Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 449.

Madam Speaker, I thank the great warrior from Florida for her leadership on this matter.

Madam Speaker, imagine you have just walked out of this Chamber and outside is a gorgeous sunset. You have a Polaroid camera, so you snap a beautiful picture, and the gray photo prints out the front. You hold it and shake it, waiting for the picture to appear. Suddenly, someone walks by and snatches your photo, ripping it to shreds.

You are stunned. You cry: Why did you destroy my picture? The person replies: Oh, it wasn't a picture. It wasn't fully developed yet. All of us in this room realize how asinine that reasoning is. That photo was transforming into a beautiful image.

This illustration by Seth Gruber is simple. But it is what our Nation has done to the most precious image of all, the image of God.

Madam Speaker, a silent genocide has slipped beneath the conscience of America. Precious works of our Creator, formed and set apart, meet death before they have breathed life. Eternal souls, woven into earthen vessels, sanctified by Almighty God and endowed with the miracle of life, are denied their birth by a Nation that was born in freedom.

God's breath of life blown away by the breath of man.

This cruel and fallen world may seem too filthy for their very presence. But these precious temples are crafted in the image of God himself. One day, perhaps when science darkens the soul of the left, our Nation will repent. But until then, the carnage of this unconscionable deed will stain the fabric of our Nation.

I hope that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. I hope that we stop the genocide of abortion in this country.

Madam Speaker, the Halls of this hallowed Republic have become darkened with the smut and filth of corrupted justice.

Imagine: a predawn raid. Waking from a dead sleep in sheer terror to men with guns screaming and searching furiously for damning evidence against their authoritarian master.

This horrifying vision is not pulled from the pages of some graphic novel. This was last week's headlines.

A dedicated group of whistleblowing journalists, including James O'Keefe, faced illegal raids by the FBI to confiscate personal cellphones and crucial documents that incriminate tyrant Joe Biden.

Madam Speaker, why do you sit in silence while the White House's secret police round up dissenters?

Why do you sit in silence while diligent journalists face harassment at the hands of left-wing enforcers?

There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice. The flag of freedom lies in tatters when liberty is crushed beneath the heavy hand of a totalitarian regime.

Hear my message loud and clear: The American people will raise that flag of freedom, and it will fly high again very soon.

Mr. Speaker, freedom is born through the sacrifice of patriots. We occupy this Chamber today and walk free among our countrymen because generation after generation of liberty-minded warriors surrendered their lives to the conviction that America was worth defending. Their

blood, their sweat, and their sacrifice are the currency for our freedom.

Their sacrifice must never be exploited. I am honored to bring before this Chamber today legislation that ends the exploitation of veterans' finances and taxpayer dollars. A loophole exists in the GI Bill that allows some public flight schools to charge exorbitant amounts of money to veterans and taxpayers for veterans' tuition.

My legislation, the Fly Vets Act, not only stops this loophole dead in its tracks, but it empowers veterans and drastically expands their benefits. It allows them to pay for flight training through accelerated payments and allows them to double the monetary cap on both tuition and fees per year. This bill does not cut benefits in any way. It gives power back to our heroes in uniform.

I thank the many VSOs who support this legislation, along with Congresswoman Underwood for encompassing this legislation in her bill and working with me across party lines to ensure that the exploitation of veterans and taxpayers ends today.

Madam Speaker, Dr. Fauci has forsaken his Hippocratic oath and exchanged it for the mantle of unchecked power. His policies shuttered the U.S. economy, drove our country into financial upheaval, and violated the rights of millions of Americans.

In July, he willfully lied to the U.S. Senate about his role in funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.

This week, the world was shocked to discover that through an experiment under his watch, sweet beagle puppies had their heads stuffed into crates so that sand flies could slowly strip away the skin from their bones. These defenseless animals were damned to agonize in silence because their vocal cords had been surgically ripped from their throats so that their tormentors could discharge their evil actions without having to hear incessant yapping.

Madam Speaker, today I am calling for the creation of a formal commission to investigate the true origin of COVID-19, the role Fauci played in its creation, the false statements he made to Members of Congress under oath, and why the hell Americans are funding the torture of puppies in Africa.

Americans deserve the truth, and this demon doctor must never be allowed to escape justice.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

I will say that I am proud to be a cosponsor on his bill. I think it is far past time that Congress start taking the mental health requirements, necessities, and needs of our veterans' community more seriously. Not only does this mean just sending more money to it, it means thinking outside of the box; and I think that is exactly what the gentleman's bill does.

I will tell you, Madam Speaker, when we start thinking about the debt that our Nation owes to this Nation's veterans, we realize that the debt can never truly be repaid. But certainly we can make sure that not 23 servicemembers--veterans--are committing suicide every single day. Certainly we can make sure that the telehealth program within the VA is expanded so that people can have easy mental checkups that won't deem them as someone who is mentally unfit.

Certainly, this means that we can take a proactive manner in making sure that our veterans feel safe and feel as if they can come forward and speak about the mental health issues that they are facing.

So many servicemembers are dying. I believe the gentleman from New York remarked earlier that one of our members of this committee said that they actually knew more people who had committed suicide since returning home from the battlefield than had actually died on the battlefield, and that is truly heartbreaking.

When they come home to America, they should be greeted as our Nation's heroes because that is exactly what they are.

It is my honor to cosponsor this bill. It is my honor to support the mental health needs of our veteran community. And it is my honor to fight for them every single day.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller is an American patriot who dared to speak the truth.

He knew that a 4-minute and 45-second video could bring his storied 17-year career in the United States Marine Corps to a screeching halt, but he did not care.

He laid it all down and spoke truth to power.

He said what every other servicemember knew in their heart was true: The incompetence of the Biden White House cost American lives.

Their sin was unpardonable and deadly. Lieutenant Colonel Scheller called them out, but they couldn't handle the criticism.

He was ordered to undergo mental health screening because he stood up to incompetence. Today, right now, this very second, he sits behind bars in my home State of North Carolina, shackled in a military brig, while those who orchestrated Biden's incompetent Afghanistan withdrawal walk free.

Mr. Speaker, this is a stain on our Nation's conscience. Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller must be released.

Madam Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague for his leadership.

Madam Speaker, this is my generation's long-form death certificate. You endorsed it. You own it, and you will pass it. But I will be the one to pay for it.

My generation, and if America still stands, my grandchildren, will pay for this Trojan horse of a socialist proposal, $3.5 trillion in unhinged, unconscionable, irredeemable spending.

It is the final nail in the coffin of the American Dream. Karl Marx would even call this bill radical.

Look at this. This is a pallet of $100 million and, for scale, beside that is me. And behind all of that is what the Democrats propose to spend.

You have stolen my generation's checkbook, and, Madam Speaker, we want it back. No American who votes for this trash should ever see the inside of a legislative chamber ever again. They should never take another oath of office for Congress, for statehouse. Hell, they shouldn't even be able to get on the mosquito control board because they have endorsed the demise of the country they swore to protect.

This is what crushing, overwhelming, unrecoverable debt looks like. And we haven't even talked about the substance. This proposal is legislative malfeasance on the lifeblood of our country: energy independence, and more importantly, energy dominance.

You show me a nation's energy policies, and I will show you the future of that nation. Under President Trump, our energy independence carved out our standing in the world. We were the captains of our destiny, not Middle East kingdoms. We augmented our national security through America First energy independence, not foreign reliance. America was leading the world. When Joe Biden took office, our soaring, thriving energy independence came crashing down.

Failed policies, fatal spending: that is your legacy, Madam Speaker. You have put before us a death wish for America.

You stand guilty of financial treason, Madam Speaker. But the sentence will be served out by my generation.

Mr. Speaker, diplomacy with a tyrant is useless.

Joe Biden does not sympathize with the plight of States fighting the border crisis. He revels in it. This is his dream: open borders and American carnage.

Joe Biden has backed Republican Governors into a corner. They are in fight or flight mode. Sending letters like this one demanding a meeting with him on the border is not in the fight mode we need. To him, and the American people, it is a white flag of surrender.

Republican Governors, do something. You are writing letters to a man who does not give a damn about you. He does not care about your plight. He does not care about your State. He does not care about you. Stop sending letters and start taking action.

Stand up and defend your State today. You have the power. Use it. You have the resources. Use them. You have the National Guard. Use it. Do whatever it takes because the Democrats, hellbent on radicalizing America, are barreling over us with their agenda while we push paper.

Unfortunately, this responsibility has fallen to our Republican Governors to have to defend our borders and defend our country. If they fail in this plight, then we will not have a country to remember.

Please, do the job that has, unfortunately, fallen on your shoulders.

Madam Speaker, you have squandered the inheritance of a generation today. You have governed with abandon and exchanged financial assurance for instant gratification.

Today, you didn't pass a budget plan. You passed a death wish for America. It is easy for you to sit up there and authorize $68 trillion over the next 10 years because you will never have to shoulder the financial burden of your actions.

Your road map for our future is a highway to hell. You have exchanged the American Dream for a socialist nightmare.

To the American people: You have been lied to. Your taxes will be raised because of the actions of Democrats today.

I shudder to think of what our country, our city on a hill, our beacon of freedom, will look like in a generation when we deliver a Nation devoid of treasure to our children.

We will give account one day for our actions in this Congress. Madam Speaker, if we hand over a bankrupt legacy to our children, your actions today will be indicted, and you will be without excuse. Madam Speaker, you are walking around with my generation's checkbook, and we want it back.

Madam Speaker, the Taliban is emboldened today. They have found a new reason to cry ``death to America.'' That reason is Joe Biden.

His foreign policy is not America first; it is Taliban first.

Mr. President, listen carefully, and I will say it slowly just for you: No man left behind. That is leadership.

Here is my pledge to the Taliban: You may chant ``death to America'' today, but mark my words, the levers of power will be in strong hands soon. If you harm an American, we will rain

down vengeance upon you with wrath and fury that will put the fires of hell to shame.

Psalm 91 promises us that God will be our refuge and our fortress. But you do not worship my God or heed His promises. So when we come for you, there will be no refuge, no cave, and no crevasse you can crawl into that will save you from our wrath.

To those who hate America and all we stand for, read my lips: I am young, and I have a long memory. When power in Washington inevitably shifts, we will not forget you because we are in the business of killing terrorists. And pretty soon, business will be booming.

Madam Speaker, you are not God. Your will does not bend the forests or shake the mountains. And let me assure you, your will does not bow the knee of millions of my countrymen who refuse to heed your calloused command.

To threaten arrest on others for their own personal medical decisions is nothing short of a medical apartheid, and I will not let it stand. For if I am to cowardly bend a knee here, like those on the left wish, then what is to stop you all from taking your tyranny to the rest of this country that I love?

How dare anyone in this institution attempt to dictate to the patriots of my staff how they may live their lives. For one to think that because they have the title ``honorable'' attached to their name means that they may dictate what others may say and think repulses me.

What makes this Nation special is that in this free land the people are the royalty. So arrest us if you will, but I will not cower and I will not bend.

Madam Speaker, you have come to take away our liberties but, Madam Speaker, in this country you are outnumbered.

Madam Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of the bill, H.R. 4390.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, what is the American businessman to do

when the American worker will not come into work?

For the past nearly 7 months, this President has held America's small business owners hostage and declared a de facto strike on the American economy.

Following the end of this COVID pandemic, the Biden administration has been granted the political gift of a lifetime: take a staggering American economy, still reeling from the economic collapse, and simply let it return to normal. If the Biden administration had done nothing, zero, if they had sat on their hands and twiddled their thumbs, if Joe Biden had taken more naps, then experts say our economy would be in a much better place than where it is right now.

Instead, the Biden administration's efforts place the American economy in a financial choke hold that threatens to obliterate hundreds of small businesses in my district.

It was John Adams that said: ``Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.''

Let's cast our eyes over the facts, shall we?

Back in April, economists predicted over 1 million new jobs to be added to our economy. Biden added just over 250,000. In May, economists adjusted their expectations, acknowledging this administration simply cannot deliver the type of job growth past administrations could.

Even with adjusted expectations, the Biden administration still fell short of the mark. There is no debate that the Biden administration of free handouts has dramatically undercut efforts to restart our economy. His massive increase of unemployment benefits has kept workers at home and left store owners scrambling to keep up with the growing consumer demand.

In my own district, business leaders in Asheville, Hendersonville, Franklin, and Macon County, have spoken with me about the difficulty in getting employees back to work. Who can blame them? Biden is literally paying American citizens to stay home instead of getting them back to work.

Who would fault an American husband or mother when they decide to stay home with their family and earn double their salary while doing it?

The Biden administration knows that their policy of handouts harms and is hurting business owners, but the game has always been about creating a welfare class, not empowering our economy. It is disgusting.

With those thoughts in mind, I now recognize one of my fellow North Carolina champions, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop).

Thank you very much, Congressman Bishop, for those words. I echo the sentiments of both Jodey Arrington and Dan Bishop of wanting to jump-start this economy again.

With the fact that there are 9.3 million job openings in this country right now, we do need to change something to be able to actually fill the hire rate that has not increased at all. In fact, last quarter it only increased by 4.2 percent.

My friends, we will have artificial inflation if we do not do something to act quickly, and I believe the Jump-Start the Economy with Jobs Act is a great idea.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize another North Carolinian, a lion of our mountains, my dear friend, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Budd).

Congressman, thank you for introducing that bill.

If you think about it, $387 is the amount the average American receives from their home State in weekly unemployment benefits. You add to that the $300 boost that the Federal Government is putting on, on top of that, and it is no wonder why people aren't going back to work. They get to stay at home with their families while making $17.17 an hour. That sounds like a good deal to me.

But I genuinely hope that we can find some way out of this, because there is a real spiritual poverty created when you don't actually work for your living.

It is now time for me to recognize a dear friend of mine from a Carolina that is not as good a North Carolina, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman).

Mr. Speaker, Congressman Norman was elected to take care of the American people, but right now the Democrats in Congress-- although it is hard to call them Democrats because right now I believe that they have a socialist agenda, which is sabotaging America's jobs recovery with a crippling tax hike that targets our small businesses, the backbone of our economy.

Their plans raise small business taxes to the highest point in a generation, halt new projects and small business growth by doubling taxes on investments, and Democrats supercharge a second death tax, if you can believe that, where they want to tax you more. It would hit farms, machine shops, and other small businesses.

With all that in mind, I now yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller).

Mr. Speaker, I can see why Pennsylvania loves their Congressman so much.

When I think about what is going on in Congress and I see that Democrats are prioritizing wasteful spending over hardworking Americans' paychecks, I realize that the Democrats' socialist agenda won't produce long-term growth or greater economic security for American families.

A majority of Americans say they fear for an impending crash following the injection of Federal stimulus money during the pandemic. This is an unsettling thought for those who are trying to deal with dining room politics.

With all those thoughts in mind, I am very pleased to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Nehls), my dear friend and America's sheriff, who represents Texas' 22nd District.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes), a dear friend of mine who represents the Fourth District.

Mr. Speaker, I think Congressman Estes touches on a great point. Under Republican leadership, under the last administration, business applications were at record levels. The TCJA encouraged business creation, as the amount of business applications reached its highest level ever, of over 880,000.

Now, you contrast that with what is going on in America today. There are many people who own restaurants in my own district, who are having to literally pay people $50 just to turn an application in, and then they never show up for the interview or even for work.

Because of how bleak things are looking, I am very happy to yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. McClain), the most loved and the most feared woman in all of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

Mr. Speaker, I believe we are created to work, and I believe we are created to work hard, and the right to work and the determination to build with one's hands is as foundational to the American ethos as it can be.

We were not set in this universal orchard to stand still as trees. There is no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It has been said that a firm work ethic is the process by which dreams become realities. It is the process by which idle visions become dynamic achievements.

This administration seeks, though, to strip employment from the men and

women of America, to replace work with welfare and service with subservience. I reject that notion.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), my dear friend.

Mr. Speaker, when we started looking at the American Families Plan, we realized the tax hikes it would increase would raise capital gains and dividends tax from 20 to 39.6 percent, almost two times the normal price. It would impose capital gains taxes at death, which creates a second death tax, although I can't believe that we would ever need to tax anyone more than we do now. It would expand the 3.8 percent Obamacare surtax to hit even more small businesses' income than it already does.

Lastly, it would increase the IRS' auditing power, including monitoring bank accounts, because the very first thing that we need to reopen our economy at a better pace is to give more power to three- letter agencies.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good), my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Buck).

Mr. Speaker, when we start thinking about what is going on here in our country with unemployment, in the week ending May 1, 2021, about 16 million people collected unemployment. Now, that is a staggering statistic when you realize that over 6.6 million of those people would not have been eligible to receive unemployment benefits in a traditional environment. But because of the trumped-up and boosted-up unemployment benefits the Federal Government is sending out, we are basically incentivizing people by giving them $34,000 a year to not go to work, thus creating more and more inflation. There is no production so, therefore, there are too many dollars chasing too few goods.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Moore).

Mr. Speaker, I am disheartened to know that with this Federal unemployment stimulus that we are sending out around the country, although it might solve some short-term financial woes, it is creating a spiritual poverty in the hearts of men and women across this country that I believe cannot be described.

When you start to think about how devastating it would be to one's morale and one's own honor and one's own self-esteem to think that you don't actually create anything, you don't actually build anything, you are not truly benefiting society, it makes me shudder to think about how I would feel about that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Mann).

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. Boebert).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her always incredibly accurate and fierce comments.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert), another similarly fierce Congressman.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressman for his remarks.

Mr. Speaker, as I continue to consider that the Democrats' plan must be to destroy our economy by incentivizing laziness, by incentivizing people not going to work, I shake my head and say, No, that can't be true. That is just one mistake that they made.

But then when I start to look through all the points that I have outlined--of the ridiculous tax increases on dividends, the tax increases on capital gains, the tax increases on small businesses, the tax increases which will increase the cost of living for the middle class, I am sure that they are trying to destroy our economy.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), the most powerful and the most humble man in Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Brady for his leadership on the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I think with everything that has been said from all of these Representatives from all over the country, each of them representing nearly 730,000 people, I believe it is overly and abundantly clear that it is time to end the emergency spending. It is time to end the trumped-up unemployment checks, which are incentivizing laziness. It is time to end government-mandated joblessness in America.

There is a labor shortage in this country, and if we don't end it, we will see inflation, the likes of which our country has never seen before, and I don't know if we will be able to recover from that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, for over 200 years, American citizens have chosen dangerous freedom over peaceful subjugation. For the past few decades, the American patriot has watched in horror as the Federal Government has opened the shackles of safety and firmly clamped them around the Second Amendment.

As the Second Amendment restrictions have risen, so has violent crime. Washington wonders in one moment why violent crime is rising, and then takes away the right of Americans to defend themselves in the next.

Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exists for the sole purpose of regulating and keeping me from three of the things I hold most dear as an American.

This administration's proposed head of the ATF thinks that the Second Amendment was created for hunting and sporting. David Chipman could not be more wrong. The purpose of the Second Amendment was and is to hold back a tyrannical government. Chipman's tyrannical reading of the Constitution would turn millions of Americans into criminals overnight.

I am here to tell you today that these Americans who seek to defend their right to bear arms are not the criminals our Nation ought to be concerned by.

Mr. Speaker, the most dangerous threat to our safety and security does not arise from Americans wanting to protect themselves. No, it comes from men and women like those in this Chamber who would choose the quiet of servitude over the tumult of liberty.

The Second Amendment was designed to protect the First, and this Nation will not give up its liberties so easily.