Protecting the American Dream

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, and I rise today to initially extend greetings to all, especially those who are traveling over this season of resurrection.

In my church--I am a Christian--we commemorate and celebrate Easter. I want to let everyone know that I appreciate those who do, and to those who do not, I understand.

I also give a special expression of gratitude and thanks to the thousands of persons who have literally called my office, sent cards, greeted me along life's way, to give me a pep talk, or to simply say to me: We appreciate what you are doing.

It means a lot to me to have people that I do not know, many of whom I will never meet and greet, to simply say to me: We want you to continue to do what you are doing.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, I have been censured. I have been censured. I was censured but not silenced. I was censured but not silenced. I am here today because I was censured but not silenced.

Today, as a person who still speaks truth to power, I also speak truth about power. Speaking truth to power is not as difficult as it is to speak truth about power. To speak truth to power, you but only have to go to power and say: There is a problem, and you and I can solve it. That is speaking truth to power.

When you speak truth about power, you go to power and say: There is a problem, and you are it.

I speak truth about power and to power. Today, I am going to speak truth to power as it relates to the President's tariffs.

One has to ponder why the President of the United States of America would put so much emphasis on these tariffs, emphasizing the tariffs for many years, as I am told, but put emphasis on the tariffs to the extent that he nearly drove the economy into a ditch, a colloquial way of saying driving the economy into an area wherein it would suffer greatly.

The President put a lot of emphasis on this. He was just obsessed with the tariffs. We have to ask ourselves why was he obsessed with the tariffs. I am going to answer this question, and I am going to answer this question as it relates to the President's obsession and how it will impact you. It is important for you to understand how this obsession would impact you, how it would impact billionaires, how it would impact your life. I will answer the question how it will impact you.

It is important for me to call to your attention that the President has a book that you are familiar with. It is styled ``The Art of the Deal.''

Well, I introduce you to the President's art of the steal. A steal can be an underhanded way of acquiring something. This is how the art of the steal works. The President, with his tariffs, will continue--at one point it was going to be unimaginable, but he has reduced it. Let's just say 10 percent. There is a 10 percent tariff.

This tariff is collected at the point of entry into the United States of goods that an importer desires to purvey in this country. He wants to sell it, she wants to sell it, or they want to sell it. They want to sell these goods, so they have to pay this tariff. This tariff has to be paid that the President would add to the goods. Let's say you have something that costs $40,000 coming into the country, a tariff of 10 percent, so that is going to give you an additional $4,000. This additional $4,000 is collected at the point of entry, and the person importing has to pay the tariff.

This is the Trump tariff tax at this point. When that tariff is paid, that money goes into the Treasury of the United States of America, the same place that your tax dollars will go, into the Treasury of the United States of America. The tariff is collected at the port of entry. Let's say $4,000 on a $40,000 item--it is a 10 percent tariff--and when it is collected, it goes again, important to remember, into the Treasury.

Now, that person who imports and has this additional tax now to deal with will do what you will see when you buy something and you are in a State that has a sales tax. You will see that the item costs X amount of dollars. If it is something that costs $40,000 and there is a 10 percent sales tax, then you will see that there is a tax on there, a sales tax of 10 percent, or $4,000.

Well, here is where the stealth comes in. Here is where the art of the steal begins. When the person sells that $40,000 item and has to add that additional $4,000 to it, that person becomes somewhat of a tax collector for the Trump tariff-tax steal. That person who purchased this item, brought it into the country, paid $40,000 for it, and then had to pay $4,000 more, making it $44,000, adds that $4,000 to the product when you buy it. That $4,000 is added.

The unfortunate thing is that it is not done the way a sales tax is done. It is not noted that you are paying it. You pay it because it is a part of buying the product, but there is nothing that will say this is the Trump tariff-tax steal. It won't be there. It is a very stealthy way of doing business.

Most people don't realize that they are paying this tariff, this tax, this steal, if you will. They do, but, again, we really haven't gotten to the essence of what is important here. That money, that $4,000 that was paid at the point of entry, is now collected from you because the person who is selling, purveying, does not want to pay that because they are operating possibly on a thin profit margin. They already have an overhead that they have to consider, so you pay it.

Now it goes into the Treasury, and here is where it gets really stealthy. The steal gets stealthy because at some point, the President is desiring to say that he gave you a tax break, that you got a tax break from the President.

Well, here is the truth. That tax break that you think you are getting or may get and the billionaires will get, that is the money that came out of your pocket.

The President was desiring to get this huge tariff because that would be more money in the coffer coming out of your pocket so that it could then be--some of it--you don't get back dollar for dollar--you might get some of it back. You may not get any depending on your tax circumstance. The billionaires will get plenty. You may not get any.

This is a stealthy way of doing business. It is a steal. This is why it is the art of the steal that has been developed by this President, so that he can take money out of your pocket, put it into the Treasury, and then say later on: You now have a tax break.

I think that people who understand this will understand why tariffs are not always a great benefit to you. They can be a benefit in some circumstances, but remember, the President was putting a tariff on some 90-plus countries. He was putting a tariff on any and every country that he could find a means by which he could tax with a tariff.

Some places didn't have people to actually tax with a tariff, just animal life, but he was desperate because he wants to get money into the coffer, the Treasury of the United States of America, so that he can then say to you: You have now a tax break.

Some of you may--billionaires will--have a tax break, but it is really money out of your pocket that is being returned to you in a diminished fashion. This is the art of the steal as is being perfected by our President.

Our President understands also that there are other ways to get money into the coffer, the Treasury. You can get money into the Treasury by simply having Medicare or Medicaid--have some cuts into these two programs, these two healthcare programs.

This can be done because there has been an indication in this House that some $880 billion will be cut or should be cut or attempted to be cut--I am going to fight it--from the committee that has jurisdiction over Medicaid and Medicare.

You can't cut $880 billion out of the appropriations that will emanate from that committee without cutting into Medicaid or Medicare. You have to do it.

Well, when that is done, that money goes into the Treasury. Now, you add the stealth tax, which was a tariff, and you add the money that you are saving now by putting people who need healthcare in harm's way as it relates to their healthcare, put that money in.

When I say people who need it, I am talking about people who have long-term illnesses and seniors, dual-eligible persons who may qualify for Medicaid and Medicare, so they need these long-term hospitalization programs available to them. That can be cut.

We are talking about the approximately 40 percent of children in this country who benefit from Medicaid at some point in their lives. That can be cut.

These cuts that would impact children and seniors would then go into the coffer. Again, add this to the stealth tariff tax, and you have more money that you can now pass back to people who are going to get a break and say here is what the government is sending you by way of cutting taxes and giving you additional money.

Friends, I conclude that this is a very stealthy way of doing business when people don't always understand. I believe that if people truly understand how the President is amassing this tax break for billionaires, I think they are going to be exceedingly upset.

There are many ways to express how upset you are. You can do this always peacefully. Many are going to protest. Others will do it at the polls. A good many of my colleagues who are participating as persons who are aiding and abetting, if you will, many of them will find, as they are finding out currently, that they are going to be received in less than a very warm way when they find themselves having townhall meetings. They are already experiencing this. That is why many of them are not having their townhall meetings.

They are going to experience it also when we have an election because people aren't going to forget this. They are not going to forget how the President desperately tried to tax them so that he could then return money, some to them if they were qualified but much to billionaires who would qualify.

This is, in my opinion, a shameful and disgraceful way for the President to tell people that they are going to get a tax break when it is really their money that is being returned to them by way of this tariff.

I would also remind people that as we move forward, I have indicated that the filing of Articles of Impeachment is imminent. We are currently in a countdown to impeachment.

Now, those who know me know that I wouldn't say this if I were not going to move on with it, and I am. We will have Articles of Impeachment filed.

I cannot tell you what the vote will be. There are some who would say you shouldn't file the Articles of Impeachment if you can't win. No, you need to know where people stand. You really do. We need to know. I heard a Member just yesterday indicate that we need to have a certain thing brought before the House to understand where people are. It is not unusual for us to have votes to find out where people are on certain issues, and this is no exception.

The first Articles of Impeachment may not succeed, and the second may not succeed, but having laid the foundation for the President's impeachment in the past, I know that impeachment can succeed.

I also know that should Democrats reclaim the House and the Senate by margins that are sufficient to not only impeach but to convict, I believe that the President can be removed from office.

He talks of having another term. Well, Mr. President, you are not going to have another term. That is not going to happen. I know that you have incited persons to come to the Capitol, the citadel of democracy, and engage in an insurrection. I don't know what you have up your sleeve, but I do know that we will prevent you from having a third term, and the best way to do it is to not have you finish this term. The best way to do this is to have you impeached and convicted and removed from office. It can be done. I am telling you, it can be done.

The law says it can be done. We but only have to have the will to do it. The way is before us. The will is what is necessary to implement the way to an impeachment and a removal of Donald John Trump as President of the United States of America. It would be the appropriate thing because he is unfit to be President, unfit to enforce the laws of the land in such a way as to bring honor to the process--unfit.

When you consistently, repeatedly flout the laws, flout the notion of due process, when you have agents of the State approach a female and approach her with persons who would surround her, and then pull up a mask, and then take her away, all in plainclothes, masks, I don't believe that the American people want to see that kind of episode take place in this country. It looks like we have secret police.

America is not a country with secret police that come and take you away, away from your home to some distant State where you are not known, where you don't have resources, and they don't give you any due process. This is not America.

The President is destroying the lawful, judicious processes that we have enjoyed. He is chipping away at them. If the President can do it for a person who is here for whatever reasons, the President can do it to any one of us, especially when the President believes that you don't have to allow a person to say: ``Hey, you have the wrong person. I didn't do that.'' It doesn't matter because the President believes that he has the sole authority, by and through his agents, to determine who can stay and who must leave. Unfortunately, someone who should be here is not here as a result of the President's behavior.

The President is harmful to the processes that we have enjoyed in this country. He is unfit to be President. He is also unfit because he disrespects the judiciary. When he loses a case, it is always the judge's fault.

What is amazing to me is that I have colleagues who are buying into that, that it is the judge's fault. Let's impeach the judge because it is the judge's fault. It is always the judge. It is never his fault. It is always the judge.

When we start this process of having the person who holds the highest office in the land continually say that judges are not fair when they are dealing with him and things that he would have done, when we allow that, we are now sending a signal to the rest of society that the judges are the reason why we are not succeeding, the reason why we can't have whatever it is that we want and can't acquire, and we have to take it to court. It is always the judges.

At some point, people will have a disrespect for the law and the process that will cause others to disrespect the country. People invest in this country because they know that we have a good judiciary, that it is a process that has been in place and that will be honored. They invest in this country also because they know that your money is safe here. You invest in our bills, our bonds. It is safe.

We have stability except when you do as the President has just done, and that is tariff some 90 countries and do it in such a way as to cause people to start to equivocate when it comes to our bonds, our notes.

When that happens, you can see how the President backs off. He understood finally, at last, that he was making a terrible mistake, and he backed off. He has extended what he calls a 90-day pause, but I don't think he is going to go back to where he was. I don't think he will. Even he understands that he was making a serious mistake.

Here is the problem with that mistake: He has hurt the brand, the American brand. He has hurt the image of the country. He has put the country in a position such that people may no longer think that this is the safest place for their investment dollars. They may not want to buy our bonds as readily. If they don't buy them readily, that would then make it difficult for us to sell them to pay bills.

The President is hurting the image of the United States of America. We are now seen as a country that doesn't honor its word. The President negotiated a trade deal with Canada and Mexico; he breaks the trade deal. The President says that he wants Canada to be the 51st State; Canada is not about to become the 51st State.

I will be quite candid with you, I admire the way the Canadians have made it perfectly clear to the President that this won't happen. Someone has to stand up to him.

He wants to take Greenland. He wants to make Gaza a resort. The President has to understand that he is not a king. He is not the emperor. He is not a dictator. He has awesome power, but he doesn't have the power to just go around people and take what he wants. He doesn't have that kind of power, and we can't let him have that kind of power.

Mr. Speaker, it is important for us to move to impeachment because impeachment is the means by which a reckless, ruthless President can be brought into check. This is the balance that we have. When all else fails, when the Congress majority refuses to act, and when he disregards the orders of the court, impeachment is still available.

Mr. Speaker, I intend to bring Articles of Impeachment. I don't know what the vote would be. My guess is that you are not going to get the vote required, but you will get the opportunity to see who believes in what we have said.

We said that the President was a detriment to democracy. We talked about how he would harm the country if he got back into office. Let's find out if we meant that. One of the ways we will find out is with Articles of Impeachment.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to serve my country. I am proud to be an American. It means something to me. I want to protect what this country stands for in a positive way, the positive image that our country has had. I am trying to change the negative image to a positive, but I want to protect that. It means something to me to be an American.

Mr. Speaker, I want this country to be the one that people look up to, as opposed to frowned upon. Many do now because of the way our President behaves.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that I am censured but not silent, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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