Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism
Floor Speech
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Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Waters for the time, although I must say that I am a little bit confused. I am not going to frame this as a parliamentary inquiry, but I am very confused.
We have just gotten back from a 2-month paid vacation in which Federal employees didn't get paid, in which we started a war without congressional approval, in which electricity prices went up for 70 million Americans, and in which inflation is rocking along at 3\1/2\ percent.
I thought we were going to be in this Chamber talking about affordability.
By the way, my friends on the Republican side just got shellacked in an election, from sea to shining sea, where the word is affordability. They got shellacked on affordability.
What did we do this week? Congressman Norman, a guy who put a .38 Smith & Wesson on the table when he met with Moms Demand Action on Gun Safety and who called for martial law to stop the peaceful transfer of power to stop Joe Biden from becoming President, decided that Stacey Plaskett should no longer be on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. We spent half a day on that.
Congresswoman Mace decided that Cory Mills should no longer be on committees. Apparently, we may do another one.
I prepared a speech on affordability with lots of good ideas on how to make stuff cheaper. It says it right there: Lots of good ideas on how to make stuff cheaper.
Good idea number one: Get rid of tariffs, which are a tax on bananas, coffee, vegetables, pasta sauce, pasta, televisions, automobiles, and burgundy, a fine French claret for my Republican friends over there.
Number two: Stop canceling generation projects, which will make electricity cheaper.
That was my speech. Instead, we are here to denounce the horrors of socialism. That is not what I was prepared to talk about. If I were prepared to talk about it, I would point out two things.
Number one, if you have ever cracked a book or talked to somebody, you would know that socialism is different than communism. The chairman and I both come out of a highly capitalist industry, banking. There are socialist countries that have exhibited horrors, like Denmark, like Finland, any other number of socialist countries. Communism, in fact, if this resolution said communism, I suspect we wouldn't even have to debate it because who likes communism.
Anyway, I would make that point if I were interested in having this debate, or I might point out--and I welcome the Republican majority in finally catching on--the fact that we are living in the most socialist administration in two and a half centuries.
What is the definition of socialism? Again, if you crack a book, you will see that it is state control over the means of production. This President has taken a 10 percent stake in Intel, a 15 percent stake in MP Materials, a 10 percent stake in Lithium Americas, and a 10 percent stake in Trilogy Metals, and we have a golden share in U.S. Steel-- state control of the means of production.
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Mr. HIMES. If the definition of socialism is political control over the means of production, welcome to the great socialist state of the United States of America.
The other definition, by the way, has to do with command and control. Those are words we remember from the Communist era, command and control. Well, holy smokes, there is not a media company, a law firm, or a university that has not been subject to the command and control of the Oval Office.
The President has demanded money. It looks a little like extortion to me, but in order to avoid making a personality, let's just call it dividends. The President has demanded dividends from any number of companies. This is command and control.
I am not actually interested in having that debate because I think we would all agree on much of this stuff, including the fact that we are now living in one of the most socialist countries on the planet.
What I really want to do is talk about affordability, which is what the American people care about.
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