[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H8657-H8659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VETERANS DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr.
Fortenberry) for 30 minutes.
Mr. FORTENBERRY. Madam Speaker, I recently toured the newly renovated
United States Capitol dome right nearby and, of course, was well aware
it contains a striking fresco at the top. The title of that fresco is
The Apotheosis of Washington, a bit of a peculiar image for our time,
because it shows a stern, purple-clad George Washington exalted in the
heavens.
Now, on his right is the Goddess of Liberty symbolizing emancipation;
and on his left, the Goddess Victoria, symbolizing victory. He is
surrounded by 13 maidens representing the Thirteen Original Colonies;
however, there is a twist. The backs of several of the maidens are
turned to Washington, and those represent the colonies of Georgia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia as they had seceded from
the Union prior to the work beginning the fresco in 1863.
Now, Madam Speaker, the imagery continues, and around the rest of the
dome are six allegorical scenes that do really project the defining
ideas of America at that time. They are: war, science, marine life,
commerce, mechanics, and agriculture. Now, these are perhaps old-
fashioned categories to the modern mind, but then they did convey an
optimism about the frontier, economic progress, and the potential of
what our new Nation might be able to achieve.
Although, Madam Speaker, I had seen these frescos before, something
struck me differently this time. These scenes really do grasp an
incomplete ideal. The Apotheosis of Washington shows a reflective and
confident America, but what is missing is a fuller understanding of the
nature of community, individual dignity, and freedom.
The idea of progress is narrowly defined, and that narrow definition
is actually still with us today, many times as it informs our debate
here. We only tend to value things that we can actually measure--things
like production, technology, and military victory--and they still rally
us, and they are important.
But, as important as these things are, there is more to life; the
more we have grown economically, the more we have grown
technologically, the more our Nation groans. We have to be honest, and
we have to ask ourselves: Why?
America is a far more complicated country than it was in Washington's
time. It is not only due to our size and wealth and amazingly diverse
population, but it is also due to rapidly advancing technology, a 24/7
news media cycle, and a highly competitive global marketplace that has
made life more frenetic, more difficult, and, in some cases, much more
alienating.
Today, there is widespread anxiety in our Nation over economic
inequality, declining opportunity, and the concentration of both wealth
and power, as well as a new force that is expressing a loss of unity
and community, and then combine that with this deep search for a sense
of solidarity.
Madam Speaker, while Congress spends much of its time debating
numbers, financing, and budgets, a vision for America in its fullest
sense goes beyond just material dimensions. Our economic vitality must
not only be measured in terms of efficiency and growth, but also in how
well we advance the cause of human flourishing.
In spite of all of these reflective comments, this Friday, our Nation
will actually pause, and we will pause for a very important reason: it
is Veterans Day, and we will celebrate that tradition. So if you are
starting to feel overwhelmed by our Nation's struggles, just talk to a
veteran.
If you see these policy battles here as impossible to resolve, talk
to a vet.
If you really do want to reconnect with the ties that bind us, speak
to a veteran.
Madam Speaker, as we are painfully aware, it is not easy to make
progress in Congress. Nevertheless, there are times when both parties
and the administration come together for great good, and actions for
veterans represent a unique and proper American opportunity to support
the men and women who have served our country. So as we approach
Veterans Day and consider how to celebrate this gift of being an
American, if we need a reminder, just ask a vet.
{time} 1930
Now, back to history for a moment, Madam Speaker.
We rightly mark our independence from the British as the beginning of
a new nation, a new experiment in government based in the ideals of
freedom. However, freedom most properly expressed is the freedom to do
what we ought.
Unlinked to responsibility, to one another, and to higher ideals,
freedom can become a meaningless wandering and a search for purpose;
and progress, no matter how grand it is, is never an end in itself.
Persons who are disconnected from one another, an economy that is
uncaring, technology ever accelerating, these are dynamics that can
actually be both beneficial, but also leave people behind. Independence
from tyranny also means interdependence within community.
Now, Madam Speaker, the Capitol dome is over 150 years old. Until
recently, chunks of iron--in fact, I saw one; it was nearly this big--
were just falling off, and water was seeping through cracks. But now it
is made whole again. The seams are repaired, and there is new,
original-like glass and a fresh layer of protective coating. Why?
Because we chose to do it. We didn't let it fall into ruin. We didn't
lament its potential collapse. We chose to act.
So, Madam Speaker, if we cling to her ideals, this gift of America
allows
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us the freedom to preserve unity and to make genuine progress, which is
the freedom to be whole.
As I approached my office here recently, there was a large crowd of
men who had gathered outside my door. I assumed they were waiting to
see me, and they were wearing camouflage shirts. There was some
language on the front of the shirt. As I got closer, I could read it,
and it said ``United Mine Workers.'' I thought, well, this is a bit
peculiar to see United Mine Workers from Nebraska. Nonetheless, I
engaged them in a conversation outside the door thinking I would escort
them inside.
But they weren't there to see me. They were there to see my neighbor,
who represents the State of Kentucky, and that made a little more
sense. Nevertheless, I greeted these men, and we had a very meaningful
conversation about work, about security, and about fairness.
These men had spent their lives in very hard jobs. I am sure they
proudly toiled to create reasonable livings for their families. They
all now showed real signs of physical fatigue. They were in Washington
to make a plea, a plea for their pensions, which are facing dramatic
reductions.
A similar situation does exist in Nebraska for another group of
workers. These men worked for a guarantee that they would be provided
for when they could work no more. But given a confluence of factors,
their pensions face a dramatic shortfall, and it is not fair.
I lived, Madam Speaker, for 2 years in the area where these men come
from, in a town that had lost half its population in 20 years, in the
old industrial Rust Belt where the post-World War II economic boom
built a thriving, stable community, but now where globalized supply-
side theory has had its most dramatic degenerating economic effect.
I said to these men: ``You know that I know where you come from.''
One of them hugged me.
Madam Speaker, our country is in pain. Epic hurricanes and floods,
escalating urban violence and an opioid epidemic among those who are
self-medicating their own mental or physical or financial anguish, a
broken healthcare construct, the aftereffects of bitterly fought
elections, and now another mass shooting have torn America's heart
apart.
In a vibrantly healthy society, there is space in a good, functional
marketplace for fluidity, creativity, and innovation, and a person with
an idea and the drive should be able to pursue it. The benefits accrue
to the innovator as well as the buyer of the product, to the community
as well, and those who give the effort. The point is this: a healthy
economy is both individualistic and community-oriented at the same
time.
Innovation and competition can be disruptive, but they must be set
within a fair set of rules. When the system stacks to the wealthiest or
is outsourced by faceless corporations in the name of advancing
quarterly profits, exploiting the poor elsewhere and damaging the
environment, it sets in motion a series of things: lost jobs, lost
community cohesion, and a breakdown of life's stability.
Tie this to a loss of the formative institutions in our society of
family life, faith life, and civic life, and we drift. We drift without
a national narrative that can hold, and it makes it much more difficult
to respond holistically, especially when we have tragedies such as the
senseless horror in Las Vegas and now with the unthinkable at the First
Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
But, again, Madam Speaker, I just have to pause and remind myself
that, in spite of these difficulties, in spite of sometimes the
darkness which can seem overwhelming due to a lack of unity, we will
pause on Friday as a nation, and we will remember our veterans. If it
is just too much and too overwhelming, if the debates in Congress are
so bothersome and annoying, go talk to a vet about that deeper sense of
who we are and what we still can be.
Madam Speaker, in the entryway of the municipal building in a little
town of France called Sainte-Mere-Eglise, there hangs an American flag.
It is the first thing you see when you walk into the mayor's municipal
building.
Sainte-Mere-Eglise was the site where our paratroopers landed prior
to the D-day invasion. They landed in the midst of German troop
formations and had to fight as they were coming down. One paratrooper
got hung up on the church steeple and survived the battle. A replica of
him still hangs there today.
The American flag in the mayor's building, in the municipal building,
is said to be the first American flag planted on the European continent
during the war. It is displayed there in France in a government
building proudly as a memorial in thanksgiving to America for what we
did to save France and to save Europe from tyranny.
Now, Madam Speaker, most of us today think of war in the traditional
construct. We fought with tanks, aircraft, ships, and infantry. But,
again, we are in a rapidly advancing technological new age. Even in
this age of drones and asymmetrical terror threats such as improvised
explosive devices, most of us still see our defense through a
conventional lens.
But warfare is changing fast and will continue to change. With the
miniaturization of nuclear weapons, drones, and other technologies, we
could see the potential for widespread destruction accelerate. We are
entering an era that is unprecedented and unpredictable, born from the
very technologies that heretofore ensured our own survival. What has
emerged, Madam Speaker, is a tripolar world, simultaneously increasing
both danger and, interestingly, opportunity.
On one pole stands China. As this country ascends to economic
dominance, China is trying to pair its military clout with military
projection in key lanes of commerce. The Communist Party leader,
President Xi, projects himself as both a man of virtue and a man of
dominance. In fact, The Economist magazine recently called him the
world's most powerful man.
At another pole stands Russia. Though they face demographic problems,
Russia has, in many ways, raced ahead of us in weapons technology
superiority. It could be argued that the Soviet era was an aberration,
an actual aberration, of Russia's long tradition of czarist rule. Seen
in that light, Putin is a new czar type who has moved past Marxist
ideology--Marxist theology, perhaps we should say--to recover Russian
nationalistic poetry, purpose, and expansionistic power.
The third pole is less of a geographic or ideological proposition. It
is an expression of higher ideals. Now, in traditional terms, Madam
Speaker, we call this the Transatlantic Alliance, but, in broader
terms, it is people from around the world who are guided by a reasoned
intuitive sense that all persons have dignity and rights and that the
systems of governance and economics ought to be ordered around that
very proposition. When a person can exercise excellence for themselves
in partnership with others in community, a community of possibility
exists.
Because, in America, we believe these values are universal, we also
believe that they are more potent than any ideology or accident of
geography. That is the long arc of history--born in former ages and
translated over time to our present day.
Now, given our vulnerabilities, we understandably and purposefully
commit to technological superiority in weaponry. But, as a singular
proposition, this is illogical because it cannot hold. The
technological gap is closing. There must be more, and it is found in
two pathways:
First, back to this idea of our own internal reflection as a country.
Recently, we saw a Hollywood elite named Harvey Weinstein brought to
shame for his manipulative perversions. Interestingly, this country had
a flash of collective conscience. The curtain was raised on Hollywood's
dark hypocrisy. Almost all Americans were aghast, which, importantly,
showed our capacity to value human dignity.
Second, Madam Speaker, a healthy national conscience gives us the
credibility to reinvigorate and rebuild authentic relationships
worldwide. By incentivizing good economic models and promoting
government models that are fair, we can create the conditions for our
own safety, the world's stability, and the world's security.
Madam Speaker, a couple weeks ago, I was on my way home from
Washington to Nebraska. Driving from the airport, I saw a big, red
pickup truck.
[[Page H8659]]
Now, that is not a very uncommon site in our State, except that on each
side of the truck was a pole, and attached to each pole was an American
flag blowing fiercely in the wind. Now, these flags were a bit tattered
on the edges, but, nevertheless, they were proudly displayed just like
at that little French town, Sainte-Mere-Eglise. It is my hope that this
is the third pole that can truly hold for our good and the good of
others across the world.
Now, Madam Speaker, we have talked a lot about the struggles, but
closer to home and made in realtime policy, the House of
Representatives has undertaken a sincere deliberation at the moment to
assist in a structural change to our current economic construct--a new
tax deal.
Now, this is what Andy from Nebraska wrote me recently. He said that
he is very encouraged because ``if it makes it into law, my back-of-
the-napkin calculations show it could benefit my family by around
$5,500. For a family of four making about $85,000 a year, that's a big
deal.''
{time} 1945
Madam Speaker, Americans do need a break, especially working men and
women trying to get a bit ahead, trying to provide for their families.
For many, it is harder and harder. Around 50 percent of Americans live
paycheck to paycheck. That is not fully a Tax Code problem. It is also
the harsh reality of social fragmentation, downward mobility, and the
rising cost of living.
Many forces of globalization have not benefited America, leaving
millions behind and all too often forgotten. But tax reform can help,
as long as it is fair and as simple as possible for the benefit of all.
We are living in an age where we cannot push the same old policies
over and over again and expect them to fit into our 21st century
architect of living.
Moving forward, I believe that the source and strength of the
American economy will be in the new urbanism of small business, in
which entrepreneurs from village to city will add value through small-
scale manufacturing, innovative new products, or brokering in repair
services. The conditions for entrepreneurial revival may be right on
the horizon.
Madam Speaker, though the corporate structure of the 1950s has been
made temporarily beguiling by the modest show called ``Mad Men,'' but
no young person I know yearns to work for a company for 25 years and
celebrate at the end with a gold watch. That era is over and our Tax
Code is based on old constructs of what it means to be in business.
So, hopefully, as we work ourselves through this important debate,
this bill will be sensitive to the needs of all Americans as it begins
to push for a modernized revenue construct that no longer enables
complex, lawyered-up, quarterly profit-driven multinationals to
unjustly benefit, for instance, from lower taxes abroad while taking
advantage of tax loopholes here.
At the same time, it uses the carrot of lower rates to bring foreign
profits back to America so that we can revive the Made in America label
once again.
Madam Speaker, I have spoken tonight about our challenges both at
home and abroad, but we know a truly just and good society can only be
possible if we are both strong and safe.
One day, I was in the airport and something interesting happened. A
number of troops were coming off an aircraft on the jetway. There was
no announcement over the PA system. It just happened spontaneously. The
terminal began to break out in applause. It just happened. People
intuited that something was right here.
Of course, many people at this moment in our country's history intuit
that something is broken, but they also can sense when things are
right. We can see it, like when we see our troops or we see a veteran,
then our instinct emerges to recognize the nobility of self-sacrifice
for one another, our country, and its timeless ideals. Our veterans
have done so and our people know so.
When it just gets a little too overwhelming, Madam Speaker, ask a
vet. When we lose touch with the source of our strength and greatness,
talk to those who have put even possibly their lives on the line for
that true source of American strength. Ask a vet.
When it seems as though the problems before us are intractable--how
we are going to revive an economy that is good and fair to all; how we
are going create the stability necessary for the proper engagement and
healthy engagement and exciting engagement with people from abroad; how
will we create international stability--when it just seems too hard to
get the mind around it, ask a vet who stood in the small village
overseas, who may have had to fight their way in, but then offers a
hand up to those who have been placed in harm's way.
This Friday is an important holiday. It is a gift to be able to say
thank you to our veterans.
Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the amount of time remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 4 minutes remaining.
Mr. FORTENBERRY. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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