[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 145 (Monday, September 26, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5907-H5911]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                     AMERICA HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, a friend of mine works part time in a 
hardware store. He is retired from several other careers, but he 
continues to enjoy helping people in a retail-service environment.
  Recently, he kindly gave me, as we were talking about gardening, some 
hosta plants that he had grown. As I drove through his neighborhood 
looking for his house, I suspected his home was the one flying the 
large American flag. I knew that Mike, my friend, had served in 
Vietnam, but, as we spent some time digging up the plants and visiting 
around his garden, I learned a lot more about his harrowing experience 
as a marine.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, Mike's squad was assigned to protect an area in 
the northern part of south Vietnam. They were a pesky bunch, as Mike 
put it, and the north Vietnamese grew tired of the constant haranguing, 
so they launched a counterassault. Mike's squad was outnumbered 10 to 
1, and they were hit pretty hard. A call went out for help, but the 
first helicopter to arrive was blown apart.
  Mike sustained severe wounds. A bullet to the chest collapsed his 
lung, shrapnel tore through a foot and a leg, and another bullet grazed 
his head. To breathe, Mike had to keep clearing his throat with his 
finger to remove the gurgling blood. And at the point where he could no 
longer physically fight, he crawled to a slightly more secure place and 
propped himself up on a sack. Mike told me he remembered two things--
the wind blowing through his hair and his mother. Who would tell her 
that he had died?
  Only three Americans survived that battle. Fortunately, another 
helicopter quickly landed and a corpsman came to Mike's rescue, 
stabilized him, and helped return him to safety. A doctor performed 
quick and precision surgery, and the medical personnel nursed him back 
to health, for which Mike was always grateful.
  But something always nagged him. He never got a chance to thank the 
corpsman who risked his own life to save him. And, finally, in 2001, he 
went online, did some research, and found the man 30 years later. Mike 
wrote to him and said: I have not forgotten you.

[[Page H5908]]

  Now, Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that our country's economic, 
political, and cultural settlement is straining under a number of very 
harsh realities. Concentration of economic and political power, coupled 
with signs of social collapse, are contributing to a growing sense of 
vulnerability and anxiety in our society. Amid a divisive and 
disorienting political season, terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, 
Orlando, Minnesota, and New York have reminded us of the grave threats 
to life and our cherished liberties.
  Take a moment, Mr. Speaker, to notice how many Nebraskans and how 
many Americans like Mike fly our flag. It means something. The flag 
stands for an ideal, for a value, for the proposition that all persons 
have dignity. And when that dignity is safeguarded, a people can 
flourish. That is America. But I think more people need to hear, Mr. 
Speaker, that we have not forgotten you. The fundamental questions 
right now before us are, who are we as a Nation, where are we going as 
a people, and how will we find our greatness again?
  Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I had an extraordinary privilege. I would 
like to share the story with you and the body. I was invited to attend 
the dedication of a new veterans memorial in a small town in the heart 
of the Great Plains north of Lincoln, Nebraska, where I live. This town 
is called Wahoo. It was actually made famous because in the old David 
Letterman show he named it as the hometown office.
  But Wahoo is more than a late night show's joke. It is a place where 
a community lives, works, and has a deep sense of interconnectedness 
and well-being. It is a place of extraordinary greatness. In this small 
town, about 500 people from the entire county came and gathered right 
there at the courthouse for the dedication of a new memorial honoring 
the 101 servicemembers who had been killed from the small farming 
community and the surrounding area--soldiers, troops, military 
personnel from World War I to our present day. All of their names were 
read in an honor roll, many having Czech and German names, who were 
such an important part of the original settlement of that area, as well 
as the Swedish.
  When I approached the microphone to say a few words, I recalled the 
old movie ``To Kill a Mockingbird,'' based upon the old novel. Mr. 
Speaker, as you will recall, in that movie, the lawyer Atticus Finch 
gives a defense of a man who is unjustly accused of a crime. The 
community from which that man had come had to sit in the upper balcony 
of the courtroom because of the prejudice of that time. And as Atticus 
Finch was getting ready to leave the courtroom, the reverend, who was 
in the midst of that community in the gallery, says to his young child, 
the lawyer's young child: ``Stand up, your father's passing.''
  At that beautiful ceremony right there in the Great Plains, it 
started with the public high school choir and the Catholic high school 
choir singing our national anthem. When that occurred, no one sat on a 
bench, no one took a knee. We all stood because it was not about us, it 
was about them, the men and women before us, living and dead, who had 
answered the call to service. And whether they had cooked or cleaned or 
computed or were in the worst conceivable firefight, nonetheless, they 
said: yes, I will serve, I will sacrifice, for the meaning of our 
Nation.
  We live in a time, Mr. Speaker, when our world is screaming for 
meaning. What we are really searching for is not an answer that can be 
found here in this body. We have an important role to debate the most 
pressing issues of the day, whether those are national security, 
economic security, and even cultural security. The most important 
answers aren't found necessarily down the street in the White House. 
They are not going to be answered necessarily in the great debate that 
is about to occur moments from now on the television. The answer is 
found in the debate about meaning itself.
  When we find things that bind us, like this extraordinary ceremony 
yesterday nestled in the heart of America, where people young and old 
came to honor our veterans, when we look back to those who came before 
us, giving them their due in a memorial that appropriately honors them, 
we bind ourselves in a noble idea that sacrifice for one another, 
sacrifice, even for a nation, is sometimes not only necessary, but it 
is worthy of the fullness of the call in the human heart.
  But we still have hard questions before us. So what should we do? The 
first pathway, Mr. Speaker, to finding solutions is to adequately 
identify the problem. And in one word, I believe the problem is 
fragmentation.
  What do I mean by that? It is a creeping separateness, whether in 
economic affairs, government affairs, foreign affairs, or our own basic 
exchanges in local community life. People are feeling alone, isolated. 
In many cases, they feel like they lack control over the most basic 
things, the simple things in their own life.
  Far remote systems seem to be the new governing order. Informative 
institutions that used to provide the continuity of tradition and nest 
people into an ongoing desire and pathway toward hope by giving them 
the gifts of that tradition and the responsibility nested within 
community, as well as the accountability, have all become fragmented. 
These burdens press upon our people in a most profound way, and, in 
particular, in regards to their own economic well-being.

  These days, economic measures are on everyone's mind. There is a 
tremendous amount of anxiety, even hopelessness, in our uncertain 
times. And while the stock market has certainly rebounded and corporate 
profits have soured, many families are facing downward mobility, 
stagnant wages, decreased opportunity, the feeling of 
disenfranchisement, and the inability to achieve financial security.
  Part of our problem is our country's damaged micro-enterprise sector, 
that entrepreneurial space where most new jobs in the country are 
actually created. And we are not even talking about corporations that 
are 100 to 500 employees. We are talking about shops that are 1 to 5 
people.
  This morning, I made a phone call as I was getting on the plane to 
return here from Nebraska because, Mr. Speaker, I received this in the 
mail. This is a flyer announcing a doors-closing sale from a small 
business called Havelock Furniture. This furniture company anchors the 
north end of a little community called Havelock, which is now subsumed 
into the greater community of Lincoln, Nebraska.
  It distressed me when I received this. At first, I thought they might 
be another victim of corporate consolidation, an inability to compete 
as a small furniture store in a sector that might be, again, increasing 
the concentration into fewer and fewer hands.
  So I just picked up the phone, and I called Sue. Now, this is an 
advertisement for a closing-business sale, and it is giving me a 
discount if I want to come there and buy something. But Sue lays out, 
in very heartfelt terms, the reality of their circumstances: The family 
has been in business for 61 years, and now I am retiring forever. She 
goes on to say: And I am offering our friends and employees and 
preferred customers a special discount.
  Well, I can't ever recall if I have met Sue. And, by the way, at the 
top of this, Mr. Speaker--I don't know if you can see it--is a picture 
of the founder, Mel Everson, and it says: In loving memory. As I 
recall, Sue is his daughter.
  I called Sue just to find out what was going on, and also to express 
my thanks for their willingness to be in business this long, carry on 
an important tradition for an important part of our town, and be an 
integrated part of an old Main Street that still occupies a unique part 
of the community where I live.
  We talked a little bit about what happened. And, fortunately, it 
wasn't the result of any type of pressure coming from outside economic 
forces that were beyond her control, it was simply the necessary 
decision that had to be made for family reasons. But, nonetheless, I 
felt a heartfelt loss. And why? Because on a deeper level, Sue's 
business is the loss of a symbol of community mutuality and economic 
affairs, a gathering place where human interaction reinforces social 
vibrancy.
  Mr. Speaker, our country needs a 21st century vision of what economic 
success can look like. Benign competition with a robust small business 
sector creates the conditions for a sustainable dynamism, a humane 
economy that prioritizes personal relationships and

[[Page H5909]]

community ties, fosters stronger entrepreneurialism, forges better 
consumer products, and creates more jobs for persons who need them.

                              {time}  2000

  Just as a healthy society and the principle of self-responsibility 
are the preconditions for prosperity, properly ordered markets support 
social cohesion. Markets at their best are driven by startup innovation 
and sustained by widespread ownership. The return of small business, 
with a new participatory economy, can extend the dignity and just 
rewards of meaningful work. It will help us fight poverty and help us 
to rebuild our economy in this century.
  Now, what are some good examples of this economic mutuality I am 
referring to where no person or no thing is thrown away?
  I recently saw a presentation by a CEO of a major corporation. He 
threw up a PowerPoint on the screen, and I thought we were getting 
ready to look at some boring quarterly earnings projections or 
something like that; but instead of rolling out the PowerPoints and 
graphs, the CEO showed a simple picture. It was a picture of a young 
woman on her wedding day, a bride on her father's arm.
  The CEO then said this: ``Everyone is someone's daughter. Everyone is 
someone's son.'' In other words, persons matter--persons matter in a 
society; persons matter in a business; persons matter as we debate the 
great public policy issues before us because, ultimately, that is the 
purpose, the well-being of persons.
  The point was powerfully made. The understanding of work and the 
workplace--the proper understanding of work as nested within the 
workplace--are essential to human dignity and to human happiness; and 
this CEO of a very large corporation said he believed business could be 
the greatest force for good in the world. That is a strong and proper 
perspective.
  Mr. Speaker, as I was recently looking around my garage, looking to 
clean out a few things, I came upon an old, antiquated pickax. It is 
really a substantial piece of hardware. I bought this years ago and 
used it numbers of times in my yard. Then the handle finally broke, and 
I had a hard time throwing it away--it is a bad habit I have, I guess. 
But it sat there in my garage, a substantial piece of iron. So, instead 
of throwing it away, I took it with me to the local hardware store, and 
then I went to look at some new ones.
  I asked the clerk: ``What do you think? Do you sell handles?''
  He said: ``No, we do not sell new handles.'' He said: ``You are 
probably better off buying a new one and putting this one on the wall 
in the man cave.'' So I went and looked at a new one and toyed with the 
idea; but then the clerk said: ``Well, look. Let me do a little 
research for you, and I will get back to you.''
  So he did. He went out and found a company in America that made 
pickax handles out of hickory. He took it a little further. He went 
ahead and ordered the handle for me, and he replaced it himself. When I 
went to the store about week later, there it was--a piece of old, old 
hardware, ready to be put back to work with a replacement handle 
proudly made in America and made of hickory.
  If you had done a straight analysis of the cost involved in this 
repair project, it was not worth it. I only saved about $10 by 
repairing versus buying a new one. I had to wait a week or so, and I 
had to go to the store twice, but there are unmeasured benefits here. 
Let's talk about those. First of all, an old piece of iron is not in a 
landfill; a renewable resource of hickory wood was deployed; an 
American company made a little profit; and the hardware store's clerk 
had the satisfaction of a hand-built opportunity. I will tell you, I 
must say, I am pretty proud of my refreshed, repurposed pickax, and I 
put it right to work on some old bushes I had in the yard.
  More importantly, Mr. Speaker, if we are going to rebuild our 
economy, thinking about how we manufacture, how we maintain, and how we 
rebuild what is still useful can unlock the benefits of a well-
functioning market system. This small act of taking something old but 
solid and getting it back into useful service provides some insights on 
how to better secure economic well-being. The disposable nature of so 
many goods as they are now manufactured, with the intended life 
expectancy ever more narrowed, decreases costs in the short term--but 
cheaper isn't always best. The ability to repair and recycle and to 
repurpose--to keep the useful life of a resource as long as possible--
is smart economics. It is a fundamental principle of conservation, and 
it is a key to reviving the small business service sector.
  Perhaps, Mr. Speaker, this is an emerging trend. I was watching the 
Olympics. During it, I noticed a commercial in which a major retailer 
gave a subtle message about cheap imports. During the commercial, as 
the song ``Dream On'' built up steadily in the background, the 
commercial featured people waking up, going about the routine of life, 
getting their kids to school, and making their way to a factory, where 
they used their hands to make things--tough and gritty work, but 
connected to a deeper meaning. At the end of the commercial, the 
company stated it will invest $250 billion in American manufacturing in 
the years to come. Maybe we are on the front end of a trend, Mr. 
Speaker. I certainly hope so.
  An economic model that chases more and more output alone is not a 
valid measure of value. Our country's economic reboot requires a return 
to a humane economy--one focused on quality, durability, and the work 
of human hands and, as much as we can, made in America. Without this 
focus, we will forever chase that which we cannot find, and perhaps 
more and more people are realizing that we should shift to what is 
dependable, not disposable; to what is fixable, not forgettable; to 
what is reparable and not just replaceable. Using my repurposed 
hickory-handled, American-made pickax gives me a great deal of time to 
think about these things, Mr. Speaker. It also gives me a pretty good 
workout--a winner all the way around.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to reference something else that I happened to 
see. There is a show--I am not sure if it is still on--that is called 
``Undercover Boss,'' and I have seen it a few times. I find the program 
to be quite engaging and very, very human. The premise of the show is 
that the CEO, the chief executive officer, of a major company goes 
undercover as an employee. Then, from there, he participates in the 
gritty work of building things, of cleaning up, of working the phones, 
and of performing basic administrative tasks.
  During this particular episode that I saw, the boss spent some time 
out in the field, repairing a broken sewer line. Then he was in an 
office, answering calls, and was at a manufacturing plant where the 
equipment was crafted. The CEO was assigned to one of the company's top 
welders for training at the manufacturing facility. As part of his 
disguise, he wore safety glasses and a do-rag. The first mistake that 
the CEO made was that of burning a hole through the metal that he was 
supposed to be joining. After the welder who was supervising him gently 
corrected his technique, they took a break, and the conversation turned 
to job security.
  The middle-aged welder, who was a long-time, dedicated employee and a 
team leader at that corporation, told the boss about the worry that he 
has and that he overhears at the manufacturing plant. Would they just 
show up one day and see a ``closed'' sign hanging on the cyclone fence? 
Given what is going on in America, no one knows for sure whether the 
company would just pack up and move overseas like so many others have.

  The simple conversation in the break room in middle America captured 
what so many Americans are justifiably concerned about. Although the 
government's aggregate statistics show an overall unemployment rate of 
about 5 percent, the numbers hide a disturbing reality. For too many 
people, the rhetoric of free markets has not translated into better 
opportunity or security. As I mentioned, stagnant wages and downward 
mobility, staggering student loan debt, job insecurity, and the 
increased cost of living are all real difficulties marking the new 
normal for an increasing number of families in our society.
  In another segment of the television show, the disguised CEO had to 
work on a home drainage system. The elderly woman who lived in the 
well-kept

[[Page H5910]]

but very simple house was told that the bill to fix the problem was 
$1,200. She responded in a very worried voice about her many doctor 
bills and about how much medicine she had to buy. The employee who was 
supervising the CEO then paused, considered the situation, and gently 
spoke back to the elderly woman and said to her: ``Well, how about 
$500?'' The employee, as it turns out, had taken it upon himself to cut 
his own commission in order to help this elderly, vulnerable person, 
all while his undercover boss watched.
  After several other meaningful encounters with his employees, the 
show concluded with the CEO's revealing his true identity and 
commending everyone with whom he had interacted. He made some poignant 
points about his experiences--how deeply they had touched his life and 
how they would now impact his management style. To the welder, he said: 
``I want you to take the message back: `We are staying in America.' 
Give them that assurance from me.'' To the man who reduced the bill at 
the cost of his own salary, he rewarded him for his compassion and 
dedication.
  Business can be a force for great good, Mr. Speaker. The true 
potential of companies depends upon their people for their greatness. 
In this case, the CEO was willing to do a self-evaluation of his own 
leadership style and of the very fundamental purpose of the company, 
itself. Perhaps a scorecard should be kept to feature businesses that 
do the right thing: trying to keep the best jobs in America, 
consistently innovating, and paying just salaries to persons who work 
hard to support themselves and their families.
  In order to discover--to discover, perhaps, something about himself, 
to discover the true meaning of work, to discover the true value of the 
persons under his authority--the CEO went undercover. By doing so, he 
found what he had not seen: a properly functioning market economy that 
genuinely works for both profits and persons, repairing fractures in 
our society, and enhancing community interdependency. That is the 
point, Mr. Speaker: community interdependency is the true source of our 
Nation's strength.
  When I was a much younger man, I owned a rear-wheel drive Ford Bronco 
II. They don't make them anymore. I loved that little truck. I sold it 
shortly after I was married. That little truck was great for that time 
in my life, but navigating winter conditions could be a bit tough. One 
night, while traveling on an interstate during really forboding 
weather, I came over the crest of a hill, and what lay before me was 
surreal. It must have happened just seconds before. A large 18-wheeler 
truck had jackknifed. Cars were spun in every direction, flung into the 
median. There was a clear sheet of ice that no one had expected.

                              {time}  2015

  In an instant, my reality changed. In an instant, everything changed. 
I had to make a choice. I rapidly decreased my speed, gripped the 
wheel, and focused my total attention on the road before me only just 
barely navigating the treachery.
  Mr. Speaker, many Americans feel that they have been tossed around in 
a bewildering unpredictability of our current policy, economic, and 
political dynamics. Many Americans are looking for new leadership that 
offers a compelling, inspirational, and stable vision that can restore 
the true security of our Nation. If we so choose, one of the strengths 
of the American system of government is its capacity for constant 
replenishment.
  In the midst of an unpredictable government transition season, it may 
sound a bit peculiar to speak of opportunity. But could this moment 
give us the chance, as a people, to reassess and realign? Perhaps so, 
if we so choose.
  As we began this conversation, Mr. Speaker, I talked about pointing 
to the problems in order to understand solutions. I think a stronger 
America might be glimpsed through four mutually supporting principles: 
government decentralization, economic patriotism, foreign policy 
realism, and social conservation.
  Mr. Speaker, just like every football game has four quarters, let's 
think of our solutions as our four-quarter game plan: government 
decentralization, economic patriotism, foreign policy realism, and 
social conservation. What do I mean?
  First, a return to a more decentralized form of government will 
restore an important source of America's strength. I, in no way, wish 
to belittle the essential important debates that occur in this body and 
elsewhere in the Federal Government. We have a role. We have a role to 
create the conditions so that the rest of society can flourish. The 
ultimate role we have is to seek justice and the just structures that 
can bring about order for persons and communities to flourish.
  When the Federal Government grows beyond its effectiveness, it 
infringes upon basic liberties, it stifles innovation, it crushes 
creativity, and it also takes away the responsibility that we have for 
one another. A creeping tendency to nationalize every conceivable type 
of problem erodes community resolve.
  Now, while the Federal Government does have a central role in 
maintaining the guardrails for stability, the rule of law, and a fair 
opportunity economy, America's governing system is designed to operate 
most effectively at different levels. Those close to an opportunity or 
a problem ought to have the first authority to seize the opportunity or 
solve the problem. I find it notable that the veterans memorial 
ceremony that I went to just yesterday did not include any government 
funds. It was made up of community resolve and community sacrifice.
  As a quick civics lesson, as an aside, the Rules Committee on which 
the gentleman from Georgia sits is still working tonight, trying to 
craft the structure for the debate that will occur on certain pieces of 
legislation to come before us in short order.
  Let me return to something I said, Mr. Speaker. Just like every 
football game has four quarters, I believe we ought to think of our 
solutions as a four-quarter game plan. The first is returning to a 
healthy concept of decentralized government, a healthy Federalism where 
those closest to a responsibility or opportunity have first-order 
priority in taking responsibility or seizing that opportunity, again, 
not to denigrate the very essential role that the Federal Government 
plays in creating the conditions for stability and rule of law and a 
just playing field, particularly in the economy, as well as national 
security, but other levels of governance are essential to community 
well-being.
  Second, economic inclusion or economic patriotism should help America 
recover from an arthritic economy. As I mentioned earlier, although the 
government's aggregate statistics show an overall unemployment rate at 
about 5 percent, these numbers continue to hide certain realities. 
There are stagnant wages and downward mobility making life very 
difficult for a number of families.
  Mr. Speaker, it is sad to say this, but this Washington-Wall Street 
axis, which promotes the transnational corporation as the new ruling 
entity for society, cannot secure the well-being of our economy. They 
cannot. Instead of a globalized supply-side elitism, America needs a 
vibrant marketplace of her own that expands the space for constructive 
interdependency and community dynamism which will fight poverty and 
drive innovation, at the heart of which, again, is small business.
  Small business is the key, along with a fair regulatory environment 
and the right type of healthcare reform that will actually end up 
decreasing cost, while protecting vulnerable persons and reset the 
architecture so that we have a 21st century healthcare system that is 
truly just, that is fair, that is actually going to achieve the 
conditions for creativity and innovation in the marketplace. What we 
have now is a healthcare system that is an increasing drag on the small 
business sector; and, therefore, the number of jobs that we see created 
are going down. We are living in an entrepreneurial winter--the number 
of jobs being created are less from small businesses, are less than the 
number of small businesses that are actually dying. We are in an 
entrepreneurial winter. This has never happened before in the history 
of our country.
  So, focusing on the small business sector and returning to, again, a 
fair regulatory environment and appropriately addressing a new 
architecture for health care, which doesn't simply shift costs but, at 
its heart, protects vulnerable persons, improves

[[Page H5911]]

healthcare outcomes and reduces cost is a key to restoring the small 
business sector.
  Third key is foreign policy realism. What do I mean? Foreign policy 
realism charts a course between overinterventionalism and isolationism. 
America has an important role to play on the global stage today. 
However, many Americans are alarmed at an exhausted, drifting, and 
often counterproductive foreign policy. The posture of foreign policy 
adventurism, sometimes coupled with naive assumptions about democracy 
promotion, requires a recalibration. Leveraging American strength 
through strategic international relationships and authentic friendships 
will help us navigate the 21st century marked by a changing 
geopolitical framework. Mr. Speaker, I believe in the three Ds: strong 
defense, smart diplomacy, sustainable development. That is the right 
balance in our foreign policy considerations.
  Fourth key is social conservation. Social conservation provides the 
conditions for order, opportunity, and happiness. We usually don't put 
those together, social and conservation. We think of conservation as 
the important protection of our land and water and the air we breathe, 
not throwing things away unnecessarily. Thinking of the ideals of the 
ecosystem where all things are interdependent, or looking out into the 
vast horizons of nature and letting it pull ourselves to a higher realm 
of that which is beautiful, even that which is divine, we have all had 
that experience. We know it in nature. We see it.
  Could we possibly see the idea of an ecosystem of community where we 
actually think that it is more than politics for the promotion of 
sustainable values? As society has become more fragmented, it is harder 
and harder for us to craft policies that meet society's needs. 
Washington cannot spend enough fast enough to fix the deep wounds in 
our culture, Mr. Speaker.

  Social conservation recognizes that family life, faith life, and 
civic life provide a continuity of tradition, giving meaning to life 
and creating stability, particularly for children. Those of us who have 
had the scarring experience of coming from broken situations, we know 
this intuitively. Those of us who struggled with the deep scars of 
having what you know and what keeps you safe torn from you, we know 
that the formative institutions that preserve the good are invaluable 
to opportunities later in life.
  Our sense of well-being, the strength of our Nation ultimately does 
depend upon the strength of the formative institutions that give rise 
to family life, faith life, and civic life. That is the strength of 
America.
  We are confronting intensifying struggles about the direction of our 
country, and the fault lines are, sadly, widened. I think there are 
things that still bind us. I would like to think that what I am saying 
speaks to every Member of Congress here, that it transcends the 
superficial political boundaries that we set up that are, yes, based 
upon the different philosophical perspectives on the nature of what 
Washington ought to be and not. But I would like to think, again, that 
this rises above, because they are binding elements of the human heart. 
It is what we all long for: to be nested, to be secure within a 
community of loving persons around us who care enough to hold us 
accountable, who care enough to demand that we take responsibility for 
them and with them.
  Although we are encountering rough weather in our country, we can 
choose to rediscover this best sense of ourselves. We can choose to 
rediscover commonsense governance, which will uphold these ideals and 
be built upon them. We can choose right-sized economic models. We can 
choose to rediscover universal foundational values that are consistent 
with the desire of all persons' hearts. This is how the greatness can 
be restored again. This is how we make America great again. This is how 
we find ourselves and find one another and find a vision that binds us 
together and makes us all proud to stand as America's flag is flown.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________