[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 20, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H6913-H6916]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1615
THEY BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Roy) for 30 minutes.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time here on the floor.
I appreciate, as I said a minute ago, my friend from Louisiana,
Representative Johnson, for his steadfast defense of the Constitution
of the United States; his willingness to stand up for all the important
values, from life to marriage; but importantly being a voice for this
body, for the Republican Conference, and where we want to take this
country; what we know the American people want us to do; and to stand
athwart the absolutely absurd policies of a Democrat majority that
doesn't give a whit about the people that they are rolling over in a
quest to placate their radical leftist policies, whether it is energy
or open borders, and I appreciate the gentleman from Louisiana and his
efforts.
I am here to talk about my Democratic colleagues and the extent to
which the American people need to understand: They break it, you buy
it. And that is the reality of what is happening.
My Democratic colleagues are breaking--breaking this country,
breaking up your families, breaking up our secure border, breaking up
our military, breaking up our court system, the rule of law, breaking
up our police, our law enforcement community.
They are breaking up our economy, breaking the strength of the
American dollar. They are breaking our position in the world, and they
are breaking this body, the people's House. And it is high time it
stopped.
And we can only hope that in November we get a change so that we can
stop it. And then my message to my Republican colleagues will be: We
better stop it because what is happening in the so-called people's
House cannot be tolerated any longer.
They break it. This body, the leadership of this country, they break
it. You buy it.
In reverse, I would say, America is great. Washington is broken. They
are breaking it every day and, as a result, they are breaking this
great country that our forefathers fought so hard to give to us and to
our children and our grandchildren.
You cannot defend the policies of the Democratic majority. It is
impossible to do. And in fact, if you set out to harm the United States
of America, I would defy someone to demonstrate to me how you could do
better than my Democratic colleagues are doing on a daily basis,
ripping apart the Constitution, ripping apart the shreds of the flag,
ripping apart the people of this country.
Dividing us. Dividing us by race, dividing us by income, dividing us
by our adherence to the Constitution or devotion to the border and
devotion to the rule of law.
That is what is happening on a daily basis, and it is purposeful.
Let's be perfectly clear that it is purposeful.
The reason my Democratic colleagues focus so intently on January 6 is
they want to divide us. The reason they want to have race-based
policies throughout our government is they want to divide us.
The reason they want to make the border be supposedly about not
liking Brown people is because they want to divide us. Never mind that
south Texas is full of Brown people who are sick of wide-open borders
empowering cartels.
That is the reality of what is going on in this Chamber, and in the
Senate, and at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Just focus on the border for a minute: Broken, wide open, abused by
cartels, exploited by terrorists, exploited by gang members, criminals
coming into our country, killing American citizens. Fentanyl pouring
into our communities, 107,000 dead Americans. 850,000 known got-aways
pouring in between the ports of entry because our Border Patrol is
overwhelmed, with not only no support from this administration, but the
purposeful attack by the Secretary of Homeland Security lying about the
good men and women of Border Patrol, saying that they whipped people
that they didn't, and then hiding behind some report, while they give
them administrative punishment.
That is your leadership, ladies and gentlemen. They are breaking it
and you have to buy it.
They are leaving our border wide open, and American citizens are
dying. Let me repeat that. They are leaving our border wide open,
broken, and American people are dying, thousands upon thousands of
Americans dying from fentanyl pouring into our communities, pushed by
China, exploited by cartels, left to be able to come into our country
because Democrats do not care about securing the border.
And more importantly, my Democratic colleagues are perfectly fine
purposely leaving our border wide open. It is purposeful. It is
purposeful.
They are breaking it and you are going to have to buy it.
[[Page H6914]]
How about our defense?
Our Defense Department is being broken on a daily basis by my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle and in the other Chamber, and
particularly, this administration, shoving into the Department of
Defense a radical, woke ideology, radical, woke programs, policies
focused on diversity, and equity, and inclusion, all of the things that
they cloak with critical race theory to destroy and break apart the
institution of our defense. It is purposeful.
Vaccine mandates, forcing 60,000 guardsmen to be on the chopping
block to lose their entire career. It is purposeful. They are breaking
it.
They are breaking that military you love. They are breaking that
Department of Defense that needs to be there on that wall defending us.
They are breaking it.
They are breaking it by tucking tail and running out of Afghanistan
with $85 billion of equipment there and 12 or 13 dead servicemembers
and no accountability. No accountability for the brass at the Pentagon
and no accountability so far at the White House for tucking tail and
running.
They are breaking our Defense Department.
You talk to the servicemembers who were in my office, coming in in
tears because they are about to lose their entire career because they
choose not to take a politicized vaccine.
Oh, by the way, by another broken governmental agency, or agencies,
our whole public health system being radicalized by my colleagues on
the other side of aisle to strike fear in the hearts of the American
people, to watch them push aside and brush under the rug gain-of-
function research and all that we see unfolding in China in the Wuhan
Institute of Virology, all that we know about the funding, American
funding that was tied to that.
All that we know about the absurdity of locking down schools,
shutting down our schools so our kids are stuck in masks, stuck in the
corner and not able to go to school, the damage it has done to our
kids, the mental health issues, destroying the education of our young,
all chasing the teachers' unions.
We have seen the mandatory--or efforts at mandatory vaccines--
thankfully, partially struck aside, but many still in place, breaking
the back of the people's trust in their public health, breaking the
back of the people's ability to serve in the military and defend this
country, breaking the back of people being able to be Federal public
servants working for Border Patrol or other Federal agencies.
Why?
Because of fealty to Anthony Fauci, being the great wizard of public
health while he poses for magazine covers and throws out pitches at
baseball games.
Meanwhile, your defense is broken. Your public health is broken, and
you are going to have to buy it.
How about crime on the streets of the United States of America?
How about the 12 Democrat-run cities that have called for defunding
their police and have seen skyrocketing crime enveloping the cities?
The businessowner I spoke to today in Baltimore who says he is going
to have to shut down his franchise because of rampant crime in
Baltimore.
Austin, Texas, which cut its police by a third and has seen homicides
skyrocket from 59 to 89, has seen 911 calls unanswered, drug
trafficking increasing. Taking police off the streets in Austin, Texas.
We have seen 50 of the biggest urban areas see a 5 percent decrease
in their police budgets, while my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle say they are doing no such thing.
But my friend, Mr. Johnson, rattled off quote after quote after quote
in the House Judiciary Committee of my colleagues on the other side of
the aisle calling for defunding of the police. Of course, it is an
attack on our police. They are breaking our Police Department, breaking
the backs of our men and women in blue and leaving our streets exposed
to lawlessness and danger, and it is purposeful.
How about energy?
Could you take a more ridiculous position than to take the strength
of national security, of having abundant oil and gas, the ability to
lead on nuclear, and, instead, chase unicorn energy policies of nothing
but solar and wind so that on a cloudless, windless day--or cloudy,
windless day, you sit back and watch your energy plummet and your grid
weaken.
What kind of a country's leadership does that to its people?
I would say the kind that want to break it. I would say the kind that
want to chase the fairy tales and the unicorn energy policies that this
administration wants to pursue.
We could have nuclear power. It doesn't create any carbon dioxide. Do
my colleagues on the other side of aisle want to do that?
No. Because this is about fear. This is about breaking American
energy. This is about breaking the back of it, so you can get on your
private plane and fly to Davos and fit in with the Western Europeans
and how great they are, while they are now burning wood to heat their
homes.
We have the greatest national security asset you could possibly
imagine, which was full and complete energy independence, and we are
completely flushing it down the toilet, to break it and to break it
purposely. And we don't have to do it.
We have abundant energy, abundant, clean-burning natural gas that we
could export to other countries, as we were doing, driving down carbon
dioxide.
We could be producing nuclear facilities all across this country with
zero CO2 production. But we are not.
Instead, we are chasing--literally, we are tilting at windmills,
dotting the landscape with windmills.
A couple of weeks ago in Texas, we had 8 percent of the wind capacity
available in our grid. Absolutely astounding what we are doing to the
energy of the United States of America.
Inflation. I mean, I can't even get all this in, the absurd policies
of Democrats.
I have already covered border, could go further.
Already talked about defense; could go further.
Didn't even get into Ukraine and the lack of briefings and the $56
billion we just dumped into Ukraine, with zero indication of a strategy
of what we are actually going to do, while we expand NATO, with zero
indication about how that is going to impact Article 5, and an 800-mile
border and whether NATO's going to upend its end of the bargain when we
fund the vast majority of NATO. I didn't even talk about that part of
defense.
I didn't talk about crime. I mean, I talked about crime, but I didn't
get into every aspect of it.
I didn't get into every aspect of energy.
Now I am talking about inflation. The wisdom of this administration
coming in and dumping $1.9 trillion--I don't even remember what the
name of that ridiculous bill was, but it was garbage. And it is now
driving up the cost of goods and services for you, the American people.
They are breaking it. They are breaking your jobs. They are breaking
your income. They are breaking your ability to buy goods and services
and you are, literally, going to have to buy it, and you are going to
have to pay a lot for it, because they are spending money we don't
have.
They are printing money, throwing it out in the economy, driving up
the prices of goods, while they are, simultaneously, restricting the
ability for us to develop energy, to have abundant energy that you can
afford.
You like $4.50 gasoline? Well, guess what? Your Democratic leadership
just defended that as being great. In a Rules Committee debate this
week, when I sat in that room debating the rules, literally, the
Democratic Rules Committee was talking about how great it is that the
price of oil has come down.
They were talking about the price of copper going down. Well, I have
spent a lot of money on copper to wire my home. It is expensive as
heck. It is now locked up in cages. But do you know what the price of
copper going down means? Heading into a recession. That is the reality
of what we are facing. That is the truth.
Our economy is getting ripped to shreds, the price of goods and
services are going up. And it is purposeful. Spending money we don't
have.
How can you justify spending $2 trillion, printing that money, and
dumping it out there to drive up the price of goods and services, while
cutting off the production of oil and gas, not developing nuclear,
increasing the price
[[Page H6915]]
of gasoline, increasing the price of energy in your homes?
It could only be purposeful. They are breaking it. They want to break
it so they can live in unicorn land.
But you are going to have to buy it, and it is going to be expensive.
How about the state of the rule of law?
How about the state of the family?
How about the state of marriage?
Just yesterday, on this floor--just yesterday, on this floor, we
passed a law to force recognition by one State of another State's
marriage, but by thereby doing that, for the first time, I think this
body, certainly Members on this side, supporting the redefinition of
marriage, which was manufactured by the 2015 Supreme Court decision,
manufactured and forced upon the States, a redefinition of marriage.
Now you see the wailing and gnashing of teeth because this court
dared to say that Roe v. Wade was bad law, and that we should defer to
the States in the protection of life and the recognition that that is
the appropriate law under the Constitution.
{time} 1630
Lastly, I would point out when we are talking about breaking it, this
body is the best example of my Democratic colleagues not giving a whit
about you, the people, rolling over and destroying the people's House,
destroying this institution.
I have not been able to offer an amendment on the floor of this body.
Can't do it. Got to go to Rules. Beg for crumbs.
They drive through so-called suspension of the rules bills. We get
them often hours before, at most, a day or two before they are on the
floor being asked to be voice voted. If we don't have a group of us on
the floor monitoring those bills, they will go through without a vote.
They don't care because voting doesn't matter, as evidenced by proxy
voting, forcing a new rule that says you can turn your voting card that
you, the voters, gave to representatives and give that to another
member of Congress, upending the constitutional order which requires
presence, a quorum, physical presence, debate.
That is what the Constitution contemplates, and it is my Democratic
colleagues who, for the first time in history, upended our requirement
that we be present in the body of the House of Representatives to do
our job. Blowing apart--blowing apart--this people's House.
I will note, as I often do, that I am not saying that everybody on
this side of the aisle has clean hands on all of these points. A lot of
Republicans are taking advantage of the proxy voting that my Democratic
colleagues created for the first time in history. They should not.
I will say that to every member. I don't care if they are Freedom
Caucus leadership or anybody in between. I will not back away from
saying proxy voting is not only unconstitutional, it is wrong, and it
is destroying this body.
Forced magnetometers in this false name of security. Masks being
forced upon members of Congress on the floor of the House, which have
now been brushed aside because I guess Anthony Fauci or somebody
decreed that somehow, it is now safe to walk around without masks until
they say it is not safe.
I yield to my friend from Virginia here in one second. I just want to
say in conclusion to this part, and then I want to engage with my
friend.
My Democratic colleagues, unfortunately with a little bit of help
from a few of my Republican colleagues on occasion, are breaking this
country. They are breaking this body. They are breaking our
Constitution, and it is purposeful.
There are no other words to say what is happening at our border but
that it is purposeful. There are no other words to say about what is
happening on our streets with our law enforcement but that it is
purposeful.
There is no other thing you can say about our energy policies but
that it is purposeful. There is nothing you can say about the spending
and the inflation but that it is purposeful.
The attack on the institution of marriage, the breakdown of the
family, the targeting and the policies against life, that it is
purposeful.
The fact that we are destroying this body with proxy voting, that it
is purposeful. The fact that we are destroying the Defense Department
and the very core values of our men and women in the military with
their woke policies, with their vax mandates, irrespective of what that
does to defense, driving our recruiting down to unforeseen levels, but
that it is purposeful, and it is wrong.
I would just challenge my Republican colleagues that we better come
in, if the American people give us power in November, and do the right
thing to protect this country and to stop breaking it because the
American people are having to buy it.
I yield to my friend from Virginia (Mr. Good).
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding
time.
Mr. Speaker, I had a constituent say to me from Bedford County, just
outside of Lynchburg where I live, nothing this President and this
majority in Congress is doing makes sense unless they hate the country.
Nothing they are doing makes sense unless they hate the country.
What would you do differently over the last year and a half if it was
your purpose, your desire, your intention to ruin the country?
Maybe you would undermine police. Maybe you would reduce funding for
police. Maybe you would stop arresting violent criminals. Maybe you
would stop prosecuting violent crimes. Maybe you would allow violent
criminals to have no cash bail. Maybe we would release violent
criminals from our prisons.
You know what? All of those things are happening, and the Democrats
seem surprised that crime has gone up across the country. Violent crime
is up some 30 percent in the last year across the country.
American cities, unrecognizable. People don't want to go there
anymore because of these policies. Maybe the American people don't want
4 million illegal aliens coming into the interior of their country in
the past year and a half.
Maybe we have a shortage of funding to take care of Americans, to do
the things that we would like to do, to take care of our veterans, to
take care of those most in need, to help our farmers, to help hard-
working Americans, to maybe give them a little bit of their resources
back, to reduce the regulations and the oppression upon them.
Maybe we don't need to bring in 4 million illegal aliens in a year
and a half, 10,000 a day now, the average is, give them free social
services, free healthcare, free education, free travel, with no
requirement to even appear in court. Maybe the American people want
their border secured.
Maybe the American people don't want massive inflation, 40-year
record inflation, caused primarily by the massive spending, the
reckless spending, and the energy policies.
Think about where we might be if this Democrat majority had gotten
their $6 trillion build back bankrupt bill through Congress. $20,000
per American citizen. They like to say sometimes, oh, some of this
stuff is popular. It polls well. People want this.
$6 trillion is what they have tried to spend, and they are still
trying to backdoor it in over these remaining months that they may have
power.
How would it poll, do you think, if we said, American citizen, do you
want this so-called benefit, this so-called perk, what have you, but
your share of the cost is $20,000. So a family of three, your share is
$60,000. How many would vote for these policies?
Not to mention what they are doing on energy by design, on purpose,
the dishonest attack on the fossil fuel industry, the dishonest
narrative that we are not the cleanest, large energy producers in the
world; the damage that has been done to the economy; the damage that
has been done to the way that American people live their lives.
What are they doing? They are bragging about the pain that they are
causing. The more pain, the better, they are saying. That is what the
President has said. Hey, we are halfway through a transition. If we
could just get through to the other side, it is going to be so much
better, you know.
As you said in candy land and unicorn land, we are going to have all
these jobs and all this prosperity because we went through all this
pain.
[[Page H6916]]
But the fact is, the fossil fuel industry has been used to bring more
prosperity to third world countries than any other development in
industrial history.
This assault on our freedoms, our economic freedoms, our healthcare
freedoms, as you mentioned, whether it is the mask, whether it is the
vaccines, our individual freedoms with the Second Amendment assault.
This body is going to try to pass two more bills to take away and
restrict Second Amendment rights. That is going to happen in this
House, we are told. The continued assault on the Second Amendment
right.
You know, I have right here--I don't do this very often, but I have
some quotes from the Founders as it relates to the Second Amendment
right.
As I was looking for quotes, you know, I couldn't find anything that
talked about that people could keep and bear arms so they could target
practice; that people could keep and bear arms so they could hunt; that
people could keep and bear arms for sporting purposes.
These quotes that I have here from the Founders explaining why they
wrote into the Constitution the Second Amendment as they did was to
ensure we remain free.
Freedom has a cost. Most of the world does not live free to the
extent that we still live free, as you often enunciate.
Whether the majority of this Congress likes it or not, we have a
Constitution. I happen to like it. I know you do as well. The framers,
in their wisdom, made it possible to change the Constitution, but they
made it difficult by design.
They said, hey, if you want to change the Constitution, you have got
to have super majorities of both Houses. You have got to have super
majorities of the State legislatures in order to bring transformational
change to the country and amend the Constitution.
But, instead, they want to undermine the Constitution, undermine our
freedoms, and attack the rights guaranteed to Americans in our
Constitution.
Mr. ROY. I ask of the Chair how much time we have remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 5 minutes remaining.
Mr. ROY. I would just add to my friend from Virginia a great quote
from Thomas Jefferson--because he knows I went to the University of
Virginia.
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to
keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect
themselves against tyranny in government.
That is the purpose of the Second Amendment, and that is what we
know.
I would note that in this context, and I will yield another couple
minutes to the gentleman if he wants it, when we are talking about the
response from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they break
our border purposefully, and then they want us to fix it with amnesty
or with some policies to say that Texas has to just accept.
I hear that the mayor of New York is all aghast that people are being
dropped off in New York. He said, we need Federal Government help to
deal with it. I am, like, welcome to the party, pal. This is what life
is like in south Texas every single day.
They break it. They break the border, and then they want you, the
American people, to have to carry the water.
They break the Defense Department, drive recruiting down to 40
percent, and then they put in language to draft our daughters, all in
the name of so-called equity and equality.
They break our criminal justice system. They break the backs of our
law enforcement community. Then they say, we are going to take your
guns, your ability to defend yourself.
They break the energy system in our country. Then they say, just go
buy a Tesla. What is wrong with you?
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. 70,000 bucks. Go ahead.
Mr. ROY. What is wrong with you? Go buy a Tesla. You can plug in. You
can drive through west Texas, 300 miles. Don't worry about it. Stop off
in Eden, Texas, where, no doubt, they have a charging station and spend
$70,000 for the pleasure.
They break the back of the economy, drive up in inflation, and they
say, suck it up, buttercup. Go buy yourself some expensive chicken and
rice.
They break the back of this body, this institution, and they ignore
their colleagues when their colleagues are saying the chickens are
going to come home to roost.
That is the reality of what we are dealing with: A purposeful
breaking the back of this country and a tearing apart of the threads
that hold us together.
I am going to just say it here on the floor. If we don't start
respecting Federalism, the ability to agree to disagree, then this
country is doomed. It will break apart under its own weight, and it
will be my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that amassed the
weight that will break the bow.
That is where we are headed if we don't start respecting the ability
of individuals in this country to agree to disagree, allow Texans to be
Texans, allow Californians to be Californians.
Unite under the flag of the United States under our core principles
but stop shredding our ability to disagree. Stop breaking this country
and forcing the American people to buy it.
I yield the balance of the time to my friend Virginia (Mr. Good).
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Well said by the gentleman from Texas.
Their solution, this President's solution, this majority's solution
to the economic wreckage they have created is to spend more money.
You just ask yourself. You're baffled. Is it malicious intent, and
they recognize the harm that they are doing; and how they are causing
the harm; and they are doing it by design; and they are doing it on
purpose; or are they that economically illiterate, and they really are
clueless and have no idea what they are doing?
Because we have record inflation, 40-year high inflation of 9
percent, which essentially means every American is working for 1 month
free this year. One month out of the year they are essentially not
getting paid with the loss of purchasing power they have experienced
because of the inflation.
So what is their answer to that? Well, if we could just spend more
money, if we could just get more of our agenda passed and spend
trillions of dollars more, then that will help the problem rather than
make it worse.
It is like the person who says, hey, I am trying to lose weight and
then they would say, well, the solution is to eat more. That is the
solution that they propose, to do more harm, and you just wonder, is it
just that illiterate, that ignorant, or is it willful and devious and
malicious?
Mr. ROY. I thank the gentleman from Virginia. I think our time has
expired. I appreciate the speaker and the staff here tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
____________________