Mr. Speaker, tonight it is a privilege that I have to yield to somebody who has become a good friend and an excellent colleague, who has served with me, at my side, at the House Financial Services Committee, who will be leaving us at the…
Mr. Speaker, tonight it is a privilege that I have to yield to somebody who has become a good friend and an excellent colleague, who has served with me, at my side, at the House Financial Services Committee, who will be leaving us at the end of this Congress. Her voice of common sense and her voice to really promote economic growth among all Americans will be missed; but in her short tenure, she has made her mark in our committee and made her mark in Congress, and I am pleased to yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her very, very kind words. And, again, she will be very much missed from this institution, but I will treasure our service together. I will treasure our friendship forever as well, and I thank her for coming to the floor tonight.
And now, Mr. Speaker, I will issue the remainder of my remarks from the House well.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today for what I expect to be my final speech on the House floor. After 8 terms, I have chosen to go home to Texas, the land of my forefathers, with the hope of being a better father and a better husband myself.
I am also going home because I believe America is best served by the Jeffersonian model of American democracy, and that is a citizen legislature. I fear too many wish to become members of the permanent ruling class. I am not among them.
I also know that this congressional seat, Mr. Speaker, never belonged to me. It belonged to the people of the Fifth Congressional District of Texas. It has always belonged to them. They allowed me--they allowed me to hold it in trust. It was a sacred trust, Mr. Speaker, a sacred trust to be the guardian of their freedoms and their opportunities, and I will always, always be grateful for that privilege.
So, come January 3, I reverently return their seat back to them, and I wish my successor, Lance Gooden of Kaufman County, Texas, all the best--all the best.
Mr. Speaker, 16 years ago, I went to these very same people in the Fifth Congressional District of Texas and I told them: I believe I know what the genius of America is. It is faith; it is family; it is free enterprise; and, yes, it is freedom.
And it does indeed all start with faith because, Mr. Speaker, over your chair right there is emblazoned our national motto, ``In God We Trust.'' And it is my firm prayer that, for our Nation, may it always be so. And I firmly believe we cannot be a virtuous nation unless we are first a godly nation.
People come to America for many reasons. They come here for political freedom, economic freedom, but, also, most profoundly, for religious freedom. May we never forget Jefferson's prophetic words enshrined: ``Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gift of God?''
Mr. Speaker, as vital as faith is, so are our families. And the family that made me in College Station, Texas, all those years ago was blessed with two wonderful parents, Chase and Ann. My father was a poultry farmer; my mother was a stay-at-home mom; but together, they taught me and my siblings invaluable lessons about hard work, fairness, faith, discipline, and honesty--in a word, Mr. Speaker, values. They lovingly led by example, which is what my wife and I attempt to do today with our two children.
We now have, over so many different years of history, showing that it is our families--it is our families--that can best perpetuate our values, raise our children, and care for our elderly.
Now, let me turn to free enterprise.
1776 wasn't just a revolutionary year for America. It was a revolutionary year for free enterprise, for American capitalism, free market capitalism, as well, because it was in that year that Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith penned its intellectual foundation in his opus magnum, ``The Wealth of Nations.'' Prosperity would never, never be the same.
We now have over 200 years of history in this country proving that free market capitalism produces the greatest wealth for the greatest number of people. Yes, free enterprise is about wealth creation, but this is not to be confused with materialism.
Yes, free enterprise does produce Porsches, it produces Jacuzzis, and it produces vacations to Paris; but, more importantly, it empowers a factory worker in my district in Mesquite, Texas, to start her own business. It helps a family in Jacksonville, Texas, send their first kid to college. It puts ample, nutritious food on the kitchen table. And that kitchen table is found in a home that some hardworking family in Forney, Texas, never dreamed they could own but they have because of American free enterprise.
But even perhaps more profound than wealth creation, free market capitalism is really about the pursuit of happiness. It is about the freedom to use your God-given talents to create, to innovate, and to produce, to take pride and joy that can only arise from what American Enterprise Institute scholar Arthur Brooks terms ``earned success.'' As is written in the book of Isaiah, chapter 65, verse 22: My chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
And finally, freedom, Mr. Speaker, the inalienable right to liberty endowed by our creator. Never in the vast expanse of time, history, and space have the blessings of liberty been enjoyed in greater abundance than they have here in the United States of America. Only in America are you only limited by the size of your dreams. As my friend and mentor, former Senator Phil Gramm, is fond of saying: Only in America can ordinary people achieve extraordinary results.
Mr. Speaker, generations--generations--of our forefathers have taken up arms in defense of liberty and found it worthy of the very sacrifice of their lives. There is no greater foundational principle to the American people than liberty: personal liberty, political liberty, religious liberty, and economic liberty. May we, in this body, always fight to preserve it.
Now, in the Federal city, political calculus changes by the moment. Policies come and go, but principles endure, and there are no more enduring or foundational principles in America than faith, family, free enterprise, and freedom. I believed it 16 years ago when I came to this body. I believe it even more fervently today, Mr. Speaker.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I have learned a couple of things in my 16 years of service in Congress. One thing I learned is that, when one announces their retirement, two things happen:
One, people begin to say nice things about you. Had I known about this phenomena earlier, perhaps I would have retired years ago.
Second of all, reporters ask you about your so-called legacy. Well, Mr. Speaker, I have to laugh because I am not sure there is anything as soon forgotten in the Federal city as a former Member of Congress. So I don't really think in terms of legacy. I, frankly, don't know if I have changed Washington. Now, Mr. Speaker, I know Washington didn't change me.
I do take solace, though, and I take a measure of pride knowing that, along with a handful of other conservatives in this body, I fought steadfastly against the forces of what I view crony capitalism, and that be either by earmark set-asides, subsidies, tax preferences, or trade protectionism, particularly now as the specter of socialism once again rears its ugly head in our Nation.
We can never let our fellow countrymen somehow confuse free market capitalism with crony capitalism. In the one, your success depends upon how hard and how smart you work on Main Street. In the other, it depends on who you know in Washington.
The latter is a threat to the former, and the Republican Party will lose its moral authority to prevent a social welfare state if we ever acquiesce in a corporate welfare state. This we cannot allow to happen.
Mr. Speaker, you know personally, as does the previous speaker, the gentlewoman from New York, how much pride I take in the work of the great men and women of the House Financial Services Committee.
Most Americans today are seeing the best economy they have ever seen in their lifetimes, and that is in no small measure to the work of the men and women of the House Financial Services committee.
Now, I am not going to argue that our work was on the same order of magnitude as tax reform. It wasn't. But the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act signed by President Trump was the most pro-growth banking bill in a generation, and has certainly done more to grow our economy than any other legislation passed by the House besides tax reform.
Now, Mr. Speaker, economic growth cannot solve all of America's problems, but it lifts the downtrodden from poverty; it empowers middle-income America; and it enables tens of millions to achieve their version of the American Dream. It has, indeed, for 16 years of my service, been worth fighting for.
As I prepare to leave office, Mr. Speaker, I leave with many, many hopes. But, Mr. Speaker, I leave with a few fears as well that I believe my fellow countrymen should pay close attention to.
First, I am concerned about the state of America's entrepreneurial spirit. I wonder how long we will have robust economic growth if the government continues a regulatory onslaught against American business to attempt to render all risk out of our financial system.
From its earliest beginnings, America has always been the land of the entrepreneur, the land of the dreamer, and the risk-taker and, yes, that includes the risk of failure.
Several of the colonies, such as Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Virginia, were founded, not by the Crown of England but, rather, by profit-seeking corporations that were willing to take risk.
You know, someone who clearly understood something about risk was Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple; I believe still the largest company in the world today. In an interview, Jobs was once asked how he thought about himself. He said: ``I look at myself as sort of a trapeze artist.''
And then the reporter asked: ``With or without a net?'' He didn't bat an eyelash, he said: ``Without.'' Steve Jobs was a risk-taker and because he took a risk, Apple again became the most valuable company in the world whose innovations have revolutionized our lives.
And what is important is not the amount of money that Steve Jobs made, but what he was able to do with it, and that is create a successful company, to employ and serve millions who collectively have exercised their God-given rights at the pursuit of happiness.
Fewer entrepreneurs taking fewer risks means fewer jobs, Mr. Speaker. It is that simple. And so one day, if we lose our ability to fail in America, we will soon lose our ability to succeed. There are simply too many burdensome regulations that crush the entrepreneurial spirit. This must cease.
Another fear I have, Mr. Speaker, is that I fear we are drifting away from our constitutional moorings as I witness the rise of the administrative state, because we need to appreciate our birthright, the sheer genius of the Constitution which, unfortunately, today is threatened. Our Constitution's framework of checks and balances, limited government, co-equal branches of government, that has secured our fundamental rights and given us the freest, most prosperous society the world has ever known.
But we are witnessing now a century-long liberal expansion of unconstitutional government that has unleashed the modern regulatory state as we know it, extremely powerful, exceedingly intrusive, imperiously opaque, bafflingly bureaucratic, and alarmingly unaccountable.
Instead of being governed by the rule of law, increasingly, citizens are being ruled by the rule of rulers; specifically, the rules promulgated by legions of unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats.
The result? It is OSHA now, not Congress, that governs over workplace safety. It is the EPA now, not Congress, that governs over our air quality. It is HHS, not Congress, that now governs over our healthcare.
Today, the citizen's right to carefully deliberate proposed legislation through their chosen elected representatives in Congress is now reduced to nothing more than a little ``notice and comment'' period where the citizens are permitted to lodge complaints and suggestions, all of which the unelected bureaucrats are free to ignore, and which they may actually use to retaliate against the citizen.
Madison, in Federalist 47, warned us of this phenomena when he wrote,
The combination of all power, legislative, executive, and
judiciary in the same hands . . . may justly be pronounced
the very definition of tyranny.
It is time for Congress, Mr. Speaker, to reclaim its constitutional powers of the purse, to no longer allow these economically significant rules to pass without congressional approval, and to outlaw the Chevron Doctrine that has tilted the scales of justice toward the state. This must change.
The next fear I have as I get ready to leave Congress, Mr. Speaker, is one that has really come about fairly recently in our State of the Union, and that is the tenor and tone of the national debate; in other words, what is happening in our public square.
Now, on the one hand, for those who believe that we are on the precipice of something truly catastrophic, I remind them, we have survived a bloody Civil War. We survived the turbulent 60s of my youth.
Politics has rhetorically always been a full contact sport. And if you read biographies of the founders like Jefferson, and Adams, and Hamilton, you will discover just how coarse and vile ad hominem attacks could be at the dawn of American politics.
But with the exception of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts, I don't recall ever there being a greater effort in our Nation's history to actually silence dissent.
The cry for civility in political discourse, welcome as it is, is somewhat misplaced. The threat to democracy does not come from incivility but, instead, from those who are committed to preventing; preventing the debate, as opposed to winning the debate. That is where the true threat comes.
Democratic self-governance relies upon a free flow of differing ideas within the public square to fully inform all opinions and challenge all accepted orthodoxies and ideologies.
There was a time in America's history that the American ethos was encapsulated by the words that have been attributed to Patrick Henry: ``I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.''
Regrettably, I can hear all over the Nation today people saying something along the lines of: ``I disapprove of what you say, and I am going to harass and intimidate you and your family, defame your character, and attempt to take away your livelihood until you simply shut up and withdraw.''
Those who do not respect the rights of others to be heard in the public square may be little better than book burners and represent a clear and present danger to American democracy.
It is time for every citizen who cares about the destiny of their Nation, it is time for courage, but it is a time also for goodwill and mutual respect among our citizens. It is time to re-secure our democratic values in the public square.
Mr. Speaker, my greatest fear for my Nation, though, is our national debt. When I first came to Congress the national debt was $6.7 trillion. Today it has tripled. Tripled.
My greatest regret in public office is my inability to convince more of my colleagues and more of my fellow citizens of the peril of this national debt. We are experiencing debt-to-GDP ratios that haven't been seen since World War II, but in World War II they were episodic and temporary. Today's debt is structural and permanent.
As a veteran of the so-called super committee, the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Committee, and now chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, my iPad is awash in reports saying that our national debt is simply unsustainable. Yet, denial, justification, and obstruction continue to rule the day.
We should all be troubled and sobered by the fact that if one carefully reviews history, you will find few examples of republics that have existed beyond 200 years, and most of those republics met their demise through some type of fiscal crisis. There is so much at stake.
Now, Mr. Speaker, in my heart, and in my head, I don't really believe America one day will wake up and become Greece, but I do believe that we are on the path, within a generation, to
being a second-rate economic power, a second-rate military power and, frankly, a second-rate moral authority as we become the first generation in America's history to leave the next generation with a lower standard of living.
It is beyond time for both a spending limit amendment to the United States Constitution and fundamental reforms of our current entitlement programs for future generations. It is not too late to take America off the road to national bankruptcy.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I have spent the last few minutes speaking about my fears, but please know I have far, far more hope than I have fear as I come to the House floor for the last time to give a speech.
Most Americans, as I observe, are enjoying the greatest economy in their lifetimes. Oh, what a difference that has made in the lives of millions of Americans and, indeed, to borrow a phrase from the past: ``It is morning in America again.''
Opportunity abounds like few periods in our Nation's history. And our military might that had been hollowed out in the last presidential administration is being rebuilt and it is respected and feared around the globe again.
As we look at our Nation's history, we cannot but conclude that we live in a time of relative peace, relative security, and we should always, always be grateful.
But the main reason I come to this floor tonight, so hopeful, so hopeful for the future, is because of the people I have met in the Fifth District of Texas that I have had this privilege to represent. I have met great entrepreneurs, like Sam Bistrian of Lake Highlands. He immigrated to this country as a 12-year-old boy from Romania. He didn't even speak the language.
A few years later, he managed to get a job at one of the local retailers, Neiman Marcus. He got a job starting at the bottom; I think it was stocking shelves. And with hard work and vision, he ended up one day launching his own line of designer rain boots called Roma, and now he heads up a multi-million dollar enterprise. And oh, by the way, he gives his boots away to poor people all over the world.
Another entrepreneur I met is Rick Carmona from Terrell, Texas. As a kid, he used to visit a local Tex-Mex restaurant and, after going there a few times he said, you know what? My mom cooks better food than this.
So after saving his money from a number of jobs, he finally took the great leap. He invested his money; took out a small loan; started his own restaurant.
He seated the customers; he bussed the tables. His mom did the cooking. His office consisted of a back table and a pencil behind his ear. And a couple of decades later, he runs one the most successful restaurants in the entire county because of his entrepreneurial vision.
I also have hope because I met great patriots, patriots like Doc Collins from Van Zandt County, who is a real conservative leader from that county.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, he has bone cancer that he continues to battle. But during a recent election, he got chemotherapy in the morning for his bone cancer, and he was working the polling places in the afternoon because he felt that strongly about his cause and his country.
Then, Mr. Speaker, there is Howard Banks of Kaufman, Texas. I wish everybody could meet this wonderful patriot. He is legally blind. He is a World War II veteran. He flies Old Glory every day. Every day.
One day, some no-account vandal decided he would take Mr. Banks' flag, and Mr. Banks fought him. He fought him. He is age 92 and he still decided that he would fight for and he was willing to die for his American flag and the country it represents.
These patriots inspire me, Mr. Speaker.
And then there are the social entrepreneurs that I have met in the Fifth District of Texas; people like Morgan Jones of Athens, Texas, who owns a pawnshop. Every single year, what he will do is he will take himself and all of his managers on mercy ships to Africa in order to deliver care and gifts. This is something he does at his expense.
There are so many people, I wish I had time to mention, in the Fifth District of Texas who represent the best of America. I don't have all that time, Mr. Speaker, so let me mention one more.
Kenn Waterston of Terrell, Texas. I mean, he is a bulldog of a Marine veteran.
He opened the Veterans Resource Center not a block, maybe two blocks away from the Dallas VA hospital. And now if homeless veterans will go to the VA Hospital to get their healthcare, as soon as they come out, they can get clean clothes; they can get showers; they can get counseling; they can get access to computers and people to help them find a job in society.
So, Mr. Speaker, when I see patriots and entrepreneurs and Good Samaritans who are stepping up every day in the Fifth District of Texas, I know America has a very bright future, a very bright future ahead.
So let me simply conclude where I began.
For me, it is time for me to go home. It is time to go home to my family. It is time to go home to Texas. All things must pass, including our congressional service.
I continue to have so many blessings in my life, but, Mr. Speaker, I don't believe I will ever have a greater privilege than fighting for freedom and opportunity in the people's House, the House of Representatives.
My heart is just full of gratitude, full of gratitude to my staff, whose work empowered me; full of gratitude to my constituents, whose encouragement and prayers supported me; and most of all to my family, so much gratitude to Melissa, Claire, and Travis, whose support, love, and grace have sustained me all those 16 years. They are my rock.
So here is what I know after 16 years, Mr. Speaker:
I know if we will continue to trust in God, I know if we will continue to revere freedom, I know if we will keep faith with our Founders' vision, our children will have brighter futures and our Republic will be forever preserved.
May God continue to shed his grace on this great country.
And, Mr. Speaker, for the final time on the House floor, I yield back the balance of my time.
