[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H7136-H7140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES OF THE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Carter), a former district judge.
Swearing in of the Honorable Richard Hudson into the Texas Navy
Mr. CARTER of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, Mr.
Gohmert, for yielding.
I rise today to honor my dear friend, Congressman Richard Hudson of
North Carolina.
Congressman Hudson served as my chief of staff from 2006 to 2008 and
is now forging his own path right here on Capitol Hill.
Some time ago, Congressman Hudson gave me a hard time about other
Members being recognized as ``Honorary Texans'' by Governor Abbott.
Well, after speaking with the Governor, we have gone one step further
with our recognition here today, and I am pleased to swear in Admiral
Richard L. Hudson to the Texas Navy.
I will now read the certificate granting his commission:
``In the name and by the authority of The State of Texas to all to
whom these presents shall come, Greetings. Know ye, that Richard Hudson
is hereby commissioned an honorary Admiral in the Texas Navy with all
rights and privileges appertaining thereto and with the duty of
assisting in the preservation of the history, boundaries, water
resources, and defense of the State.
``In testimony whereof, I have signed my name and caused the Seal of
the State of Texas to be affixed at the City of Austin, this the 10th
day of May, 2019.''
Signed: Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas.
I am now going to read the oath that Mr. Hudson will take as he takes
this commission:
``I, Richard Hudson, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States and the State of Texas against
all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the
President of the United States, the Governor of Texas, and the orders
of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the
Uniform Code of Military Justice. And I will remember the Alamo. So
help me God.''
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North
Carolina (Mr. Hudson).
Mr. HUDSON. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Gohmert for yielding, and I
thank Judge Carter for this incredible honor. The gentleman is a dear
friend and someone I admire very much. His love for the State of Texas
is unmatched.
This truly is an honor. I am proud to be a North Carolinian, but I do
love the State of Texas.
I would first suggest that we should all remember that seven North
Carolinians, if my recollection is correct, died defending the Alamo.
I also have family ties to Texas. My great uncle Joseph Wesley
Humphrey was a deputy sheriff, a member of the Texas legislature, and
county judge in Rains County, Texas.
Another great uncle, Reverend Daniel A. McRae, was a Methodist
minister in San Augustine County, Texas. I believe that might even be
in Mr. Gohmert's district. And the church and the cemetery there is
still named ``McRae'' after my great uncle.
So I do have family ties. I do love the State. I am deeply honored to
receive this commission, honorary as it may be, and I will be proud to
recite the oath:
I, Richard Hudson, do solemnly swear that I will support
and defend the Constitution of the United States and of the
State of Texas against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and
that I will obey the orders of the President of the United
States, the Governor of Texas, and the orders of the officers
appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform
Code of Military Justice. And I will remember the Alamo. So
help me God.
Madam Speaker, I thank Judge Carter.
Mr. CARTER of Texas. Madam Speaker, I congratulate Mr. Hudson.
Mr. GOHMERT. It is wonderful to have a new admiral in the Texas Navy,
and we welcome Congressman Hudson to that role, that honorary role, in
the Texas Navy.
And we are grateful to Judge Carter for his role in making that
happen and to our great Governor Greg Abbott. I thank both the
gentlemen.
[[Page H7137]]
It is nice to be able to do something that brings a smile. But I
think, for Texans to ask that people remember the Alamo harkens back to
feelings within us that freedom and liberty are something worth dying
for. That is what all of those Texans did.
And with due deference to my friend from Tennessee, Marsha
Blackburn--yes, I know--we are grateful to Tennessee for their
contribution at the Alamo and to Texas as well.
But those people had a choice: Were they going to run or were they
going to stand for freedom, stand against despotism. And they chose to
stand.
And here it is 163 years later, and we still remember, and we are
still inspired. Liberty comes at great cost, and we are forever
grateful to our God and to our predecessors who took such a stand
against tyranny.
There is a lot of tyranny going on in the Middle East, and there will
be until the end of time. But each of us has a responsibility to do
what we can to help accommodate and protect those who can't help
themselves.
That is why some of us are pro-life. But when it comes to life in the
Middle East, it has been shocking now for years, under the previous
administration, the people that were supported, the weapons that were
provided to people that were called the ``vetted moderate rebels''
against the leader of Syria.
Yet we saw over and over again those so-called ``vetted moderate
rebels'' were constantly allowing their weapons to be seized--there is
some question whether they were actually turned over--to radical
Islamists who hate Americans, who made clear, yeah, they are not crazy
about some fellow Muslims, but they like them a whole lot better than
they do the United States and Christians.
So it was tragic, in years prior, when our current U.N. general
secretary was in charge of the refugee program at the U.N. and people
were noticing, under the then head of the refugee program at the U.N.,
now general secretary--they were noticing that, gee, you are helping
all these Muslims, which is wonderful, but there is a significant
percentage in those areas, some areas there, that are being overrun by
ISIS, where there are Christians and the Christians appear to be the
target of genocide.
And it has been a long time since I read his quote, but in essence it
was basically, well, those Christians are very important to those areas
historically where they are, and so we think it is important to just
let them stay in those areas.
Well, what Christians had found was, if they tried to go to the
refugee camps where they were unwelcome and brutalized, they were lucky
if they got out with their lives. But they weren't welcome.
And the head of the refugee program did nothing that we can find to
accommodate Christians to the extent that he was accommodating Muslims.
I don't know if it was an innate bias, prejudice, bigotry that he had--
maybe still has--or whether it was just sheer ignorance on his part,
deciding to save some people and not save a big bulk of the Christians.
So they were being wiped out. There was a genocide going on.
I saw this story today by Edwin Mora. The title of the article is,
``Hope Is Back: Trump Helps Save Christians, Yazidis in Iraq From
Extinction.''
It goes on to say, ``U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is
helping bring Christians and Yazidis in Iraq back from the brink of
extinction fomented by a genocidal campaign at the hands of the Islamic
State, religious minority representatives declared this week at the
second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom convened by the
Department of State.
``The U.S. Government has officially determined that ISIS committed
genocide against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities
during its reign of terror in the Middle East that began in 2014 . . .
`'
Of course, that was when the Obama administration was in its heyday.
Of course, we didn't realize how much the DOJ, FBI, and some of the
Intel community had been weaponized and actually corrupted.
The article goes on, ``Echoing Yazidis activists and a U.S.-based
Syriac Catholic Iraqi priest who spoke to Breitbart News, a Chaldean
Catholic priest from a parish in a Christian Iraqi town indicated that
hope for the future along with security improvements have returned to
religious minority communities devastated by ISIS, courtesy of the
Trump administration efforts.
``Their comments came during the 3-day ministerial summit. . . .
``While delivering a speech during the event on Wednesday, Father
Thabet Habib Youssef, a Chaldean Catholic priest from the town of
Karamles in Iraq's Nineveh Province, thanked the Trump administration
for its assistance.''
And this is what Father Youssef had to say:
``I wish to give thanks to the government of the United States for
including us in this important conference and a special thanks to the
administration of President Trump for his concern and commitment to the
persecuted minority communities in Iraq.
``I can say this conference gives us hope. Our greatest fear in the
early years was that the world would forget us. This conference tells
us we are not forgotten.'
``Nearly half of the Christian families who fled Karamles, liberated
by U.S. and local forces in November 2016, have returned, and Father
Thabet expects many more to come back in the coming year.
``Although ISIS burned down the homes and churches in the Christian
town, `We are determined to return and rebuild.'
``Today we have 45 percent of our families returned, and we hope in
this next year we will see many more.'
``He went on to say that the Iraqi government needs to do more to
bring about `real change and support for the protection, safety, and
equal rights for the minority communities in Iraq.'
``The U.S.-funded nation-building efforts, coupled with''--and let me
make myself clear on that, I'm talking about helping others build their
nations--for those who claim that America is trying to build some
hegemony, has imperialistic notions, as it always has--it just tells us
they had terrible history teachers.
{time} 1330
They are not intentionally spreading untruths. They are just
ignorant. They don't know what the real truth is because the real truth
is, we have never been an imperialistic nation. If we were, if we had
been then English would be all that was spoken in France, and Germany,
and Japan, and many other nations. That is not who we are. That is not
who we have been.
We have given our most precious commodity, American lives, for
another people's freedom.
Back to this article. It says: ``The U.S.-funded nation-building
efforts, coupled with assistance from the Catholic group Knights of
Columbus and the government of Hungary, have rendered the town of
Karamles a `story of success and we are optimistic it will survive' '',
Father Thabet also said.
``Northern Iraq's Nineveh province is the historical homeland of
Iraqi Christians and home to the largest concentration of religious
minorities in the country.''
So it goes on and also talks about the help this has been to Yazidis.
And I note this week we had resolutions or amendments to condemn and
express the majority of the House's sentiment that we shouldn't do
anything to help in the effort against those who are killing,
persecuting, and trying to commit a genocide against the Yazidis in
Yemen. But, thankfully, that is only from the majority in the House.
That is really unfortunate.
But there has also been news this week that we may have a very strong
anti-Israeli resolution filed. Why not? The majority doesn't ever
condemn specific anti-Semitism by Members here in the House; so why not
file a resolution? We will see if it gets filed. That is the news.
That resolution supports the boycott against Israel; even though the
people it supports, that resolution would support, would be the very
people that have said they want Israel wiped off the map. They want no
Israel from the river to the sea. They want it gone. They want a
genocide. They want the Jews wiped out, and that is a goal.
It was a goal of Arafat. It is why, when Ehud Barak, as prime
minister of Israel, when President Clinton was twisting his arm so
strongly, basically
[[Page H7138]]
offered Arafat virtually everything he wanted.
I, personally, knowing biblical history, I think you had a case
where, just as God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, initially, when Moses
was asking to let his people go, I think Arafat's heart was hardened.
He got basically everything he wanted, but he turned it all down.
If he had accepted it, it would have been basically impossible for
Israel to defend itself under anything but nuclear means; no
conventional way to defend Israel if Arafat had accepted that, what I
would consider, outrageous proposal. But fortunately, he didn't accept
it, and so Israel has been able to defend itself since then.
But the attacks are daily. They are ongoing. There is an ongoing
effort by enemies of Israel that are being promoted by some Democrats,
some in Congress, some outside of Congress. That is who they are
supporting, people that are, every single day, smuggling rockets into
Gaza, smuggling weapons, trying to smuggle weapons into Israel, and
continuing to teach hatred, blind bigotry against the Jewish people,
against Israel.
So I would be thrilled if that resolution did not get filed; but that
is up to individuals in Congress. Everybody has a right to file
whatever bill they think will be most helpful.
But I have looked for Scripture in the Bible that says, those who
curse or seek to harm Israel will be blessed. And I just--it is just
not there. So it causes me grave concern to think that we may have
people in leadership positions in the United States, again, who really
want to harm Israel. They want to divide it.
I know we have a growing group that don't believe anything in the
Bible. But for those of us who do, when we are told that any nation
that divides or attempts to divide Israel will bring down judgment on
itself, that causes me great concern for the country for which I have
taken an oath to defend repeatedly; as a member of the United States
Army, as an Assistant District Attorney, as a District Judge, as a
Chief Justice, and as a Member of Congress.
That oath means so much to me that I think it would be a good idea to
be supportive of the Nation of Israel, and I am thrilled we have a
President that is doing that.
Even though, reports I have heard from people that were there, he had
Cabinet officials telling him he was going to start World War III if he
recognized Jerusalem as the capital. A bit like some of the stories of
Lincoln being told by every member of the Cabinet it would be a
disaster if he finalized the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln knew it was right in his heart, and with every Cabinet member
reportedly against him and arguing against it, he, in essence, said the
ayes have it. He was the only one.
Here you had not all, but most of the Cabinet really hammering
President Trump not to recognize Jerusalem as the capital. He knew in
his heart it was the right thing to do. He had said he would do it; he
did it.
I know some can't find anything at all admirable about President
Trump; they are so blinded by their hatred. But I think that is a
pretty amazing thing that President Trump has done.
And now, to hear from Christians in the Middle East who were the
objects of genocide, being wiped out, being killed, destroyed, taken
off of the map completely, without much of anything helpful from the
so-called United Nations, it is amazing what President Trump has done
in that regard.
So when I hear friends across the aisle saying we have lost respect
around the world, they are not seeing and hearing what I am. The last
polls I saw were that, around the world, there is more respect for our
President than the prior administration.
And the truth is, in respect, there is a little element of fear. You
can not like somebody, but still respect them, and fear can be
involved.
We have a reputation that is growing again, that we have a President
that will do what he said. Sometimes he is talked out of taking steps,
like bombing and killing 100 or more in Iran. But what we are seeing in
Iran is amazing, because their economy is suffering dramatically, so
much so you see them lashing out and trying to, whether it is by
attacking ships, trying to use whatever power they can. The pressure is
intensifying.
And I would humbly submit, this will not be a President who, in
response to the biggest supporter of terrorism in world history, sends
them pallets full of billions and billions of dollars in cash to help
the biggest supporter of terrorism, who has killed and been responsible
for the deaths of more American military than anybody else in recent
decades.
So they can say what they want about our President. He is doing
amazing work.
And it is interesting, I keep hearing this term ``racist'' and the
President keeps talking about American citizens. Well, until recent
days, it has never been racist to talk about American citizens.
In fact, going back again to the comment of Benjamin Franklin after
the Constitutional Convention: ``It's a republic, if you can keep it.''
He knew that republics, the very few that have been established, that
just means they elect representatives. It is not the totally democratic
governing that was, for example, in Athens, as a city state. They had a
democracy.
And what historians have seen, clearly, is that when it is a true
democracy, where everybody participates--they had jurors, they would
have 501 jurors in just a court case. And what that would often lead to
what would be mob action. I mean, people get stirred up, and they end
up coming out with a sentence like they did for Socrates, that was far
beyond anything appropriate whatsoever. You take an innocent man like
that and have him put to death simply because you had too many jurors
that got each other worked up.
So that is where Rome made a great stride forward. They said, you
know what? There were problems. It was a good idea, but there were
problems with a complete democracy, where everybody participates in all
governing decisions, except jurors, and that is 501.
But Rome figured out, we need a representative form of government; so
it has parts of it that are democracies, and in part it is a
representative government, so it is a republic. And until Caesar
crossed the Rubicon and made it into a virtual dictatorship--of course,
that didn't last long because as, Mark Antony said:
Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable
man. So are they all, all honorable men.
There was trouble in the Roman empire. But they began to have a flood
of people that were not Roman citizens. They lost their power. They had
begun bread and circuses; gave away way too much in what was considered
welfare of that day, bread and circuses.
And, as I recall, it was even Caesar that decided maybe we are
corrupting people by providing this form of welfare and entertainment.
But by that point, it was too late to rein it in and, for all of these
factors, and others coming into play, people crossing the borders and
taking a toll, the Roman Empire was eventually lost.
No country is going to last forever. I love this country. I have
offered to die for this country. That is what you do when you sign up
and take an oath in the U.S. military.
But when people begin not to appreciate the good things that their
nation does and is doing, has done, and they build up hatred toward
their own nation, you really are on the downhill slide and you are
moving ever closer to the dustbin of history. Eventually every country
is going to get there.
But our goal in this body should be to perpetuate this little
experiment in self-government, the best ever contrived. Keep it going
as long as possible. Don't let it die on our watch. But it is in
trouble.
And as we have bills, I don't know anybody on this entire House
floor, either party, who is against standing behind and helping those
incredible American heroes of 9/11 and the days following. We are all
for that.
{time} 1345
But then we have people in the majority who see an opportunity.
Instead of doing what we normally do and have an authorization for 5
years and 5 years extend 10 years, we had a bill that was extended to
2092.
There will not be a firefighter or policeman who is alive anywhere
close to 2092, first responder that was there during 9/11 and doing
these heroic works. So why would they choose 2092?
[[Page H7139]]
Well, the saying in Washington is no matter how cynical you get, it
is never enough to catch up. But you go by what we have seen.
People in this body often, and it has happened on both sides of the
aisle, like to get a bill, especially with money, get it extended out
as far as possible, way beyond the existence of people for whom it is
dedicated, and then when those people eventually pass away, you will
see an effort to come in here and say, wow, we had all this money that
we have passed overwhelmingly, and now the people aren't there that it
was originally meant for, so let's start giving this money to other
people, people that we want to curry favor with.
That is not the way it is supposed to go. I voted for it out of
respect for our heroes, but for goodness' sake, 2092, seriously? How
could anybody with a straight face say: Oh, if you are not for paying
out billions and billions of dollars in 2091 to 2092, then you must
hate the first responders of 9/11? That is ridiculous.
They have inspired me from that time, and in my hometown in east
Texas and other towns all over east Texas, all the same thing. People
lined up to give blood.
The first time I went, they said: There is hours and hours of wait to
give blood for people in New York so we would ask that you come back
tomorrow.
You couldn't even get in. That was true all over east Texas and all
over the country. People cared deeply about what they had seen happen.
We were under attack from outside. There were no hyphenated Americans.
We were all just Americans wanting to help each other and help those
who had been harmed.
So I hope that the Senate will take a look at that and be able to be
more responsible so that the 9/11 fund will truly be for the people who
the 9/11 fund says it is supposed to be for.
We are loading up future generations with so much debt. That alone
could be enough to bring down our country. It is time to become
responsible.
And I know across the aisle we have had these hearings on the bills,
the Equality Act, for example, and I understand the sentiment behind it
is to try to avoid any type of discomfort, uncomfortable feelings by
anybody because of their chosen gender.
But as we brought out at our hearings before the Equality Act was
passed in committee and here on the floor, there is a danger, and it is
not about making people a little uncomfortable because they are
biologically male but they want to go to a women's restroom.
As a former felony judge, I have heard the testimony about the
trauma. I have seen the effects of sexual assault on women. I have read
and understand that women who are victims of sexual assault have three
to four times more occurrence of PTSD.
There are different explanations as to why they have so much higher
rate of PTSD than even our soldiers in combat, but also that a trigger
for reliving the horrors, the awful crime against them and their person
is to be in a small, confined area and have someone of the opposite sex
come in. We were laughed at and belittled when we brought up that
concern.
The story was contained in another story. It was about a British
leader who was pushing for transgender bathrooms. It is now under
criminal investigation or charges.
But this was a story I missed back in February: ``A trans `woman'
''--meaning biological man but considered himself, herself, whatever
you want to say, to be a woman--``was allowed to walk free from
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in Scotland after being convicted of sexually
assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a supermarket restroom.
``The attacker, whose name is given as Katie Dolatowski, waited for
the young victim to come out of a toilet cubicle at Morrisons
supermarket . . . then grabbed her by the face and forced her back
inside.
``Dolatowski told the girl to remove her trousers and warned that a
man outside would kill her mother . . . but she fought back, striking
the pedophile in the face, belly, and crotch and tearing away to her
father and siblings outside.
``Dolatowski had attempted to photograph a 12-year-old as she
urinated at another supermarket a month prior . . . but Judge James
Williamson decided not to send the sex offender to prison, instead
handing down a tagging order and community service order. . . . The
girl's mother was horrified, saying she felt `very, very let down' and
that she did not have any confidence whatsoever that Dolatowski will
not go out and do something equally as bad or worse.''
It is important to still discuss this because the Senate hasn't taken
it up, and I hope they won't take it up because of the problems of the
so-called, misnamed Equality Act. It is not equality for female sexual
assault victims, that is for sure.
But then it contained another reference: ``Girl Guides''--it is like
Girl Scouts--``Expels Leaders Who Opposed Trans Shower-Sharing
Policies.
And this insert says: Two Girl Guides leaders were expelled after
they opposed ``new rules which compel units to let transgender-
identifying males share showers and other facilities with girls as
young as 5.''
There are other references like: Allegedly transgender prisoner gets
life after raping two women, sexually assaulting inmates in female
jail.
Another: Mother arrested in front of her children for calling a trans
activist a man; said Kate Scottow was arrested for calling a trans
activist a man online and a judge has banned her from referencing their
former male identity.
So there was a time when people could say hurtful things in America,
but as we see with any declining society--not declining in goods and
services, but declining in morality and as a society. We see it in L.A.
The most so-called liberated and liberal leaders of cities in America
seem to have more homelessness, more defecation on the streets, more
pollution.
Where are all the green activists, by the way? I mean, these people
are polluting like crazy, and they are out there with signs picketing
everywhere else, but for some reason they don't seem to be bothered by
the destruction of an orderly society.
You go back to some of the great city-states, one of their big
problems was sewage. And if you have too much homelessness, you
encourage it, bless it, then it can cause problems for any society.
But that also brings us to our southern border, the continued
expressions from this body about wanting to get rid of any enforcement
of our border and refusing, in the $4.6 billion that was passed out of
this House, not one dime for detention beds, not one dime to help the
Border Patrol do their job to secure the border, not one dime to help
build a wall barrier where we need it, when we basically, because of
liberals who may mean well, but they basically turned over our southern
border to drug cartels.
Some of the most evil people in the world, these drug cartels, and we
are not going to enforce our border. That message from the majority has
gone out over and over again, and what it does, as the Border Patrol
will tell you if you go down there as often as I have: Every time one
of you guys in Congress talk about amnesty, legalization, not enforcing
the border, any of those things, we get surges.
And they will also tell you, and I have seen it for myself, the drug
cartels control everybody, when and where they cross the border, and
they will send groups. The Border Patrol know when they send a group in
the middle of the night, they have to stand there and go through in-
processing all these people, asking them their questions.
And despite what some of our colleagues across the aisle have said,
these are sympathetic border patrolmen. I have seen it over and over
again. I have seen hundreds of very sympathetic border patrolmen, but
they are at their wits end.
An article here from Michaela Ross today talking about ``Sick,
Exhausted Border Agents Stoke Exodus Fear in Migrant Surge,'' the
migrants, the illegal aliens coming in.
I have been castigated for referring to them as ``aliens,'' like they
are from some other planet; and I had to remind my colleagues the very
bill that they were supporting referred to them as aliens, and they
were a little embarrassed because they didn't realize they referred to
them as aliens. They thought it was just mean-spirited Republicans.
It is kind of interesting when you see that kind of thing, but it is
a tragedy,
[[Page H7140]]
and it is a humanitarian crisis on our southern border. And it is no
longer just a humanitarian crisis for those who are pouring over our
border illegally. They are taking their toll on the border patrolmen.
Some have suspected that: Gee, maybe that is a strategy of the
Democratic Party.
You keep talking about amnesty, about getting rid of border
enforcement, which will encourage more and more people to come in.
You keep claiming that people, no matter whether they came in
illegally or legally, should be allowed to vote and keep encouraging
people in.
You refuse to give a dime for border enforcement. You refuse to give
a dime for beds to house people who are pouring in illegally for what
they need to be able to detain people that commit criminal acts in
coming into the country.
You continue to talk about doing away with any criminality to
violating the law and more people come in.
You devastate those officers who have taken an oath to defend our
border and our Constitution, and they are already having recruiting
problems.
Why would somebody want to come work where you have got a major party
of the two in the country that castigates you at every turn, says you
can't or won't protect babies, children, you do not care, you are mean,
you are evil, when you are out there doing everything you can, and you
are being harassed, not being given what you need?
And then we had this bill this week in Judiciary talking about it was
going to add millions and millions and millions of dollars of
requirements for the Border Patrol to have to follow, lest they be
pursued with some kind of charge or allegation, and yet not give them a
dime to do those jobs, knowing that the result will be more and more
people flooding in, more and more humanitarian crisis. Then you blame
the humanitarian crisis on those who are trying to secure our Nation.
{time} 1400
Then you get an allowance for all of those people who have poured in
illegally, and many of them don't speak English. They don't know what
is going on. They have never been educated on how you sustain a self-
governing country.
All I can figure, the assessment has to have been made, yes, it will
have our country in chaos for a little while, and we will have to take
away some freedoms because of all the chaos, but, as Democrats have
said, that will end the Republican Party nationally, as the Democrats
were able to do in California with 2 or 3 million pouring in and voting
that had come in illegally after the amnesty in 1986.
Actually, after 1986, when they were given amnesty, now it is legal
for them to vote, and that changed California into a very Democratic
State.
And there is an assessment: We can do that for the Nation and
eliminate the Republican Party as having any kind of viability. And
then once we do that, even though it has taken quite a toll on the
country, we will get control back again. We will rein in the chaos, and
the Republicans will be gone and we will be a one-party country.
Somebody must have made that kind of assessment to be pushing the
kind of bills that they are.
We cannot allow that chaos to occur and to build, because it wasn't
just Ronald Reagan, but historians throughout time have noted, once you
have a country that has had great freedom and it loses that freedom, it
doesn't come back. Reagan said not in that generation, but I have
trouble finding where it ever came back once a nation of freedom lost
it. That is a real potential if we don't get things under control.
I think God has blessed this country more than any country. I know
Solomon's Israel was just an absolutely amazing place, but there is no
place that has ever had our opportunities, our individual freedoms, our
individual assets, never in the history of the world.
There is nothing wrong with recognizing the greatness that America
has been. It is only in recognizing America's greatness that you can
determine we want to perpetuate that for future generations to have
those opportunities, those freedoms, those assets.
But we are in trouble, and there has got to be a change or our time
as the greatest country in history will become a self-fulfilling
prophesy of those who say: ``Ah, it was never that great.'' ``Nah, it
is not a great country.'' ``No, I have always been embarrassed of
America.'' That will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We will lose
our greatness. We will lose our freedom.
I said to three individuals from Australia who were here on Capitol
Hill a couple years ago: Hey, I have had people up here say when we
lose our freedom, I guess we can all come to Australia.
Neither of them even laughed. One of them said: Do you not
understand, if you lose your freedom in America, China will take over
Australia before you could ever get there?
America is a shining light on a hill. We give people hope. I have
heard it and seen it from Africans with tears in their eyes--and, yes,
they were Christians. Maybe you would be prejudiced against them. But
they said: We need America strong if we are going to have any chance of
security and freedom in our own country.
Let's keep America strong. Let's support Israel. Let's support
enforcing the law as it is, as it has been, and as we need it to
prolong and perpetuate this incredible country.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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