[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 143 (Thursday, November 20, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H8150-H8154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 EBOLA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, my dear friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Kelly) is exactly right. We haven't heard the last of Ebola. It will 
continue to mutate. It will continue to be a threat.
  As this President is sending around 3,000 or so of our military 
members to west Africa--and they have been told they are going to be 
given gloves and masks and are urged to wash their hands and feet 
several times a day--basically, what that says is the men and women who 
have sworn and pledged their lives to protect ours are not going to be 
adequately protected by this administration. The rules of engagement 
already put our military at risk, and now, we are going to send them to 
Ebola-infested countries.
  The initial report said, initially, our military will not be seeing 
Ebola patients, but they are certainly going to come into contact with 
people who have had exposure to Ebola.
  I recall our President George W. Bush--a good man, a smart man, a 
witty, clever gentleman, despite what some might say--but he asked 
after 9/11, in essence, who would have ever dreamed someone would fly a 
plane into a building like a bomb? My thought immediately was, ``Well, 
actually, Tom Clancy wrote about that several years ago.'' It was not a 
radical Islamist as had happened on 9/11/2001.
  The late Tom Clancy had quite an imagination, but he did his homework 
in amazing fashion. Some have said his books had too much detail in 
them, but one of his latter books had research going on in Africa with 
the strain of monkeys that is the one strain that is believed and has 
support for having been transferred through the air instead of through 
liquid body fluids.
  In the fiction novel, Clancy had somebody working to develop that 
strain into a mutated strain, since it mutates constantly into one that 
people could pass through the air, and then it was used to infect our 
military or expose our military and many Americans.
  Basically, in his fiction novel, that allowed radical Islamists to 
take over much of the Middle East, while our military had been exposed 
to Ebola and much of it was quarantined.
  There are many things Tom Clancy has written about that I hope and 
pray never happen. That is one of them, but since some things that Tom 
Clancy's mind dreamed up as a fiction writer novel actually came to 
fruition, we shouldn't think for a minute that if Clancy could dream it 
up, our enemies could as well.


                              Immigration

  Mr. GOHMERT. I have been on the border many nights, all hours of the 
night, and I have seen people just as they have finished crossing. The 
first time I went, I expected I would see people crossing in droves, 
not realizing the coyotes--the paid employees of the gangs, drug 
cartels that bring people across--they don't want to get caught because 
if a drug cartel or gang employee gets caught by one of the Texas boats 
running up and down--I say Texas boats because our administration has 
not provided any Federal boats in the area most crossed down south of 
McAllen.
  There are no Federal boats down there. It is an area where Texas has 
stepped up and provided a number of boats that are zipping up and down 
the river, and you can hear them coming.
  The coyotes don't want to be caught. They know if the Texas DPS 
catches them, they will destroy the raft, and that will put the coyote 
in very deep trouble for getting caught, so they don't want you to see 
them crossing.
  As the State of Texas has placed DPS officers, Texas Rangers, game 
wardens up on the high bank--even in the dark, with just the least bit 
of light at all, you can see their silhouettes--and coyotes won't 
cross, again, if they think they are about to get caught.
  Once across, groups anywhere from eight to 90 will immediately look 
for someone to surrender to unless, of course, they are like the people 
I have seen fleeing down there, who apparently had drugs or something 
they didn't want to be caught with.
  It is an open border, far too open, and now, before the border is 
secured, with talk of amnesty and legal status that our Border 
Patrolmen have assured over and over again causes a massive surge, a 
massive influx of people trying to get to the United States, just the 
President or anyone in Washington talking about amnesty or any type of 
legal status helps lure Central Americans and others to their demise, 
girls to being raped, sold into sex trafficking. Many make it across; 
some don't.
  I would think the most compassionate thing that the government of the 
United States could do is, number one, secure the border so that 
families are not tempted to send their little children, little girls up 
with other people, paying gang members to bring

[[Page H8151]]

them up, who frequently rape them as they come to the U.S.
  A good neighbor would not only secure their border, but then we would 
help Mexico and Central American countries, as we did Colombia, to 
overcome the drug cartels.
  Colombia had made great strides I think, largely in part, because 
they had a President like President Uribe whose parents had both been 
assassinated. As one of our Federal agents in Colombia told me some 
years back, the toughest job they had back then was keeping Uribe alive 
because he was so courageous and so determined to defeat the drug 
cartels.
  Well, they kept him alive. With our help, some British help and some 
other help, the drug cartels were placed on the run. Coca fields were 
eliminated. It is still an ongoing battle they face constantly.
  If Mexico elects the right leader, then the United States Government 
should be a friend that helps them create an environment where people 
want to stay and work because many of the people come and they would 
love to remain in their country if it wasn't so dangerous and there was 
work.
  We can't take every person who resides in Mexico, Guatemala, El 
Salvador, or Honduras. We can't take every person without destroying 
the country that is the magnet, that is the shining light on the hill.

                              {time}  1145

  As a very precious, wise, and elderly West African told me when I was 
over there:

       We were so excited when you elected your first black 
     President, but ever since he has been President, we have seen 
     America get weaker and weaker. At least from what we see, it 
     appears you are getting weaker and weaker. We need you to 
     spread around in Washington that you have got to stop getting 
     weaker because it doesn't just affect you. We are Christians, 
     and we know where we are going when we die, but we have no 
     hope of a secure life and a safe life unless America is 
     strong and is an intimidating force to the forces of evil 
     around the world.

  Forces of evil will not go away. They will be with us until the end 
of time, and America makes a difference when we stand strong. We don't 
even have to send people, just the threat, as a former Ambassador from 
Israel said:

       America is not a serious threat to take out Iran's nuclear 
     capability, and, in fact, quite the opposite. Everybody 
     realizes America now is no threat to Iran. And since America 
     is no threat to Iran, and Iran knows it, the world knows it, 
     then Israel is more at risk than ever before.

  It is true in West Africa as Boko Haram gets more powerful, radical 
Islamists that want to take out Americans--and America is the Great 
Satan. It is true in North Africa, it is true in the Middle East, in 
Asia, in Russia, and in Europe: we need a strong America.
  And instead, though the official unemployment numbers have been shown 
to come down, when you cook the books by not including the massive 
millions of Americans who are adults, who could work, who are not 
institutionalized, and they have given up hope of finding a job. They 
have tried so long they are not counted in the unemployed. They are 
unemployed, but they are not counted as unemployed because they have 
given up looking. They have lost hope. That is absolutely tragic.
  I mentioned an article from September previously, but this report 
from CNS News on September 5 says that a record 92,269,000 Americans 16 
and older did not participate in the labor force in August as the labor 
force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.8 percent, 
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Well, the article goes on 
to mention that that has happened six times in the past year, and, 
again, that matches the all-time high of nonparticipation, matching 
that set during the malaise days of the Carter administration. Back 
then, there was double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment 
officially, and double-digit interest rates. People were hurting in 
America.
  Now people are still hurting. They are hurting across the country. 
That is why people are so desperate for sales. No telling what 
Thursday, Thanksgiving, the day after will look like. People are so 
desperate for sales because the data indicates on average people are 
taking home less than they did when compared with the rate of 
inflation.
  So we have a President whose administration has tied the Carter 
administration for the highest number of American adults who have given 
up hope of finding a job.
  Just as we get this news that the Obama administration continues this 
year to tie the Carter administration for the all-time high of 
Americans who have given up hope of finding a job, we get the story 
today, an article from The Daily Caller, that Obama's amnesty will add 
as many foreign workers as jobs since 2009. Because, Mr. Speaker, think 
about it: over 92 million Americans have given up hope of finding a 
job. That has tied the Carter administration. When this President in 
this economy says to people who have come illegally into this country, 
I am going to grant you 5 million or so permits to work, then it will 
put this President in a category all by himself. He will no longer be 
tied with the Carter administration as presiding over the highest 
number of Americans giving up hope of finding work. It will propel him 
into a league all of his own because it only makes sense that if you 
are giving 5 million legal work permits to people who are here 
illegally, they will then be able to offer their services cheaper than 
union workers and other workers who are here getting a proper wage, and 
it will displace millions more Americans from the jobs they currently 
hold.
  You can anticipate that, not immediately, but in the months ahead if 
the President does this unconstitutional act because he is tired of 
waiting on Congress to change the law the way he has dictated, and he 
has decided to dictate new law to America. Well, that is 
unconstitutional, and it is illegal. But the good news for the 
President is it will propel him out of the tie with the Carter 
administration for the most Americans giving up hope of finding 
employment and get him to the all-time high that will likely remain for 
as long as there is an America.
  Well, this article from The Daily Caller today points out that:

       President Barack Obama's unilateral amnesty will quickly 
     add as many foreign workers to the Nation's legal labor force 
     as the total number of new jobs created by his economy since 
     2009.
       The plan, expected to be announced late November 20, will 
     distribute 5 million work permits to illegal immigrants and 
     also create a new inflow of foreign college graduates for 
     prestigious salaried jobs, according to press reports.
       Obama has already provided or promised almost 1 million 
     extra work permits to foreigners, while his economy has only 
     added 6 million jobs since 2009.
       Under the President's new amnesty plan, ``up to 4 million 
     undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States 
     for at least 5 years can apply. An additional 1 million 
     people will get protection from deportation through other 
     parts of the President's plan,'' according to a November 19 
     report in The New York Times.
       The 5 million total was attributed to ``people briefed on 
     his plans,'' the Times reports.
       The 5 million work permits will add to Obama's prior 
     giveaways, which have provided work permits to almost 1 
     million foreigners.
       Since 2009, the U.S. economy has added only 6 million jobs, 
     according to the International Monetary Fund.

  Further, it says:

       Not all the 5 million illegal immigrants who get permits 
     will work, and many are already working under fake names or 
     for cash. However, their new work permits will allow them to 
     compete for jobs now held or sought by blue-collar Americans, 
     including the many African American and Latinos who voted for 
     Obama in 2008 and 2012.

  It would seem to me, Mr. Speaker, that if the President wants to do 
something about the massively unfair high unemployment rate for African 
Americans who are legal citizens that the thing to do would not be to 
give 5 million work permits to people that are illegally here so that 
they can knock more African Americans and more Hispanics out of the 
jobs they legally currently hold because they will work cheaper, 
probably without requirement for health benefits.
  My dear friend, Steve King, had invited me to Iowa, and I was 
visiting with a businessman there about their meatpacking plant where 
they had felt like, gee, they had to have illegal aliens doing the work 
because they were just jobs that Americans wouldn't do. And after a 
raid on their plant and illegal aliens were arrested, he reported that 
it turned out those were jobs that Americans just would not do at that 
price. But by raising the wages a couple of dollars and providing 
health care benefits, amazingly, they could

[[Page H8152]]

find Americans who would do that job. So it seems that as this story is 
replicated around the country, there are not so many jobs that 
Americans won't do; it is that there are jobs that Americans won't do 
at the market rate. So that is why you see so many millionaires and 
billionaires, many of them massive Democratic donors, who are--and some 
Republican donors, including the National Chamber of Commerce; my local 
chambers aren't pushing like this--but they say we want and we need 
this massive influx of unskilled laborers to do these jobs Americans 
won't do. They don't finish the sentence and say ``these jobs Americans 
won't do at what we would like to pay them.'' They require more in 
order to be hired, which skews the living wage that workers in America 
are getting paid and skews it downward.
  So that under the Obama administration, Americans have really been 
hurt, and that was reflected in the results of the election. I know 
there are many Democratic friends who said they don't understand why 
Americans that came out and voted didn't feel better about the economy. 
Well, try talking to them because they make it very clear, they haven't 
had a raise in years. They have lost health care benefits because of 
ObamaCare. They have had deductibles. Some have told me: Mine went from 
a $500 deductible, which was really tough, to $5,000, which I just 
can't ever meet because I can't spend $5,000 extra to cover the 
deductible of my new ObamaCare policy.
  So, yeah, the old joke was always, Well, I am from the government, 
and I am here to help you. It is one of the most frightening lines in 
America. It is no longer a joke. It is quite scary when you look at 
what the government has done to people. And then as this article points 
out, for the Obama administration to, using their terminology, create 6 
million jobs--because as we know the President and also Hillary Clinton 
have said, you businesses, you didn't create those jobs. Oh, no, you 
weren't the one that put your capital at risk, that took out a loan, 
that is paying more in taxes for the police and for the roads than 
anybody else. No, you didn't build that company that you risked your 
sacred honor and everything you hold dear on. You didn't create that; 
the government did that. We did that for you.
  Well, that is the way socialists generally start talking.

                              {time}  1200

  Having been an exchange student to the Soviet Union back when it was 
the Soviet Union, I saw what happens to a country that has to live 
under that for decades. So even in the 1970s, I could see, wow, I don't 
want their health care. Thank goodness we have free market health care. 
Of course, that was back before insurance companies and the government 
skewed the cost of health care.
  So when I was being told this week by a parent that the bill they got 
for their child having stitches in a medical facility was $4,500, well, 
I did enough work with and for health insurance companies and people 
who had claims with health insurance companies that I know good and 
well that the top health insurance companies, they wouldn't pay $4,500. 
You get a bill for $4,500, they probably don't pay $500 for that bill.
  So why shouldn't an American who can't afford an insurance policy 
under ObamaCare, why shouldn't that American be able to pay $500 cash 
instead of being hit with a $4,500 bill, and then the health 
institution says hey, since you are going to pay cash, we will cut you 
a real deal, we will knock off 20 percent. So yes, we will save you a 
bunch of money. And you will still pay several times more than what the 
insurance company would pay.
  The bill I proposed, even though there are those in ignorance who say 
Republicans didn't have any solutions, one of the parts of my health 
care bill would require every health care facility and provider to post 
the costs. And if you are giving a different rate to the insurance 
company than you do to an American paying cash, you have to post it and 
let everybody see, because only then would you ever get back to having 
some competition.
  The doctors that we used to go to in my hometown have passed away 
now, but my late mother, a very, very smart lady, was always looking 
for a bargain. I remember one time I asked: Why are we going to this 
doctor instead of the one we went to last time?
  Well, he raised his rates, and you know good and well this doctor is 
as good as the other one.
  When is the last time somebody said that? I'm going to a different 
doctor because the other one raised his rates. People don't even know 
what doctors charge because it has been so skewed.
  You want to fix the health care system, one thing that should be 
required is that there actually be truth in the charges of health care. 
We don't have that now. You don't know what the insurance company pays 
specifically. Government rates are posted, but that is also why many 
physicians and health care providers, like hospitals, they have gotten 
out of the business. Doctors have told me that they have, and I have 
seen that they have. We lost our second hospital in my district this 
past week, they announced at least.
  If we want to help Americans, it is not by more government takeover. 
The question keeps coming to me: I don't understand why my insurance is 
so much more. My deductible went way up. I am covering things like 
maternity care I will never use, and my premiums went up. I don't get 
it. I don't understand why it is more expensive.
  Well, one thing that is very basic as part of that answer is, if you 
are going to hire with health care dollars 1,800 new IRS agents, if you 
are going to hire millions more people for the government that will 
never so much as put a bandaid or Bactine or anything on a cut or help 
anybody with a real problem, then your health care costs will go up 
because you have added huge amounts of government that have nothing to 
do with getting you treatment. They are government. They may make you 
sick to your stomach, they may cause you to get ill, they may scare 
you, but they are not going to fix your problem. They are government 
workers.
  And thank you very much, I was in the Army for 4 years, and I know 
there were some good doctors there. I was friends with some. But, wow, 
we did have some quacks. The last thing I want is to be forced back 
into a hospital where the government has total control. But that is 
part of the price you pay by being in the military.
  Well, thank goodness, Congress has stepped up enough to provide our 
military with really the best health care when it comes to traumatic 
injuries. But as some have found around here, if you have a problem 
with your gall bladder, you better go to a private hospital. If you 
have a traumatic injury, sure, our military doctors and facilities are 
awesome, but I will take my private facilities for anything else.
  Well, this article from The Daily Caller points out:

       Each year, the Nation accepts 1 million new immigrants, or 
     roughly 5 million new immigrants since 2009. That total 
     includes roughly 3.5 million working-age immigrants, which is 
     slightly less than the number of Americans--4.3 million--who 
     turn 18 each year.
       Also, companies annually hire roughly 450,000 blue-collar 
     guest workers and roughly 200,000 white-collar guest workers. 
     Most of these guest workers stay for less than a year, but 
     many stay for 6 years.
       That current population of roughly 600,000 foreign 
     graduates is expected to increase, if, as reported, Obama's 
     plan allows American universities to offer green cards to 
     foreign tuition-paying students.
       Each year, roughly 4.3 million Americans join the workforce 
     in search of good jobs. That total includes roughly 800,000 
     Americans with expensive degrees in business, engineering, 
     medicine, technology, and architecture.
       At least 9 million Americans are unemployed, and at least 7 
     million have given up looking for work. Employment rates 
     among African Americans and Latinos are lower than rates for 
     Whites and Asians.
       Since 2000, the number of native-born Americans with jobs 
     has stalled, despite a growing population of working-age 
     native-born Americans.
       The surplus of domestic and foreign job seekers also helps 
     ensure that U.S. median wages have flatlined since 2000. 
     Economists--including Obama's top economic adviser--say that 
     wages stall when the labor supply is larger than the supply 
     of new jobs.

  Down further:

       Obama has already provided or promised about 1 million work 
     permits to foreigners since 2011.
       Since June 2012, Obama used the legally questionable 
     Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program to give work 
     permits to almost 600,000 illegal immigrants. That DACA 
     number may go above 1.5 million.
       In May 2014, Obama's deputies announced they would provide 
     work permits to 100,000 spouses of university-trained guest 
     workers used by brand name companies.

[[Page H8153]]

       In October 2014, his deputies announced they would 
     accelerate the paperwork for 110,000 would-be Haitian 
     immigrants, allowing them to begin working in the United 
     States long before they were due to get green cards.

  This is bad news for American workers. It is really bad news for 
American workers, and you would think it would come at a tremendous 
cost to the Democratic Party, which gets the huge majority of African 
Americans and a lesser majority of Hispanic and Latino voters. So this 
action to provide legal work permits to as many as 5 million people who 
are illegally here is a slap in the face, as hard a slap as you could 
give to Hispanics and to African Americans, whose unemployment rate is 
dramatically higher than it should be because this action that the 
President is about to take unconstitutionally and illegally for 
political purposes is basically saying to the masses, the millions of 
African Americans and Hispanic voters who are out of work: Look, we 
know you are going to always vote for us no matter how much damage we 
do to your lives, your employment, your ability to pay your bills. We 
know you are still going to vote for us no matter what because you 
haven't figured out that Republicans, they want you to have a job. They 
want you to be able to provide for yourself. They want you to learn 
English so you can be president of the company and not just a manual 
laborer for the company. We want you to live and achieve the American 
dream while the President is pushing a program that is going to push 
millions more, many of them African Americans and Hispanics, out of the 
jobs they have and bring in cheaper labor and make it even tougher.

  Why? We keep hearing it is a political move. Of course it is a 
political move. Well, the only way it is a political move is if the 
Democrats take the African American and Latino votes for granted. You 
are going to vote for us no matter how bad we mess up your lives, so 
this will allow us to eventually pick up the votes of people who have 
come in illegally because they will want to reward those of us who 
helped them.
  Well, I tell you, my office helps so many Hispanic families try to go 
through the legal route of getting family members here, or people who 
are trying to get a loved one here, a fiancee here. We help with those 
things. And, of course, there is no charge. And I have had a lot of 
people say: I don't know why we are working so hard and for all of 
these years to bring this person in legally when I would have been 
better off just saying, come on across, you will get amnesty some day 
and we will have saved all of this frustration--because we were trying 
to do what we thought was the American way, the legal way, when the 
President is about to reward lawbreakers by being a lawbreaker himself.
  The New York Times reports today:

       Officials of the Republican-led House Appropriations 
     Committee have concluded that the government agency most 
     responsible for implementing any new executive order, 
     Citizenship and Immigration Services, would not be hindered 
     if government funds are cut off. It operates entirely on 
     revenue it generates through immigration applications. In 
     short, lawmakers have no fiscal leverage over the agency, 
     which could keep operating even if the rest of the government 
     were shut down.

  We understand that. CIS, Citizenship and Immigration Services, they 
operate with fees they generate. Who allows them to do that? Congress 
does. Who created CIS? Congress did. Who has the authority to prevent 
CIS from implementing any illegal dictate that comes from the White 
House? Congress does.
  So even though CIS is funded by fees, we have the ability to do what 
Democratic Congresses have done post-Watergate. You want people out of 
Vietnam immediately who are Americans? Then no matter where the Federal 
money comes from, you make it a crime to spend any Federal revenue, no 
matter where it comes from, to have people in Vietnam.
  You want to prevent Americans from helping the contras keep communism 
off our southern border and out of Central America? They pass a law. It 
is easy to do. You pass a law saying it is a crime to use any Federal 
funds no matter where they come from for this purpose.

                              {time}  1215

  That is one thing we can and should do. I deeply regret that our 
Members were told we are done until after Thanksgiving when the 
President is about to announce this lawlessness, and then we are 
hearing secondhand from leadership of the Republican Party, ``There is 
not much we can do. Gee, they get their own funds.'' Yeah, there is 
plenty we can do.
  We ought to be here right now passing a resolution that authorizes a 
lawsuit, an injunction. I have signed plenty of injunctions. There is a 
standard you have to meet, but it can be done.
  If you have a President acting lawlessly, just like if you have a 
mayor that is acting lawlessly or a county judge or a commissioner or a 
Governor, somebody that is adversely affected--ought to have standing, 
bring a lawsuit, bring an injunction--to keep them from violating the 
law when they are supposed to be enforcing the law.
  It makes sense that as an administration acts more and more 
lawlessly, you have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was 
created, we were told, by the Democrats--by an all-Democrat House--and 
Senate majority, signed by President Obama, created this entity that 
was supposed to protect Americans from unscrupulous banking practices. 
It turns out now that is being used to gather debit card and credit 
card activity on Americans.
  The government shouldn't be able to get that information without a 
warrant or without permission from that American. We don't need a 
Federal agency that goes snooping, getting material that should require 
a warrant, and only after the government has shown probable cause that 
that American has committed a crime. Officers would come to me--I have 
signed orders ordering the disclosure of bank records like that, but 
the government had to establish probable cause, or I wasn't going to 
sign the warrant.
  Yet we create this monstrosity that, in the name of helping us poor 
stupid ignorant Americans, they will just monitor every bit of our 
financial activity while the NSA is watching over our emails and we are 
having our phone calls, all the logs from them go into the government.
  I mean, for heaven's sake, is it any wonder that we get a report this 
week. There is an article from the Washington Examiner that reports: 
``Under Obama, U.S. Personal Freedom Ranking Slips Below France.''
  For heaven's sake, we ought to be the freest country in the history 
of the world, and we have been previously. As Peter Sellers used to 
say, as the Pink Panther, ``Not anymore.''
  How sad is this? The United States in the personal freedom rankings 
for 2014 is number 21. Well, is that any surprise that our freedom is 
under such attack and our freedoms are diminishing and going away when 
the government is looking at every private aspect?
  You look at the control that was taken by ObamaCare over all aspects 
of our life. It allowed the Federal Government to have all of your most 
personal secrets that should be only between you and your doctor. How 
many times have we heard that from liberals?
  Yet they passed ObamaCare without a single Republican vote that puts 
the government, not only in their bedroom, as they have previously 
objected to--the government is in your bedroom, your bathroom, your 
garage; they are in your dining room, your refrigerator, they are on 
machines you buy food from. They are everywhere now.
  As I have said before, the ObamaCare bill was not so much about 
health care, it was about GRE. ObamaCare was about the ``government 
running everything.'' Holy cow, are they actually doing that.
  Anyway, quite interesting, as our government is going to put another 
4 or 5 million hardworking Americans out of work and turn those jobs 
over to people who came in illegally displacing--I guarantee you, when 
the smoke clears, there will be a disproportionate number of African 
Americans and Hispanics who have lost their jobs because of this action 
the President is going to take.
  New Zealand, Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Sweden, Netherlands, 
Uruguay, Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, 
Germany, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Austria, Malta, Portugal, those 
are all ahead of us in the personal freedom rankings for 2014, and 
there we are down below Portugal.

[[Page H8154]]

  Well, tonight, it is also reported in The Washington Post, that the 
President's announcement coincides with the Latin Grammy Awards. The 
article points out that the 15th annual Latin Grammys, which begins at 
7 p.m. Thursday on Spanish TV network Univision, they are going to take 
a break for the President's announcement.
  Clearly, it is political. Clearly, it will make points with those who 
are rewarded by legal work permits for coming in illegally. It is going 
to be a disaster for many Latinos, for many African Americans, to keep 
their job. They are going to have to start making less than a living 
wage than they had before.
  We need to be about the business of stopping this. We can, we have 
the will, but it is kind of tough, as we approach Thanksgiving, for 
many Americans to be thankful. This is still the greatest country in 
the world, but we are losing what we have had, losing freedoms, losing 
revenue, losing control of our lives to the government.
  It was George Washington, along with every single President since, 
who have said, ``This time of year for all we have, for all we have 
been given, those that do believe the Bible know all good gifts come 
from God and to God be the glory.''
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________