Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I wish we were here on the House floor this morning debating solutions that would reduce grocery bills, lower housing costs, end Trump's tariffs that are strangling American small businesses and manufacturers, solve the Republican healthcare crisis, or any legislation that allows Americans to afford to live through the catastrophic economic policies of Trump and the Republicans.

Mr. Speaker, instead of doing the work that our constituents desperately want us to do, Republicans in the House have chosen once again to advance a resolution under the guise of denouncing ``socialism.''

Let me be clear. This resolution is an embarrassing distraction from the complete and total failure of the Trump administration to deliver actual results for the American people, and the American people see right through it. Sixty-one percent of Americans say that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in this country, and 64 percent of Americans say Trump's policies are raising the prices of food and groceries.

What is worse is that this very resolution goes further by using the specter of socialism to undermine some of the most important government programs in our country like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare. These are programs that help everyday Americans put food on their plate and care for their children.

Republicans absurdly think they can convince Americans these programs that are decades old are leading America toward a Stalinist Russia, even though it is blatantly obvious that the policies of Donald Trump are straight out of a dictator's playbook.

Mr. Speaker, the House returned this week from the Trump-Republican shutdown, the longest government shutdown in American history. While House Republicans gave themselves a paid, 2-month vacation, hundreds of thousands of Federal employees were left wondering how they were going to pay their rent or mortgage, and 42 million Americans nearly lost their food assistance.

What was the Trump administration doing? Instead of working with Congress to end the shutdown or with local communities to blunt the impacts of the shutdown, it decided to use the full force of the United States Government to make sure these American families went hungry and fought twice in the Supreme Court to block legally available funds from being used to help feed them. It further chipped away at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and fired an entire office dedicated to helping rural and struggling communities, the Community Development Financial Institutions fund. All of this because Republicans want to raise the cost for people with ObamaCare health insurance.

Twenty-two million Americans will see their monthly health insurance premiums double, and up to 5 million Americans will likely lose their insurance altogether.

Where is the Republican plan? Where is the plan? Where is the plan to deal with all of this? They don't have one because they think keeping healthcare costs low is socialist.

If Republicans truly cared about denouncing authoritarian socialism, they would start with the Trump administration. In less than 1 year, the Trump administration has demanded U.S. companies like Intel, U.S. Steel, MP Materials, Lithium Americas, and Trilogy Metals to hand over stock to the U.S. Government. These are capitalist companies who are doing business that they claim this government supports. Trump is also considering forcing Lockheed Martin to do the same.

Why are my colleagues, who are so quick to tout their capitalist leans, silent when Trump follows China's communist tactics? The double standard is astounding.

This resolution also seeks to condemn atrocities committed by despotic regimes such as Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, which everyone in this Chamber agrees should be condemned.

Somehow, once again, this resolution fails to condemn some of our history's most terrible dictators, like Adolph Hitler and modern-day dictators like Vladimir Putin, who is responsible for killing countless people in Ukraine, or President Xi who basically runs actual concentration camps for ethnic minorities.

Why aren't House Republicans denouncing these dictators when we, as Congress, can actually do something to stop it? It is probably because President Trump has said he thinks Putin has done ``a great job,'' and is ``a genius,'' or maybe because he thinks President Xi ``is really a friend of mine.''

In line with these other authoritarian regimes, just this week, Trump said Democrats in the House and Senate had committed ``seditious behavior, punishable by death'' and reposted a post saying: ``hang them.''

We should be working as Congress to denounce these horrific words, not beloved government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Just as those authoritarian regimes are often rife with corruption, the Trump family is also doing everything possible to enrich itself. Since taking office, they have issued their own stablecoins and meme coins and various crypto products, even as Congress was in the middle of considering legislation and regulators were drafting rules. In fact, the Trump family is more than $1 billion richer from crypto alone since Trump took office, and Trump's billionaire buddies have also made fistfuls of money as the rest of America struggles just to put food on the table.

The excess is so great that Trump is literally tearing down the White House to build a golden ballroom. He is sending $40 billion to bail out Argentina and his billionaire buddies and has even hosted Great Gatsby- themed parties at Mar-a-Lago.

This resolution is a huge waste of time and does absolutely nothing to lower costs or solve any of the problems that our country faces.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this resolution. If they keep it up, I am going to name all of the Republicans who took PPP money. Is that socialism? I am going to name them who are taking advantage of other programs that they call socialist. I am going do it if they keep this up.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, for those who are expecting their Social Security checks this month, turn them down if you think that is socialism.

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Ms. WATERS.

Mr. Speaker, House Republicans just passed a resolution that gives Senators the right to sue their own government for up to $500,000. Trump is suing the government also. The President of the United States, who controls the Department of Justice, is suing the Department of Justice. He wants to personally get $230 million because he didn't like being investigated, and he wants to get revenge on his enemies. Give me a break.

I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer).

Listen, instead of debating this pointless resolution, Congress should be focused on how we can reverse the catastrophic economic policies of the Trump administration that have raised costs for everyone.

It is estimated that the illegal disastrous tariffs Trump has imposed will amount to an average tax increase of $1,200 in 2025 and $1,600 in 2026 per household and represent the largest U.S. tax increase as a percent of GDP since 1993.

Mr. Speaker, not only are Trump's policies raising prices for everyone, they are killing American jobs. Although he campaigned on bringing back manufacturing to the United States, President Trump's tariff policies have killed 42,000 manufacturing jobs.

Since the beginning of this year, U.S. employers have eliminated nearly 1.1 million jobs. This past October saw the highest number of layoffs for any October since 2003.

Additionally, during the Trump Republican shutdown, Trump fired an entire office at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund that was dedicated to helping rural and struggling communities.

Instead of debating this useless resolution, we should be working to reverse the Trump administration's reckless economic policies that are hurting the American people.

Does anyone want to know why Republicans are so scared of the mayor of New York? It is because he wants to lower grocery bills, transportation costs, and housing costs. Republicans know that Trump's policies are the reason costs are so high.

Mr. Speaker, the evidence and the facts are right before us about what is happening with this economy. The President of the United States refuses to accept the facts, and he keeps supporting these tariffs. He does not understand how it all works.

We are in danger of him because they and him--the President and the Republican Party--simply want to be in control. They love power. The President loves Putin. The President likes Kim Jong Un. He likes having a parade with all of the military to show he is in control. He comes up with policies that give him more power and more control, and he is ignoring the harm that he is doing to this country.

Mr. Speaker, I say to all the Members: It is not only about the harm that is coming to urban communities. Those rural communities that are losing their hospitals, that don't have healthcare, and have hungry families who have voted for him are now understanding and are demonstrating that it has been buyer's remorse. When the next election comes, we are going to see what happens.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman said something about what was happening in New York with the mayor, and he mentioned government-owned grocery stores. First of all, my colleague won't admit that groceries are too high and that families cannot afford the cost of eggs and basic good foods to have great nutrition for their families.

By the way, let me remind my colleagues of something. My then-husband was stationed at Camp Carson in Colorado. Mr. Speaker, guess where we got our food? We got our food from government-owned commissaries. They had the best prices, and we had great nutrition. They absolutely supported the families. Who ran them? They were run by the government.

I would love the idea of seeing what we can do to reduce the cost of groceries. We already have them in the commissaries. They have price control, and they are heavily subsidized.

Let me ask the question: Does this mean we should eliminate them because that is socialism or because the commissaries provide food that is affordable at the bases all over America and the world?

Are the fire departments, police departments, schools, and hospitals socialism? I raise the question.

Instead of my colleagues taking this time to talk about how we were the cause of the shutdown, when my colleagues know they were, don't deflect it. Come on. Let's talk about socialism. Let's talk about the commissaries. Let's talk about our Social Security. Let's talk about the PPP program and how some of my colleagues got money from their government to put into their businesses.

Let's talk about socialism. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to deflect from what is wrong with this administration and what is wrong with the economic policies of this administration. Let's talk about it.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, as I am challenging my Republicans on the opposite side of the aisle, let's talk about socialism. Let's not try to deflect from what you know and understand that you want to hide.

Before I go into much more, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), who is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, to tell them what socialism is really all about.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say that the Republicans are confusing socialism with despotism or authoritarianism.

Again, Republicans are confusing socialism with despotism or authoritarianism. Despots try to control the press, education, and the system of justice. Despots send the military against their own citizens. Despots try to control the economy. Despots arrest their own citizens, including children, in the middle of the night.

Let me just say that the young lady talked about working hard, and socialism, you know, robs families of what they have worked hard for and what they have earned. Well, I want to ask you: What is this administration doing when it takes a 10 percent equity stake in Intel, 15 percent equity stake in MP Materials, a 10 percent equity stake in Lithium America, a 10 percent equity stake in Trilogy Metals, and a ``golden share'' in U.S. Steel Corporation? What is that?

Now, the Republicans have tried to confuse you on what socialism is and even called it communism-lite. That is an absolute distraction from what we are discussing here today.

Communism is communism. Socialism is socialism. This is a government run by someone who is not taking into consideration the facts and the harm and the threat that they are doing to education, the attempt to take over law firms, the attempt to tell some of the finest universities in this country what they can teach and what they cannot teach, and I repeat, giving away our money to a country, $40 billion, at a time when that money is so desperately needed in this government.

We can talk about this all day, but, absolutely, you are looking silly when you are trying to talk about communism-lite or you are trying to describe socialism when you don't know what it is.

So I am saying that I denounce this administration, Trump's family, and all that is going on that is undermining our democracy.

We are about a democracy that must be protected, that must be fought for. We on this side of the aisle are fighting every day to make sure there is justice and there is equality and that our government is not undermining democracy and calling it socialism, calling it communism, calling it whatever you think you can use to deflect from what is going on.

We are in a terrible time in this government with a President of the United States and a family who is enriching themselves on our backs.

Yes, I fought hard to keep the President of the United States, the Cabinet, and the Members of Congress from owning cryptocurrency, but unfortunately, they are enriching themselves every day. I think the President has enriched himself by maybe $1 trillion already in the limited time that he has been the President of the United States.

So don't come here talking about the dangers of socialism. You better come here and talk about what you are going to do to strengthen our democracy, how you are going to make sure that we have an education system for all the children, rather than an education system that is being torn apart by the President of the United States. Let's talk about how people are sleeping on the street, homeless, when we are cutting Section 8 programs in housing.

We can go on about this all day. I will reserve the balance of my time so I can rest a bit. Let them say what they want to say, so I can come back and tell them what they need to hear.
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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to take the words down.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to take down her words.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Salazar for withdrawing her words, and let's get on with this discussion about socialism.

Instead of legislating and doing the work to tackle real problems-- Americans face the skyrocketing cost of groceries, rising rents, and mortgage payments.

Republicans have always opposed Medicaid and Medicare. They have been undermining it since day one, and they do not want to fix the catastrophic economic policies of this administration.

Mr. Speaker, I want you to know that this administration is responsible for the situation that we find ourselves in with this failing economy. The Trump administration must take the credit for what is happening with the loss of food for our children, for a limited period of time, before we fought to get it back.

Mr. Speaker, I haven't finished, but I vote ``no,'' and I want you to vote ``no'' because this is absolutely unnecessary.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 285, nays 98, answered ``present'' 2, not voting 47, as follows: [Roll No. 305] YEAS--285 Aderholt Aguilar Alford Allen Amo Amodei (NV) Arrington Auchincloss Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Barrett Baumgartner Bean (FL) Begich Bentz Bera Bergman Bice Biggs (AZ) Biggs (SC) Bilirakis Bishop Boebert Boyle (PA) Brecheen Bresnahan Budzinski Burchett Burlison Calvert Cammack Carbajal Carey Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Case Castor (FL) Cherfilus-McCormick Ciscomani Cisneros Clark (MA) Cline Cloud Clyburn Clyde Cole Collins Comer Conaway Correa Costa Craig Crane Crank Crawford Crenshaw Crow Cuellar Davidson Davis (NC) De La Cruz Deluzio DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Downing Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Evans (CO) Ezell Fallon Fedorchak Figures Fine Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Fong Foster Foxx Frankel, Lois Franklin, Scott Fry Fulcher Garbarino Gill (TX) Gillen Golden (ME) Goldman (TX) Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez, V. Gooden Goodlander Gosar Gottheimer Graves Gray Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Hamadeh (AZ) Harder (CA) Haridopolos Harrigan Harris (MD) Harris (NC) Harshbarger Hern (OK) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Himes Hinson Horsford Houlahan Hudson Huizenga Hunt Hurd (CO) Issa Jack Jackson (TX) James Jeffries Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kaptur Kean Keating Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy (UT) Kiggans (VA) Kiley (CA) Kim Knott Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Landsman Langworthy Latta Lawler Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Letlow Levin Lieu Loudermilk Luttrell Lynch Mackenzie Magaziner Malliotakis Maloy Mann Mannion Mast McBath McClain McClain Delaney McClintock McCormick McDonald Rivet McDowell McGuire Meeks Meng Messmer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Moolenaar Moore (AL) Moore (NC) Moore (UT) Moore (WV) Moran Morelle Morrison Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Murphy Nehls Newhouse Norcross Obernolte Ogles Onder Owens Palmer Panetta Pappas Patronis Perez Perry Peters Pettersen Pfluger Pou Reschenthaler Riley (NY) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rouzer Roy Ruiz Ryan Salazar Salinas Scalise Schmidt Schneider Scholten Schrier Schweikert Scott, Austin Self Sessions Simpson Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Sorensen Soto Stanton Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Stevens Strickland Strong Stutzman Suozzi Sykes Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Titus Torres (NY) Trahan Turner (OH) Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Vasquez Vindman Wagner Walberg Walkinshaw Wasserman Schultz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Whitesides Wied Williams (TX) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Yakym Zinke NAYS--98 Adams Ansari Balint Barragan Beyer Bonamici Brown Carson Carter (LA) Casten Castro (TX) Chu Clarke (NY) Cleaver Cohen Courtney Crockett Davis (IL) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DeSaulnier Dexter Doggett Elfreth Escobar Espaillat Evans (PA) Fletcher Foushee Friedman Frost Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Goldman (NY) Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Hayes Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Huffman Ivey Jackson (IL) Jacobs Jayapal Johnson (GA) Kamlager-Dove Kelly (IL) Kennedy (NY) Larson (CT) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Matsui McClellan McCollum McGarvey McGovern McIver Menendez Min Moore (WI) Mullin Neal Neguse Ocasio-Cortez Olszewski Omar Pallone Pelosi Pocan Pressley Ramirez Randall Raskin Rivas Sanchez Scanlon Schakowsky Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Simon Smith (WA) Subramanyam Takano Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Tran Underwood Vargas Waters Watson Coleman Williams (GA) ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--2 Bynum Ross NOT VOTING--47 Barr Beatty Bell Bost Brownley Buchanan Casar Davids (KS) DelBene Dingell Feenstra Fields Garamendi Garcia (CA) Gimenez Gomez Houchin Khanna Krishnamoorthi Larsen (WA) Latimer Liccardo Lofgren Lucas Luna Mace Massie McBride McCaul Mfume Nadler Norman Nunn (IA) Pingree Quigley Rulli Rutherford Shreve Smith (MO) Spartz Stansbury Swalwell Torres (CA) Van Orden Veasey Velazquez Womack

Mr. HOYER changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

So the concurrent resolution was agreed to.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Stated for:

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