terrorism, dedicated to the destruction of Israel in the United States, by restarting negotiations on the failed 2015 Iran nuclear deal. They rewarded the PA by restoring millions of dollars in funding to the West Bank in Gaza; undermined Israel and international organizations by restoring $150 million in funding to the UNRWA and rejoining the Israel-hating United Nations Human Rights Council without much-needed reforms.
It is one hit after another, one punch to the gut after another to our friends in Israel, while we are funding Hamas and their ability to fire rockets at our friends in Israel. This is a pattern.
I will just tell my friends on the other side of the aisle, to ask yourself a question for the American people who are watching all of this: Do you want America to be first? Or do you want America to be last?
Because the current administration, the current policies of this body, the current policies of the Senate are taking us down a road which we had long since left behind in the days of the Carter era, in the late 1970s, when you had long lines at the gas pump, skyrocketing gas prices, inability to get jobs, stagflation, inflationary pressures.
Most people today don't really remember. I remember when my parents
got their mortgage rate down from 14 percent, 12 percent, 10 percent-- man, when they got to single digits. Today, those rates have been hovering around 3 percent.
People don't understand what they are facing, and they are going to see it soon, as they are seeing these prices skyrocket and they can't afford houses and they can't afford gas and they can't afford basic commodities and goods and services, and they can't hire people, and their small businesses are going out of business because of the policies of this administration.
America first. People have jobs, businesses thrive, gas is affordable, housing is affordable, our border is becoming secure. A border, by the way, that still allowed people to legally migrate to our country, but to do so in a much safer way; without empowering cartels to be able to move human beings for profit, put them into the sex trafficking trade, the human trafficking trade, make millions of dollars in the process.
America first is putting our friends in Israel first and standing alongside them for their interest, yes, but also for our national security interest.
One or two more thoughts on the border because it has hit so close to home in the State of Texas, which I represent.
Now, I have taken multiple trips to the border, and I have spoken about it many times on this floor and elsewhere. But it is not just some esoteric concept that doesn't impact our whole country, but it certainly impacts Texas very directly.
I said we had 178,000 migrants apprehended in April, we are now over 600,000 for the calendar year, 300,000 that have been released or got- aways that have gotten into our country. Those are real numbers, they are published numbers. Some of them are--the got-away numbers are numbers you get when you talk to people who know what is going on who work in DHS or work down at the border.
April's CBP's numbers show more fentanyl seized in the first 5 months in 2021 than in all of 2020. Fentanyl is a dangerous narcotic. Do we not care? I mean, it is a legitimate question. Do my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, do they literally not care? I have never once heard one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle address this issue, not once.
I put something out on social media the other day telling the Vice President that I would be happy to meet her anywhere, anytime, to debate the issue of border security. She is allegedly in charge of it. Well, Madam Vice President, I am here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, Article I in the Constitution; you are now serving in Article II as the Vice President, with a foot over in the Article I Senate as President. I am happy to debate anytime, anywhere, the status of the border of the United States, and how it is endangering American citizens, endangering ranchers, endangering border patrol, endangering law enforcement officers, endangering Texans, allowing fentanyl and dangerous narcotics to flow into our communities, empowering the sex trafficking trade and the human trafficking trade, and empowering cartels to be able to carry out their heinous activities.
They just uncovered a burial pit just across the Rio Grande, where these dangerous cartels bury people that they murder. Stories of people being locked into bars, chained doors, and the building lit on fire, people being hung from bridges, people being burned alive. This is all happening literally across the Rio Grande, and we are empowering it. We are empowering it with an America-last agenda where cartels are empowered, our borders are run by cartels, human beings are mistreated in the name of compassion.
The American people are tired of all of the swamp drama. That is all we get here is swamp trauma, every single day. We have more conversations about splitting us up by race. We have more conversations about January 6 commissions. We have more conversations about masks or not masks. Meanwhile, the American people are hurting.
The American people can't hire people. The American people are dealing with wide open borders. The America people can't afford goods and services. The American people can't have their kids in schools without worrying about what is happening to their kids. All of the videos we are now seeing pop up with children testifying at school board hearings, saying, I have been spending a year wearing a mask, and I have been being yelled at, and I have been beat up because I am being told, you know, I got to wear a mask, and shut my ability to see people. I want to see people's faces. What are we doing to our children? We are decimating a generation of Americans.
The American people are tired of this. We spent $6 trillion in the last year, you can't really make it up. What are we doing? I mean, with all due respect to the Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, and the majority leader, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, What are we doing? We are destroying the American economy. We are killing small businesses. We are destroying our own dollar, our own economy. We are driving up the prices of goods and services. We are preventing people from being able to hire people. We are scaring the heck out of our children. We are allowing our schools to shut them down and not teach them. We are siding with our enemies in Iran instead of our friends in Israel. We are allowing wide open borders to endanger our people with fentanyl. We are empowering cartels.
How on Earth is the people's House allowing this to happen to the United States of America? The American people have had it. The American people want sanity, they don't want us talking about tweets and talking about all the drama in this town and what positions people have or don't have. They just want us to lead. They just want us to come into this body and not be here, like I am right now, by myself, with all due respect to the Madam Speaker, but by myself addressing an empty Chamber.
This is what debate has been reduced to, and I have talked about that before, but I will keep talking about it. This is what debate has been reduced to. I chastised the majority leader earlier today because we were talking about a bill that was labeled a hate crimes prevention bill that came over from the Senate, and the majority leader said: Well, if you are for this bill, you are against hate; if you are against this bill, you are for hate. And that is how that is going to be seen.
And I told the majority leader, I said, that is the problem. I mean, do you really believe that is true? That if I have a different view about how divvying us up by race is a bad idea and how categorizing us in categories of race, and then creating thought crimes, and having government going around and policing our thoughts and go tracking us down, based on what we say or do, as opposed to: Hey, you committed a crime. But if I vote against the bill, oh, I am for hate. That is what we have reduced this body to.
And, again, I get it, these are political slogans to my left and right, right? There is a purpose to this. There is a purpose to me putting this up, and saying, American first versus America last. Okay. I would love it if we could sit here in this Chamber, and say, you know what, maybe spending $6 trillion is a bad idea.
Why don't we rewind some of those dollars and see if we can tone down that inflation? Why don't we tighten our belt a little bit. Why don't we get the dollars flowing in for unemployment that is crippling the ability of businesses to hire people? Why don't we pull that back a little bit? Why don't we just sit down at a table, roll our sleeves up, and figure out how to make it work?
Why don't we say, Hey, wide open borders being run by cartels is a bad idea. Let's figure out how to secure the borders. We are a sovereign Nation, that is not a crazy thought. Why don't we say, Hey, what are we getting out of our relationship with Israel and peace in the Middle East, and standing side by side, and the strength that that makes for our country and for them.
Madam Speaker, I am nearing the end of my time, and I have a colleague over here that I believe is going to have a few thoughts to share, and so I will wind down here in the next couple of minutes. I will alert my friend.
But I would just say, you know--first of all, let me just say, I appreciate the staff who are down here and keep this place running, and you have to sit
here, and the stenographer is writing everything down that we are saying and, you know, the clerks that keep everything going. You are here because we are here, and I appreciate it. As a former staffer myself, we very much appreciate you all being here.
It is an honor to serve in this body, but it is an honor because of what we need to achieve, not what we are doing. It is an honor to serve in the House of Representatives because of where this country can go, where it needs to go on behalf of its citizenry, not because of what we are doing today. Because what we are doing today is undermining the health of this Republic.
I will just close by saying that one of the things that I have been talking to my constituents about when I go home is asking the very simple question: Are we free? Are we actually free? Are we free if we have $30 trillion of debt and we are undermining our economy? Are we free if people can't hire people in their small businesses in order to survive?
Are we free if we have open borders that are being run by cartels? Are we free if we are not standing with our allies, but instead, we are standing with some of our enemies? Are we free if China controls much of our supply chains? Are we free if the unborn never get a shot at life? Are we free if our children are being taught that America is evil in the schools?
I would argue that we are not as free as we ought to be. We are not as free as we need to be. And that we are not as free as is necessary to ensure that our kids and grandkids can inherit this great birthright of being an American citizen. I believe we should put America first. I do not believe that we should have America in last place.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.