The American Dream
Floor Speech
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I do agree. Whether it is in your personal life, your business life, your family life--anything at all--your family, the people, your colleagues around you, the people that you work around demand some deliverable. Deliverable might be showing up on time with a good attitude, but at least you delivered something.
I remember that speech from my good friend, the gentleman from Texas, because I watched it. He started out and he said: What the hell is wrong with this country?
Well, nothing is wrong with this country. The problem is with this place.
There are a lot of good people on this side of the aisle, and maybe we haven't produced a deliverable, but I would also say this: There has been no help, no help at all from the other side of the building, the other side of the aisle or down the street at the White House; no help at all.
I have car manufacturers now coming to see me and they are saying: Well, we are forced to build these electric cars; nobody wants them. Then when they don't have anything else to buy, they buy them. And then they don't work, so they bring them back in and they trade them in for something else, and then they sit there and we can't sell them. Congressman, what are you going to do for me?
My goodness, Joe Biden is the President.
The regulators, every single day another rule, another regulation, they just keep coming and coming.
Members of Congress, I don't know that we are irrelevant, but if we are not willing to stop funding these agencies that keep on prevailing against the American people, well that is what we are going to be.
The Founders made each body to jealously guard its own power. Instead of jealously guarding our power, we have given it to bureaucrats; nameless, faceless people that have an agenda that pass rules with the force of law. These rules that spend all this money make your Thanksgiving dinner more expensive.
My mom went out to get a turkey for our family. My mom makes a turkey for our family and we all get together. She called her son up to say that the turkey costs $70.
Mr. Speaker, from lettuce to lumber, people can't afford in America just to live their lives. They can't afford their bills; they can't afford groceries; they can't afford gas in their car; they can't afford their credit card payments while they try and just live the life that they have lived.
As the slide or the poster over there shows, their bills have gone up that much. They are paying, between the government and the increased cost, an extra month of their pay; every year an extra month for things that they didn't have to just 3 years ago.
This body is the only one that has the power of the purse. This is the only body that can control the spending that is driving up every single cost, every single cost. It starts here.
If we don't have the courage--we can have the conviction--people vote for their Member saying: Well, this guy said when he goes to Washington, he is going to fight the swamp. He is going to fight the bureaucracy. He is going to fight the spending. However, when the bill shows up on the floor and we see the amendment up there, oh, my goodness, every single time you get 100 votes, 150 votes.
Mr. Speaker, it takes 217 to pass these amendments to cut spending. If you said you are going to cut spending at home, then your opportunity happens right here on the floor. If you are not going to do it here, if you are not going to vote that way, don't go home to your constituents and say, I am sorry you can't afford lettuce and a holiday turkey. I am sorry you can't afford your bills: your car payment, your home payment, your insurance payment, your heating bill. I am sorry you can't afford it--because I didn't do anything to help you. Your opportunity, the leverage, the moment is here. It is now.
We have been working on spending bills for months, and the reason that we can't pass them here is because we are spending too much.
Oh, by the way, that is a fight among this side of the aisle that actually some of us want to do something to save our constituents from this overbearing weight of the Federal Government and the regulatory agencies--and I have to say this to my good friend from Texas--with no help whatsoever from the other side of the aisle. No help.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, there is no reason that we should do it. There is not a person in this Chamber on that side of the aisle or this side of the aisle that agrees with Vladimir Putin, the Russian Federation, the invasion of Ukraine, the atrocities that have been committed there. There is not one person that agrees with it.
At the same time, our country is under assault, our country is being invaded, and our country can't afford its bills.
Before we have the audacity, the temerity to demand, under force of law, that our citizens get up in the morning, go to work, and pay their taxes to pay for the pensions and the salaries of government workers in Ukraine--my goodness, are we tone deaf to the fact that the people in this country, the people in the gentleman from Texas' communities, and the people that I represent, can't afford to pay their bills? They can't afford to pay their bills.
None of us agree with what is happening overseas in regard to Ukraine, but we have a duty. We were not elected by Ukrainian citizens. We were elected by United States citizens, American citizens that are paying their taxes under penalty of law.
They will be thrown in jail if they don't pay their taxes. It is the height of insult and injury to tell them you have to pay your taxes and you can't afford a holiday meal, but you can rest assured that that money is going to go over to Ukraine to pay for their salaries and their pensions.
The American people are sick of it. They sent us here to do something about it, and every time we have an opportunity, every single time we have an opportunity, we need to seize that opportunity.
Quite honestly, it just comes down to this, Mr. Roy, when the Senate demands this, when the President demands it, the Speaker of House, this Republican majority, respectfully, just says no.
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Mr. PERRY. That is correct.
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Mr. PERRY. Of course not. My constituents, my bosses, just like your bosses, were vehemently opposed to that last December's cram-down of all this money to all kinds of things, omnibus spending, everything in there. They didn't want it, and as a signal to what we would do if we governed, Republicans, every single one, voted against it.
Now, 9 or 10 months later, we are supposed to act like, well, we didn't get our work done so we are just going to continue that, but don't worry about it. Forget about what happened 9 or 10 months ago.
The American people have not forgotten. Do you know how I know they have not forgotten? Because I was at the grocery store on Monday before I came here, and a woman came up to me with her grocery cart. She recognized me and said: Don't the people that you work with grocery shop? Don't they know how much this costs?
She knows, and she demands that we do better and that I be accountable and not vote for things I voted against 9 months ago and just act like they are okay. They are not okay 9 months later.
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Mr. PERRY. I imagine my district is just like yours.
I visited a local construction company with 400 hardworking Americans. Men and women come in. They have steel-toed boots on, jeans, jackets with stains on them. They come in out of the cold. They don't have time to worry about what amendment or bill you got passed through the House but there was no signature.
Here is what they worry about, to my friend from Texas, and I think your bosses feel the same way: We sent you to Washington to make our lives better. My prices are going up. My selections are going down, and my choices are going down. The government is imposing itself on me about whether I want to install a gas stove in my home or whether I want to speak out about my political views and not end up on some list, or if I want to go deer hunting today and worry that I got the wrong ammunition or that my gun isn't configured so that the Federal Government doesn't come arrest me.
They say: We are counting on you to do this, so don't come home and talk to us about amendments and bills and ``I had a meeting with,'' because it doesn't affect my life. All the things that are happening to me every day from this administration are affecting my life. I am sick of it, and I am sending you down there to stop it.
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Mr. PERRY. There is always some excuse. When we have the House or the Senate, or we have both and the Presidency, there is always some excuse for why it can't be done.
I will tell you this. There is no excuse for the radical march of the left creeping into everybody's life, into every decision that you make, into everything you do. It just keeps happening.
Our bosses are not down here in Washington, D.C. They don't understand committee rules and the process here on the floor. What they understand is that they are getting up in the morning when it is dark outside, packing their lunch, and kissing their kids good-bye before they get on the schoolbus, and they don't know why this is happening to them, but they sure know it is happening.
They think about the extra costs every single week when they are trying to manage their budget. They are like: ``We are making more money, but we still can't afford to live the way we did. We can't afford our food. We can't afford, heaven forbid, if the car breaks down.'' No, they don't understand why.
What they demand, to the good gentleman from Texas, is results, is some product. They don't care about why it can't be done. They are not asking for everything to change overnight. They know we didn't get here overnight, but they want something, some win, to show them some light at the end of this tunnel, but there isn't any. I haven't seen one yet.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, before I go, I will say that the gentleman from Texas is right. We have to unite so that we can be effective against these forces of evil that are destroying the American Dream. It is not uniting for the sake of uniting. It is uniting around a purpose.
Our bosses are very forgiving. They are very gracious. They understand if you fight the good fight and you lose. What they will not accept, what they cannot accept, and what they should not accept is not fighting at all or surrendering before the fight even begins.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, that is our job. Our job is to defend this Constitution. My constituents, my bosses, know I carry one with me every day.
It is a piece of paper, Mr. Speaker. It cannot defend itself. It relies on the integrity, fortitude, courage, and conviction of good people willing to come here to serve and fight on its behalf, like the good gentleman from Texas.
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