Government is Still the Problem

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, Zohran Mamdani's winning message was affordability, that the necessities of life are increasingly out of reach for most people, and that government is the answer.

He said on election night: ``There is no problem too large for government to solve.''

Mr. Speaker, he is right about the problem, but he is completely wrong about the solution. As Ronald Reagan often warned: ``Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.''

Housing affordability is a good place to start. When and where a free market is maintained, homebuilders have every incentive to meet the housing needs at every income level. The profit margin might be bigger at the top, but the sheer numbers of lower income families compensate with volume, assuring ample affordable housing for all income levels.

Government sets basic safety standards but otherwise leaves consumers alone to make their own decisions about everything else. As the tax base grows, new revenues are available to expand water systems, electricity generation, highway capacity, schools, police, and fire, all the necessities of a community.

Landlords have every incentive to provide as many rental units as the population needs, while competition keeps rents low and demand keeps units plentiful.

What has happened? Government decided to solve what socialists viewed as problems.

To solve suburban sprawl, the socialists began imposing severe limits and costly fees on construction permits. Builders could no longer profit from building vast numbers of affordable homes, so they focused their limited permits on the pricier models.

To solve climate change, the socialists mandated outrageously expensive add-ons like solar panels and hermetically sealed windows.

To solve their environmental angst, they required pointless studies that were endlessly time-consuming and outrageously costly along with backbreaking, outrageous environmental fees, adding many tens of thousands of dollars to the costs that were all passed on to helpless homebuyers.

As these solutions drove up the price of housing, the socialists began offering subsidies to lower income earners who had been priced out of the market by the socialists' own policies. As taxpayer dollars flooded into the already constricted market, prices and rents rose still further. As socialists solved the rental problem by freezing rents, landlords stopped building new units or maintaining existing ones.

When anything is scarce, it is expensive. When it is plentiful, it is cheap. Socialists have made housing scarce and, therefore, expensive. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than comparing the socialist utopia of California with the free State of Texas.

Last year, more housing permits were granted in the Houston and Dallas metropolitan areas than in all of Gavin Newsom's California. The median price of a home in Texas is $345,000. In California, it is $900,000.

Take healthcare. Americans once paid for their own healthcare. They could choose among policies offered by hundreds of competing providers for the one that best met their needs and circumstances. Most opted for inexpensive catastrophic plans for accidents and illnesses that could have bankrupted them, while paying for routine care out of pocket. Competition for their business kept prices low and quality high.

Socialists objected to leaving the poor to an extensive network of charities. They solved our healthcare inequalities with highly subsidized and mandated coverage that leaves consumers powerless to choose their own best options while severing the connection between the patient and the payer.

When somebody else is paying the bill, the patient doesn't care about price, and the payer doesn't care about quality. The result is costs spiraling out of control while patient satisfaction continues to decline.

At the center of socialism is the mistaken belief that profit is waste, and if it can be removed from the equation, everything will be cheaper. That is the fundamental misconception behind Mamdani's government grocery stores. Yet, profit is not waste. Profit is the essential ingredient that spurs competition, drives innovation, demands efficiency, and craves consumer satisfaction. Take profit out of the picture, and you have just learned the difference between FedEx and the post office.

Consumer electronics have steadily declined in cost while quality has steadily improved, precisely because the socialists have not yet decided to solve this market. When they do, you can expect the same high prices and decline in quality that they have already delivered in every field that they have solved, from housing to healthcare.

It comes down to four simple words: Freedom works. Socialism sucks.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source