[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 82 (Thursday, May 16, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H3846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         AMERICA LEADS THE WAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Arrington) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the warnings to not 
mention the President, but you know what? They are going to continue to 
come. They won't be heeded.
  People say they have respect for the rule of law. Do they even have 
respect for the House rules and the dignity that we have as leaders of 
our country to follow those rules?
  How can we ask the American people to follow rules we pass when we 
don't follow the rules even on the House floor?
  Madam Speaker, I know you understand this. My heart is heavy because 
I sit here, prepared to speak about one thing, but I feel like I have 
to say that I am very concerned for my country when my colleagues on 
the Democratic side speak of socialism as if history isn't littered 
with examples of failure, of destitution, of destruction of not only 
the economies of countries that go down that road of ruin but what it 
does to their people.
  We see this in the most recent example of Venezuela. How can we be 
talking about these big-government, socialist ideas like the Green New 
Deal? Even Speaker Pelosi calls it a fantasy.
  When colleagues on the other side aren't talking about giving 
Washington more control over the American people's lives, they are 
talking about party over country, unpatriotic rhetoric, in my opinion, 
and political theater.
  That is the agenda. That is what they have. That is the bold vision 
of where they want to take this country. Not me, and not the people of 
west Texas. I can promise you that.
  I mentioned the Green New Deal as the Democrats' signature 
legislation to steward the environment. They want to eliminate 
airplanes, ladies and gentlemen. They want to eliminate cows.
  They want to give everybody a paycheck, guaranteed income whether you 
work or not. Whether you are capable of working or not working, 
everybody ought to get a paycheck, guaranteed, full faith and credit of 
the United States of America.
  That is where this country would go if we didn't have a Republican 
Senate, if we didn't have a Republican President, and if we didn't have 
Americans with better sense.

  Look, is the climate changing? Yes, it is changing. What are the 
factors? What are the variables? How serious? Which variables are 
contributing over the others?
  Let me tell you what is real. What is real is the responsibility we 
have to steward our environment.
  I want clean air and water for my three children. I think, as leaders 
of this great country, we ought to be responsible for providing not 
only a land of opportunity for the future of our children but a clean 
land of opportunity.
  Let's just get the facts straight for the American people. America 
has been leading the way in this regard. The Clean Air Act is one 
example.
  We had six key pollutants that we identified, in a bipartisan way, 
that had an impact on our health and well-being in this country. We 
have reduced those pollutants by 73 percent since 1970. At the same 
time, we have grown this economy 230 percent.
  America is leading the way. In greenhouse gases, from 2005 to 2017, 
U.S. energy-related emissions fell by 14 percent when the rest of the 
world increased their emissions by 20 percent.
  Folks, through American innovation, through reasonable regulations, 
we have been able to lead the world and provide for a cleaner 
environment and steward God's great Earth, a gift to us.
  We do have a stewardship responsibility. We have a calling to our 
creator and our children.
  I don't want the American people to be misled, certainly not at a $93 
trillion cost and a plan that eliminates cows and airplanes. Give me a 
break.
  The committee of jurisdiction, the Energy and Commerce Committee, 
hasn't even taken up that legislation. But that is what they have.
  I hope we can work in a balanced way. I hope we can find ways to 
continue to do what we are doing, which is to steward our resources, 
provide for a cleaner environment for our children, and at the same 
time, make sure that we have opportunities for our kids to pursue their 
dreams and dream big and do better for their families because just 
talking about dirty fossil fuel is not enough of a plan.

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