I would, and I thank the great gentleman from Texas. I agree with him on the position he is taking, America first versus this America last agenda. I am from Pennsylvania. People say, ``Well, what do you care? You are a long way from the…
I would, and I thank the great gentleman from Texas. I agree with him on the position he is taking, America first versus this America last agenda.
I am from Pennsylvania. People say, ``Well, what do you care? You are a long way from the border.'' And I will tell you another great Pennsylvanian is now running for governor, Lou Barletta. He was just a small-town mayor in Pennsylvania coal country, as far away from the border as you would have thought, but he realized just over the course of a couple years his tax base stayed the same, Chip, stayed exactly the same, but his population in his little town doubled. And the crime in his town doubled. He could no longer afford the police budget.
When a gentleman, one of the residents, confronted a person who was a member of the Latin Kings and said, ``Stop trying to sell drugs to my children,'' and that man pulled out--the gentleman, not the gentleman, the cartel member, illegal foreign national, illegal alien pulled out his gun and shot that man right in the head right there in the street.
And that started this movement that illegal immigration--it shouldn't even be called that. Immigration is legal. It is not illegal. It is not immigration. This illegal crossing into our country, it is cultural piracy. It is piracy of our country, of our economy, of our safety.
A lot of attention was drawn in the little town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, because of Mayor Lou. He said, ``I am not going to stand for it, and I don't agree with the Federal Government's policies, and we are going to fight right here in our State and end this craziness.'' Then, of course, they took him to court. The United States Government fought their own citizen to put American citizens last and these other folks first.
Representative Roy, I just came back from the border. You live close to it. I go from Pennsylvania down to the border. Some things that you know are true, but you have got to see them with your own eyes. Maybe people don't realize. They think, Well, this is all poor, downtrodden, fearful people coming from Mexico or Central America. Two-thirds of the people that we saw coming across the border at that time, two-thirds were coming from other than Central America and Mexico.
I have got a news flash for everybody. You can't come to Mexico with a one-way plane ticket. You have got to get your way in and you have to have a plane ticket to leave. So these people, they are flying into Cancun, they are walking up to the border, and they are discarding their go-home ticket because if the Border Patrol catches them with that ticket, they can return them to that country. So they leave it right there at the border. These people are flying to Mexico to walk across our border. Two-thirds of them.
So the last people I saw before I left that trip, Chip, the Border Patrol was detaining and processing, so to speak, Russian, Azerbaijan, and Cuban. All of them flew into Mexico to cross our border.
And the other thing we found on the other side of the wall because, as you talk about, and I know you have, the breaks in the wall where construction was stopped by the Biden administration, so you can walk right around the other side, not only all the little shoes, the little shoes of little kids that they leave right there, it is heartbreaking when you see those. I have got children, you have children, those little shoes. That is an indicator of all those kids that walked the whole way up to the border.
But you know what else is heartbreaking? The packages of Plan B left on the other side of the wall. You know what that is for, right? Because all these little girls and these ladies were abused coming up to our border by the cartels.
When I got there, of course we watched people coming across the border, and the cartel members are standing right on the other side, waving to us, giving us the old one-finger salute, making a joke of all of us in this country and the people they just trafficked into this country.
I am aware of that. Of course, when I was there, at the time I think it was 44 days since the Vice President was tapped to take charge of the border.
Not unless it was a secret mission.
I do agree. By the way, while I was at the border, individuals from Iran illegally entered the country. In 4 to 5 months in this country under this administration, we have gone back four to five decades in inflation, gas lines, illegal immigration, and wide open border.
I mean, everything is turned on its head. Everything that was good about America 5 months ago is now turning the other direction just because of these policy changes. These are changes made in this House of Representatives. These are made right at the top by the President unilaterally destroying the opportunity for Americans, importing unskilled, unprepared labor. One of the places that we visited, Chip, was a food bank right on the border.
The Biden administration will say these foreign nationals, these illegal aliens, don't avail themselves to the public largesse, that they don't get money from the American taxpayer. Meanwhile, they wanted to get rid of the public charge requirement. If they didn't care about it, why was it such a big deal?
Also, your tax dollars go to the food bank. They don't necessarily go to the illegal foreign national. They go to the food bank, and then the food bank gives the food to the illegal foreign nationals.
They are taking away opportunity. They are taking away the labor that Americans need for their first jobs. When your child gets out of high school, looking for their first job--when I was 13 and got my first job, I didn't have any skills. Do you know what I could do? I could show up on time with a good attitude. That is what I could do.
Well, if somebody is willing to work for half price and show up on time with a good attitude, guess what? This American citizen doesn't get a job. That is what is happening in the last 4 to 5 months.
Right.
It does make you wonder, the good gentleman from Texas, who these folks that get elected to office represent. Do they represent their constituents, American citizens, or somebody else?
You talked about closing the Keystone pipeline. Now, what does that do? Does everybody think that we don't get any oil anymore? No. We just pay more for it, right?
We put it on trucks. We put it on trains instead of through a pipeline. Somehow, that makes us feel good.
That costs us all a lot more money, and if you are not making much money--first of all, I remember the days when I couldn't fill up my gas tank. You would get five bucks, and you would make that last all week. Those were the same days when me and my boss--since I was underage, my boss pumped gas with a firearm on his hip because there were even and odd days. You could only get gas, based on your license plate, on an even or odd day because there wasn't enough, and prices were going through the roof then. And we are back into it now.
At the same time, like I said, you wonder whose constituency is this. Is this America first or somebody else first?
They closed the Keystone pipeline, and then we talk about relieving sanctions for Nord Stream 2. That is the Russian pipeline. Oh, well, I am glad we are happy to support Russia getting all the gas to where they want to get, to their market, but apparently, America is not allowed to do that.
Whether it is inflation--oh, by the way, you don't see that happening either, as if it were true. There is nothing happening at the border, and inflation is not occurring. Go buy a 2 by 4 right now.
Go by a sheet of plywood, right? Exactly.
You are paying $100 for a three-quarter-inch sheet of plywood, and you are paying eight bucks for a 2 by 4, which 5 months ago was two bucks. That is inflation.
They can tell us all they want to that this agenda that they have works for America. We are Americans. It is not working for us.
It is Jimmy Carter, too, right? It is not only the third term of Obama, but it is the second term of Jimmy Carter.
We lived through that energy crisis, and we were told then that we were running out of fuel. But that was yet another lie, and, of course, now we don't have any jobs, right?
Meanwhile, we closed down the Keystone pipeline. How many jobs was that? And we are told that you can go make solar panels. It is not America First; it is China first. Those solar panels, what they call rare-earth minerals, that is another fallacy. They are not rare. They are only rare in the United States because we are not allowed to get them because we have laws that preclude us from going to get them that makes them cost-ineffective, so we have to import them from China or other places.
China does well. This is a China first policy, not an America First policy. This is coming from this administration and other administrations or acolytes to those policies.
I am aware, and I thank the gentleman from Texas for bringing it up.
We keep hearing about getting to net-zero, net-zero carbon. What is fascinating is, people don't realize that we could do that. If we actually did that, China would eclipse everything that we just did by going from our current economy to net zero in a few weeks' time, literally a few weeks' time. So, we do all that, take ourselves back to essentially the seventh century, and China would eclipse it in just a few weeks' time.
First of all, there are not enough critical minerals. There are not enough mines on the planet to transfer this energy economy into a solely wind- and solar-powered economy. There is just not.
So, we have to get real about what this is. I think the pipeline shutdown that you just saw on the East Coast here is indicative of how important and how tied to energy the vitality of this economy is and this America First agenda is. Tinkering with it even just the slightest bit has drastic consequences.
My good friend, the gentleman from Texas, endured it. All of Texas endured it this past winter. Their power got shut off, and the backup power for them, for their wind and solar grid, was natural gas pumps. Unfortunately, they are electric-powered, and the reason they chose electricity to power their backup pumps is to come below the emissions standards. Well, guess what? When your electricity is off because the Sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing and everything is frozen up, the electric pump doesn't work either.
This is insanity. We are choosing this. We are doing this by design.
It is not only just allowing China to pollute at an unprecedented level. Maybe for people who don't like colonialism and think that America throws its weight around too much, maybe that is China's business, trying to lift their impoverished people out of poverty and give them power. As you said, not just hundreds of lives, not just hundreds of thousands of lives, but literally millions of lives will be saved with power.
But what is the insult upon the injury is the Paris climate accord, where we actually pay China, which takes your tax dollars to take your energy away and pay them so that they can pollute even more while you can't live in the First World, in the 21st century. That is the insult upon injury here.
Yes. The gentleman probably knows this, but Pennsylvania, of course, a great energy State, has been for a long time--Titusville, you know the Drake Well and so on and so forth, it goes back a long time for us. We can't get our natural gas to market in New England because we can't get a pipeline through. They won't allow it.
So, where does New England get its natural gas in the wintertime when times are tough? They buy it from Russia. Talk about a national security issue. Again, more insult to injury.
None of this is based on an America First agenda. It is almost like everybody else other than America is first. These are political leaders and policymakers elected by their American constituency. You would think that they would want to support that constituency first, do what is best for them, ease their concerns when they have to make the bills, pay the mortgage or the gas bill, or pay for their child's education. And the prices just keep going up because of decisions that are made based on politics, not based on efficacy and what is good for people in America.
This is one of the saddest things we have seen in the few short months of this administration. The change of the Abraham Accords and the lowering of tensions in the Middle East between these nations and the resolve to be peaceful. The great track that we were on in just a few short months, it goes from that picture to the picture with the rockets being sent to Israel. Of course, being delivered--the explosives being delivered by the technology produced in Iran, by the avowed enemy of Israel, Hamas, who seeks not to find some resolution, but seeks death.
It is in their charter. So if you don't like what I am saying, I am just a messenger. It is in their charter that their job is to kill every single Jew. That is what they seek to do, in just a few short months. Everyone knew and everyone knows every administration will be tested by these foreign adversaries, and this one is being tested right now. And, of course, in my opinion, and obviously from the photographs, they are failing this test.
Is the gentleman aware that there is a proposal potentially coming to stop the sale of armament to Israel to rearm their missile defense system?
I will close with this, as I am sure the gentleman has much more he would like to talk about, and I have kind of interrupted him here a little bit.
But I've so appreciated his work.
Our relationship with Israel is much closer than just friendship. We depend on one another in so many ways that are unseen and unknown. And just one thing that had crossed my mind on many occasions--when you fly the most lethal attack helicopter in the world, the AH-64 Apache----
You have a helmet system that is linked to the camera system, linked to the gun, that the placement of your head is followed by those cameras so you can fly the aircraft, is followed by that weapon system so
that you can defend yourself at a moment's notice at all times.
And that following that is done with that helmet--which is very expensive--is made by our friends in Israel, because we are together.
Now, what breaks my heart, among other things, is that there are people right in this body--I mean, I hate to say it--they might as well be called the Hamas Caucus.
And I shudder to say that, especially in terms of what I just said Hamas stands for: The death of every single Jew in Israel. That is what they stand for, by their own accord, by their own account. That we would have people in this body say that Israel is an apartheid government and we should be supporting Hamas and what is happening, what they are doing sending these munitions over. It is an insult.
Arabs in Israel are the freest Arabs in that part of the world. They serve in government. They have their own political parties. They have their own free speech in Israel. It is an insult.
Is the gentleman from Texas aware that Hamas routinely locates their firing batteries, their munition stocks in schools, in populated areas with civilians, and fire from those locations for multiple purposes, propaganda purposes?
That is the depth of depravity where they would use small children as props, even to have them killed in a response as Israel defends itself. This is all a response to an attack.
That is the fundamental duty of those who take the oath of the Constitution: Defense. Defense of your Nation. Defense of this liberty.
And it can't be defended if it is under attack from a foreign nation. So, absolutely, Israel has the right to defend itself and to respond to attacks.
Again, it is abhorrent and completely insulting to refer to it as they do, and to take the side of the aggressor in this regard and say that, well, the response is disproportionate.
What is the proportionate response when your innocent family is killed under the barrage of an unwarranted unprovoked missile attack from across the closed border? What is the appropriate response?
If it were your family, I guarantee you, I would want a very robust response to stop,--to stop the missiles coming in.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania does completely agree, and I thank the gentleman from Texas.