[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 53 (Thursday, March 23, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1335-H1336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ADVOCATING FOR FREE AND COMPETITIVE MARKETS

  (Mr. CASTEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask for a quick show of hands: How many of 
us in this room have ever had someone

[[Page H1336]]

come into our office and ask to make the world safer for their 
competitors? Me neither.
  The Record will show that no hands were raised.
  This is because there is no lonelier position in Washington than 
being an advocate for free and competitive markets.
  Competition is hard. Free markets are scary. That is why when markets 
allocated capital to clean energy, cheaper energy, and it displaced 
fossil fuel energy and $20 trillion flowed into ESG funds, the losers 
came to Washington and got the majority of the people in this body, the 
majority of people in this House to block that free flow of capital.
  I thank the minority of my colleagues, and President Biden, who 
blocked that from happening, who stood up for markets in spite of how 
hard it was.
  To my Republican colleagues who are being pressed by their donors and 
their colleagues, in William F. Buckley's words: ``Stand athwart 
history yelling, stop.''
  I sympathize. It is hard and it is scary to support progress. It is 
hard and it is scary to support markets. I hope that you will do what 
is right in spite of that pressure.
  There is no pride in only doing the right thing when it is easy, but 
history will smile on the brave.

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