[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 51 (Thursday, March 26, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2098-H2101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE WEEK IN REVIEW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to address this. The 
bill we passed today is something that needed to be addressed. It was a 
problem that has been growing for about 16 years, or so.
  The cut that was put into law has been changed 17 times in the last 
16 or so years. It made cuts to healthcare providers. We have caused 
some healthcare providers to retire early.
  It was $716 billion that ObamaCare took from Medicare in order to, 
supposedly, fund 30 million or so that we were told didn't have 
insurance. Now we have cost millions their health insurance policy they 
liked. And I say ``we.'' Not a single Republican voted for that bill. 
It has cost Americans, millions of Americans, the doctor that they 
wanted to use.
  We have seen promise after promise that was made about ObamaCare that 
was broken. It absolutely wasn't true. Then we find out that there were 
advisers around the White House who were

[[Page H2099]]

advising all along: They are not going to be able to keep their 
insurance policy. They are not going to be able to keep their doctors.
  Maybe we want to change the way that kind of thing is said. It did 
major damage--and continues to do major damage--to health care.
  So, on top of that overlay, we had these ongoing cuts to the 
healthcare providers. If we didn't step in each year and temporarily 
pause them, it would have put so many healthcare providers out of 
business and made it extremely difficult for Americans to get the 
health care they need, even more than it already is, even more than 
ObamaCare has jeopardized. So something needed to be done.
  My friend, Dr. Mike Burgess, had pushed through a fix, a remedy, last 
year of 63 pages. It was very well thought out. He is a very bright, 
terrific doctor, a great Congressman, and a friend. We have spent a lot 
of time this week talking about the fix to the cuts to reimbursement 
for physicians.
  And the bill today, on the good side, provided a permanent fix. If 
this becomes law, if the Senate passes what we did, it stops the slow 
deletion of some healthcare providers' efforts and work.
  This provides a framework from which Medicare can be reformed for the 
future. It is valued at $175 billion. And the best estimate we have 
gotten is that $140 billion of the $175 billion is not offset with any 
cuts anywhere else. This would be a straight addition of $140 billion 
to our children's and grandchildren's enormous debt--what some refer to 
as ``intergenerational theft.''
  It does have Henry Hyde language protecting against Federal funds 
being used for abortion. I have always thought the world of Henry Hyde 
and was honored to overlap with him 2 years. His work in standing for 
the unborn children, the most innocent among us, is just an 
extraordinary life's work that he did.
  I don't know that Federal funds for abortions for people on Medicare 
is as big an issue as some might think. Anyway, the Hyde language is in 
there. It puts it in the Tax Code. That is a big deal. Some of my 
Democratic friends were not big on that.
  There is also reauthorization for CHIP. There are the secure rural 
schools. Our rural schools, especially those in national parks, have 
been cheated for many years from the income that they were supposed to 
have by giving up land they couldn't tax any more, by giving up other 
sources of revenue from the land.
  They agreed to allow land to be used or become national forests, and 
they were to be reimbursed by proceeds from the sale of timber. But we 
have a Forest Service administration--not just this one; it has been 
going for a while--where production has either slowed dramatically or 
completely been eliminated, even though pine trees where I live are an 
entirely renewable resource. You plant them, and you are ready to 
harvest them in 15, 20 years. We are not talking sequoias. We are just 
talking a renewable resource. It is well managed in east Texas and 
other places around the country.
  But since production has stopped and we are buying so much lumber 
from other countries now, it is not good for America, not good for our 
trade imbalance, but it has been a Federal Government policy. And it 
has put schools in an extremely detrimental position, especially in 
rural areas, especially in areas where there have been national 
forests.
  So it is nice to have another bandaid, so to speak, to address that 
issue. It should have been in here. It should have been done before 
now.
  But, on the other side, getting back to $140 billion that is not 
offset by cuts anywhere else, adding it into the intergenerational 
theft--and it also concerns me, we had 212 Republicans today that voted 
for this SGR fix. It would have been so easy to have enough of an 
adjustment into this bill that we could add six more Republicans, and 
it would have been able to pass without any Republican leader begging 
for support from the Democrats, without coming to support from 
conservatives.

  With the vote on DHS funding, we saw 167 Republicans voted against it 
because it didn't keep our promise to stop the illegal, 
unconstitutional amnesty that DHS had done, as ordered by the 
President; and there were 75 Republicans, some of whom are very 
conservative, but they did vote with the Speaker on that bill and with 
the majority of Democrats to pass that funding.
  But I think that gives us an indication that out of the Republican 
Conference--the massive portion of the Republican Conference represents 
very conservative districts, and there are Republicans that, thank God, 
we have that are from more moderate areas, but somewhere between one-
fourth and one-third, perhaps.
  It just seems like this bill today was one of those bills where we 
would be better off if we negotiated a deal among the Republicans and 
go through regular order. That is what we promised. You put us in the 
majority; we will go through regular order. We will have hearings on 
this entire bill. There will be open opportunities to discuss it, to 
amend it, to have legislative hearings, before you even do the votes on 
it in committee. We didn't do that.
  The bill was filed 2 days ago, on the 24th. We had a couple of days 
with this bill. That is not adequate for something this important.
  It does add some means testing for seniors. It appears very clear it 
is going to cause healthcare providers to have to add more clerical 
workers--people that don't do health care; they just do paperwork. So 
there will be more costs.
  So we didn't have a chance to adequately investigate the terminology 
of this bill and the long-term effects it will have on health care. It 
is kind of important.
  This also came 1 day after we voted for a budget that was important 
to get to the point where we could have reconciliation that let us deal 
with important issues like ObamaCare. We passed the budget easily, and 
we had a number of different budgets we could vote for. I thought Tom 
Price did a good job of marshalling the efforts on that.
  But the point is most of us were so focused on the budget through the 
vote yesterday that we really had one night to prepare on this SGR with 
the actual language that was filed on Tuesday.
  I was good with the 63 pages Dr. Burgess had used last year, but 
there were over 200 pages. I really don't know the long-term effects of 
what we did; and that is why, though I have been clamoring for an SGR 
fix, I couldn't vote for it.
  This isn't how we do things. We are supposed to first do no harm. We 
don't know what harm we may have done in that bill. We know we did some 
good, but we don't know what harm. We should have had some more time to 
analyze this and take the language back to our physicians, our 
healthcare providers, and say: You're the one doing this, you're the 
one trying to save lives, enhance lives, what will this do to you? What 
will this language do to you? Then come back and have the vote.
  So I appreciate the work for those that have been spending so much 
time on what is often referred to as the ``doctor fix.'' We definitely 
needed that as another fix. This is more permanent. We don't know what 
the Senate will do, and that is another one of our problems.
  There is some rather breathtaking news that has come out today about 
what the Obama administration has done in the way of damage to the 
nation of Israel--it sounds like this action was extremely petty--in an 
effort to slap Israel, without proper regard for the fact that they are 
the most important ally we have anywhere in the Middle East and one of 
the very most important allies we have in the world.

                              {time}  1345

  It is just breathtaking what was done. Actually, to put this in 
perspective, this article, March 23, from Joel Pollak, says, ``Obama's 
Chief of Staff Fires up J Street: Israel's Occupation Must End.''
  The article says:

       White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough earned raucous 
     cheers from the leftwing activists gathered at J Street's 
     fifth annual conference in Washington on Monday when he 
     attacked Israel's occupation of the West Bank. ``An 
     occupation that has lasted almost 50 years must end.''
       J Street was founded to disrupt the close U.S.-Israel 
     alliance and to serve as an alternative to the American 
     Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel 
     group.

  Well, that is interesting. If we use Mr. McDonough's rationale about 
the

[[Page H2100]]

Israel occupation and how it must end, then that would mean that, at 
the turn of the 20th century, if he had been around clamoring for, on 
behalf of this President--were he President around the end of the 
1800s--he would have been saying: it is time to end America's 
occupation of Texas.
  Had he been around in, say, 1823, speaking for President Obama back 
then, had he been President then, if he used this same reasoning, he 
would have been saying: it is time for the occupation of our Thirteen 
Colonies to stop, and we give all the land back to England. This is no 
time for the Thirteen Colonies to continue to occupy what we are 
calling the United States.
  It is time to give that back to England. It was theirs originally. 
The French had some at one time. There were differing claims, but 
basically time to quit occupying the United States and give this all 
back to England.
  It is time to give the West of the United States, you might have 
heard him say, if he had been around in the early 20th century, time to 
give back all the West to whoever had it before, whether it was Mexico, 
Spain, whoever may have been claiming it; we have been occupying it.
  That is not the way the world works. That is not the way the United 
States worked. Native American tribes were constantly taking each other 
on, different parts of the country, taking over others' land. That has 
gone on around the world.
  When you have a group of people living in the nation of Israel 
saying, We refuse to ever recognize Israel's right to exist, we want to 
wipe the Jewish people off the map, we want to wipe Israel off the map, 
then that is not a nation that you sit down with.
  Then when you have a nation like Iran, that is doing--they make 
clear, even as of last week, that the top leaders in Iran want death to 
America. Well, apparently, when this administration hears a religious 
fanatic that has killed American soldiers, killed American civilians, 
has really been at the lead of killing Americans wherever they could 
find them and have an opportunity to kill them and want to wipe Israel 
off the map, as the Little Satan, and wipe America off the map, as the 
Great Satan--they have continued to pursue nuclear weapons, and while 
this administration was rushing and continue to rush to talk to the 
leaders in Iran, it leaves some of us aghast at how blind the 
administration can be as to who is our friend and who is our enemy.
  It was Denis McDonough, this article talks about, speaking to the 
group, according to this article, that was founded to disrupt the close 
relationship between U.S. and Israel, and he fired them up, saying the 
occupation that lasted almost 50 years must end.
  It reminded me, oh, yeah, I remember another speech he gave, and this 
transcript is from the White House Web site. This was March 6 of 2011, 
and Denis McDonough, the same guy that thinks we need to run Israel out 
of the land of Israel, he said this--and I am quoting from the speech 
from the White House Web site.
  ``Thank you, Imam Magid, for your very kind introduction and welcome. 
I know that President Obama was very grateful that you led the prayer 
at last summer's Iftar dinner at the White House which, as the 
President noted, is a tradition stretching back more than two centuries 
to when Thomas Jefferson hosted the first Iftar at the White House. 
Thank you also for being one of our''--I might parenthetically 
interject here into Mr. McDonough's speech, glowing praise for Imam 
Magid, that actually this is Imam Magid who was president of the 
Islamic Society of North America.
  The Islamic Society of North America, a little background on them, 
they were named as a coconspirator to fund terrorism in the largest 
prosecution in the United States history for funding of terrorism--this 
was in a United States district court in Dallas--in short, referred to 
as the Holy Land Foundation trial. They were the main defendant, their 
principals.
  The list of unindicted coconspirators from that trial included the 
Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR; the Islamic Society of 
North America, ISNA; and the North American Islamic Trust, NAIT. These 
coconspirators were not tried in the first round of prosecutions in 
Dallas under the Bush administration, but in November of 2008, all five 
defendants were convicted on a massive number of charges of supporting 
terrorism.
  The evidence utilized in the first round of the prosecutions, some 
that participated anticipate would be used in another trial against 
other named coconspirators if they were successful in getting the first 
convictions, which they did.
  However, before the convictions were finalized, there was an 
election. President Obama was elected President, and we got a new 
Attorney General, and they decided, despite what the evidence showed, 
despite what the courts had found, they are not going to prosecute the 
Islamic Society of North America and CAIR--CAIR has a very lovely 
building just down the street from us here. I can see CAIR from my 
window.
  In the case in Dallas, CAIR, NAIT, ISNA, they filed pleadings 
demanding that the judge remove their names as coconspirators in 
supporting terrorism. The judge reviewed all the evidence, had the 
hearing, and he ruled that their names would not be struck as 
coconspirators because there was plenty of evidence to support them as 
coconspirators supporting terrorism.

  They appealed that to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for the 
United States, and the fifth circuit, in their order, confirmed that 
there was a prima facie case made that the entities, CAIR, NAIT, ISNA, 
those associations have strong associations with the Muslim 
Brotherhood, namely Hamas, its Palestinian branch, which was 
specifically designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. 
Government.
  Anyway, the organization here that the Federal courts found had 
plenty of evidence to make a case against them, as supporters of 
terrorism, have become partners with this administration, and that is 
why Denis McDonough, who was getting the acclaim for demanding Israel 
leave part of Israeli territory, he was there back in 2011, giving 
praise to Imam Magid, thanking him for his wonderful prayers at the 
White House.
  This is a guy that is president of what two Federal courts have said 
had plenty of evidence to show they are coconspirators in supporting 
terrorism.
  This business about, oh, the long tradition going back to Thomas 
Jefferson of Iftar at the White House, Iftar is the celebration during 
the month of August--or after the fasting during the month of August 
for the religious observance of Muslims, and Iftar is the feast after 
the fasting.
  If you go back to what they say was the first Iftar under Thomas 
Jefferson, it doesn't appear to me that Jefferson realized he was 
having an Iftar dinner. He wanted to have a dinner with a Muslim 
leader, and he couldn't do it until the fasting was over, and so when 
he could eat, they had a meal.
  It is kind of like hearing people say: Well, Thomas Jefferson, having 
a copy of the Koran shows how open-minded it was.
  No, it shows the fact that he had been a diplomat negotiating with 
radical Islamists called Barbary pirates as to why they kept capturing 
United States Navy--not Navy--but seamen and holding them for ransom.
  They had so many of our sailors that they held in captivity, we were 
paying a massive part of our budget for ransom to get these back. 
Jefferson was one of those that went over and negotiated and apparently 
asked: Why do you keep attacking us? We don't even have a navy. Why you 
are attacking us? We are not a threat to you.
  He was reportedly told: In our religion, we believe that if we die 
while attacking you, an infidel, we go to paradise.
  Jefferson was so well read, he couldn't believe there was a religion 
that thought you could go to paradise if you die killing innocent 
people, so he got his own English translation of the Koran.
  His ultimate action was to create and send a new thing called United 
States Marines to the shores of Tripoli because he realized there is 
not going to be any negotiation that is adequate to deal with these 
radical Islamists. There is only one way to beat them, and that is to 
physically beat them in a fight to the finish. It kept them off our 
backs for some time.
  Well, that is Denis McDonough, speaking for the President in 2011 and

[[Page H2101]]

now. Then we know that the White House is doing everything it can to 
bend over backwards, the State Department: Oh, Iran, what can we do for 
you?
  Okay. Now, we find out today they are going to let them have 
centrifuges spinning in their secret facility they didn't even disclose 
until we found out about it, and they are going to let them keep having 
centrifuges spin there.
  Look, they will almost do anything to get them to sign some kind of 
agreement, bending over backwards; but they can't spare a minute to 
meet with the leader of Israel, can't spare the President, Vice 
President, or one of the Cabinet to come listen to Netanyahu--oh, no.
  Then, today, this outrage has come to light, that the United States, 
the Obama administration, has declassified a document that reveals 
Israel's nuclear program to the world, especially to Iran and to those 
who want to destroy Israel, so they will know exactly what they are 
after, what they are up against.

                              {time}  1400

  What has happened, what has come to light today of this 
administration declassifying a document, obviously, it is a slap at 
Netanyahu. It is a slap at the Israeli people for coming out in droves 
to support a group of representatives that this President doesn't 
approve of.
  We are betraying this great ally of ours: Israel. If you believe the 
Bible, judgment will be coming down on our country for what our elected 
officials and appointed officials have done in betraying Israel. There 
will be problems for this.
  If you don't believe the Bible, then just use common sense. When you 
betray your most trusted ally in this torn-apart Middle East, then you 
are going to have problems galore.
  I have talked with leaders in those countries. I can't now because 
the Speaker won't let me go talk to them overseas anymore. That is what 
you call retribution if you don't support the Speaker. I get that. I am 
fine with that. As a result of him canceling my trip this weekend, I 
get to be on FOX News. Anyway, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Somebody needs to be friendly to our allies and stand up against our 
enemies, and this administration is not doing it.
  This betrayal is going to do more damage in the world than the snotty 
little act that was intended to slap at Netanyahu and the Israeli 
voters than we could possibly imagine. This is just unbelievable.
  Now, if you believe that there are lessons worth noting in the Bible, 
you could go back to King Hezekiah, who entertained the Babylonian 
leaders. If you believe the account in the Bible, God sent Isaiah to 
Hezekiah and asked him: What have you done?
  He already knew; but Hezekiah said, in effect--and this is Texas 
paraphrase--well, we met with these lovely, wonderful leaders from 
Babylon, and we showed them all of our treasure.
  In the most correct translation, he adds: And we showed them all of 
the defenses we have in our arsenal.
  Isaiah basically says: Because you have done that, you fool, you will 
lose the country.
  This is the kind of thing that brings down nations. It was petty, and 
it was a betrayal, and people need to be called to account for it.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________