Engaging in Debate
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Wisconsin who frequently comes down to the floor and engages and uses the Special Orders, as we call them. It is great to see him down here.
I often state I wish we would have more engaged debate on the floor of the House, actual debate, not just the kind of fake debate where we go back and forth for an hour equally divided over a bill that we pretty much predetermined will be passed on a partisan basis but actually pick an issue and engage in thoughtful debate back and forth about a topic.
I would encourage any of my colleagues who are willing to do so on, frankly, either side of the aisle where we have reasonable disagreements that we could engage and try to deal with.
The fact is for too long, in this country, in the House of Representatives, we have been dealing with a uniparty.
We have been dealing with essentially not a lot of difference in terms of the total output of what this town does.
We have strong disagreement here on the floor. We pass bills. We get them passed that nobody on that side of the aisle is going to vote for and vice versa, knowing they are going to go to the Senate and die or knowing they are going to get to the White House and not be signed or knowing they are not going to have 60 votes in the Senate.
When push comes to shove on the things that matter, when we come to a spending bill, it is all the same. It ends up being effectively the same. It is the only explanation for being $32 trillion in debt.
Now, by virtue of the bipartisan effort of this body, the bipartisan effort of the Senate, the signature of the President, we now know we will be roughly $36 trillion in debt in January of 2025.
We know this, and we did it. We embraced it, but we didn't materially change the trajectory. Yeah, we dented it a tiny fraction.
We had a spending freeze for 2 years that is a part of a deal that isn't even yet consummated because we haven't done the appropriations process.
We patted ourselves on the back--some of us did--for oh, well, we had to get this done because we might default.
Every time we talk about this effort, it is that we must raise the debt ceiling, or we are going to get to a place where we are going to default on the debt.
The fact is, it is just simply not true. We were never going to default on the debt. The President of the United States was never going to choose in terms of the prioritization of payments to end up in a place where we were not going to make the payments on the interest on the bonds. That is just a fact.
We play this game. To raise the debt ceiling and increase the borrowing level, we say, wait, maybe we should get some changes for that.
We get up to the date, and what happens? People say we are going to default. All of Wall Street calls all the folks and say, well, you are going to do that, aren't you? Everybody hops, both sides of the aisle.
Here we sit, yet again, going from $32 trillion to now, predictably, $36 trillion in January 2025. As sure as the Sun coming up, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President just agreed to mortgage your children's future again because that is what we do. That is what the House of Representatives does.
The point here is, as I said, we were never going to default on our debt. What we are going to do with almost the same amount of certainty as what I just described is default on the American Dream. That is where we are headed, a full-scale, unequivocal default on the American Dream.
This is all led by the people who are supposed to be representing the American people in this great Republic but who are barreling us right down the path, if we are not there already, to default on the American Dream.
The hardworking American family right now, today, is sitting out there in this country unable to afford groceries, unable to afford gas, unable to afford housing, and unable to afford healthcare.
I talked to staffers in this building in their twenties, and they looked at me and asked: How am I ever going to afford to buy a house?
They genuinely mean it. They don't know.
The hardworking plumber in the district I represent in central Texas who never took out a student loan is now being forced to pay for his neighbor's master's degree.
The veteran is paying for some liberal arts major to get the same student loan benefits he earned by risking his life for America.
The nurse wants to save lives without a Federal bureaucrat telling her she needs to take a needle in her arm to keep her job.
The blue-collar workers are watching their way of life sacrificed to the climate cult and billions of corporate crony tax subsidies in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, enriching elite, wealthy investors-- true--and corporations--true--all while empowering the Chinese Communist Party, weakening our own grid, and undermining our own national security--all true.
The rancher right now in Texas who is putting diesel in his truck is forced to subsidize a tech worker making six figures to buy a Tesla hundreds of miles away. This body just encouraged it.
Minority and poor taxpayers are trying to make ends meet but have expanded IRS audits, three to five times more than other Americans.
The fact is, we are on the verge of defaulting on the American Dream.
It is not enough to play politics and just pass something and then try to point the finger at the other party. Well, we just got this, and it is better. That ain't working. It is simply not working.
We had a rather raucous meeting in our Republican Conference this morning. I make it a practice not to talk about what we do in private meetings. Some of my colleagues do not adhere to that same standard or rule. It tends to leak like a sieve. A lot of the conversations we had in that private meeting are not fully private now.
To my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but particularly my colleagues on this side of the aisle, my Republican colleagues, let me be very clear: I will be happy to engage personally anytime, anywhere, on any of these issues. We can have disagreements, and we can reasonably disagree. I am going to say emphatically right here in front of God, in front of all the people I represent in this hallowed Chamber, I don't give a rat's rear end what you think compared to what my constituents think. I don't.
My job is to care what my constituents think. My job is to care about people on the airplane or down the street who pull me aside every day and thank me and thank a few of my colleagues for daring to stand up against the uniparty and an institution that is trampling their way of life. I will stand with them.
I will stand with the American people sick of having the American Dream pulled out from under them. I will stand with them.
I will be happy to work with my colleagues. I love and respect many of my colleagues. I do not answer to my colleagues. I answer to the people I represent, and I am going to darn well stand up and defend them.
I am going to fight to stop spending money we don't have. I am going to fight to secure the border of the United States. I am going to fight for all the people I just described who are losing their ability to afford a home, afford groceries, to be able to carry out their livelihood, their job, without being forced to take a needle.
I am going to fight for the guy trying to put diesel in his truck and not have to subsidize a Tesla. I am going to fight for people to have a stable grid. I am going to fight for the national security of this country. I am going to fight to stop China from encroaching on this country.
I am not going to give lip service for ads to go win political campaigns when you did nothing. I am not going to do that. I am not going to try to sell the American people on something that didn't occur.
That is what we do in this body all the time. It is time that stops. We have a duty--yes, a bipartisan duty.
If any one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would actually like to join the party of standing up for the American people and standing up in defense of this country instead of a radical leftist ideology that results in a pride flag being hung at the same level as the United States flag on the front of the White House and people parading around topless in front of the White House, the people's house for their President--have we no respect? Does the flag of the United States mean nothing?
It is the flag of the United States. Men and women have died for that flag, and they put that flag up to the side, flanking a pride flag on the front of the United States President's house. It is despicable. They did that right on the eve of Flag Day.
Tomorrow is Flag Day. The flag of the United States stands for something so much bigger than any of these people running around pretending like they are standing up for, oh, we can't have established religion, and we are for the separation of church and state. Yet, their religion is represented by that pride flag on the front of the White House. It is a religion, just like the cult of climate fetishism is a religion every bit as much as any religion.
How many lives have been lost with that flag on a patch on the arm of one of our men and women who have fought for this country, and that is what they do? I am at a loss for words. I really am.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to read one thing here, and then I am going to yield to my friend from Pennsylvania. It is going to take me a couple of minutes.
One of my favorite songs is ``The Ragged Old Flag'' by Johnny Cash. I will not do this nearly as cool as Johnny Cash does.
It goes like this: I walked through a county courthouse square. On a park bench, an old man was sitting there. I said, ``Your old courthouse is kinda rundown.'' He said, ``Naw, it'll do for our little town.'' I said, ``Your old flagpole has leaned a little bit, and that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.'' He said, ``Have a seat,'' and I sat down. ``Is this the first time you've been to our little town?'' I said, ``I think it is.'' He said, ``I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag.'' ``You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when Washington took it across the Delaware. And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it writing `Oh, Say Can You See.' And it got a rip in New Orleans with Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams.'' ``And it almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through. She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville and she got cut again at Shiloh Hill. There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg, and the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.'' ``On Flanders Field in World War I she got a big hole from a Bertha gun. She turned blood red in World War II. She hung limp and low by the time it was through. She was in Korea and Vietnam. she went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.'' ``She waved from our ships upon the briny foam, and now they've about quit waving her back here at home. In her own good land here she's been abused--she's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused.'' ``And the government for which she stands is scandalized throughout the land. And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin, but she's in good shape, for the shape she's in. `Cause she's been through the fire before and I believe she can take a whole lot more.'' ``So we raise her up every morning take her down every night. We don't let her touch the ground and we fold her up right. On second thought, I do like to brag, 'cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag.''
On tomorrow, Flag Day, I hope we will honor the American flag. I know that my friend from Pennsylvania is proud to be a Member of Congress, but certainly I would think more proud to have worn the uniform of the United States military and devote his life in service to his country.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania.
Again, I want to reiterate on this eve of Flag Day my appreciation for his service to this country wearing the uniform and in Congress. He understands what citizenship means.
I am deeply appreciative of him for that. I am deeply appreciative of his friendship. I am deeply appreciative of the friendships I have here in this Congress, my colleagues whom I am proud to serve with across the spectrum, but particularly those colleagues who are willing to stand in the fire when it is needed.
We don't have much time left, Mr. Speaker. I don't say that lightly. You cannot look at this country with objective and clear eyes and believe that we are on the right path. We are not. We are so far off the right path that it is going to take a massive course correction and trajectory change to save this great Republic for our kids and grandkids.
That is not hyperbole. Our children and our grandchildren are on the precipice inheriting now--booked, as I said before--$36 trillion of debt guaranteed, give or take a few billion, in January of 2025.
I am just going to be honest. To be lectured by some of my colleagues this morning, to be lectured about my motivations for why I am here on the floor of the House and standing up and speaking right now and for it to be alleged that it is for clicks or for money, the only thing that would have made it more ironic is if that meeting had occurred in the NRCC.
The fact is it is our job right now to stand up and defend the country and not wait for some time in the future.
I don't want to hear another thing about, Well, we will do it when. We will do it when we have the Senate. We will do it when we have 60 in the Senate. We will do it when we have a bigger majority. We will do it when we have someone in the White House.
Why don't we do it right now? Right now?
Let's have these debates. Let's have these fights out on the floor of the House right now, because I can promise you, the debt deal that we just passed ain't going to get the job done. It is not, and everybody here knows it.
Yet, they are going to go out and sell it as if it is something that it isn't; thinks, well, that is water under the bridge. Well, that is a hell of a lot of water under the bridge. There is $4 trillion worth of water under that bridge.
Now we have got to go to work to pass appropriations bills. Will those appropriations bills turn the trajectory of this country away from the iceberg? That is my question for my colleagues.
We should appropriate to the FY22 levels that we have been talking about since last December, that we told the American people we were going to do.
We should appropriate the Federal bureaucracy back to pre-COVID levels because nobody in America thinks we should continue to spend at post-COVID levels. I am going to stand on that. I am going to keep fighting for that. I believe the American people want us to do that. I believe they want the bureaucracy to be shrunk. I believe they want their country back. I believe they want their lives back. I believe they don't want any more bureaucrats interfering with their freedoms, and I think we should stand united, yes, united in defense of the American people in fighting for their freedom. That is what I believe we should do.
Does my friend from Pennsylvania have anything else he wishes to add?
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania. I am going to close with this: An opinion in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.
``Defendants, illegal aliens, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. The sentencing information shows that on behalf of the Juarez cartel, defendants participated in an alien smuggling conspiracy. Their participation included operating an illegal alien stash house in Fort Worth, Texas, and transporting those who had been smuggled into the United States to their desired destination upon full payment. The smuggling organization charged $10,000 to smuggle an adult illegal alien into the United States and between $12,000-$14,000 to smuggle a child illegal alien.''
I am going to stop there. More money to smuggle a child illegal alien.
``Law enforcement discovered the Fort Worth portion of this smuggling operation after a man in Baltimore, Maryland (the husband) paid the organization to have his wife and 2-year-old daughter smuggled into the United States after they arrived in Mexico from Honduras. The husband contends that he paid the smuggling organization $1,000 to smuggle his wife and child into the United States. They were then transported to the stash house in Fort Worth, where the husband contends a member of the smuggling organization demanded he pay an additional $23,000 before his family would be released. The member also told the husband, `they would do things to his daughter he [would] not like' if he did not make the payment.''
It goes on to describe the absurdities of cartels in active engagement in this Republic, in this country, and we are doing nothing about it. The judge closes out: ``The guidelines--the sentencing guidelines--do not adequately take into account these facts when recommending an appropriate prison range. The current prison guideline calculation of 51-63 months fails to meet the requirement that any sentence provide adequate deterrence and just punishment. Accordingly, the parties are provided notice that the court intends to vary upward from the applicable guideline range so that they may address this at the time of sentencing.''
My point is, a Federal judge is having to step in to do the work that we are supposed to do here, to stand up and defend this country, not just for ourselves, but for the people being abused in our name. These are human beings.
Texans are getting absolutely ravaged in south Texas, ranches getting overrun, people dying from fentanyl, and here, migrants getting abused in the false name of compassion. Literally, thousands of dollars to have to pay to get out from a stash house.
As we head into Flag Day tomorrow, and we think about what that flag represents for people around the world seeking to come here, is that what it is?
Is it to be in a stash house where a little girl is being threatened?
Why won't we do anything about it?
Why should we appropriate money to a Department of Homeland Security that refuses to secure the homeland?
We have a job. We have a job to represent the people of the United States and to actually do what we are supposed to do to defend the United States and ensure that we have a sovereign nation. We should think about that tomorrow as we head into Flag Day.
While the White House flouts the United States flag, we should honor it. We should honor it right here, and we should honor it, remembering that the flag consists of 13 horizontal stripes, 7 red alternating with 6 white. We know that the stripes represent the original 13 Colonies; the stars, the 50 States of the Union.
A lot of people don't know, though, that the colors of the flag are symbolic as well. Red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
Are we going to stand up for those tomorrow?
Are we going to stand up those for the rest of this Congress or are we going to continue to punt for some future date when everything magically works out politically so that you can finally stand up and do what you know is right today?
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