Executive Session

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, in thinking about some of the debates swirling about here in Washington, DC, as to whether capitalism or socialism should be a preferred economic model, I recall a story that involves Boris Yeltsin, who went on to become the Russian President, who happened to be in Houston, TX, in 1989, visiting the Johnson Space Center--a very important part of NASA in Houston--when he decided to visit a grocery store in Clear Lake, TX. Though it sounds like it could be, this isn't the beginning of a Wes Anderson film.

It was nearly 20 years ago, in 1989, when the Soviet Union had not yet imploded and when the Berlin Wall was still standing. It would be 2 years before Yeltsin would be forced to take steps to begin to transform the Soviet economy. As I said, he was in the Houston area, finishing a tour of the Johnson Space Center, when he made an unscheduled stop at a Randalls grocery store before he headed to Miami.

The Houston Chronicle reported at the time that Yeltsin gawked at the abundant produce, the selection of fresh fish, the checkout aisle, and especially the frozen pudding pops. He roamed the aisles, according to the story, stared at the frozen food section, and took advantage of the free samples of cheese. He actually talked to some of the customers there and asked questions about what they were buying and how much it cost them. He was stunned--absolutely stunned--as this was a far cry from the grocery stores in the Soviet Union. Yeltsin said: "Even the Politburo doesn't have this kind of choice, not even Mr. Gorbachev.''

That day, Boris Yeltsin learned something that the overwhelming majority of people in our country already know--that socialism cannot provide the bounty, the prosperity, or the choices that capitalism can.

Leon Aron, who wrote Yeltsin's biography, quoted one of his associates.

He said:

For a long time, on the plane to Miami, he sat motionless, his head in his hands. "What have they done to our poor people?'' he said, after a long silence.

He told his fellow countrymen who were traveling with him that if their people were to see the conditions in American supermarkets, "there would be a revolution.''

Make no mistake about it. If the most radical Democrats in our country today get their way on the outlandish socialist policies they are pushing, the American people will be calling for a revolution.

The Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and economic security for those who are able-bodied yet who are unwilling to work are policies that are not going to raise up the most economically disadvantaged people in our country. They are going to pull everyone else down. Socialism promises not prosperity for all but what Winston Churchill called the equal sharing of miseries.

Though these self-proclaimed democratic socialists make big promises on how their policies will deliver fairness and equality for all Americans, that could not be further from the truth. The first thing these policies would do is to bankrupt our country. These unworkable economic policies will kill jobs and outlaw our most reliable, affordable energy sources. "Medicare for All'' will turn into "Medicare for none'' when the entire system crashes and when those who are unwilling to work will lose any incentive to even try. It would subsidize a nation of slackers.

This threat of the seductive embrace of socialism isn't an exaggeration. Some of our friends across the aisle are actually critical of the equal opportunity, "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,'' hard-working economic system that has made our country the envy of the world. They say: You didn't create your success; the government did--what a bunch of hooey.

Over the weekend, one Democratic Member of the House who was speaking at South by Southwest in Austin, my hometown, referred to capitalism as "irredeemable'' and tried to blame capitalism for every problem that exists in our society. I admit that we are not perfect, but capitalism isn't the cause of every problem that exists in our society. Of all places to complain about the perils of capitalism, there is more than a little irony in her having chosen Texas--the most successful, free- enterprise economy in our Nation.

Instead of talking about this socialist, Big Government approach that we all know will fail, let's look at how the Texas model has led my State to become an economic powerhouse and the envy of the Nation.

We keep taxes low, government spending restrained, and regulations at a rational minimum to give people and the small businesses that provide jobs the freedom to pursue their dreams and to prosper. I must say that it is obvious that it is working. The unemployment rate in Texas is 4 percent, which is among the lowest in the Nation. In Midland--in the Permian Basin, the heart of the energy boom in my State--unemployment is 2.1 percent. You are hard-pressed to find anybody to take the jobs that do exist because, essentially, everybody who is willing to work is fully employed. The biggest problem that job creators have is getting the workers they need. Yet there is a silver lining for the workers. This pushes wages higher as businesses compete for their labor.

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released international trade data that showed Texas, for the 17th year in a row, as the top State for exports. We make stuff, and we sell stuff. We grow things. We raise cattle and agricultural products, and we sell them. We are the top State for exports. In fact, our exports account for nearly 20 percent of the exports of the entire Nation. In 2018, that totaled more than $315 billion of exports--more than double that of California's, which is the second highest exporter. These earnings not only fuel the economy of our State, but they boost the entire Nation.

Our export dominance is only part of the reason Texas is thriving. Together, with lower taxes and less burdensome regulation, businesses and dream seekers are drawn to our State, which creates opportunities for everyone who is willing to work. Instead of growing government and increasing the tax burden, we allow businesses--small, medium, and large--to invest in their workforces, in our communities, and in our way of life.

In Texas, we believe that less government is more. We don't try to centralize power in the statehouse. We give businesses, entrepreneurs, and hard-working Texans of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and races the freedom by which they can create their own opportunities. We know that the more you tax, the more there are government controls and that the more you regulate, the greater the burden is on new ideas, investment, and opportunity.

The socialist policies being espoused by some members of the Democratic Party are not going to make our businesses and our economy stronger or more competitive. Indeed, history has shown that these are failed policies that will stifle innovation, discourage hard work, and make us look more like that 1980s Soviet grocery store.

Instead of our grocery stores being filled with a selection of beautiful produce, fresh meat, your favorite snack foods, they will be stocked with whatever the government says it wants you to have. Instead of making an appointment with your doctor when you are sick, you will wait for Lord knows how long to get an appointment with a government- run clinic and have few, if any, options. Instead of forcing ourselves out of bed in the morning to go to work, people who are able but who don't want to work will stay in bed, knowing they can receive food and medical care that will be subsidized by your labor and your hard-earned tax dollars.

That is what these old--but now, somehow, dressed up as something new--failed ideas that have been proposed by our Democratic colleagues would do. Forget government "of the people, by the people, and for the people.'' They want a country by the government, for the government-- the people be damned.

In his autobiography, Yeltsin wrote: "When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people . . . that such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty.''

I pray that our country never sees that day when it is brought to ruin because of these 21st century socialists.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source