The Choice Before Us

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge this will be the very last time I speak in this Chamber before the next Presidential election.

In the coming weeks, the American people will head to the polls, and we will have a choice before us. We can choose 4 more years of Vice President Harris chaos and madness, or we can choose 4 years of law and order and American strength.

When I came to Congress almost 4 years ago, America was strong, our streets were safe, and our border was more secure than at any time in recent history. Prior to the pandemic, the U.S. had one of the strongest economies we have had in the past 20 years.

Even in the face of adversity, President Trump led the Federal Government in empowering America's small businesses and families.

Just a few years before, House Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that put more money in the pockets of American families, put more food on their tables, and better positioned them to care for each other.

Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago, America's strength was well understood on the world stage. The Trump administration spearheaded the historic Abraham Accords, and the U.S. was tough on adversaries like Communist China, Iran, and their terrorist proxies. We saw an era of historic trade deals with the passage of USMCA, President Trump's trade deal with Japan, and his administration's work to hold China accountable for the deal it agreed to. It truly was an era of American greatness.

Unfortunately, much of that greatness has been undermined. I once looked at the Nation and felt optimistic about the future that awaited my children. I felt that when it was time for them to spread their wings and build their own lives, they would inherit a country that gave them the opportunity to pursue their American Dreams.

I was confident that when their time came for them to purchase a home, choose a college or university, or start their own small business, they would step into an economy that would empower them to successfully do these things.

On January 21, 2021, that started to change. Vice President Harris and President Biden have made America less safe, destroyed the American economy, and made America look weak on the world stage.

Since day one, Vice President Harris and President Biden have been laser focused on rolling back President Trump's policies that actually worked.

Their open-border policies have ushered 16 million illegal immigrants into the country without adequate background checks or vetting, making every State in this country a border State. Rather than fixing their open-border policies, they coddle radical activists and leave Americans at risk. Under their leadership, cartels and drug lords have been the winners, and the American people have been the losers.

Vice President Harris and President Biden's economic policies are the primary reason for the skyrocketing inflation that has haunted America over the past 3 years.

In the Big First District of Kansas, American families, small business owners, farmers, ranchers, and our agricultural producers have struggled to manage sky-high interest rates, higher input costs, and a crumbling economy. For young Americans, homeownership feels like a distant dream. Rather than reversing bad policies or coming up with solutions to these challenges, the Biden-Harris administration's proposal is more reckless government spending that got us here in the first place.

Vice President Harris and President Biden have failed to capitalize on the strength of President Trump's trade deals and have formed zero new trade deals in the last 4 years. The country is facing the largest agricultural trade deficit that we have faced in years, hurting American farmers, ranchers, and ag producers, who desperately want access to new markets to help feed a hungry world.

Vice President Harris and President Biden's weak foreign policy gave Russia a green light to attack Ukraine while their appeasement to the Iranian regime emboldened Iran-backed Hamas to attack our strongest ally in the Middle East, Israel. As anti-Semitism rotted our own Nation, college campuses, and universities, the Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye and instead held up congressionally approved arms for Israel to protect itself.

Mr. Speaker, is this the future that we want? Do we want to gift our children a nation with wide-open borders? Do we want them to grow up in a country with an economy that fails to work for the average family and fails to address our $35 trillion debt? Do we want a nation that is unsafe or where the American Dream is no longer attainable?

In a few short weeks, we will head to the polls, and we have a choice. We can vote for a candidate who has told us what she wants to do to address her own failing policies, or we can vote for a candidate who has shown us what his policies can do to strengthen the Nation. I know the choice that I will make.

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