Money Doesn't Grow on Trees
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, as usual, I appreciate my friend from Arizona, who is, if nothing else, dogged in his determination and consistent in making clear to the American people the problem that we face on our overall spending, including mandatory.
Specifically mandatory, as we refer to it, this broad basket of things that we have committed to do that is consuming our budget ever more every single year. It is an important point and one that we don't discuss enough as a body on what we should do about it.
The gentleman's point is precisely correct about the nature of the problem, the seriousness of the problem. When we are sitting here right now and we are roughly--I am going to use ballpark numbers--bringing in $4 trillion of revenue, but we are spending about $6 trillion, pushing $7 trillion--he is right--it depends on what we are talking about in terms of the accounting.
Basically, what you are saying is, you are printing money to fund effectively all of our discretionary budget and then some.
What I mean by that is, you are printing money to fund defense, the operation of the government, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, all the things that you touch and feel and see because the $4 trillion is going to fund Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, veterans benefits that are mandatory, plus interest. There you are. You have used up all of your revenue.
The problem is, nobody in this town wants to do anything about it. My Democratic colleagues will hide behind ``you must increase taxes.'' My Republican colleagues will do nothing to actually limit spending in any meaningful way. They will just talk about ultimately needing to deal with mandatory spending one day and not do anything to deal with the spending issues now.
Where I depart from my friend from Arizona, respectfully, who is no longer on the floor--maybe not depart. Where I want to be more clear is the questions when we have debates on the floor of the House about spending items in what we call discretionary. That is the stuff that we can touch, the accounts, the Department of Defense, some of these issues.
My issue with that is less about mounting debt, although it is a part of it. It is that you are funding the demise of our prosperity. You are funding the bureaucrats who are at war with us. You are funding that which is undermining our ability to create economic growth and live freely to get out from under that financial morass.
In other words, you are not really going to address the debt problem by saving $5 billion on some small item, but what you are going to do is you are going to stop the interference with the American people.
Let me give you some examples. If you are a hardworking American out there and have a family of four, and you are a plumber in San Marcos, Texas, which I represent part of, you are just trying to go about doing your job. You need a pickup truck. You need to put all of your stuff in it. You need to be able to drive around. We are making that pickup truck impossible to afford.
We are making it literally impossible to afford. We are putting all of these requirements and demands on the vehicles. We are going to make it where you have to have electric vehicles, with the tailpipe rules and mandates. They are piling up on lots. They are getting more expensive.
If you want to go get your windshield replaced, it is like $1,500 now. It used to be $200 or $300. Why? We have all sorts of mandates and requirements and gadgets in the windshield.
Now, they are going to mandate vehicles that have automatic braking.
Every time you do that, you make this stuff more expensive. The market should bear that out. The market should sort that out. If you want a vehicle that has automatic braking, great. Pay for it. The vast majority of Americans will say: No, I can't afford that. I just want a simple car.
We are killing the ability of the average family to afford life. It matters. This is the problem.
In the House of Representatives, what we have become is the house of perpetuating corporate cronyism and the enrichment of a handful of folks at the expense of hardworking American families.
Then, I will have some of my colleagues who will throw out these random statements like: We should read the philosophers and conservatives of the past who were the traditionalists and rational in what they believed about limited government, not the radical populists of today.
I think that misses the entire point. It is not populist to believe we should stop spending money we don't have, driving up inflation, driving down the value of the dollar, and putting a tax on the hardworking American family. It is not populist to say that we shouldn't regulate our entire lives out of existence with expensive vehicles and all sorts of demands on what you can and can't do, which makes things more expensive, or all of the green climate agenda that is empowering China, undermining our ability to have affordable energy.
That is not populism. It is not populism to say that maybe, just maybe, if you are going to send $95 billion overseas to fund war, maybe you should have to pay for that. That is not populist. It is rational. You can question the war. You could say that we should be focusing on America first, securing our borders first.
Maybe you could say that is populist. I think it is rational. It is sovereignty. The Founders, and importantly the conservative thought leaders of the 20th century, like Russell Kirk, believe that you actually do have to have institutions, but you believe in sovereignty and the rule of law. You believe that there are supposed to be limits, limits to what you do in feeding your appetite.
What are our limits? I am sitting here in an empty Chamber, but to my friend who is serving as the Speaker at the moment, what are our limits? What limits are we placing on this place?
To my friends who voted for continuing wars around the world, $95 billion, who paid for it? Your grandkids, your kids, you. You paid for it by printing money. We did not pay for it. We printed money to give it away--the same thing with the first $113 billion for Ukraine, the same thing for virtually everything we are doing.
I have had some supporters, particularly ones of financial means, who have called and said: Chip, why did you abandon the people of Ukraine? We must stop Putin.
I said: Great. Are you interested in having a 70 percent marginal tax rate next year to pay for it?
There were crickets on the other end of the phone.
We have lost perspective on what we are supposed to do here responsibly in this Chamber. That is the truth.
While we sit here and move a few bills across the floor, and while we just passed a massive, unpaid-for foreign aid package that funds both sides of the war in Israel--it gives $9 billion used by Hamas, used to have Palestinian refugees moving to the United States, funding both sides of that conflict, while we fund Ukraine, where we have no clear mission, no evidence that we can produce enough ammo fast enough to be able to help them when they are getting out-shelled no matter what and they are running out of men, even if you accept that all of that might result in some improvement, we are funding all of that.
We just voted on all of that. We just voted on an anti-Semitism resolution, which codifies thought-speech, so we can pat ourselves on the back and say: Look at what we did. Look what we did.
People feel good about it, but you didn't do a damn thing. In fact, you made things worse because you just empowered the Federal Government to go after thought-speech.
We do all of that. Right after, what did we do? We passed a massive omnibus spending bill, $1.7 trillion in two omnibus packages. We funded $200 billion for a new FBI headquarters, an FBI that is out of control.
We do all of these things, and what is happening in the meantime? What is happening right now? What is happening right now is that our borders are wide open.
The people in Texas are still feeling it every single day. We are dealing with the reality of roughly 1,000 to 1,600 people a day being paroled into the United States.
Nobody out there in the real world knows what that means. It means that there is a provision in the law supposedly there for a case-by- case basis to help a few people. The Biden administration is blatantly, unlawfully, illegally using that provision to expand it and dump literally 1,000 to 1,600 people a day. We believe 400,000 over the last year, according to the reports that we have, were dumped into the United States under what is called parole.
Guess what? How did Laken Riley's killer get into the United States? Parole.
There have been dozens of examples of individuals who were paroled into the United States under the Biden administration's policies who have gone on to kill, assault, and harm and undermine the security of Americans.
Think about that. That is what is happening right now, allegedly, on our watch. The fact is, we could have done something about it. A year ago this Saturday, Republicans passed what we call H.R. 2, which is the bill number for border security. It was a strong bill that would have closed the ability of the Biden administration to abuse parole. It would have closed their ability to abuse asylum. It would have ended the abuse of the unaccompanied alien children, using them as essentially a hall pass to get into the United States.
It would have fundamentally ended the Biden administration's abuse of law to dump people into the United States to the tune of something like 4\1/2\ million people who have been released into the United States under the Biden administration.
We did that. Republicans did that, and we did that after conservatives worked hard and worked with the Speaker to force this body of Republicans to walk away from the amnesty-driven, Chamber of Commerce-driven failure of the last two decades and pass a strong border security measure.
That bill is sitting over in the Senate, where Senate Democrats refuse to move it while they hide behind a sham piece of legislation, which would not secure the border of the United States, so they can try to blame Republicans in an election year.
What Republicans have failed to do is use the leverage of the power of the purse to force our Democratic colleagues in the Senate and the Biden administration to come to the table and deal with the border crisis, despite the rhetoric of our own leadership saying that we would do that.
We have fully funded the government at debt-increasing levels, busting the caps that were put into law. We are funding the government that is abusing our borders and dumping people into the United States unlawfully, paying off student loans unlawfully to the tune of $700 billion to $1.4 trillion. Meanwhile, we are racking up $34\1/2\ trillion in debt, barreling toward $35 trillion, with a trillion dollars every 3 months, with more interest than we pay for national defense, almost a trillion dollars in interest, barreling toward $2 trillion to $3 trillion of interest. Meanwhile, the number of retirees is growing, demands on Medicare are growing, and costs--the prices--of healthcare are going up.
That is all happening right now in real time. What are we doing about it?
This is a question that I want to ask my Republican colleagues: If the American people look at our Democratic colleagues and say: Man, that is insanity. We can't do that. That is crazy stuff. They want to have all sorts of woke policies and DEI. They want to let criminals out. They want wide-open borders. They want to keep spending gobs of money. They want to undermine our Western civilization, our way of life. Man, that is crazy. I don't want that.
They say: Well, we have to turn to Republicans. Let's vote for Republicans.
Let's say that happens. Let's say we are fortunate enough for that to happen with large enough numbers that we win the majority of the House, the majority of the Senate, and the White House, what are we going to do? I will bet you a significant amount that you will hear excuses out of this Chamber by Republicans in January, with a newly minted majority here, in the Senate, and in the White House, saying the following: Chip, we don't have 60 votes in the Senate. What you want can't be done. Chip, we have divisions in our own Conference, our own Republican majority. We can't pass everything you want to pass and then get it to the Senate and send it to the President. We are going to have to send over this compromise.
It has been happening for decades. The reason our borders are wide open--it didn't just materialize one day that Joe Biden just woke up and decided to open them up. It has been decades in the making with support from Republicans because they were too much in the pocket of the Chamber of Commerce. They were sitting down in the Rio Grande with a ``No Trespassing'' sign, and then over here with a sign saying: ``Help Wanted.'' Wink, wink, come on in. We don't care about the border.
That was happening. I know because I saw it. I saw it as a Texan. I saw it as an American. I saw it as a staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as a chief of staff for Ted Cruz. I saw the amnesty bills. I saw the desire to have cheap labor at the expense of sovereignty.
Let's talk for a minute about that cheap labor. I keep hearing from all of my colleagues--on both sides of the aisle, frankly--how important it is for us to continue to have a flow of people across our border, legal or illegal, because, quote, we need the workers.
Have you looked at what is happening to jobs? The jobs for Americans, American-born workers, post-COVID is flat or down. The actual engagement in the workforce is flat or down. Yes, there is growth from migrants to try to catch up on the number, but what we are doing is we are paying people not to work. We are paying kids to sit in their room, basement, whatever, playing Fortnite, kids in their twenties. We have low workforce participation from American citizens and workers while we try to then bring people in who, by the way, then use the social welfare state, who then have massive demands on the education system. How do I know that? I live in Texas. I see the schools. I see the rolls.
Tomorrow in the Budget Committee we are going to have a hearing on the cost and the impact of illegal immigration. Kinney County, Texas, just a little bit southwest of San Antonio, which I represent, we will have a witness here tomorrow from Kinney County walking us through roughly these numbers: The crime that they were dealing with in 2021, pre-Biden, was about 140 something crimes a year that they had to deal with. They are now at 15,000. Now, that is a lot of criminal trespass that Operation Lone Star and the State Department of Public Safety are trying to work to manage, but that is what they are dealing with. That is what they are dealing with in their court systems.
I can sit here and walk you through--we will have a hearing tomorrow; I won't do it here--the impact on the schools, the hospitals, all of the social services. Anybody who does a legitimate analysis of all of those costs compared to the taxes, sales taxes, which so many of my colleagues hang their hat on and say this is causing economic activity and they are paying taxes.
Yes, there is some of that, but we have created the welfare state which Milton Friedman famously said: I am all for open borders if you get rid of the welfare state. Now, that was pre-9/11. Let's say you have security, you vet everybody, you know who is coming here, do they want to harm us, or they are just hardworking people, they want to achieve the American Dream?
If you have a zero welfare state, I would say: Come on. I don't care where you are from, I don't care what you look like, come on. If you are coming to America and you are making your way and you are going to work hard, then you are going to follow our values and our principles, regardless of your background, regardless of your religion, because you are going to believe in the rule of law, you are going to believe in economic prosperity, you are going to believe in free enterprise and capitalism, you are most likely going to believe in God and everything that made this country great because you are coming here seeking the American Dream.
However, we are turning the American Dream upside-down. We are destroying that which migrants come to this country to achieve when they come here, they believe in this country, believe in the rule of law because that is what the American Dream is built around, and we are completely destroying it. That is the truth.
It is happening right now while we sit here and fiddle while America burns. I am going to say it over and over and over again until at least my Republican colleagues, who try to pretend to give a crap about the border, actually do something about it.
How many campaign ads, how many speeches are going to be given by my Republican colleagues between now and November about what they will do to secure the border? What are they doing right now? Shrugging. Sorry; can't do anything. It is Biden. What are we going to do?
How many more Americans are going to die while we shrug? Well, thank God the Founders didn't shrug. Thank God the men at Lexington and Concord didn't just shrug and say: Oh, well, I guess there is a tyrant. Thank God the boys at Normandy didn't shrug, and say: Why the hell are we across the ocean and we have to go take out this crazy guy Hitler? Thank God they didn't. Thank God the boys at the Alamo didn't shrug. We are shrugging it off, though. We are pretending it is not happening.
Is anybody paying attention to what is happening in London? Am I going to say it here on the floor of the House and get the scorn of people when I say: You have got a massive Muslim takeover of the United Kingdom going on right before our eyes? They would say: Well, Chip, what is wrong with that? Well, I have got some pretty strong concerns about Sharia law and whether that will be forced upon the American people. In this case the people of the United Kingdom. I have got pretty strong concerns about people who want to see Israel's destruction, who were happy about October 7, who were elected in the United Kingdom. Some might say that we have seen that here in the United States.
What are we going to do about that? We have 51\1/2\ million people who are foreign born in the United States. They have about 20 to 25 million kids. That puts it at well over 20-some percent of our population. It is the highest such number in the history of our country.
People say: Well, isn't that great?
Is it? Are we teaching people about Western civilization? Are we teaching people about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the rule of law? Are we teaching them Western values? Are we teaching them God exists? Are we teaching them the importance of freedom or are we teaching an entire generation--or two or three--to run around complaining about what is wrong and why the entire world is against them because of their skin color, their sex, their supposed gender identity, whatever the hell category we create to make people have an excuse for not just stepping up and achieving the American Dream?
That is what we are doing. Our borders are wide open. People go: Well, I know it is bad. It is bad, Chip, but what do we do about it?
Stop it. Like actually stop it. We literally just gave away every ounce of leverage we had. Why? To fund Ukraine. Unpaid for, with no clear mission. We said: Who cares about America's borders? Sorry, Chip, we couldn't get it done. I have got to go back to the people of Texas, and say: Well, sorry, we will get `em next time.
Look, nobody I know--Conservative, moderate, Democrat--nobody comes here expecting to get everything they want. It is a body of Representatives. It is the worst form of government except for all the others. I get it, but I am sick and tired of watching this play play out the same way every single time. The American people get screwed and get left holding the bag. That is the truth.
Every single hardworking family across this country right now who can't afford groceries, can't afford electricity, can't afford to buy a car, can't send their kid to a school that they can believe will teach them the right thing, teach them God exists, teach them their country is great, even just teach them that there is man and woman. No, none of that.
We are funding this radical climate agenda that is destroying our ability to have energy right now. You are not going to have an internal combustion engine in 10 years because these radical nuts are killing your ability to do it. Republicans are sitting back and shrugging, patting ourselves on the back for increasing mining for rare earth minerals in Minnesota or around this country rather than fully opening up American oil and gas, building American nuclear power. It is absurd. It is ridiculous.
The average American right now is wondering whether or not they can actually achieve the American Dream. I want to know whether my colleagues in this Chamber, Democrat or Republican, would come to the microphone and give a rip-roaring speech right now about why every American should believe they are going to be able to achieve the American Dream, because I will tell you right now, unless we lead, unless we take this moment to reverse the direction we are headed, change trajectory, massively shift the direction of our country, then our kids and our grandkids will not be able to achieve the American Dream. They won't.
Well, Chip, how does that sell? What I am selling is a duty to fight. What I am selling is a duty to go fight to make sure those American kids and grandkids can achieve the American Dream. Fight for sovereignty, fight for citizenship, introduce legislation to demand that citizens only vote, to stand up and fight for the opportunity to go carry out your life because you can afford to do it because you have gotten rid of all the regulations that are constraining the hardworking American.
Go get rid of the corporate cronyism enriching the insurance companies, enriching all the big corporations across this country, hospitals and pharma, and strip it away. Get rid of the middlemen and empower doctors and patients and get all that crap out of the way so people can actually go get healthcare. Do that.
Cut the government bureaucracy. Get rid of the bureaucrats. Get rid of DEI. Get rid of critical race theory. Go to war with the bureaucrats, metaphorically, to stop destroying the American Dream. Don't just sit here and come here and give speeches about some basketball team that won the national championship, then go home and say: Look at me, I gave a speech about the basketball championship. Who cares? Their parents can't afford to live.
We have a duty in the people's House to do something. The iceberg is right in front us. My friend, Mr. Schweikert, just explained it. We are massively upside-down. We are bleeding out of every pore of our body in terms of money and debt. Our borders are wide open. We are increasingly unchurched. Our schools are indoctrinating our kids. Our universities are indoctrination camps. They are essentially daycares for elitists, and we just forgave their debts, their student loans.
Every hardworking American out there deserves a Representative who represents them. Democrat or Republican, Conservative, moderate, Liberal, why are you here? What is the point? Why get elected? Why get an election certificate?
The point is, stand up in defense of the rule of law and the Constitution. If you say you believe in limited government, limit it. If you say you believe in cutting spending, cut it. If you say you believe in securing the border, secure it. If you say you believe in peace through strength, then stop sending our military and our money into endless conflict and instead build a strong military here, sparingly used, make sure our men and women have the care they need when they get home, and send a message around the world that when we use force, it will be used quickly and massively.
This is what the people I represent want. They don't want any more of these feel-good bills because some organization declares ``a week.'' It happens all the time. Teacher week, got to do a teacher bill; cop week, got to do a cop bill. None of that is going to make this country freer or stronger or more secure.
We took an oath to the Constitution. I don't want any more excuses about well, Chip, this only offends the Commerce Clause a little bit. This one is better than that other version. Stop doing it. Go the other direction.
Stop selling watered-down Democrat-light, and go inspire the American people with something better so that the kids of this generation can get their lives out of these phones and get their lives out of the despair of wondering whether they are going to be able to have the American Dream and give them hope that if they go out and they work and work hard and they save money, they are going to be able to buy a house, have a family, they are going to get healthcare because they worked hard and they were able to do it. That is why migrants come here.
Stop paying people not to work. Stop the endless nonsense and drivel that comes out of this body in the name of doing something and, instead, stand up and fight for the American people. Don't give lip service on June 6 because it is the 80th anniversary of what those boys did when they walked into a wall of bullets. Stand up and do a fraction of what they did by having the nerve to vote ``no'' on something, even though somebody might tweet something mean about it.
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