[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 122 (Wednesday, July 19, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H6037-H6040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IMPORTANT ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Budd). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Garrett) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank my colleague, 
Congressman Schweikert from Arizona.
  I hadn't intended to, but I will begin my remarks by addressing his 
remarks, and I will do something that I rarely do, and that is to quote 
a French historian, political scientist, and diplomat, Alexis de 
Tocqueville, who stated: ``The American Republic will endure until the 
day that Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the 
public's own money.''
  The previous administration was led by an individual who, on the 
campaign trail, said that $7 trillion in debt was unpatriotic. Now we 
sit at the precipice of $20 trillion after two terms, and I would 
submit that perhaps that is unpatriotic multiplied by three, or nearly 
that, and echo the sentiments of Mr. Schweikert that it is absolutely, 
positively unsustainable.
  Now, there are ways that we could certainly deal with runaway debt. 
One way would be to completely devalue the currency. If you really want 
to step away from the hyperbolic barbs that are thrown by my colleagues 
across the aisle as relate to the motives for the legislation that we 
carry and find out who would be really harming seniors and children, it 
would be those who would continue to spend until the only way to cover 
the tab was to deflate the value of the very moneys set aside to care 
for those least able to care for themselves.

  Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Schweikert not only for his wise 
remarks, but also for reminding me just how much I miss being a member 
of the statehouse in the Commonwealth of Virginia where there is actual 
back-and-forth debate on the merits of issues, wherein that small 
percentage of individuals who choose to inform themselves might shape 
their opinions based on a discourse rather than people standing at this 
microphone unchecked.
  That leads me to my next point, which is also not on the subject that 
I originally intended to address, and that is the statement of my 
distinguished colleague from Maryland, Mr. Raskin, who spoke on this 
floor about 45 minutes ago on a subject that is important not just to 
him and not just to me, but to America, and that is on the subject of 
asset forfeiture.
  His comments were indicative of the tone that this body has devolved 
into. One of the many Democrats whom I admire, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 
whom Vanity Fair described as a fervent Democrat who saw the value in 
working with Republicans--where is he today?--he once said: You are 
entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own 
facts.
  Mr. Raskin said that the Trump administration was burdening Americans

[[Page H6038]]

by virtue of an asset forfeiture policy, and he cited the case of a 
Chinese restaurant, an entrepreneur who he said had amassed $25,000 so 
that he could buy a building. But he was going over the speed limit so 
he was pulled over by police. So without cause, they took his money, 
and it took him 7 years, according to my colleague, to recoup his money 
and the opportunity was lost, and that is what is wrong with Mr. 
Trump's policy.
  Wow. And he implored listeners to please look up this case, so I did.
  In fact, there was a man who had saved money to purchase a Chinese 
restaurant who was going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. He was 
pulled over by law enforcement, and he had not $25,000, but $75,000 
forfeited. It took him not 7 years, but 10 months to get it back, and 
it happened in 2014. I am not terribly sure who was President then, but 
I don't think it was Donald Trump.
  So I will join my colleague in suggesting that we need asset 
forfeiture review and reform in this country. But, please, you are 
entitled to your own opinions; you are not entitled to your own facts.
  Now, why am I here tonight? Golly, Ned, why am I here at all? Who are 
we as a nation?
  I tell my children, if you want to know what is the right thing to do 
in life when you are confronted with tough challenges, when you have a 
dilemma, ask yourself, ``Who do I want to be?'' Not ``Who am I?'' ``Who 
do I want to be?''
  Because I hope I never reach my aspirational goals, but I keep trying 
as long as I am here. I don't think if you reach all of your goals for 
who you want to be that you have aimed high enough. If you ask 
yourself, ``Who do I want to be when I face that ethical or moral 
dilemma?'' you will always then come up with the right answer when you 
answer what the person you want to be would do.
  I grew up with a father who actually had a name for the belt that he 
wore around his waist. It was ``The Enforcer.'' I had a mother who 
thought I could do anything I wanted to do and a father who would kick 
my tail if I didn't give it my best effort.
  I spent nearly 10 years as a prosecutor, and I can't tell you how 
many times I looked down the dais at the criminal defendant and 
thought, ``I wonder, but there for the grace of God go I''--but for the 
fact that I was blessed with amazing parents who encouraged me and 
loved me and disciplined me and told me the things I could do, unlike 
so many in political office today who garner votes and support by 
telling people what they can't do, what they need done for them.
  By gosh, this country was built on a government dependent upon 
people, not a people dependent upon government. And that is who we are. 
Now, who are we going to be? Where are we going?
  A wiser person than I once said, if you want to know where you are 
going, you should look where you have been. It is a relatively humbling 
thing to do representing the Fifth District of Virginia, because the 
Fifth District of Virginia was first represented in this institution by 
James Madison.
  I tell people those are some very small, big shoes to fill--very 
small, big shoes to fill. James Madison won the congressional seat when 
he ran in an election against a pillar of American foreign policy named 
Monroe. They were so collegial during their campaign that they often 
traveled together.
  When Madison was elected to Congress prior to the 17th Amendment, he 
went to the Virginia General Assembly--the longest serving 
democratically elected legislative body on the planet Earth--and 
suggested that James Monroe should be the Senator; and, indeed, he was 
made the Senator. So we have Madison. We have Monroe.
  The drafter of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, 
lived in Virginia's Fifth District. The power of the Article III branch 
of government, the Supreme Court, John Marshall retired in Virginia's 
Fifth District. Patrick Henry retired in Virginia's Fifth District. Lee 
and Grant sat at a table at Appomattox Court House and ended the 
American Civil War in the Fifth District of Virginia, and a young woman 
named Barbara Johns stood up in the face of possible injury or death to 
start the Virginia civil rights movement in the Fifth District. So it 
is pretty humbling, but it gives me a good lesson in who we are.
  So many on my side of the aisle criticized President Obama when he 
said: If you have a business, you didn't do that. Somebody else did 
that for you.

  I will defend him. I will defend him. You did it with blood and sweat 
and tears and hard work and persistence and the willingness to stand up 
time and again after failing. You did it, but you did it because you 
stood on the shoulders of giants who gave you the opportunity to do it, 
those imperfect people: Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, who gave us 
near-perfect documents; James Madison, documents that have been 
revised, oh, I don't know, 27 times in hundreds of years, that we 
constantly should strive to be a more perfect Union, that we will never 
achieve that status of a perfect Union so long as institutions on Earth 
are governed by mere mortal men, but that we have a duty in this Nation 
to try to continue to.
  So that is why I am here. I am not here to perpetuate my own power. I 
understand that the most indispensable person is the person who 
recognizes that they are not indispensable.
  Folks, drive past the graveyard and look at the headstones, because I 
can promise you, there are piles of folks buried there who thought the 
world just couldn't go on without them. And the band played on.
  The Fifth District of Virginia was here before I got here. It will be 
here after I leave. I am not here to perpetuate my own name or my own 
legacy or any sort of power. I am here to make sure that everything I 
do is pointed towards giving the posterity that will follow us--to my 
children, Schweikert's children, and your children--every bit as good, 
if not better, opportunities than those which we had.
  I believe there are two fundamental entitlements to birth of 
Americanism.

                              {time}  1945

  First, you are entitled to an opportunity. We should always strive to 
make that opportunity more of an equal opportunity. But in a world 
where if your last name is Clinton, Trump, Obama, or Bush, you probably 
have a better chance of getting into Harvard. We are not there yet. But 
everyone is entitled to an opportunity. Everyone within the 
Jeffersonian construct of liberty that is ``my freedom extends to the 
point where yours starts so long as you don't harm another,'' should be 
free to make decisions for yourself and has an entitlement to define 
success for themselves.
  If you want to be the world's best beekeeper, go be the world's best 
beekeeper. If you want to be a great stay-at-home dad, by golly, be a 
great stay-at-home dad. If you would like to work to cure cancer, 
please do. If you want to be a Member of this body and try to 
perpetuate opportunity for our posterity, please do. If you want to be 
a Member of this body and try to perpetuate your own power or your own 
legacy, please don't.
  So this brings me to the point where I stand here today. I have been 
here 6 months--not terribly long. Thank God I have been unable to shake 
my citizen world view in favor of a legislator world view. So as I walk 
into this Chamber and as I stand next to these women and men on both 
sides of the aisle, I am a little humbled. When I walk down the 
staircase on the edge of the original House Chamber that has been worn 
through time by the footfalls of the likes of Kennedy, Madison, Monroe, 
Eisenhower, and Lincoln, I am humbled.
  But I would revert back to the words that Alexis de Tocqueville 
observed over 150 years ago, and that is we will thrive until we begin 
to attempt to bribe the taxpayers with their own money. At some point 
things become unsustainable. At some point we need to recognize that we 
are about freedom of individuals to venture and fail and venture and 
gain, that we are a nation whose government should depend upon people, 
not whose people should depend upon government.
  An hour and a half ago I stood on this very floor, and I dropped at 
the Clerk's desk H. Res. 458. H. Res. 458 is a vehicle that would move 
to discharge past the normal process of procedures. H.R. 1436 is a bill 
that was voted for by every Republican Member of this body in 2015, 
which would provide for a repeal of the broken promises that are the 
Affordable Care Act.

[[Page H6039]]

  Just yesterday, in conference, they showed us polling, and it showed 
that the American people trust the Republicans more on national 
defense, border security, jobs, and the economy, but we were kind of 
sketchy on healthcare. I can read a poll, but I came here to do what I 
think is right. I came here to do what I said I would do.
  This plan that I think could reasonably be called the Managed 
Healthcare Bailout Program or the Health Insurance Industry Profit 
Enhancement Act has failed working Americans, and the paradigm under 
which we have debated it has failed to be an honest one. So if I am 
here not to enhance myself or my legacy, if I am here to do what I 
think is right or what I said I would do when I ran for office, then I 
need to stand up and do what I said I was going to do when I ran for 
office, and that was to ensure that the decisions of Americans were 
left to Americans, that we minimize the interference in individuals' 
lives by the government, and that we recognize--and I will paraphrase--
that Mr. Jefferson was correct when he said that the fruits of the 
working class are safest when the legislature is not in session.
  I believe it was Will Rogers who said: They say the only certain 
things in life are death and taxes, only death doesn't get worse every 
time Congress meets.
  We hear about a CBO score that says X million people will lose 
coverage. The last time I looked, this thing was called the Affordable 
Care Act, not the Affordable Coverage Act. Even if it were called the 
Affordable Coverage Act, it would be a misnomer because it is not 
affordable.
  A story published about 3 months ago indicated that two-thirds of 
Americans couldn't find $1,000 in case of a financial crisis. But 
deductibles have gone from $1,000 to 2,000, to 3,000, to 4,000, to 
$5,000 for the average family of four.
  I ask you: If your deductible is $5,000 and you can't find $1,000 in 
times of crisis, do you have healthcare?
  You have coverage. You have coverage, but you don't have healthcare. 
You are still indigent, and it is a broken promise. But don't worry, 
there were lots more: If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. It 
turns out that wasn't true. If you like your doctor, you can keep your 
doctor. It turns out that wasn't true. We should see an average 
decrease of about $2,500 a year per policy. It turns out that wasn't 
true.
  Don't worry, these insurers who supported the plan--remember the 
insurance industry endorsed the Affordable Care Act--they are doing 
this out of benevolence, folks.
  I have an article from the New York Post that says there is a cost 
spiral associated with ObamaCare and with the insurance industry, but 
the cost spiral is upward. If you had bought $100 worth of 
UnitedHealthcare the day the ACA passed and sold it, the last time I 
looked, you would have $580. That is a heck of an investment. The only 
people making out on this are the big insurers. Meanwhile, rank and 
file Americans are perpetually lied to by folks who say: Those guys 
don't care.
  Actually, we do. We are just not trying to perpetuate our own power 
by taking from one group and giving to another while bankrupting our 
Nation and robbing our children blind.
  So I have only been here for 6 months. I went to some people very 
early on and I said: How about discharging this bill? I am frustrated.
  They said: Well, it is not time for that.
  I said: Okay. I want to be a team player.
  I am frustrated, and we get to this point. The President is 
frustrated. The Senate is frustrated. I don't give a hootin' heck about 
the President or the Senate or this body. I care about the American 
people whom I serve. They are frustrated. And nobody on the other side 
of the aisle will talk about a plan that the namesake of the plan, 
President Barack Obama, said has serious problems, that Minnesota 
Democratic Governor Mark Dayton said is bankrupting his State and is 
unsustainable, and that President Bill Clinton said is the craziest 
thing.

  We have zero suggestions for help because, by gosh, we can score 
political points. Shame on both sides of the aisle if you are doing 
this to score political points.
  We ought to be doing this to make sure that the fundamental 
birthright of Americanism, opportunity, is perpetuated for perpetuity 
and that it doesn't die in the hands of a group of the political class 
who say: Well, this will get me points at home. People told me not to 
do this. It might not help you. Your district is not that safe.
  I don't rightly care. I am going to do the right thing. I have never 
had a job in my life that I wasn't willing to lose if it meant doing 
the right thing.
  So what are the goals of this?
  This is rather brash. They are humble. I want the leadership of this 
Chamber to understand that the rank and file Members support them, that 
we got their backs, that we thank them for their best efforts, and we 
don't want to quit this fight. We thank you for what you do. Let's keep 
going and keep that darn promise.
  I got a feeling that if you keep your promise, if you are worried 
about elections, then your reward will come when people realize there 
is somebody in this town who has some integrity. So I want to support 
leadership. I want to send a message to the other Chamber that we are 
willing to act if they are willing to act, and maybe embolden them. I 
want to let the President know that we haven't quit on him. But, most 
importantly, I want to send a message to the American people that some 
people in D.C. mean what they say.
  There have been dozens of votes for repeal by Members who knew that 
the repeal would never happen because it had to cross the desk of the 
person for whom the bill was named. It was a theoretical abstract: 
Sure, I support it.
  We are playing with live ammunition, folks. Let's see who meant what 
they said. Come to this desk--and if you are watching at home, contact 
your Member and tell him to come to this desk--and sign onto the 
discharge petition, H. Res. 458. Or maybe you didn't mean it or you 
did. Who knows? But let us know. Shoot straight with folks. Dozens of 
votes for repeal.
  Let me be clear about this, too. I am not sitting here trying to pull 
the rug out from under people. The bill that would be discharged by 
this resolution would not immediately end ObamaCare. Instead, it would 
give us a 2-year window. And I will bet you that if we repealed and had 
a 2-year window to debate a replacement, that we might get some input 
from people on both sides of the aisle. I know to a metaphysical 
certainty that no side has the monopoly on good ideas. I would love to 
have some input. There will certainly be Members who say: I don't 
believe the Federal Government should have a large role. There will be 
other Members who say: We should have single payer.
  Right now, we are stuck in a broken system because of political 
gamesmanship. It burned me when I was on the outside, and it burns me 
on the inside.
  What are the facts? What are the real facts?
  The average individual premium, according to eHealth, May 3, 2017, 
has gone up 39 percent in the last 2 years. The average family plan has 
gone up 49 percent. That means if you were an individual and your 
premium was $1,000 a month, it is now $1,330 roughly a month. I am 
doing math on the fly in my head. If you are a family and you were 
paying $500 a month, then it is $740-ish a month. That is in 2 years. 
The average individual plan is up 147 percent from 2008. The average 
family plan is up 177 percent.
  Folks, Americans' income hasn't increased at that rate.
  The average is up 25 percent in the last year, and that is according 
to the Department of Health and Human Services' report of October of 
2016. That means if you were paying $2,000 a year ago, you are paying 
$2,500 now--25 percent in 1 year.
  Candidly, all the disingenuous arguments on the other side about how 
many will die if we move to a system that allows individuals choices 
are not only hollow, disingenuous, and beneath the dignity of this body 
by virtue of their disingenuousness, but they are also false.
  Folks, for the first time in nearly a generation, the mortality rate 
rose in 2015. U.S. life expectancy dropped from 2014 to 2015 for the 
first time since the 1990s. Ironically, it dropped more in States that 
expanded Medicaid. So I am not only disgusted with and sick of such 
harsh rhetoric, but I think it has now been proven demonstrably false.
  We talk about who will be kicked off their plan. According to the 
CBO, 10

[[Page H6040]]

million people lost their employer plans. Those are the plans that, if 
they liked, they could keep. Roughly 15 million of the people who are 
now insured are insured by virtue of an individual mandate. That means 
that we have forcefully compelled American citizens to purchase a good 
or service at the risk of forfeiture of their money or their freedom.
  We live in a country where you can choose in many places to buy 
marijuana. You can choose to bungee jump. You can choose to skydive. 
Heck, in some places, you can choose to visit a prostitute. But you 
can't choose a healthcare plan that doesn't carry coverage for mental 
health or for maternity. You can't do that. That is against the law.
  This is about choice. I served in the United States Army as a fire 
support officer, and when I left the Army, I made the egregious error 
of attending law school--just kidding. When I did that, I chose not to 
have healthcare because as I looked at what I was able to do on the 
limited amount of money that my family had and did a cost-benefit 
analysis and the fact I was in relatively good shape and young, I 
determined that our family's best interests were served by not spending 
that money. It was a crazy, brazen risk that I think paid off, but it 
certainly should be within the purview of decisions that Americans are 
allowed to make, and right now it is not.

  I am frustrated, but I am fighting. A lot of people are frustrated, 
but they are fighting. I want to see our leadership succeed. I want to 
see this Nation continue to be unequivocally the greatest experiment in 
freedom that the Earth has ever known. But if we continue to try to 
parlay largesse in failed programs into political power, we won't. We 
won't.
  The time to measure things based not on intentions, but results is 
nigh. In Oregon, they spent hundreds of millions of dollars to create a 
website for the ObamaCare exchange that failed to enroll a single 
individual, and nobody was fired and nobody went to prison. I was a 
prosecutor for a long time, and I will tell you, if you waste or 
defraud people of 100, 200, $300 million, you usually either lose your 
job or go to prison. But if you are in politics in Oregon, you are 
rewarded because, by gosh, you had great intentions.
  Let's judge these things not by their intentions, but by their 
outcomes. Let's not argue about who has coverage, but about who has 
access to affordable care. Let's support revision that drives down 
premiums and deductibles, and let's trumpet our victories based on whom 
we actually help, not whom we intended to help.

                              {time}  2000

  I stand united with the bulk of my colleagues. I know there are some 
who might have said one thing and now do another. This is an avenue by 
which we might find out who they are.
  I don't, for a moment, question the individual motives of Members. I 
think they have an opportunity to distinguish themselves by virtue of 
signing onto this resolution.
  I ask you again, if you are watching at home, to contact your Member 
if you agree with what I said and ask them if they will come to this 
bar when we are in session and sign their name to H. Res. 458 and 
demonstrate that they are willing to do the exact same thing now, when 
it counts, that they did dozens and dozens of times under the previous 
administration when they knew that their actions would be met with a 
veto pen.
  I don't do this to score political points, I don't do this to make my 
name bigger, and I don't do this because it feels good. I do this 
because we owe it to the giants whose shoulders we stand upon--Patrick 
Henry; Thomas Jefferson; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Abraham Lincoln; 
Barbara Johns; John F. Kennedy; and Ronald Reagan--the people who gave 
us the opportunity to be as successful and great as we are. Don't 
piddle it away. Be responsible. Be willing to say no when no is the 
appropriate answer, and do what is right.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members should address their remarks to the 
Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.

                          ____________________