[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 25 (Thursday, February 6, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1115
    OUR GOVERNMENT MUST MAKE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE POSSIBLE FOR OUR 
                                CITIZENS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Khanna) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, 88 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt 
stood before the American people in Philadelphia and warned of an 
economic aristocracy that sought to dominate not just our markets but 
our democracy.
  He spoke of those who amassed great wealth and then used that wealth 
to shape the laws of our Nation to serve their own worldview rather 
than the public good. He pledged that the government must serve the 
people, not the privileged few.
  That same challenge exists today, but now it is billionaires 
themselves taking over our government. They bankroll the campaigns, 
install their loyalists, and want to control government so they can 
make the rules.
  They push for deep cuts to public education, including eliminating 
funding for decent schools in working-class neighborhoods to fund 
massive tax breaks for the investor class that we cannot afford.
  They fight to deregulate social media platforms to grow the market 
value of companies in my district just as the railroad barons of the 
past fought against every piece of regulation to protect their profits.
  They move fast and break things, treating our government like their 
own personal experiment, blind to the millions of Americans who rely on 
its services.
  Why? Because they believe they are entitled to rule. They see 
themselves as an aristocracy of talent, a select few whose wealth and 
success make them the rightful decisionmakers for the rest of us.
  In their eyes, business entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers, and tech 
tycoons are the engines of America's prosperity, while working families 
are expected to accept whatever scraps trickle down.
  They believe that democracy should cater to their vision, their 
profits, and their power no matter what the cost to society. They even 
refuse to accept what separates human beings from God: mortality 
itself.
  We must ask ourselves: Will we allow a handful of powerful interests 
to dictate the future of our economy, our jobs, and our democracy, or 
will we reclaim the promise of an America where anyone who works hard 
can thrive?
  That is our task in this generation: to rebuild an economy that works 
for the many, not just for the mighty; to invest in American 
production, empower workers to share in the wealth they create, and 
ensure that people, not financial power, determine our Nation's course.
  It is up to us to make good on the radical American belief that our 
genius lies in ordinary Americans, defying a world history in which 
national glory belonged only to kings, oligarchs, or politburos.
  America's distinguishing excellence, unlike Russia or China, is our 
belief in the boundless potential of every citizen.
  Today, our government must stand up against the impersonal economic 
forces that have snatched away livelihoods from those working in 
factory towns and concentrated wealth into a few cities.
  Our government must make economic independence possible for citizens 
so they can assert control over their destiny.
  Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood up to the economic royalists 
of his time, we must stand up today to the unholy alliance of wealth 
and power not out of resentment but out of resolve, not to punish 
wealth but to ensure that prosperity is built by and for the people who 
make this country run.
  Mr. Speaker, that is our mission. This is our moment. Let us make 
sure that together we meet it and believe in the American people again.

                          ____________________