[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

[[Page H8658]]

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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