[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 43 (Monday, March 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1751-S1752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Socialism

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, in thinking about some of the debates 
swirling about here in Washington, DC, as to whether capitalism or 
socialism should be a preferred economic model, I recall a story that 
involves Boris Yeltsin, who went on to become the Russian President, 
who happened to be in Houston, TX, in 1989, visiting the Johnson Space 
Center--a very important part of NASA in Houston--when he decided to 
visit a grocery store in Clear Lake, TX. Though it sounds like it could 
be, this isn't the beginning of a Wes Anderson film.
  It was nearly 20 years ago, in 1989, when the Soviet Union had not 
yet imploded and when the Berlin Wall was still standing. It would be 2 
years before Yeltsin would be forced to take steps to begin to 
transform the Soviet

[[Page S1752]]

economy. As I said, he was in the Houston area, finishing a tour of the 
Johnson Space Center, when he made an unscheduled stop at a Randalls 
grocery store before he headed to Miami.
  The Houston Chronicle reported at the time that Yeltsin gawked at the 
abundant produce, the selection of fresh fish, the checkout aisle, and 
especially the frozen pudding pops. He roamed the aisles, according to 
the story, stared at the frozen food section, and took advantage of the 
free samples of cheese. He actually talked to some of the customers 
there and asked questions about what they were buying and how much it 
cost them. He was stunned--absolutely stunned--as this was a far cry 
from the grocery stores in the Soviet Union. Yeltsin said: ``Even the 
Politburo doesn't have this kind of choice, not even Mr. Gorbachev.''
  That day, Boris Yeltsin learned something that the overwhelming 
majority of people in our country already know--that socialism cannot 
provide the bounty, the prosperity, or the choices that capitalism can.
  Leon Aron, who wrote Yeltsin's biography, quoted one of his 
associates.
  He said:

       For a long time, on the plane to Miami, he sat motionless, 
     his head in his hands. ``What have they done to our poor 
     people?'' he said, after a long silence.

  He told his fellow countrymen who were traveling with him that if 
their people were to see the conditions in American supermarkets, 
``there would be a revolution.''
  Make no mistake about it. If the most radical Democrats in our 
country today get their way on the outlandish socialist policies they 
are pushing, the American people will be calling for a revolution.
  The Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and economic security for those 
who are able-bodied yet who are unwilling to work are policies that are 
not going to raise up the most economically disadvantaged people in our 
country. They are going to pull everyone else down. Socialism promises 
not prosperity for all but what Winston Churchill called the equal 
sharing of miseries.
  Though these self-proclaimed democratic socialists make big promises 
on how their policies will deliver fairness and equality for all 
Americans, that could not be further from the truth. The first thing 
these policies would do is to bankrupt our country. These unworkable 
economic policies will kill jobs and outlaw our most reliable, 
affordable energy sources. ``Medicare for All'' will turn into 
``Medicare for none'' when the entire system crashes and when those who 
are unwilling to work will lose any incentive to even try. It would 
subsidize a nation of slackers.
  This threat of the seductive embrace of socialism isn't an 
exaggeration. Some of our friends across the aisle are actually 
critical of the equal opportunity, ``pulling yourself up by your 
bootstraps,'' hard-working economic system that has made our country 
the envy of the world. They say: You didn't create your success; the 
government did--what a bunch of hooey.
  Over the weekend, one Democratic Member of the House who was speaking 
at South by Southwest in Austin, my hometown, referred to capitalism as 
``irredeemable'' and tried to blame capitalism for every problem that 
exists in our society. I admit that we are not perfect, but capitalism 
isn't the cause of every problem that exists in our society. Of all 
places to complain about the perils of capitalism, there is more than a 
little irony in her having chosen Texas--the most successful, free-
enterprise economy in our Nation.
  Instead of talking about this socialist, Big Government approach that 
we all know will fail, let's look at how the Texas model has led my 
State to become an economic powerhouse and the envy of the Nation.
  We keep taxes low, government spending restrained, and regulations at 
a rational minimum to give people and the small businesses that provide 
jobs the freedom to pursue their dreams and to prosper. I must say that 
it is obvious that it is working. The unemployment rate in Texas is 4 
percent, which is among the lowest in the Nation. In Midland--in the 
Permian Basin, the heart of the energy boom in my State--unemployment 
is 2.1 percent. You are hard-pressed to find anybody to take the jobs 
that do exist because, essentially, everybody who is willing to work is 
fully employed. The biggest problem that job creators have is getting 
the workers they need. Yet there is a silver lining for the workers. 
This pushes wages higher as businesses compete for their labor.
  Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic 
Analysis released international trade data that showed Texas, for the 
17th year in a row, as the top State for exports. We make stuff, and we 
sell stuff. We grow things. We raise cattle and agricultural products, 
and we sell them. We are the top State for exports. In fact, our 
exports account for nearly 20 percent of the exports of the entire 
Nation. In 2018, that totaled more than $315 billion of exports--more 
than double that of California's, which is the second highest exporter. 
These earnings not only fuel the economy of our State, but they boost 
the entire Nation.
  Our export dominance is only part of the reason Texas is thriving. 
Together, with lower taxes and less burdensome regulation, businesses 
and dream seekers are drawn to our State, which creates opportunities 
for everyone who is willing to work. Instead of growing government and 
increasing the tax burden, we allow businesses--small, medium, and 
large--to invest in their workforces, in our communities, and in our 
way of life.
  In Texas, we believe that less government is more. We don't try to 
centralize power in the statehouse. We give businesses, entrepreneurs, 
and hard-working Texans of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and races the 
freedom by which they can create their own opportunities. We know that 
the more you tax, the more there are government controls and that the 
more you regulate, the greater the burden is on new ideas, investment, 
and opportunity.
  The socialist policies being espoused by some members of the 
Democratic Party are not going to make our businesses and our economy 
stronger or more competitive. Indeed, history has shown that these are 
failed policies that will stifle innovation, discourage hard work, and 
make us look more like that 1980s Soviet grocery store.
  Instead of our grocery stores being filled with a selection of 
beautiful produce, fresh meat, your favorite snack foods, they will be 
stocked with whatever the government says it wants you to have. Instead 
of making an appointment with your doctor when you are sick, you will 
wait for Lord knows how long to get an appointment with a government-
run clinic and have few, if any, options. Instead of forcing ourselves 
out of bed in the morning to go to work, people who are able but who 
don't want to work will stay in bed, knowing they can receive food and 
medical care that will be subsidized by your labor and your hard-earned 
tax dollars.
  That is what these old--but now, somehow, dressed up as something 
new--failed ideas that have been proposed by our Democratic colleagues 
would do. Forget government ``of the people, by the people, and for the 
people.'' They want a country by the government, for the government--
the people be damned.
  In his autobiography, Yeltsin wrote: ``When I saw those shelves 
crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every 
possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with 
despair for the Soviet people . . . that such a potentially super-rich 
country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty.''
  I pray that our country never sees that day when it is brought to 
ruin because of these 21st century socialists.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.