[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 22, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5817-H5821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NEVER-ENDING FLOOD OF PROBLEMS COMING OUT OF PRESIDENT BIDEN'S WHITE 
                                 HOUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Manning). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous materials on the subject of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Tennessee?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, there are so many issues that are facing 
our country right now thanks to the disastrous policies coming out of 
the Biden administration.
  Inflation is up 8.6 percent. Economists are predicting a recession 
within 12 months or less. Our energy crisis--which is totally 
preventable--is only getting worse. We need to turn our spigots back 
on, Madam Speaker. We are relying on foreign adversaries--mostly 
enemies, I feel like most of the time--to produce oil instead of 
turning our spigots back on, as I stated.
  The Biden administration is still shoving Americans toward electric 
cars which cost on average $60,000. That is more than the average 
Tennessean makes in a year. I know for folks living in the Beltway that 
is nothing to them, but to the average working American, that is a 
whole heck of a lot of money. The environmental problems that these 
cars cause with their batteries and the slave labor to produce them in 
these foreign countries that we have no regulations over is despicable, 
and for anybody to wrap themselves up around that is part of the 
problem.
  Gas hit $5 per gallon last week--$5. People can't even afford to go 
to work in most areas. President Biden is trying to act like he is 
doing something about it by proposing a 3-month gas tax suspension.
  Madam Speaker, that is laughable. That is laughable. The way it is 
rising they will save no money. At best it is a short-term solution to 
a long-term problem, and at worst it is just an attempt to distract 
Americans from the Biden administration's refusal to turn our oil 
spigots back on. Also, it would leave a $10 billion hole in the highway 
trust fund.
  Also, the baby formula crisis is still looming. We have got this 
problem, and the solution that Washington offered was to pay more FDA 
bureaucrats more money and not solve the problem.
  The Democratic Party has accused the Republicans of some awful 
things, but one of them was that we were standing in the way of this 
when, in fact, we voted for the compromise bill, but the national 
media, which is so in the tank for this administration, refuses to 
mention it.
  In closing, I thank all my colleagues who are here tonight to call 
out the never-ending flood of problems coming out of President Biden's 
White House.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Grothman), who is Mr. Positive.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, every weekend we go home, and I am about 
to go back to Wisconsin for a couple more weeks. When we get back home, 
of course, we always talk to our constituents. I would like to address 
my speech tonight to the issue that is most on their mind.
  Now, when we go back to Wisconsin in June we spend a lot of time on 
what they call breakfast on the farm because June is Dairy Promotion 
Month in Wisconsin, and with Dairy Promotion Month there are breakfasts 
on the farm where you have an opportunity to see so many of your 
constituents.
  When back home, I go through the number one and number two issues. 
The number one issue is gasoline inflation. Everybody talks about it. 
They talk about how it is squeezing their budget and about how they are 
not able to go on trips as much as they used to. They have got to cut 
back on the type of food that they buy. So number one would be gas 
inflation.
  I suppose number two would be food inflation because they talk about 
having to buy cuts of meat that aren't as good or other food products 
that aren't as good as they were before.
  I think probably number three is housing inflation. When you look for 
a new house now, Madam Speaker, it costs so much more than it did a 
year ago.
  I personally believe there are other issues that are as significant 
and perhaps in the long term more significant for America:
  Are we going to wrap up Ukraine?
  What are we going to do at our border?
  What are we going to do about the over 110,000 people dying of drug 
overdoses every year?
  But, obviously, in my district the number one issue is inflation, and 
I want to talk about how we got there.
  How did we get there?
  Any middle school C student should know that inflation is caused by 
excessive government spending which has to be covered by the Federal 
Reserve.
  What are President Biden's signature accomplishments?
  First of all, a $1.9 trillion bill called the American Rescue Plan 
came right

[[Page H5818]]

out of the chute. His second biggest accomplishment was a $1.2 trillion 
infrastructure bill. These bills were in addition to a regular 
appropriation bill with excessive spending.
  What would happen was as predictable as night following day. Multiple 
Republicans, including myself, warned last January and February against 
out-of-control inflation. Larry Summers, Barack Obama's director of the 
National Economic Council, called this bill the worst economic policy 
in the last 20 years. But whatever Larry Summers said was ignored as, 
sadly, the majority party charged again, spending $1.9 trillion that 
America did not have.
  So now we are told we have the worst inflation in 40 years at 8.3 
percent. Don't believe that 8.3 number. It is much worse than that. It 
always bothers me when people say that we have such a problem at 8.3 
percent inflation. It is just so much more. Changes to inflation 
calculation over the years have grossly underestimated the real number.

  I am going to lead off with housing. When I look at housing, I talk 
to builders, I talk to landlords, and I talk to real estate brokers. 
Housing is listed at a 5.5 percent increase in the last year. Ask any 
of these people if rents or new construction have gone up only 5.5 
percent in the last year, and they will laugh at you.
  Madam Speaker, 5.5 percent is what the government is telling people 
it is at. When I talk to builders, they tell me that a new house this 
year could cost 30 percent more than what that same house was going 
last year, and rents are clearly well over the 5.5 percent figure as 
well.
  But government, for whatever reason, does not use the cost of new 
construction. They use what they refer to as the rental value of your 
new house, which is a much lower number.
  I have a graph here showing the difference between the actual rent 
and the CPI rent, and you can see here, Madam Speaker, that there is 
about a 15 percent gap and that the actual rent has gone up about 15 
percent more than the so-called CPI number which has gone up as well. 
So that is one of the reasons why I think Americans feel that they are 
in worse shape than only an 8.6 inflation. That is true.
  I also want to point out that these numbers are only updated once 
every 6 months. That is one of the problems.
  Although another problem we have is when they talk about the cost of 
housing, which usually would mean buying a house. They do not take into 
account the cost of interest on a mortgage, for whatever reason. In the 
last year, interest rates have gone up again probably because of the 
inflation, the interest cost on a 30-year fixed mortgage has gone up 39 
percent--a 39 percent increase in interest payments on the house, 
assuming the cost of the house hasn't gone up at all.
  But is that in the equation?
  No. When we calculate inflation we do not take into account the 
massively higher interest rates that you have to pay now compared to 
the past.
  By the way, as we look at things like housing, I beg the press corps 
to do a little bit of research. Don't just report this 8.3 percent 
number. You have the ability to talk to the brokers, to talk to the 
grocers, and to talk to the car dealers and find out what an 
appropriate number is. Back in the good old days when reporters were a 
little bit harder working, they would have done their own research and 
found out what the real inflation rate is.
  Now, the next thing I am going to look at is used cars. On the 
official numbers they claim that used cars or the cost of having a used 
car has gone up about 16 percent. I have talked to a variety of car 
dealers from various different places in my diverse district. Everybody 
laughs at the idea that used cars have only gone up 16.1 percent. They 
all insist 30 percent on minimum. So here is another number that is 
thrown out to calculate that 8.6 number the government claims, and they 
are just way off on the cost of a new car.
  If you buy a new car, Madam Speaker, of course, interest rates are 
going up as well which further increases things.
  In any event, the point I am trying to make is that the amount of 
inflation is well over that 8.6 percent. It is certainly double digits 
over that when you talk about housing and double digits over that when 
you talk about used cars.
  Subjectively talking to people who do the grocery shopping for the 
family, they believe that when they go through the checkout their costs 
are up way more than a few percentage points and the 10 percentage 
points that the Federal Government claims food at home has gone up the 
last year.
  I beg the American people to demand action on inflation. I am trying 
to educate the American people that that action will inevitably have to 
mean undoing the out-of-control spending that took place around here in 
January or February. As we do it, we are going to have to reduce the 
amount of government. But I don't think we can go on with these housing 
prices and these car prices for the rest of our lives.
  Madam Speaker, we want to get back to the days in which a young 
couple had a chance of affording a house. We want to go back to the 
days when you can eat like Americans are used to eating, not where you 
have to deal with inferior foods just because you can't afford it 
anymore. We want to go back to the days in which you can buy the type 
of car that you would like to buy.
  So I encourage my colleagues this year, if possible, but if not then 
next year--maybe we are going to have to wait 3 years for some of 
this--we have got to get the spending back down where it was when you 
could live life in America like Americans are used to.
  I beg the other side, when it comes to passing the new budget and 
preparing for the appropriation bills that are going to pass for the 
calendar year beginning October 1, let's stop spending so much money.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Grothman for his remarks. As 
I have stated many times since I learned it when I first came up here, 
there are three really great things that come out of Wisconsin. One is 
Harley-Davidson, two is cheese, and the other is Glenn Grothman.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Now buy that cheese. Remember that June is Dairy Month.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Next, we have possibly the only rice farmer that I know 
in Congress and that I probably ever will know, and that is my good 
friend, Doug LaMalfa, from the great State of California's First 
District.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Tennessee 
with that very warm introduction and allusion to the fact that we do 
produce food in California when we are given the water that we already 
own to do so, but that is a little different supply chain discussion 
that we could be having tonight.

                              {time}  2015

  I want to focus this evening on the border situation that is 
unnecessarily wide open. It doesn't have to be this way. It is just 
inattention to enforcing the laws and doing the things you would 
normally do to maintain a border.
  We have millions of dollars' worth of steel fence material laying in 
piles down there next to the border that could be used to fill some 
obvious gaps that would make it so much easier for Customs and Border 
Patrol to do their jobs that they would like to do.
  Morale down there, of course, is really bad amongst our officers, 
just for inability to do their job effectively, and not being supported 
by this Federal Government and this administration.
  And also, the wild accusations that those that are mounted on 
horseback using their reins in order to move their horses about and 
steer them where they want to go, somehow they have been accused of 
using those as whips upon illegal immigrants coming across the border; 
all part of just a bunch of hype and misinformation put out by the 
administration, by the media, to make a narrative on the border that is 
completely false and vastly unproductive for the American people, as we 
see so much fentanyl coming across, so much illegal activity.
  And also, since the Biden administration took over, at least 50 
individuals that we know about on the terrorism watch list have been 
caught red-handed, trying to sneak across our border to do God knows 
what in cells inside this country.
  So you really do have to commend the Border Patrol, what they are 
able to get done on finding these 50, and

[[Page H5819]]

saving the countless lives they do, whether it is preventing terrorism, 
catching these drugs that are coming across and just, in general, at 
least trying to slow the tide coming in here illegally and affecting so 
much of our society.
  But we have to wonder with the nearly 3 million illegal border 
crossings in Biden's term, how many dangerous individuals did get away 
or sneaking through--the getaways are what we are talking a lot about 
these days because we have no way to put a number on that. They affect 
our whole society, our whole system of social programs, crime, 
everything else. They don't seem to be interested in this 
administration of getting a handle on that.
  They have taken away, of course, our demoralized border agents' 
resources to be able to keep the border as safe as it could be, cutting 
them back and giving them--reassigning their mission, repurposing is a 
common word around here. So instead of doing that job of enforcing the 
border, they are basically running a welcome wagon operation, 
transporting illegal immigrants to be processed and turned right into 
the country.
  Hopefully, they will show up within a couple of years for the massive 
backlog of court hearings they would have on their status, whether they 
actually deserve asylum or not, which isn't really the case. Probably 
80 or 90 percent of them are here for economic relief, economic 
opportunity in our great country.
  So what do we have? The Biden administration, having halted 
construction, and then some of the other methods with which we can 
somewhat control this tide at the border. They are working really hard 
at trying to roll back title 42, which is one of the best resources 
that the Border Patrol agents have to quickly expel those who are 
coming here illegally from certain countries.
  Their soft-on-crime policies have incentivized millions of illegals 
to continue to cross into our country, knowing that even if they are 
caught, they can just skip their court date to stay here because the 
backlog might be too long, or because the cell phone they got handed at 
the border they can't be reached at. That is supposed to be our way of 
keeping track of them, by handing them a cell phone.
  So, with a caravan of 15,000 waiting on title 42 to come across, we 
have got a giant problem that makes our core personnel at the border 
powerless to stop it.
  We have seen the pictures. I have been there myself on a trip to 
Yuma, and it is devastating. It is devastating for the morale of the 
people on the borders, the cities, the economies there, Border Patrol 
themselves.
  So instead of giving the border agents the tools they need, the FBI 
and Department of Homeland Security are making up fake, dangerous 
scenarios all over the country.
  Instead, the FBI is going after concerned parents at school board 
meetings speaking out over some of the filth that is being taught and 
put into our schools. They are trying to label them as domestic 
terrorists.
  Then they push legislation that would go after our servicemembers and 
law enforcement personnel for various things that they get accused of 
while doing their jobs, if they are not being defunded to begin with.
  So even though our data shows that servicemembers and law enforcement 
personnel are more likely to be a victim of terrorism, they are getting 
accused of being terrorists themselves.
  FBI and Department of Homeland Security must start focusing their 
efforts at the southern border instead of politicizing law enforcement 
officers and concerned parents at school board meetings.
  Everything is backwards with the way this administration is handling 
the issue at our border, energy, the food shortages that are pending 
because we are not prioritizing the basic building blocks that make a 
society strong, the economy strong, families strong, and America 
strong.
  We have got a lot of work to do to educate the public. Maybe it will 
take the midterm election to turn it around. I wish the people that 
were operating the government would put America first instead of some 
crazy agenda on the Green New Deal or globalism.
  So I appreciate the time here tonight. I thank my colleague from 
Tennessee for running this for us and allowing us to continue to speak 
out and put the truth out there in front of the American people.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from my home 
State, Tennessee (Mr. Rose).
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding tonight.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to address another devastating record set 
on President Biden's watch, this time along our southern border. 
Numbers released last week from U.S. Customs and Border Protection tell 
us there were more migrant encounters in May of this year than any 
month on record. May was also the fourth straight month of encounters 
reaching more than 200,000.
  Here are the numbers: 239,416 total encounters. That is up 32 percent 
from May of last year, and nearly 10 times the number of encounters 
during the same month in 2020. Twenty-five percent of migrants were 
repeat offenders, meaning they have been deported or arrested before. 
Agents also reported 20 percent more unaccompanied minors crossing the 
border compared to just April of this year.
  This continues to be a national security and humanitarian crisis, and 
it is only getting worse.
  And if you can believe it, the numbers could actually be much worse. 
Had it not been for a Federal judge delaying the Biden administration's 
plan to end title 42, who knows how many people would have crossed into 
our country illegally?
  Title 42 is a critical tool for our already overwhelmed Border Patrol 
agents. Yet, the Biden Justice Department continues to fight for the 
administration's dangerous, reckless, open border policies by appealing 
that judge's decision.
  Since President Biden took office, more than 700,000 people have 
avoided law enforcement and made their way into our country. We really 
don't know who these people are. Agents stopped at least 50 people on 
the terrorist screening database in just a 9-month period.
  This begs the questions: Out of those who evaded law enforcement, 
those 700,000, how many could potentially be on the terrorist watch 
list?
  Where are those people?
  What are their intentions?
  How will they impact the lives of American citizens?
  Republicans may sound like a broken record when it comes to the 
border, but we wouldn't have to talk about it so much if it were not 
for the broken policies of President Biden and his DHS Secretary 
Mayorkas. They simply must do better.
  Mr. BURCHETT. They definitely need to do better.
  Madam Speaker, if it wasn't for the great State of Tennessee there 
wouldn't be a great State of Texas. I yield to the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Babin), one of the great ones.
  Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for giving us this 
opportunity.
  We have heard a lot of hypocrisy from President Biden and the 
Democrats about oil and gas, about our fossil fuel industry.
  We have heard them say that they are going to ``end fossil fuels, 
period;'' that the oil and gas industry should no longer have the 
ability to even drill to explore; that the only way to save the coral 
reefs and the glaciers is to end fossil fuels, and that millions of 
people are dying every year because of fossil fuels.
  And even though my colleagues on the other side of the aisle weren't 
joking, it is hard not to laugh at this absurdity.
  Who is buying this baloney?
  Who is so blinded by the left and their climate change delusion that 
they can't see the hypocrisy in all of this?
  If the Democrats got their way, if they really did shutdown the 
fossil fuel industry, do they actually understand the real-life 
ramifications of that drastic action?
  What do you think the Democrats think fuels our construction 
equipment, our trucks, our buses, tractors, boats, and trains?
  How would they spend their recent trillion-dollar infrastructure 
package without diesel fuel?
  If Joe Biden keeps his promise to end fossil fuels, life will 
certainly become

[[Page H5820]]

awfully challenging for many of us in the 21st century since laptops, 
tablets, and credit cards, will no longer be available.
  Imagine how Joe Biden's constituents would have felt in 2012 after 
Hurricane Sandy raged up through Delaware if they couldn't have gotten 
their hands on gasoline-powered electric generators?
  Yes, my friends, those generators provided power, thanks to none 
other than fossil fuels and their industry.
  And as if the baby formula shortage isn't bad enough already, let's 
take away their pacifiers too, yet another product of fossil fuels.
  The hypocrisy is astounding. Honestly, Joe Biden should be thanking 
the fossil fuel industry for protecting him. Thanks to his helmet, 
brought to us by fossil fuels, he was shielded from his fall off that 
bicycle last week; not to mention the petroleum-made asphalt that 
padded his fall and, frankly, even the bicycle itself.

  And while this administration tells suffering Americans to just 
simply buy Teslas and other electric vehicles, they are conveniently 
failing to mention that fossil fuels make brake fluid, turn signals, 
tires. And, in fact, they supply the very power that charges our 
electric vehicles.
  Everything from pens to dog toys, sunglasses to the soles of our 
shoes, we still very much need the oil and gas industry. We are 
dependent on it, folks.
  But if my Democrat colleagues would like to ban leather briefcases 
and patio furniture, candles, headsets, and cell phones in the name of 
climate change, then good luck. You will only further cripple our 
economy and destroy many everyday necessities that you seem to take for 
granted.
  Oh, don't forget that petrochemicals also are used to make 
painkillers, antihistamines, antibiotics, antibacterials, cough syrups, 
creams, and ointments. They are also used in heart valves and other 
critical lifesaving medical equipment like radiological dyes and films, 
intravenous tubing, syringes and oxygen masks.
  I would recommend my Democrat colleagues do a little more homework 
before they foolishly make enemies of an industry that is involved in 
literally every single aspect of our lives.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I was always amazed in my hometown, as a 
young man, I would watch people protesting out in front of a fur shop, 
and they had leather-soled shoes on. I always wondered if those cows 
died of natural causes.
  Madam Speaker, next we have the man from a little town down in 
Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, home of the greatest rock and roll band 
of all time, Lynyrd Skynyrd. There is no other. I appreciate Mr.   John 
Rutherford being here with us today, former sheriff, all around good 
guy.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Rutherford).

                              {time}  2030

  Mr. RUTHERFORD. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend from Tennessee 
for this opportunity.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the historic inflation and 
soaring gas prices that are hurting American families all across 
America.
  You know, as my good friend from Wisconsin was saying earlier, he 
talked about the 8.6 percent inflation rate and how that doesn't seem 
to jive with the American public. It just doesn't seem like it could 
possibly be 8.6 percent.
  My good friend talked about the inflation rate in the building 
industry. We are just going to talk a little bit about gas, for 
example, 106.7 percent; butter, margarine, 20.2 percent up; milk, up 
15.9 percent; pork up 13.3 percent.
  How in the world can the official inflation rate actually be 8.6 
percent? It doesn't make sense, Mr. Burchett. It doesn't make sense, 
and every American out there knows it.
  I am here to tell you that the sky-high prices that we see at stores 
and at the pump are, in large part, thanks to Democrats' planned 
policies to force the U.S. off of fossil fuels.
  On President Biden's first day in office, he ended the XL Pipeline, 
the Keystone XL Pipeline, suspended drilling permits, and froze oil and 
gas leases on public lands. The Biden administration successfully 
brought domestic energy production to a halt.
  Just 19 months ago, if you can remember, America was energy 
independent: $2.30-odd cents a gallon. Since then, we have seen gas 
more than double in price.
  Now, with the volatility in international oil markets caused by 
Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, it is past time for the United 
States to bolster again our energy independence.
  Yet, instead of turning to our domestic suppliers of oil and gas, the 
Biden administration has turned to corrupt regimes like Venezuela, or 
they have gone to Saudi Arabia, or they are going.
  Americans across the country are struggling to fuel their cars and 
power their homes and businesses. Recent reports show that the average 
household is going to spend $5,000 more on gas this year.
  That is $5,000 that won't go into rising grocery bills and other 
costs of living increases, and we will call it 8.6 percent inflation, 
but we know it is more.
  The only way to alleviate the pressure Americans feel at the gas pump 
is to refocus our efforts on rebuilding America's energy independence.
  That is why I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 6858, the American Energy 
Independence from Russia Act. This bill would restart the Keystone XL 
pipeline, expand natural gas exports to our allies abroad, and restart 
oil and gas production right here in the United States.
  Passing this bill is a crucial step in both reducing the price of gas 
and strengthening our economy. It is time for the Biden administration 
to take responsibility for this crisis, rein in spending, and take 
action to increase Americans' energy independence.
  This incredible transition, as the President called it, has destroyed 
the very economy that had the potential to create the capital that was 
necessary and will be necessary, the capital that we could use to 
transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in a smooth and 
seamless process.
  That would have given us the capital for the conservation, the 
innovation, the adaptability, but all of that is gone.
  I ask the President to return us to American energy independence and 
let loose America's industrial might.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Rutherford, I appreciate you. I appreciate Jacksonville, Florida, 
and the influence it has had on this country and your influence on us 
and your service as a sheriff and a man of law and order and a man of 
conviction. I appreciate that.
  One thing you talked about was taking responsibility. This 
administration has refused to take responsibility. Although when 
President Biden was debating Bernie Sanders when he was running for 
office, he did not say anything worthwhile, I thought. He didn't say 
anything like give me liberty or give me death or anything like that, 
but he did say that he was going to raise gas prices, and he said he 
was going to do that and put the oil industry out of business and get 
people on electric cars.
  Well, he is halfway there. He has just about put the oil industry out 
because of the rising prices and the way it is controllable. He refuses 
to take the responsibility for that.
  Now we are overseas doing business, trying to do business with folks 
that we have not really been on friendly terms with, for good reason, 
their involvement in September 11 and other things.
  Yet, we still are back over with our hands out to the members of 
OPEC. That is very unfortunate.
  Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to my good friend, Madison Cawthorn, 
the pride of the Carolinas.
  Thank you, sir.
  Mr. CAWTHORN. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend.
  I believe that you should one day be Governor of the great State of 
Tennessee, my friend, in your Carhartt jacket. That would be great.
  Madam Speaker, our founders were clear. The Second Amendment was 
designed as the backbone upon which individual rights and liberties 
could be secured.
  Efforts by the ruling class in our government are aimed at crippling 
this Nation and corroding our Republic.
  It is true, red flag laws sound benign on paper. Flagging dangerous 
individuals and keeping them from weaponry

[[Page H5821]]

seems like a cut-and-dry issue; but a cursory glance at the actions of 
our overreaching Federal Government clearly show that these laws are 
ripe for Federal abuse of your rights and mine.
  Make no mistake, red flag laws will be used to flag those who vote 
for freedom, strip them of their right to self-defense, and empower 
faceless bureaucrats to dole out or to not dole out the right of self-
defense to a downtrodden and oppressed class of citizens.

  They will be weaponized to demonize and destroy political dissidents 
in this country. If you vote against the regime, you may be stripped of 
your rights. If you refuse the medical decisions pushed by POTUS and 
the regime, you may be stripped of your rights.
  If you raise your children to adhere to Proverbs and push-ups instead 
of POTUS, you may be stripped of your rights.
  To the American people, I say this: It is not a right if you have to 
ask permission to exercise it. We are very near this government 
becoming the exact reason our founders designed the Constitution to 
hold back a tyrannical government.
  The Second Amendment was not designed to hunt deer, but to defend 
against liberty and invasion.
  Again, red flag laws sound benign. We all want to keep weapons out of 
the hands of dangerous people, but remember that this government, the 
CDC, has labeled you a national security problem for protecting your 
health.
  The FBI, last September, has called your mothers and wives domestic 
terrorists for protecting your children. Now, just days ago, a 
committee here on Capitol Hill has labeled half the country as coup 
sympathetic.
  The same faceless fact-checkers who sensor your speech will seize 
your sovereignty. And trust me, they won't come to your front door with 
a clipboard and a smile.
  These liberal lackeys will show up before dawn and invade your home, 
seize your property, and smash any concept of individual liberty you 
may possess. Remember the actions the ruling elite took against those 
at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
  We must wake up. We cannot trust this government. We must not give 
them more legal avenues to turn their national security apparatus 
against those who they swore to defend.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Thank you, Mr. Cawthorn.
  Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure being here with you all. I know my 
wife is watching this and probably wants to get to the Mexican 
restaurant right now, and so I will cut this really short, Madam 
Speaker.
  Thank you for your indulgence tonight. It has been a real pleasure.
  I say thank you to the leadership for whoever canceled out at the 
last minute and allowed me to be up here and do this. It has been very 
enjoyable. It is the first in my life and maybe a last. I thank all the 
young folks back there who work very hard to make our lives a lot 
easier.
  Madam Speaker, I would go on a tirade right now, but I believe I will 
just let it go. You probably want to go home after a long day as well, 
so you can just say you owe me one.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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