[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2622-2628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TECHNOLOGY AND FREEDOM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to discuss technology 
and freedom. Unfortunately, we Americans can no longer rest assured 
that our freedom is secure and that the genius and creativity of our 
people will bring forth the innovation that in the past has enabled us 
to deter or defeat our enemies and has given us the ability as a people 
to overcome economic adversity and has provided the means to elevate 
the standard of living and general well-being of the American people as 
a whole.
  America's greatness has been measured not by the wealth and power of 
our elites, as in other countries, but by the unbounding opportunity 
that has permitted all our citizens to live a decent, prosperous life. 
Now we see a great threat to that promise which until now has been 
taken for granted by generations of Americans. Unless we change our 
course, our children will not have the opportunity to live freer and 
better lives than what we have enjoyed. They in fact may be condemned 
to a dismal existence of national decline and personal deprivation.
  This, unless we have the wisdom to understand what needs to be done, 
unless we have the responsibility to commit ourselves to getting that 
arduous job done, unless we have the character to accept the temporary 
self-sacrifice needed for long-term progress and the courage to take on 
powerful interests who profit from current policies.
  Ronald Reagan used to say, and I quote, ``The phrase status quo is 
Latin for the mess we're in.'' Even the rest of us, the American 
people, suffer hurtful blows to our economic well-being. But of course 
that is most of the American people are suffering these blows. But 
there are those who enjoy great benefits from the current policies that 
are having such a negative impact on the rest of their fellow 
Americans. Our country and our people cannot much longer endure the 
current assault on our livelihood and personal financial stability. 
Yes, we will survive, individually and as a people. But Americans 
deserve more than survival.

[[Page 2623]]

  Ours should be the freedom and prosperity, paid for by the blood and 
labor of those brave souls, those patriots, who over our Nation's 234 
years stepped up and met the challenges every time to the dream of 
1776, the dream that was threatened quite often in our country's 
history from within and from without. But now, of course, it is up to 
us, the United States. That is us. It is us versus them, the patriots 
versus the establishment clique, or perhaps best described as the 
globalists.
  In the last year, we have watched in horror as hundreds of billions 
of our people's dollars have been channeled to a clique of Wall Street 
and financial market elites, many of whom put their companies at risk 
with irresponsible business decisions and then rewarded themselves with 
huge bonuses. Humble individuals would step forward to give back 
bonuses in such situations. No, not this crew. They didn't learn that 
at their Ivy League schools. Not one has expressed remorse nor 
gratitude, much less expressed a willingness to pay back the personal 
gains, huge personal gains made while driving their companies' 
solvencies into the dirt.
  All of these bailouts, stimuluses, and giveaways have done nothing 
but put our country in further jeopardy. The Federal Government is now 
spending over $1.5 trillion more than it is taking in. We are now 
facing a mammoth liability that should never have been ours in the 
first place. We are at risk, and it is not a result of a natural 
calamity or an uncontrollable business cycle. It instead is based and 
has come to us because of bad policies and bad decisions. It is a 
crisis we must confront and we must deal with or it will destroy the 
America we have known and loved.
  Yes, we are facing a threat of that magnitude, a magnitude of 
something that could destroy the country as we know it. Yet so many 
decisionmakers, from city hall to Capitol Hill, and yes, to the White 
House act as if we can operate with business as usual, or even worse, 
we can put in place policies that will turn this crisis into a 
catastrophe by adding an even greater burden onto the shoulders of our 
people and onto the shoulders of those people and those productive 
businesses throughout our country.
  They think that they can even give more power and add more resources 
to the Federal Government. They think that the Federal Government can 
co-opt even more of the national wealth at the expense of the 
productive and wealth-generating workers and enterprises in our 
country. They think they can do this and we will still turn around and 
go up even as they are strangling those forces within our society that 
are necessary in order for us to succeed as a Nation.
  I remember a few years ago there was a story about a New York 
politician of probably a century ago who was giving a speech at city 
hall who said, ``The sword of Damocles is hanging right over Pandora's 
box.'' Well, there is obviously something wrong with that observation, 
but the bottom line is there is a sword of Damocles hanging over our 
heads. There is a huge threat that is present throughout Washington, 
DC, and yes, throughout our country.
  And how did we get here? How did we become so vulnerable? Well, let's 
all remember as we look at this, we got there because of bad decisions 
and bad policies, which continue. My colleague Dan Burton just went 
through this incredible proposal to institute what they call health 
care reform, which is really transformation of our health care system 
at the expense of billions if not trillions of dollars at a time when 
that expense will drive down our economy even more. As we are trying to 
strengthen the economy, we are going to drain it even more. It is the 
equivalent of bleeding patients in order to make them feel healthy, as 
used to be the practice.
  How did we get in this horrible situation where our country is so 
weak? Well, to start with, when we talk about bleeding resources from 
our country, we have sent a trillion dollars overseas in the last few 
decades in order to buy from foreigners energy that we could have 
produced here. Yet over the last 30 years we have incredibly limited 
our own domestic oil and gas production. We have built not one new oil 
refinery. We have built no hydroelectric dams. We have had no new 
nuclear power plants. And even as we speak, the Bureau of Land 
Management continues to block the construction of solar power 
facilities in America's deserts. This official obstructionism is aimed 
at protecting the habitat of some desert lizard or insect.
  The end result of this nonsense, all of this nonsense, of not trying 
to produce our own energy, not trying to develop even nuclear power or 
hydroelectric dams, the end result of this is that to meet America's 
needs, a trillion dollars or more has been drained from our economy. 
This has been the policy of our government, a policy pushed forward by 
radical environmentalists, the same ones who are probably influencing 
the Bureau of Land Management not even to let us have solar power 
plants in the desert because they care so much about lizards and 
insects. These radical environmentalists, who are deluded enough to 
believe that they are helping us by depriving us of energy and 
deindustrializing our country, have had a horrible influence, but no 
one has been willing to step up and say, ``You're wrong.'' No one has 
been able to confront this force because it has been politically 
correct. It has been popular. It has been promoted in the press as if 
these people are idealists. Well, they are extremists.
  Everyone in their right mind believes in trying to set a plan for the 
future and believes in clean air and a clean environment and clean 
soil. I have three children at home, Christian, Annika, and Tristen. 
Three little children. They will be 6 years old within a few months. I 
want these young people to have a clean environment. Of course we all 
do. We don't want them to be affected in a negative way, or any 
children in our country or around the world affected in a negative way. 
But the environmental extremists who dominate the majority party in 
this Congress are preventing us from developing our own energy 
resources and preventing us from having the economic progress we need 
to come out of this crisis.
  At this moment they are preventing massive amounts of fresh water, 
runoff from the snow melting in the High Sierras, from being channeled 
in California to the agricultural areas of our State. As we speak, at 
this moment, millions of gallons of fresh water are flowing into the 
ocean instead of being permitted to be used in the agricultural part of 
our State. All of this to protect a little fish at the demand of 
radical environmentalists, radical environmentalists who obviously have 
the ear of the majority of people who are in this body. This little 
fish that they are protecting, the delta smelt, is not even big enough 
to be used as bait. A fish that is not even indigenous to California.
  Yet the well-being of this little fish has been put, by the powers 
that be in Washington, D.C., on a higher priority by these political 
decision-makers than the price of food for the rest of the population, 
including all of our children. It has been put on a higher priority 
than the jobs and well-being of farm-related workers throughout 
California, and yes, throughout the United States. Crops are withering 
in California. They are withering because water is not being permitted 
to go to them and it is being channeled into the ocean. That is the 
policy. Billions of dollars of wealth as we speak are being lost 
forever.
  And one asks why our economy is on the verge of collapse? Why we 
haven't been producing the revenue so we end up with $1.5 trillion of 
deficit? Well, policies in Congress like putting wildlife and their 
well-being over the well-being of people actually have brought us to 
this situation and actually are making things worse, and are making it 
more difficult to work our way out of this economic challenge and this 
economic crisis. And it goes on and on.

                              {time}  1700

  With these higher energy prices, which are destroying the family 
budget, I might add, and pushing our country into an economic crisis, 
it's destroying--the local people, our ordinary people, their personal 
budgets are

[[Page 2624]]

just destroyed, and they have no faith. They're losing hope because 
they can't see their way out of this pileup of debt because the economy 
is being strangled, and they can't see a way they can prosper in the 
economy. That's what's happening to all of our people individually. But 
as a whole, our country is in such an economic crisis.
  And what does Congress do? Because these energy prices are, as I say, 
draining the family budget and draining the national budget, what does 
Congress do when it comes to energy? We pass a job-killing, energy-
suppressant legislation, the cap-and-trade bill. This bill, which has 
passed this body in the midst of this economic crisis and as the energy 
crisis loomed, this bill, which passed our body, will make it even more 
difficult to produce the energy that we now depend on. And the excuse? 
Well, this time it's not saving a little fish. The excuse for passing 
this economy-killing, anti-energy legislation is what? Saving the 
planet. We can understand how they might want to save a little fish at 
the expense of all of us. But how are they going to save the entire 
planet from manmade global warming?
  Well, more and more evidence that this theory is bogus surfaces every 
day. The public and decision makers for 10 years were inundated by 
phony science, altered numbers, and outright fraud. Scientists who 
disagreed with the manmade global warming theory were cut from research 
grants and prevented from publishing peer-reviewed dissenting opinions. 
It's all coming out. Everyday we see stories verifying that this is 
fraud, and what's been going on, the lies that have been told, the 
altering of numbers and statistics, the cherry-picking of actual 
information that would be put into computers to come out with 
solutions. All of this is coming out more and more every day, yet the 
Congress ignores all of that, as do the science advisers of this 
administration. They ignore this evidence. They belittle it, claiming 
that the case--No, no, this is inconsequential, but the case is closed.
  How many have heard that expression? ``The case is closed.'' Well, 
that means they won't listen. That means that they won't even permit 
disagreement or permit an honest debate of the issue. This is what the 
proponents of manmade global warming have been doing for the last 2 
years to stifle debate and prevent the American people from getting a 
balanced view of the positions, of the various positions that are taken 
on the proposal that mankind is changing the climate of the planet and 
making the planet warm up.
  Well, even as we wade through the snow and the freezing weather that 
really is gripping large parts of our country and the rest of the 
world, I might add, even as experts now confirm that there's been a 
lack of warming for 15 years, economy-killing legislation passed in the 
House has been put forth in the name of stopping manmade global 
warming. Well, at least that little fish that they were trying to save 
and all the hardship on regular people to save that little fish is 
real. That little fish is real. Manmade global warming is a hoax.
  I would point out there are many prominent scientists from around the 
world, major scientists, heads of universities, science departments, et 
cetera, from around the world who have taken a position that manmade 
global warming, as it has been presented to us, is false.
  Well, we've had cooling and warming cycles in the Earth's climate for 
millions of years. These cycles are tied to solar activity, just like 
temperature trends that we've identified on Mars and other bodies in 
our solar system. By the way, what does solar system mean? Solar, the 
sun. The sun is the greatest source of energy not only for our planet 
but for the other planets. And we see on Mars the same type of 
temperature trends. I guess they must think there is some sort of SUV 
or something being driven on Mars that creates the temperature change 
on Mars.
  Well, global warming should not be the issue because it's a fraud. 
What should be the issue is global pollution and the preventing of 
global pollution. But this distinction between global pollution, which 
is the pollutants that hurt human beings, versus carbon, 
CO2, which is something that actually is beneficial to the 
planet. Actually, it helps us grow more plants, and it is not harmful 
to human beings. The fact that they are focused on CO2 
rather than pollutants hurts us in our efforts to stop the pollutants 
that are hurting people and at the same time is costing us billions of 
dollars with no payback whatsoever. In fact, we are spending billions 
of dollars unnecessarily in order to justify the research which has 
been done in order to justify the accusation that it is mankind and not 
the sun that is creating changes in our atmosphere.
  The temperature of the planet is not manmade. We can't do anything 
about it. But the energy shortage, the energy shortage is manmade, and 
we can do something about that. And that is costing us billions of 
dollars as well. Billions, perhaps trillions of dollars.
  Global warming is a fraud that has made the job of dealing with the 
energy crisis almost undoable. It has hampered our ability to solve the 
energy crisis, and we have made it worse--much worse--by legislation 
that was passed in this Congress in the middle of an economic crisis. 
For years, it has been a costly drag on our economy, this concept that 
we're going to try to outlaw CO2 rather than getting to 
pollutants.
  Well, now with a horrendous crisis looming, with a sword hanging over 
our heads, not producing domestic energy is no longer acceptable. The 
economic consequences are too damaging and too painful, painful to our 
people. We should be aggressively looking for ways to produce more 
energy here rather than searching for reasons to prevent increases in 
domestic production because that's what the powers that be in this 
Congress now are doing. That's what happened with the cap-and-trade 
bill. They are looking for reasons to prevent domestic production of 
the current energy that we depend upon. The end result has been, yes, a 
hampering of domestic production and has thus resulted in a decline in 
wealth generation in our country.
  So imagine that: We aren't being permitted to develop our own energy. 
Thus, the amount of wealth that's being generated in our country has 
been declining. And because there is less wealth, people are beginning 
to suffer. A transfer of wealth to those countries when we are 
purchasing energy that we could be producing ourselves is impoverishing 
our country. That's right. We could produce it ourselves, but yet we're 
buying it from overseas, and we have less wealth here. This, as I say, 
has cost our economy trillions of dollars, trillions, and we are 
expected to continue our economic woes even as Congress passes more 
restrictions on domestic energy production.
  Then, of course, when it comes to wealth transfer, one needs to look 
closely at America's trade policies, another major cause for an 
economic decline. We have been betrayed by wrongheaded idealists both 
when it comes to the environment as well as when it comes to trade 
policy. We have also been betrayed by powerful special interest groups 
in our own country who have global goals in mind, both environmentally 
and economically--at least that's what they say. The American people, 
as trusting as they are, have expected their government to represent 
their interests in trade negotiations. Instead, our representatives 
have focused on long-term global goals. And time and again, our 
interests as a people have been a secondary instead of a primary 
consideration for those with authority who are supposed to be 
protecting our interests.
  You know, when people representing the other countries sit down with 
us to negotiate, their people know that they're supposed to be 
negotiating what is in the interest of their people. We expect them to 
do that. The people on our side of the table have something much more 
majestic in mind than just the self-interest of our own people, as if 
there's something wrong with a Democratic government representing the 
interests of people who elect them. And we have gotten a short end of 
the stick.

[[Page 2625]]

We have been shortchanged in these negotiations, trade negotiations, 
because we haven't had anybody there aggressively demanding what's in 
the interest of our people. But instead, we want to create a global 
system, and we want to convince these other people to sort of inch over 
in this direction so we can be part of a global effort.
  Now don't get me wrong, I believe in international trade. I believe 
really, actually, in a robust trade between free people, and I believe 
such a trade between free people is a benefit to both parties. 
Especially if the ground rules are fair and equal and negotiated out 
between the two peoples, a trade between democratic countries is a win-
win. Well, there is obviously something seriously wrong when our 
economy is sputtering to a halt while our trading partners are going 
into high gear.
  Free trade between free people, which is my motto, should not be 
blamed for this because the problem is not free trade between free 
people, it's free trade on one side and controlled on the other. Free 
trade with a controlled and autocratic government is inherently not 
free. If permitted to do so, which is what our negotiators have 
permitted, the power of economic activity will be directed by these 
tyrannical governments, like China, to bolster the power of their 
elite, and it will be done at the expense, yes, of their own people's 
freedom, but it will be done at the expense of the economic well-being 
of our people.
  Under this guise of free trade, which has not been challenged--
because it isn't free trade if you're dealing with a dictatorship like 
China--we have had policies aimed at creating a global system. That's 
why we're permitting the Chinese to get away with this because we want 
them to be a part of a global system which includes everybody and, 
thus, will have a positive influence on all of these other countries. 
Well, the global system will supposedly include everybody--dictators, 
rogue regimes, countries where people are treated like serfs by 
gangsters, and criminals, and tyrants. Sorry, we don't need free trade 
or to be in a binding relationship with those types of regimes, and we 
don't need to be controlled by a global trading establishment that will 
result from all of this planetary organization of commerce. And you can 
bet that that global trading establishment, the systems that will be 
set up, will be eventually dramatically influenced, if not dominated, 
by nefarious regimes and self-enriching elites.
  This, the WTO--which is what they're trying to create as a global 
system--will be and is becoming more like the United Nations. The 
United Nations, which was a theoretical dream but in reality, a 
nightmare for free and democratic peoples. The U.N. is an organization 
that gives China, the world's worst human rights abuser, a veto, and it 
provides General Assembly votes to the likes of Burma, Iran, Cuba, and 
North Korea. Oh, that's a good gang on which we should depend upon. We 
should make sure we're a part of an organization that gives them an 
equal vote in the General Assembly to ours or gives China a veto over 
anything the U.N. can do.

                              {time}  1715

  And speaking of China, here, too, is an explanation of why our 
country is on the verge of an economic calamity: We have permitted 
Communist China a one-way free trade policy for the last 20 years. And 
yes, when it was democratizing and opening up, such a strategy might 
have been justified at least for a time. During the Reagan years, we 
saw a liberalizing China. Reagan made it clear, and I know this because 
I worked with him on his speeches when he went to China, he made it 
clear that as long as progress toward openness and freedom continued in 
China, our generous trade and commerce policies would continue to be in 
place.
  Then came Tiananmen Square. Unfortunately, Reagan was not President 
when this historic atrocity was committed. The Tiananmen Square 
massacre was not something that needed to happen, but it did happen. I 
believe had Ronald Reagan been President, it wouldn't have happened. He 
would have sent a telegram to those Communist dictators and said, If 
you slaughter the democratic movement and end democratic reform in 
China, we will withdraw your credits. There will be no technology 
transfer. There will be no investment in your country. There will be no 
open market for your goods. Don't do it. That is what Reagan would have 
done.
  Do you know what the telegram was that President Bush, the father of 
our last President, sent? Do you know what it said to those Chinese 
Communist bosses about to make the decision to slaughter democracy in 
their own country? It didn't say anything because he never sent the 
letter. He never sent the telegram. In fact, there was no communication 
and no repercussions that the Bush Presidency used against the 
Communist Chinese atrocities committed in Tiananmen Square. Yet it 
changed history, and we let them get away with it because, you know 
what? There was an elite in our country that were making money by 
making deals with the Communist Party leadership in China.
  For 20 years, we have let the policies that we put in place to 
encourage democratization stay in place even as these brutal Chinese 
dictators consolidated their hold. All along, the dictatorship has been 
strengthened by its position and strengthened in its position by 
exploiting America's wealth and technology which we have heaped upon 
them even after Tiananmen Square. We strengthened them at our expense.
  Our China policy has decimated manufacturing in America and drained 
trillions of dollars from our economy. Note that. Again, more trillions 
of dollars drained from our economy. No wonder we are in an economic 
crisis. The regime in Beijing murders dissidents. It prosecutes and 
persecutes religious believers, whether they be Christians, Muslims, or 
Falun Gong. There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of association, 
no opposition parties, no free press, no independent judiciary. Yet we 
treat China better than we do some democratic countries, or countries 
that have at least made reforms, like Russia, that have made dramatic 
reforms, although they are imperfect.
  Over the years, our elite has been encouraged to make deals to set up 
manufacturing in China. So factories and production have been shut down 
in the United States, and some companies have opened up new factories. 
Some of those same companies have opened up new factories in China. 
Over and over again, it has taken its toll on us. Not all of us, of 
course. The corporate elite gets a substantial short-term profit by 
some of these forays into the Chinese market, enough to warrant big 
bonuses for the short term.
  It is our Achilles heel. Our corporate elite will sell out the well-
being of their grandchildren for a quick profit next year. China, on 
the other hand, has long-term interests. In the long term, they get our 
assets and our wealth-generating technology. The bosses get rich quick 
selling out their employees. American consumers get cheaper products in 
the short term, but in the long term they and their children don't have 
any good-paying jobs. Not even enough to buy those cheap products. Even 
Congress wouldn't be stupid enough to buy that deal.
  Oh, but there was a sweetener to that deal, of course. The sweetener 
was, if we let the one-way free trade keep on, it would bring about 
world peace, especially peace with China. Now, isn't that something 
that we have heard over and over again, just like the mantra of global 
warming. Oh, we are going to have a democratizing China and world peace 
if we just continue to allow this one-way free trade policy, which is 
obviously not working in the interest of our people.
  Well, if there is one thing that liberals might like even better than 
stopping man-made global warming, it is world peace. And on top of 
that, on top of feeling good about a nice slogan, our really rich guys 
here in America are making a lot of money to boot, and they are friends 
with all of these policymakers. Well, policymakers promised political 
liberalization in China would result in more personal contact and more 
prosperity in China. To get

[[Page 2626]]

them to do business, basically they promised us that because that is 
what we needed in order to keep these trade policies in place. Well, 
the promise that there would be a liberalization in China because they 
are having more interaction with us, it is what I call the ``hug a 
Nazi, make a liberal'' theory, and it hasn't worked.
  There has been no liberalization. We have created a Frankenstein 
monster that now threatens us militarily, and as our subject is here 
tonight, this gang of thieves now has leverage to drag us down and 
destroy our prosperity and the prosperity and well-being of our people. 
We are now vulnerable to a corrupt dictatorship in Beijing, and after 
Tiananmen Square, we have ended up not just having most-favored nation 
trading status, but under Bill Clinton, he made most-favored nation 
trading status permanent. Bush allowed after Tiananmen Square for the 
policy to continue; Clinton made it permanent.
  One of the most disturbing aspects of this unholy relationship has 
been the transfer of American technology to China, technology used 
against our remaining manufacturers and against our defenders, and 
technology that advances Chinese military power and threatens our 
safety. Technology has flowed over there. Much of the technology to 
which I refer was a product of R&D paid for by the American taxpayer. 
Letting such American innovation be used to bolster and strengthen such 
a monster regime in China is sinful and an incredible betrayal of the 
American people and a disservice to the freedom loving people of China. 
Let us note that I believe the Chinese people are our greatest allies. 
They are the ones who will rid themselves of this tyranny and save the 
world from this threat. We must do everything to reach out to the 
people of China who are our friends by fighting, by confronting, not 
fighting in terms of military, but confronting the Chinese dictatorship 
just as we should be doing in Iran.
  But there is a deal between our corporate elite and the Chinese 
hierarchy. Our corporate elite wins. Our people lose their jobs. 
Freedom loses. Our government has foisted this upon us. Our government 
permits the Chinese to keep their currency value artificially low, 
which makes China even more able not just to compete but to overwhelm 
our manufacturers. They have been keeping their currency artificially 
low so they can obliterate domestic manufacturing in the United States, 
and we have permitted the limited access of our products to their 
market while at the same time we have opened up our market totally to 
Chinese-made products. They limit our access to their markets while 
they have unlimited access to ours. Their currency is kept at a low 
level to make sure that the flow of wealth is coming in their direction 
by manipulating currencies. We have permitted technology and investment 
to go there even though it is a dictatorship. So what we have seen is 
trillions of dollars have been drained out of our economy.
  So wages in the United States have been depressed. Our manufacturing 
infrastructure has been nearly obliterated. We must deal with this 
situation or America will continue to slide down even as the power of 
Beijing ascends. It will continue to affect our prosperity and freedom, 
and we will become more docile and more subservient, even as the 
arrogance and the maliciousness of the Beijing regime becomes apparent.
  China trade policy must be on the list if we are to get ourselves out 
of the downward economic spiral that we are in. Trillions of dollars of 
wealth are being drained from our people, yet we hear no such proposals 
about China trade. In fact, there is legislation making its way through 
Congress that would make the situation worse, surprise, surprise. It 
would result in even more American technology and know-how ending up in 
Chinese hands and being used against us. There are proposals in 
Congress to weaken export control laws that control the flow of 
American technology.
  I agree that with free nations, our entrepreneurs and enterprises 
should be free from the heavy-handed restrictions they now face. This, 
of course, as long as the final destination of the people we are 
dealing with is not a transaction that will end up delivering products 
to threatening nations like China or Iran. But the American business 
community insists on one set of rules for all. Rather than a two-tiered 
system, free trade with free and democratic countries being on one 
tier, with continued controls over the technology transfer to countries 
which are controlled by dictatorships and belligerent regimes, no, they 
can't have that two-tiered system. It makes sense, but not to a 
businessman who thinks of himself as a citizen of the world, not as an 
American patriot or not as someone who is associated with just 
Americans. He is a citizen of the world. Of course, yes, he is a 
citizen of the world just like all people around the world, they want a 
fast buck. Well, it is our job to protect the interests of the American 
people, not the interests of an elite who want to make a fast buck in 
dealing with dictators.
  Interestingly enough, one of the issues of contention in this debate 
deals with the launching of U.S. satellites on Chinese rockets. The 
last time this was tried I thought it could be done as long as 
safeguards were in place to prevent transfer of technology. It turned 
into a national security nightmare. The safeguards were promised by the 
Clinton administration, but they were never enforced. When I realized 
this, I immediately changed my position on the issue and, in fact, 
conducted a personal investigation that turned out to discover a 
damaging transfer of rocket technology to China. Later, the Cox 
Commission verified our national security had been severely damaged.
  Now the same arguments are being made. Now current Chinese rockets, 
however, have benefited from the technology they took from us and were 
given 15 years ago. Well, if we permit them to launch our satellites on 
their rockets, we will be undercutting our own rocket industry. You can 
kiss our aerospace industry goodbye. If our major companies like Boeing 
and GE start outsourcing aircraft and rocket parts to China, kiss our 
aerospace industry goodbye. Give them even more access to our 
technologies, and we will not be able to recapture the economic 
momentum that we need to weather our current crisis.
  If our manufacturing and our know-how goes to China, we lose. China 
is and should be treated as America's adversary both in economics and 
an adversary to our democratic system as well. But the move to relax 
our restrictions and controls on the transfer of technology to China is 
moving forward here in Washington, as is the proposal to launch U.S. 
satellites on Chinese rockets. All of this is part of a trade policy 
that has obviously worked against us, us, the United States, the people 
of America. It has worked against us. Yet instead of being advocates of 
democracy to the Chinese leaders, as we were told would happen, our 
businesspeople will go there and interact with these Chinese leaders 
and they will become more democratic. They will learn to trust us and 
be more benevolent.
  Well, instead our business community, instead of lobbying the bad 
guys, is here lobbying us on these policies in order to support their 
buddies in Beijing.
  Just as disturbing, another windfall may be handed to China as well, 
as well as to other foreign competitors of the United States as part of 
a so-called patent reform bill that is making its way through the 
legislative process. For two decades, those very same corporate elites, 
especially in the electronics industry, who have been shipping jobs to 
China have been pushing hard for fundamental changes in America's 
patent system. Pro-inventiveness rhetoric has masked their attempt to 
dramatically diminish and even destroy the patent protection that has 
been enjoyed by Americans since the founding of our country.

[[Page 2627]]



                              {time}  1730

  Well, our only chance of getting back from an upward economic path is 
to increase our efficiency to produce more wealth through innovation 
and to use the creative genius of our people to build the machines that 
will enable American workers to compete and to beat foreign 
adversaries.
  One of America's greatest assets, the bulwark of our freedom, that is 
the irreplaceable testament to the economic strength and wealth 
production in our country has been a strong patent system. It's been 
the right of our people, specifically written into our Constitution in 
article I, section 8, that guarantees the right of ownership to 
inventors for a given period of time in order to stimulate innovation 
and progress, and, yes, lead to general prosperity.
  And it worked. That's why Americans have had such a high standard of 
living. People work hard all over the world, maybe harder than 
Americans, but we've had the tools and the equipment and the technology 
and the machines to out-compete those people throughout the world and 
build a standard of living of ordinary people. That's what we're proud 
of.
  Other people work hard, as I say, but we produce the wealth, as never 
dreamed of before for normal, ordinary people, because we have the 
tools and the machines. And when threatened, our genius saved us from 
foreign despotism and tyranny, from hostile ideologies like fascism and 
communism. Our technological superiority is even more useful today when 
we are in a life-and-death struggle with radical Islam--not Islam in 
general, not the 1.5 billion Muslims on this planet who we have to 
reach out to just like we reach out to the people of China--but to the 
radical Islamists who would hurt us, who would kill our people as they 
did on 9/11.
  Some foreigners would like to use the product of our creative genius 
against us. Unfortunately, there are those in the corporate elite who 
are willing to let that happen. The mega-electronics industry has been 
investing huge sums of money, campaign donations, for 15 years to 
accomplish this insidious goal of diminishing or destroying America's 
patent protections. They are the last ones you would think would be the 
enemies of patent protection because they are the biggest names in the 
electronics industry.
  But why should such companies do this? Why would companies that 
appear to depend on innovation want to destroy the patent system? 
Because they produce products that contain multiple elements. Each one 
is a separate invention. Whether it's a cell phone or computer or other 
technology, there might be 20 elements that someone else invented, and 
they must use that capability in order to stay competitive. The big 
boys don't want to pay royalties to the little inventors, so instead 
they're negotiating an agreement that will undercut America's 
independent inventors, little guys, as well as other industries. It 
will permit these mega-tech multinational corporations to steal because 
they're going to make it legal. They're going to change the way the law 
works. They're going to diminish patent protection.
  Well, the fact that this will also enable other gangsters around the 
world and other people around the world to steal America's technology, 
just like they're trying to steal it from America's little guys, that's 
of no concern to them because these corporate elites also are global 
thinkers. Many of them, as I said, consider themselves citizens of the 
world. Yeah, globalists.
  For 15 years, they have tried time and again to ram through major 
fatal changes to our patent system, and each time they have been 
thwarted by a small band of patriots. That's right, the patriots can 
still beat the big guys. We can beat the globalists. Just last week, a 
bill made its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Chairman 
Leahy is looking for floor time to bring it to a vote. Once it passes, 
it is likely to make it through the House.
  The Senate's legislation will not destroy the patent system as was 
the case with all of the past legislation that these mega-tech 
industries have tried to foist upon us, but the fact is that it will 
undermine and diminish the current levels of protection as a compromise 
with these big businesses. Why should we compromise with mega-tech 
companies that want to diminish our rights? They say they want to 
harmonize our laws with the rest of the world--again, a globalist 
approach. No, Americans enjoy more freedom and more rights than the 
people of the world. If they want to harmonize their laws with us, let 
them increase the protection that they give to average citizens rather 
than diminish it.
  The bill right now is going in the wrong direction even though there 
has been compromise. It still is taking us in the wrong direction even 
though the mega-tech companies, some of the major players who have been 
calling for this bill to be passed actually helped mold the first bill 
that was passed through this House, these people now say they don't 
support the legislation. We need to just say that bill contains 
compromises that are doing no favor to anybody, not the big guys, the 
little guys, not to American competitiveness, not to those people who 
are inventors, not to anybody.
  We should just simply wait until next year. We can then build a 
strong coalition for patent protection with biotech, small and medium 
electronic firms, pharmaceuticals, colleges and universities, small 
inventors, all the people who actually are the mainspring of human 
progress for America. We can strengthen them by giving them more legal 
protection for their inventiveness.
  Of course, compromise is not good enough for these mega-electronic 
firms, so they actually are opposing the bill too. Let us all work 
together then in making sure this Leahy compromise legislation does not 
pass and that next year we pass a bill--not for the mega-tech companies 
that are trying to destroy the patent system, but for the American 
people who depend on innovation.
  The fight could go either way on this bill now, but let's hope that 
we can basically thwart their efforts because there are people in China 
and overseas right now waiting for us to change the rules in order to 
make sure they can get the technology and steal it from the American 
people themselves.
  By the way, since 1996, these mega-tech companies, these electronic 
companies, which have sent thousands and thousands of jobs over to 
China, have been sued by little guys in 730 cases of patent 
infringement. These megacompanies, they don't want to suffer those 
cases. They just want to be able to take that intellectual property, 
even though they didn't invent it, and not pay for it, and benefit and 
profit from it themselves without giving royalties to the inventor. 
That kind of dynamic put into our system will undermine American 
progress and bring us down.
  Thanks to our independent judiciary, these infringements have cost 
the big guys $4 billion in judgments. We need to keep in place a system 
in which if big guys are trying to steal from the little guys, the 
little guys can win, the patriots can win. But the big guys, they want 
to change the rules, let's see if we can do it. We need to have the 
American people alerted to this.
  To get out of this crisis, this is what we need to focus on. The 
American people are becoming focused because their whole way of life, 
their specific standard of living of their family is being threatened 
and they understand that. We're going to get out of this and get back 
on a path of economic growth. If our children are to live in peace and 
enjoy prosperity, we must produce our own energy, we must have trade 
agreements that are done not at our expense, but are mutually 
beneficial trade agreements, and we must protect our freedom, 
especially the rights of technology ownership that have served America 
so well.
  An innovative surge will give us the edge. It will give us the 
ability to produce more wealth, create more jobs, and keep America 
competitive. We can produce and grow our way out of this crisis, but 
the challenge will not be met by wishful thinking. Patriots must act to 
save the day. We can rely on freedom and technology, but only if the

[[Page 2628]]

patriots act to ensure that freedom and technological progress are not 
undermined by counterproductive policies and changes in the law that 
have been foisted upon us by powerful interest groups or ideological 
zealots, or just plain idiots with influence. Patriots have to step 
forward, or things will continue to go haywire and the standard of 
living of the American people will go down.
  We will not sit idly by. Patriots can and will win. We will not give 
up our freedom. We will not give up the dream. With freedom and 
technology, there is no limit to what we as a people can accomplish, no 
limit to how far we can go, no barrier to progress that we cannot bring 
down.
  Ronald Reagan used to say there's nothing wrong with our government 
that cannot be fixed with one good election. Well, I would amend that 
by saying there is nothing wrong with our country that can't be 
corrected by patriots working together. And with freedom and 
technology, we will overcome the economic challenge and crisis that we 
face, and we will ensure that our children are given the freedom and 
the opportunity and the decent standard of living that we have enjoyed 
as Americans over these last few decades since the great generation of 
Americans stepped forward and saved the world from Nazism and saved the 
world from communism and saved the world from fanatics who would murder 
and terrorize decent people throughout the world.
  We have a very special role to play. Americans come from every race, 
every religion, every ethnic group. We have come here to show the world 
there is a better way, that we can live together in peace and respect 
each other. As this conglomerate people, we represent an ideal, not a 
territory, that we have to reach out to those people throughout the 
world and provide leadership as an example. That is what this fight is 
about. The patriots will win because we are doing so for the cause of 
all freedom and humanity.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________