What Have Republicans Done For You Lately?

Floor Speech

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to talk about the issue of impeachment; and in connection with that topic, I would use as my text the song some of us may remember by Janet Jackson, ``What Have You Done for Me Lately?''

That is what we should ask the House Republicans: What have you done for me lately?

Well, I will tell you what Congress has been doing. Congress has been wasting your time and your tax dollars. At a time when Congress should be working on the issues that matter most to the pockets and pocketbooks of America's citizens, instead we have, for the last 3 weeks, been wasting taxpayer time and money.

During that 3-week period, over $800 billion in tax cuts have been awarded to the rich people of this country. And guess what. The Republicans have once again violated their own rule and failed to find an offset in the budget to pay for this gift to the wealthy. This means that Republicans have just added--just like that--almost $1 trillion to the Nation's debt.

What have you done for me lately?

This session of Congress, the 113th Congress, which threatens to go down in history as the least productive Congress in the history of this great Nation, this Congress has produced a government shutdown, which cost the American people $24-plus billion. And we have spent in this House of Representatives $79-plus million shuffling paper and voting 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And how much is it going to cost the American taxpayers when the Republicans embark upon this effort to impeach President Obama? How much will it cost? Well, they won't let you know that. I will tell you, shutting down the government and repealing ObamaCare did not work, so we just wasted money. The Republicans came up empty-handed.

So what are they doing now? In fact, working people should ask their Representatives during this upcoming 5-week August recess which we have worked so hard to earn, you should ask your Representative: What have you done for me lately?

Congress has spent the last 3 weeks preparing to impeach President Obama. You see, over the past 3 weeks, the Republicans in the House have been talking up and taking legislative action, at the same time mounting a FOX TV and hate-radio campaign in support of their effort to file a lawsuit against the President of the United States. Now, is this lawsuit simply an attempt to mollify and pacify those Republicans who have turned up the volume on the drumbeat towards impeachment, or, more cynically, is this lawsuit a precursor to the filing of articles of impeachment so they can remove this twice-elected President from office prior to the end of his term?

Either way, it does not look good for America if, in November, voters put Republicans in control of both Houses of Congress. Just like the government shutdown, cooler heads will not prevail. Ted Cruz and the other Tea Party Republicans who were so willing to drive America off the fiscal cliff will not hesitate to do what has never been done throughout the course of our history, and that is to pull off a coup.

So the lawsuit against President Obama should be looked upon as being synonymous with impeachment.

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