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[Page H3846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICA LEADS THE WAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Arrington) for 5 minutes.
Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the warnings to not
mention the President, but you know what? They are going to continue to
come. They won't be heeded.
People say they have respect for the rule of law. Do they even have
respect for the House rules and the dignity that we have as leaders of
our country to follow those rules?
How can we ask the American people to follow rules we pass when we
don't follow the rules even on the House floor?
Madam Speaker, I know you understand this. My heart is heavy because
I sit here, prepared to speak about one thing, but I feel like I have
to say that I am very concerned for my country when my colleagues on
the Democratic side speak of socialism as if history isn't littered
with examples of failure, of destitution, of destruction of not only
the economies of countries that go down that road of ruin but what it
does to their people.
We see this in the most recent example of Venezuela. How can we be
talking about these big-government, socialist ideas like the Green New
Deal? Even Speaker Pelosi calls it a fantasy.
When colleagues on the other side aren't talking about giving
Washington more control over the American people's lives, they are
talking about party over country, unpatriotic rhetoric, in my opinion,
and political theater.
That is the agenda. That is what they have. That is the bold vision
of where they want to take this country. Not me, and not the people of
west Texas. I can promise you that.
I mentioned the Green New Deal as the Democrats' signature
legislation to steward the environment. They want to eliminate
airplanes, ladies and gentlemen. They want to eliminate cows.
They want to give everybody a paycheck, guaranteed income whether you
work or not. Whether you are capable of working or not working,
everybody ought to get a paycheck, guaranteed, full faith and credit of
the United States of America.
That is where this country would go if we didn't have a Republican
Senate, if we didn't have a Republican President, and if we didn't have
Americans with better sense.
Look, is the climate changing? Yes, it is changing. What are the
factors? What are the variables? How serious? Which variables are
contributing over the others?
Let me tell you what is real. What is real is the responsibility we
have to steward our environment.
I want clean air and water for my three children. I think, as leaders
of this great country, we ought to be responsible for providing not
only a land of opportunity for the future of our children but a clean
land of opportunity.
Let's just get the facts straight for the American people. America
has been leading the way in this regard. The Clean Air Act is one
example.
We had six key pollutants that we identified, in a bipartisan way,
that had an impact on our health and well-being in this country. We
have reduced those pollutants by 73 percent since 1970. At the same
time, we have grown this economy 230 percent.
America is leading the way. In greenhouse gases, from 2005 to 2017,
U.S. energy-related emissions fell by 14 percent when the rest of the
world increased their emissions by 20 percent.
Folks, through American innovation, through reasonable regulations,
we have been able to lead the world and provide for a cleaner
environment and steward God's great Earth, a gift to us.
We do have a stewardship responsibility. We have a calling to our
creator and our children.
I don't want the American people to be misled, certainly not at a $93
trillion cost and a plan that eliminates cows and airplanes. Give me a
break.
The committee of jurisdiction, the Energy and Commerce Committee,
hasn't even taken up that legislation. But that is what they have.
I hope we can work in a balanced way. I hope we can find ways to
continue to do what we are doing, which is to steward our resources,
provide for a cleaner environment for our children, and at the same
time, make sure that we have opportunities for our kids to pursue their
dreams and dream big and do better for their families because just
talking about dirty fossil fuel is not enough of a plan.
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