[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 123 (Thursday, July 20, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1031-E1033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IMPORTANT ISSUES OF THE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                      HON. THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR.

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 19, 2017

  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I hadn't intended to but I'll begin my 
remarks by addressing his remarks. And I'll do something that I rarely 
do and that is to quote a French historian, political scientist, and 
diplomat, and that is 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 dollars in debt was ``unpatriotic.'' Now we sit at the 
precipice of 20 trillion dollars in debt after two terms and I would 
submit that perhaps that's 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 it relates to the 
motives for the legislation that we carry and find out who would really 
be 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 monies set aside to care far those least able to care for 
themselves. And so 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 state house in the Commonweaith of Virginia where there 
is actual back and forth debate on the merits of issues, wherein those 
small percentage of individuals who choose to inform themselves might 
shape their opinion based on a discourse rather than people standing at 
this microphone unchecked.
  Which 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's 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 who I admire, Daniel 
Patrick Moynihan, who Vanity Fair described as a fervent Democrat who 
saw the value of working with Republicans (where is he today?), once 
said, ``You're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled 
your own facts.'' Mr. Raskin said the Trump Administration was 
burdening Americans by virtue of an asset forfeiture policy and he 
cited the case of a Chinese restaurant and an entrepreneur who he said 
had amassed 25,000 dollars 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 7 years according to my colleague 
to recoup his money and the opportunity was lost and that's what's 
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 open up a Chinese restaurant who was going 10 miles an hour 
over the speed limit who was pulled over by law enforcement who had not 
25 but 75,000 dollars forfeited and it took him not 7 years but 10 
months to get it back and it happened in 2014 and I'm not terribly sure 
who was president then and I'm 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 refer in this 
country, but please, you're entitled to your own opinions, you're not 
entitled to your own facts.
  Now why am I hear tonight? Golly ned why am I hear at all? Who are we 
as a nation? I tell my children if you want to know what's the right 
thing to do in life when you're confronted with challenges, when you 
have a dilemma, ask yourself who do I want to be, not who am I, but 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 that if you reach 
all your goals for who you want to be that you've aimed high enough. 
And if you ask yourself who I want to when you 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. And so 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 ten 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 who 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's 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're going, you should look where 
you've been.'' It's a relatively humbling thing to do representing the 
fifth district of Virginia, because the fifth district of Virginia was 
first represented by 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 the campaign that they often traveled 
together and when Madison was elected to Congress, prior to the 
Seventeenth Amendment, he went to the Virginia 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 arbiter of the power of the Article Ill 
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 Courthouse at the 
end of 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's pretty humbling and it gives me a good lesson in who 
we are. So many on my side of the aisle criticized President Obama when 
he said, you know if you have a business, you didn't do that, somebody 
else did that for you. I'll defend him, I'll defend him. You did it, 
with blood and sweat and tears and hardwork and persistence and 
willingness to stand up time and again after failing. You did it 
because you stood on the shoulders of giants who gave you the 
opportunity to do it. That 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's why I'm here. 
I'm 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

[[Page E1032]]

and look at the headstones because I can promise you there's piles of 
folks buried there that 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 and it'll be here when I leave. I'm not here 
to perpetuate my own name or my own legacy or any sort of power. I'm 
here to make sure that everything I do is pointed towards giving the 
posterity that will follow us, 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. First, you are entitled to opportunity. We should 
always strive to make that opportunity equal opportunity. But in a 
world where if your last name is Clinton or Trump or Obama or Bush, you 
probably have a better chance of getting into Harvard, we're not there 
yet. But everyone, everyone is entitled to an opportunity. And everyone 
within the Jeffersonian Construct of Liberty, that is my freedom 
extends to the point where yours starts, so long that you don't harm 
another, you should be free to make decisions for yourself.

  Everyone is entitled to an opportunity and 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 you should 
be free to make decisions for yourself has an entitlement to define 
success for themselves. If you wanna be the world's best bee keeper, go 
be the world's best bee keeper. If you wanna be a great stay at home 
dad, by golly be a great stay at home dad. If you'd like to work to 
cure cancer, please do. If you wanna be a member of this body and try 
to perpetuate opportunity for our posterity, please do. If you wanna be 
a member of This body and try to perpetuate your own power or your own 
legacy, please don't. And so this brings me to the point of why I stand 
here today, I've been here 6 months not terribly long. Thank god, I've 
been unable to shake my citizen world view in favor a legislator world 
view. So as I walk into this chamber as I stand next to these women and 
men on both sides of the aisle I'm a little humbled. When I walk down 
the staircase on the edge of the original house chamber that's been 
worn by time by the footsteps of the likes on Kennedy, and Madison, and 
Monroe, and Eisenhower and Lincoln, I'm humbled. But I would revert 
back to the words that elitists observed over 150 years ago, and that 
is we will thrive until we attempt to begin to bribe the tax payers 
with their own money. And at some point things become unsustainable and 
at some point we need to recognize that we are about freedom of 
individuals to venture and fail and venture and gain and that we are a 
nation whose government should depend upon people, and not whose people 
should depend upon government. An hour and a half ago I stood on this 
very floor and I dropped at the clerks desk, HRS 458, house resolution 
458 is a vehicle that would move to discharge past the normal process 
and procedures house resolution 1436, HR 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. 
Just yesterday, in conference they showed us polling and it showed that 
the American people trusted republicans more on national defense, 
border security, jobs in the economy, but were kinda sketchy on 
healthcare, right? We 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, and this plan 
that I think could reasonably be called the managed healthcare bailout 
program, the health insurance industry profit enhancement act has 
failed working Americans and that paradigm under which we have debated 
it has failed to be an honest one. But if I'm here not to enhance 
myself, or my legacy and if I'm here to do what I think is right, what 
I said I would do when I ran for office, then I need to stand up and do 
what I said I was gonna 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 ill paraphrase the Mr. Jefferson who was correct 
when he said the fruits of the working class are safest when the 
legislators not in session. Hm, I believe it was Roy Rogers who said 
that the only certain thing in life are death and taxes but death 
doesn't get worse every time congress meets. We hear about a CBO score 
that says x million people will lose coverage. Hm. Well the last time I 
looked this thing was called the affordable care act not the affordable 
coverage act and even if it was called the affordable coverage act it 
would be a misnomer because it's not affordable. A story published 
about 3 months ago indicated that two thirds of Americans couldn't find 
a 1000 dollars in case of a financial crisis. But deductibles have gone 
from 1000 to 2000 to 3000 to 4000 to 5000 dollars for the average 
family of four, and I ask you if your deductible is 5000 dollars in 
times of crisis do you have healthcare? You have coverage, you have 
coverage but you don't have healthcare, you're still indigent and it's 
a broken promise but don't worry there were lots more if you like your 
plan you can keep your plan turns out that wasn't true. If you like 
your doctor, you can keep your doctor, turns out that wasn't true. We 
should see an average decrease of about 2500 dollars per year per 
policy turns out that wasn't true don't worry these insurers who have 
supported the plan remember the insurance industry endorsed the 
affordable care act there doing this out of benevolence folks. I have 
an article from the New York post that says there's a cost spiral that 
associated with Obama care with the insurance industry but the cost 
spiral is upward if you'd have bought 100 dollars worth of united 
health care the day the ACA passed and sold it the last time I looked 
you'd have 580 dollars, that's a heck of an investment. The only people 
making out on this are the big insurers, meanwhile all Americans are 
perpetually lied to by folks who say those guys don't care, actually we 
do, we're 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. And so, I've only been here for 6 months 
and I went to some people very early on and said so how about 
discharging this bill, and frustrated hm and they said well its not 
time for that and I said okay I wanna be a team player. I'm frustrated 
and we get to this point, the president's frustrated, the senate's 
frustrated, I don't give a hoot and hack about the president or the 
senate or this body, I care about the American people who I serve and 
they're frustrated. And nobody on the other side of the aisle will talk 
about a plan that the namesake of a plan President Barack Obama said, 
and I quote has serious problems. That Minnesota democrat governor Mark 
Dayton said bankrupting a state and is unsustainable 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 ya, on 
both sides of the aisle if you're doing this to score political points. 
We aughta be doing this to make sure that the fundamental birth right 
of Americanism, opportunity is perpetuated for perpetuity and that it 
doesn't die in the hands of a group of political class who said well 
this will get me points at home. People told me not to do that it might 
not help you, your districts not that safe, I don't rightly care, I'm 
gonna do the right thing I've 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? Rather, rash, they're humble I want the leadership of 
this chamber to understand that the ranking file members support them, 
that we got their backs, that we thank them for their best efforts and 
that we don't wanna quit this fight. Thank you for what you do. Let's 
keep going and keep that darn promise I got a feelin that if you keep 
you promise if you're worried about elections, your reward will come 
when people realize there's somebody in this town that has some 
integrity so I wanna support leadership, I wanna send a message to the 
other chamber that were willing to act if they're willing to act and 
maybe embolden them. I wanna let the president know that we haven't 
quit on him but most importantly I wanna send a message to the American 
people that some people in D.C. mean what they say. Woah. 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. Right? It was a theoretical abstract, sure, I 
support it. Were playing with live ammunition folks lets see who meant 
what they said come to this desk and if you're watching this at home, 
contact your member and tell them to come to this desk and sign on to 
the discharge position HRS 458. Or maybe you didn't mean it, or you did 
or who knows but let us know. Hm. Dozen of votes for repeal and let me 
be clear about this too, I'm not sitting here trying to pull the rug 
out from under people, and the bill that would be discharged by this 
solution would not immediately end Obamacare, and instead it would give 
us a two year window, a two year window, and I'll bet you that if we 
repealed and had a two year window to bait a replacement that we might 
get some input from people.

  I know to a metaphysical certainty that no side has a monopoly on 
good ideas. I would love to have some input, there will certainly be 
members who say ``well I don't believe the federal government should 
have a large role.'' There will be other members that say we should 
have single payer. Well, right now we are stuck in a broken system 
because of political gamesmanship. And 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 E Health in May 
3rd, 2017 has gone up 39% in the last two years. The average family 
plan has gone up 49%. That means if you are an individual and your 
premium was a $1000 a month its now $1330 or there roughly a month. I'm 
doing math on the fly in my head. If you are a family and you are

[[Page E1033]]

paying $500 a month than its $740ish a month. That's in two years.
  The average individual plan is up 147% from 2008. The average family 
plan is up 177%. Folks, Americans income hasn't increased at that rate. 
The average is up 25% 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 $2000 a year ago, you are paying $2500 now. 
25% in 1 year. And candidly all the disingenuous arguments on the other 
side about how many people will die, if we move to a system that allows 
individuals choices, is not only hollow and disingenuous and beneath 
the dignity of this body by virtue of their disinginuity but also 
false. Folks, for the first time in nearly a generation mortality rate 
rose in 2015. U.S. life expectancy dropped from 2014 to 2015 for the 
first time since the 1990s. And ironically it dropped more in states 
that expanded Medicaid.
  So, I'm not only disgusted with and sick of such harsh rhetoric, but 
I think it's not been proven demonstrably false. We talk about who will 
be kicked off their plan. According to the CBO, 10 million people have 
lost their employer plans. Those are the plans that if they like they 
can keep. And roughly 15 million of the people who are now insured, by 
virtue of an individual mandate, 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 sky dive. 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's 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 law school, just kidding. And when I did that, I chose not to have 
healthcare because as I looked at what I was able to do on a limited 
amount of money that my family had, and did a cost benefit analysis, 
and the fact that I was in relatively good shape and young, I 
determined that my best interests were served by not spending the 
money. It was a crazy, brazen risk that I think paid off, but it should 
certainly be in the prevue of decisions Americans are allowed to make. 
And right now, it's not.
  I'm frustrated, but I'm fighting. A lot of people are frustrated, but 
they are fighting. I want to see our leadership succeed. I want to see 
this nation be, unequivocally, the greatest experiment in freedom that 
the earth has ever known. But, if we continue to try and parlay 
largesse and failed programs into political power, we won't, we won't. 
And 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'll tell you that if you waste or 
defraud people of one hundred or two hundred or three hundred million 
dollars, you usually either lose your job or go to prison. But, if 
you're in politics in Oregon, you're 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 who has access to 
affordable care. Let's support revision that drives down premiums and 
down deductibles. And let's trumpet our victories based on who we 
actually helped, not who we intended to help. In stand untied with the 
bulk of my colleagues. I know there are some who said we'd do one thing 
and now do another. This is an avenue by which we might find out who 
they are. But 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 on to this resolution. I ask you again if your 
watching at home to contact your member if you agree with what we said. 
And ask them if they'll come to this bar, when we're in session, and 
sign their name to House Resolution 458 and demonstrate their 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 they're actions would be met with a veto pen. And I don't do this 
to score political points. And I don't do this to make my name bigger. 
I don't do this to because it feels good. I do this because we owe it 
to the giants who's shoulders we stand upon, to Patrick Henry and 
Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln and Barbara 
Johns and John 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. Don't piddle it away. Be responsible. Be willing to say no when 
no is the appropriate answer. And do what's right. Mr. Speaker, with 
that I yield back my time and I'd ask unanimous consent that all 
members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous materials on the topic of this special order.