Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
Participants
Main
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french hill
rep/r10:51
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maria salazar
09:08
maxine waters
rep/d22:11
Appearances
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buddy carter
rep/r01:10
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dan newhouse
rep/r04:22
jamie raskin
rep/d04:24
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jim himes
rep/d02:15
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john w rose
rep/r02:11
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mark alford
rep/r00:53
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nicole malliotakis
rep/r03:04
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tom mcclintock
rep/r01:15
Clips
glenn ivey
rep/d00:06
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sean spicer
00:18
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Voice
Speaker
Time
Text
Bridging the Divide00:06:43
unidentified
Today, on C-SPAN's ceasefire, at a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, Florida Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz and Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett come together for a bipartisan dialogue on the Epstein files, health care, and top issues facing the country.
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The House approved a non-binding resolution denouncing socialism and opposing the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.
The resolution passed by a vote of 285 to 98, with two members voting present.
There are also fewer members voting to support this resolution than when a similar one was voted on last Congress.
The vote being held ahead of President Trump's meeting this afternoon with New York City Mayor-elect Zorhan Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist.
Ahead of the vote, members from both sides of the aisle debated the resolution when Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar and California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters engaged in a heated exchange.
Mr. Speaker, a yes vote on this resolution should be a relatively straightforward, easy decision.
It simply states that Congress denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementations of socialist policies in the United States of America.
It's a statement that I would hope all of our elected leaders in the United States, up and down our system of government could support.
Socialism ignores the side of man and woman that is the spirit.
It dulls the human capacity for self-initiative, entrepreneurship, risk-taking.
For those that have concerns about the resolution, I just invite you to read it.
It outlines the pain and hardship experienced by millions around the world who have suffered under socialist regimes.
This is something that the sponsor of the resolution, Congresswoman Salazar of Florida, has focused on combating for her entire career.
Congresswoman Salazar is the daughter of Cuban exiles and was born in Miami's little Havana.
Representative Salazar has led the charge against socialist policies.
This resolution today is just one example of her commitment to her constituents and our entire nation.
The contrast between the successful policies under market capitalism and the freedom associated with particularly our robust democracy here in America and socialism across the world and in history could not be starker.
I cannot express this enough.
This resolution is just not a messaging bill, or as some from across the aisle have called it, a waste of time.
It's not that to the people and the families who have experienced the horrors and atrocities associated with socialist regimes.
So I want to thank Congresswoman Salazar for her work on this.
I urge my colleagues to vote on both sides of the aisle a vigorous yes on this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
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 strangling American small businesses and manufacturers, solve the Republican health care crisis,
or any legislation that allows Americans to afford to live through the catastrophic economic policies of Trump and the Republicans.
But instead of doing the work of our constituents desperately want us to do, Republicans in the House have chosen once again to advance a resolution under the guise of denouncing, quote, 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.
61% of Americans say that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in this country, quote, unquote.
And 64% of Americans say Trump policies are raising the prices of food and groceries.
What's worse is that this resolution, this very resolution, goes further by using the specter of socialism to undermine some of the most important government programs in our country, like security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, 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 stonless 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.
And while House Republicans gave themselves a paid two-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.
And 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, fought twice in the Supreme Court to block legally available funds for being used to help feed them.
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 costs for people with Obamacare, health insurance.
22 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's the plan?
Where's the plan to deal with all of this?
They don't have one because they think keeping health care costs low is socialist.
If Republicans truly cared about denouncing authoritarian socialism that started with the Trump administration, in less than one year, the Trump administration has demanded U.S. companies like Intel, U.S. Steel, MP Materials, Lithium Americas, and Triology Metals to hand over stop to the U.S. government, the President of the United States, capitalist countries,
companies who are doing business that they claim they support, that 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 capitalists, 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 Mayo Zedong, while everyone in this chamber agrees should be condemned.
But somehow, once again, this resolution fails to condemn some of the history's most terrible dictators like Adolf Hitler and modern-day dictators like Vladimir Putin, who is responsible for killing countless people in Ukraine, or President Tsai, 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?
Probably because President Trump has said he thinks Putin has done, quote, a great job, quote, unquote, and is a genius.
Or maybe because he thinks President Tsai is really a friend of mine, quote, unquote, in time with these authoritarian regimes.
Just last 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.
And 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 stable coins 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 to just put food on the table.
The access is so great that Trump is literally tearing down the White House to build a golden ballroom, sending $40 billion to bail out Argentina and its billionaire buddies and hosting great Gatsby theme parties at Mar-a-Lago.
This resolution is a huge waste of time and does not absolutely nothing to lower costs or solve any of the problems that our country faces.
I always enjoy my good friend from California's long lectures to this House on her views above current events.
Always grateful for her point of view.
I would share from my perspective that the shutdown was born fully and responsibly, or irresponsibly perhaps, by the United States Senate by just a handful of Democratic senators with their leader, Mr. Schumer, that refused to keep the government open while we continue debates about something we do every day here, which is what are the ways and means to fund the American government.
This body in this House under Speaker Mike Johnson, with bipartisan vote, I might add, had a clean, continuing resolution to keep the government open for those 42 days.
Yet in the Senate, 14 times, Senate Democrats denied funding to air traffic control, denied funding to farm assistance, denied funding for all the federal programs, inconveniencing states, hurting families, hurting federal workers.
And perhaps unlike some, I certainly gave up my pay for those 42 days by direction to this House that I was not going to be paid personally as a member of Congress while we see this kind of lack of responsibility out of the Senate.
But today we're talking about here in the most vigorous democracy in the land in our 250th year, we're talking about rejecting socialism that punishes freedom, punishes individual action, tears families apart.
That's what we're here to talk about.
We're not here to rattle down about current events.
So the gentlewoman from Florida, Congressman Salazar.
Congresswoman Salazar leads our Western Hemisphere subcommittee in the House Foreign Relations Committee.
And what better person, Mr. Speaker, to have this responsibility?
Born in Little Havana in Miami, daughter of Cuban exiles, let her tell you how cushy life was under Castro's communist socialist dictatorship.
Honorable gentleman from Arkansas, the distinguished French Hill, Chairman of the Finance Services Committee, I thank you very much.
It's a pleasure for me to be serving with you in your committee.
And I'm just going, before I start, before I explain to this body why I'm introducing this resolution.
When I was a journalist covering stories for Univision Network, I interviewed many, many people who had lost their legs or their brothers or sisters in the middle of the ocean trying to get to Miami and the sharks ate them up.
Some of them were eaten up alive, others lost legs, and they made it to Florida.
And I was able as a journalist to interview them and see the horrors of what they had to go through because they were escaping the paradise called socialism.
So I'm just going to start with that and I'm going to finish maybe with another anecdote.
But the reason why we're introducing this resolution is to condemn the horrors of socialism and I'm presenting just the facts.
And I invite my colleagues on the other side to vote to condemn this nefarious ideology.
This is nothing to do with political parties.
This is not a democratic issue.
This is not a Republican issue.
This is a moral vote against an ideology that has destroyed millions and millions of families, many of them.
I serve those families in District No. 27, the heart of the city of Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community, and now the Venezuelan community, and murdered more than 100 million lives, besides crushing hundreds of thousands of other families and individuals.
Unfortunately, socialism and Marxism crushes the human soul.
And it's not just my community in Miami, millions of Cubans who had to flee.
And it's the rest of the hemisphere and the rest of the world.
Just look at Russia, look at North Korea, look at Iran.
And what a coincidence that today, President Trump is receiving in the White House the major elect Mr. Mondani from the city of New York or from New York City.
And I salute the President for receiving Mr. Mondani because he won fair and square, and that's the way democracy works.
But let me just tell you something, knowing very well how Fidel works and how Hugo Chava works and how socialism works, that I just want to put this into perspective.
If it were to be the other way around and Trump would have been the mayor-elect and Mamdani were to be the President of the United States, I assure you that there's no way that Mamdani is going to receive Trump at the White House, period.
And how do I know that?
Because I know exactly how they operate.
Democracy is just a tool to get to power.
Period.
People who love freedom were just useful fools to be used in order to get to the business of power, which is all socialist, communist, whatever you want to call it.
If it's not democracy and freedom and free market economy is just a bad ideology.
And unfortunately, that's what they do to achieve power.
They use us.
Just look at Venezuela.
Oh my God, Venezuela, it's in the news, right?
Everyone is talking about Venezuela.
My God, the Caribbean.
Well, Maria, let me just give you the facts.
Maria Corina Machado, who is the legitimate president of Venezuela, who won 80-20 after President Biden gave the opportunity, President Biden gave the opportunity to Maduro to do fair and square election and transparent elections.
Right?
Two years ago, Maduro signs a document by the name of the Barbado Agreement.
And he agrees to the Biden administration and to Juan Gonzalez, who used to be the national security advisor at the time for Latin America, that he was going to leave if he won, if he did not win the elections.
And he signed that document with the Biden administration.
And what did he do?
He just spit on Biden's face.
Because we believed that, oh my God, you know, Biden, look what he's doing.
It's good.
It's a good idea.
Give the opportunity to Maduro to just create and to conduct free and fair and transparent elections with international observers.
And he was going to go.
Look where he's at now.
Maduro is not only the head of the Suns cartel, one of the most important drug trafficking cartels in the world.
He was indicted in 2020 by a federal grand jury in this country for being one of the major drug traffickers in the world.
Not only that, he's now on the Transnational Criminal Organization.
It's my duty as a representative of district number 27, the heart of the Cuban exile community, to tell this body it's time to denounce socialism in this country because just like it happened to the Venezuelans, it could happen to the Americans.
I'm not going to frame this as a parliamentary inquiry, but I'm very, very confused.
We've just gotten back from a two-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, in which inflation is rocking along at 3.5%.
unidentified
So I thought we were going to be in this chamber talking about affordability.
By the way, my friends on the Republicans say, I just got shellacked in an election from C to signing she, where the word is affordability.
Congressman Norman, a guy who put a 38 Smith ⁇ Wesson on the table when he met with mother's demand action on gun safety, a man who called for martial law to stop the peaceful transfer of power to stop Joe Biden from becoming president, he decided that Stacey Plaskett should no longer be on the intelligence committee.
unidentified
We spent half a day on that.
Congresswoman Mace, who is Congresswoman Mace, decided that Corey Mills should no longer be on committees, and apparently we may do another one.
Or I might point out, and I welcome the Republican majority and finally caught on to the fact that we are living in the most socialist administration in two and a half centuries.
Again, if you crack a book, you'll see that it is state control over the means of production.
This president has taken a 10% stake in Intel, a 15% stake in MP materials, a 10% stake in Lithium America, 10% stake in trilogy medals, and we have a golden share in U.S. steel.
Gentleman from Connecticut is recognized for an additional minute.
unidentified
So 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.
Looks a little like extortion to me, but in order to avoid making a personality, let's just call it dividends.
unidentified
The president has demanded dividends from any number of companies.
This is command and control.
So I'm 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.
But what I really want to do is talk about affordability, which is what the American people care about.
And until we're prepared to debate affordability, I yield back.
The lady from California is recognized for two minutes.
unidentified
Thank you, Chairman.
It's such an honor to stand here to strongly support the House Concurrent Resolution 9.
As a Korean American who grew up in the aftermath of the Korean War, I have witnessed the horrors of socialism firsthand.
I always say, if you want to see the difference between socialism and freedom, just look at the Korean Peninsula at night.
South Korea shines with opportunity.
North Korea is trapped in darkness.
Time and time again throughout history, socialism has led to disaster, starvation, imprisonment, and the death of over 100 million people worldwide.
My own family lived those horrors.
My mother-in-law risked her life crossing the DMZ lines multiple times to rescue loved ones from the North Korean regime.
To this day, tens of thousands of Korean families remain separated by a system that tears apart communities and crushes basic human dignity.
Now more than ever, as socialist ideas gain traction here at home, and as our nation's largest city and financial capital has elected not just a socialist, but a communist as mayor, we must firmly demand our capitalist free market system which empowers Americans of all backgrounds to achieve freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.
I know what America represents because I remember my first glimpse of freedom as a young girl, looking up wide-eyed as U.S. soldiers tossed candy from their trucks in the communities that I lived.
Today, as one of the first Korean-American women to serve in Congress, freedom tastes just as sweet.
The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized for one minute.
unidentified
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise in support of this bill.
Democrats just had a huge win across the country because we focused on what hardworking families care about: lowering food and health care prices, and cutting child care costs and lowering utility bills.
What do socialists stand for?
Tax raising, job-killing policies like defunding the police, shuttering prisons, massive unfunded spending increases, and even government-run grocery stores.
In New York, job-killing, comptroller, and socialist, and reckless spender Brad Lander refuses to condemn anti-Semitic language like globalizing into FADA, which calls for the death of the Jewish people.
Many of Mayor Lekhman Dami's policies are radically at odds with both Democratic Party and American values.
After all, socialists aren't Democrats, they're socialists.
Democrats are about common sense, problem-solving ideas that promote public safety, opportunity for all, and lower costs for all Americans.
I urge all Republicans to work with us on those pressing issues.
America is the land of opportunity, capitals of American innovation, and the American worker who built our great country.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield two minutes to my good friend, prominent member of the House Financial Services Committee, very active on financial policy in this House, Mr. Rose of Tennessee, for two minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Concurrent Resolution 58 entitled Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism.
It's a shame that I have to defend the obvious, but it's necessary because unfortunately, across the nation, progressive Democrats are increasingly cozy with a failed, discredited ideology.
Socialism has time and again led to economic ruin, human deprivation, and mass suffering.
But from the breadlines of Eastern Europe to the failed communist regimes of Cuba and Venezuela, socialism promises equality but delivers it selectively.
It promises security but delivers surveillance.
It promises fairness but delivers oppression and democide.
And yet, shockingly, socialism is making a comeback here in America, even in the world's greatest city.
The newly elected, self-proclaimed Democratic socialist mayor of New York City, Zorhan Mamdani, offers socialism, a mayor who champions radical economic overreach, progressive ideology that can easily turn once prosperous countries into wastelands.
Americans built New York City as a gateway for immigrants seeking a better life.
We built it on freedom, self-reliance, and open markets, not on forced redistribution or centralized planning.
The situation now extends to Seattle, where the mayor-elect has chosen to boycott Starbucks, a company founded in her own city.
Is this what we want?
A country where those who run our cities turn their backs on the very entrepreneurial spirit that made them thrive.
Meanwhile, I believe that we are still that shining city on the hill.
I yield to myself such time as I may continue to consume.
Listen, instead of debating this pointless resolution, Congress should be faced 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.
And not only are Trump's policies raising prices for everyone, they're killing American jobs, although he campaigned on bringing back manufacturing to the United States.
President Trump's tariffs 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.
So 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?
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 and members, the evidence and the facts are right before us about what's happening with this economy.
The President of the United States refuses to accept the facts, and he keeps going supporting these tariffs.
He does not understand how it all works.
We're in danger of him because they, 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 that he's in control.
And so he's coming up with policies that put him with more power and more control, and he's ignoring the harm that he's doing to this country.
And I want to tell all of the members, it is not only about the harm that is coming to urban communities.
Those rural communities that are losing their hospitals, don't have health care, and have hungry families who have voted for him are now understanding and they are demonstrating that it has been buyers' remorse.
And when the next election comes, we're going to see what happens.
Well, the policies that are perhaps being considered in New York, the people of New York, their voices have been heard, they've spoken.
But when you think about having government-controlled grocery stores instead of relying on entrepreneurial immigrant families, Korean families with the beautiful bodegas and flower shops around the city that somehow they're doing an inadequate job.
And we, the mayor proposes that the government step into that business, run grocery stores, for example.
He proposes even more difficult rent controls that have already driven down the number of units available in the city of New York, which is already suffering from a huge housing shortage and a huge price disadvantage for the thousands of people who want to work in the city.
This is contrary to economic choice, and that's another reason why we're here on this House floor to note that an open democratic market capitalist system offers choice and the freedom to choose is of critical value.
That is limited under socialism, in addition to the atrocities.
Nobel Prize winner Frederick Hayek, one of my favorite economists, books I read as a young man, The Road to Serfdom, Constitution of Liberty.
It's a man who lived under socialism, lived through the communist regimes of Stalin in Eastern Europe, of Nazi Germany.
He talked about the road to serfdom.
Well, you can think of some of these policies, Mr. Speaker, potentially as the scenic route to socialism.
So somebody who understands market capitalism, constitutional republic, like no other member, I want to yield two minutes to the gentleman from California, Mr. McClintock, who chairs the Immigration Subcommittee for House Judiciary.
The only way to succeed in a capitalist society is to figure out what somebody else needs and how to get it for them better than they can get it for themselves.
It might be mowing their lawn, it might be doing brain surgery on their child, but you have to help your neighbor somehow.
It's true if you take a dollar from Peter and give it to Paul, Paul's a dollar richer and Peter is a dollar poorer.
But what you've really done is to take from both of them a dollar's worth of incentive to help each other.
unidentified
Peter no longer has a reason to help Paul because he no longer benefits.
And Paul has no reason to help Peter because he no longer needs to.
Many societies have succumbed to the siren song of a benevolent, all-powerful government, only to awaken one morning to find the benevolence is gone and the all-powerful government is still there.
Let that not be the epitaph of the United States of America.
The history of human society can be summed up in just four words.
The gentleman said something about what was happening in New York with the mayor, and he mentioned, you know, government-owned grocery stores.
Well, first of all, you 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 you of something.
You know, my then-husband was stationed at Camp Carson in Colorado.
Guess where we got our food?
We got our food from grocery-owned commissaries, the best prices that I've ever realized.
We had great nutrition.
They absolutely supported the families, and they were run by whom?
They were run by the government.
And so I would love the idea of seeing what we can do to reduce the cost of groceries.
We already have them in the commissaries, and they have price controls, and they are heavily subsidized.
Now, let me ask the question: Does this mean that we should eliminate them?
Because that's socialism?
Because the commissaries provide food that is affordable at the bases all over America and the world.
Fire departments, police departments, schools, hospitals.
And instead of you taking this time to try and talk about we were the cause of the shutdown when you know you were, don't deflect it.
Come on, let's talk about socialism.
Let's talk about the commissaries.
Let's talk about your social security.
Let's talk about the PPP program that some of you got money from your government to put into your businesses.
Let's talk about socialism and what you are really trying to deflect from what is wrong with this administration and what is wrong with the economic policies of this administration.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support, in support of this resolution denouncing the horrors of socialism, and there are horrors.
Socialism has no place in our country.
Unfortunately, the so-called woke liberals in New York City don't seem to understand that socialism is nothing more than mutually assured poverty and recently voted to bring these failed policies to their own once great city.
While I am saddened that New Yorkers will be willing victims of Zohan Mondomni's design to fail socialist policies, I have filed legislation ensuring not one dime goes to fund these un-American agenda.
The rest of the country should not be forced to subsidize one mayor's destructive actions.
Today's resolution builds on those efforts, making it clear that the United States does not stand for, does not support, does not condone a system of government that makes people poor, less free, and less safe.
With this resolution, we reiterate our nation's commitment to remaining a free, a prosperous society.
Mr. Speaker, as I'm 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.
But before I go into much more of that, I'm going to yield five minutes to the gentleman, Mr. Raskin, who is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Madam Chair.
I rise to oppose this cynical and silly resolution.
I am not a socialist myself, but a Tom Payne Democrat, a champion of strong democracy, universal freedom, and equal rights for everybody.
But this resolution is ridiculous.
From its first paragraph, it promotes the fallacy that socialist ideology leads to social collapse.
In fact, many of our strongest Democratic allies on earth, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland, lead strong democratic socialist governments and thriving societies and economies.
Yet House Republicans base their entire resolution on this falsehood and advance a false equation between democratic socialism and communist dictatorship, a preposterous assertion that contaminates the entire resolution.
The resolution even tries to conscript to these ideological deceptions the words of President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Enlightenment liberals who lived long before socialist ideology even existed and would detest the fanatical theocratic politics of the mega movement and the plutocratic billionaires and plundering CEOs who are running things behind the curtains.
Thomas Jefferson is quoted embarrassingly in this resolution for the proposition that to take property from one to give to another is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association.
This is a bizarre argument, not only because Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, a decade before the word socialism even existed and was in common use, it is also bizarre because Jefferson shamefully owned more than 600 enslaved people over the course of his lifetime.
And whatever his many other virtues, and he had many, his entire livelihood was based on appropriating the labor of other people against their will and stealing their property that they should have had in their own bodies and in their own lives.
The resolution is completely disoriented.
It plainly feeds into the decades-long Republican obsession with labeling the great programmatic achievements of American democracy as socialism, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public education, public health measures, and the Affordable Care Act.
By defining essential democratic public programs as socialist and claiming that socialism inevitably leads to Stalinist communism and social collapse, these plutocrat Republicans are plainly working to undermine the living standards of the working-class majority of America and rip up the social fabric of the country.
Meantime, President Trump's heroes and best friends in the world are communist dictators.
If House of Republicans really want to oppose the promotion of socialist ideology, why don't they write a letter to President Trump and condemn his worship and admiration of Stalinist dictator Kim Jong-un of North Korea?
Quote, we have a unique relationship and a very special friendship.
Former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, who said that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century, of him, Trump says, Putin, very smart.
Will he become my new best friend?
And what about the chief of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi?
Trump describes him as a brilliant man.
He's got the look, the brain, the whole thing.
President Trump has no problems with the actual horrors of communism today, like the Chinese government's massive human rights violations against the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, and political dissenters in their country.
Quote, well, he's a brilliant guy.
He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.
Or how about Vladimir Putin's persecution and poisoning of human rights and anti-corruption activists like Alexei Navonny, of him Trump says, I don't know exactly what happened there.
We haven't had any proof yet, but I'll take a look.
I'm voting no on this pathetic, disoriented resolution, which is divorced from reality and drenched in right-wing ideology.
It will only serve to accelerate MAGA's attempts to defund the essential social programs that are central to American democracy, that were built by the American people, like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which they call socialism, but which serve our people.
I want to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from New York, Ms. Malia Takas, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, who's firmly opposed to socialism.
Let me educate our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
Socialism is communism light.
Socialism is the first step to communism.
Socialism is the antithesis of the American dream.
Because in this country, we believe that, regardless of where you come from or how you started, if you work hard, if you sacrifice, if you play by the rules, you can succeed.
And that only happens in a country where you have freedom, where you have liberty, where you have self-determination, and you have the free market.
In contrast, socialism is the belief that you work hard, you sacrifice, you do everything right, and the government can take what you earn from you to keep it for themselves or to redistribute it to whoever they choose.
Millions of immigrants in this country fled their homeland to come to the United States to escape socialism and communism.
Just ask your constituents from Russia, from Poland, from Albania, from China, from Korea, from Vietnam, from Venezuela, or Cuba, where my mother fled in 1959 to escape the very things that our new socialist mayor in New York City says he wants.
A socialist who says he wants to seize the means of production.
Again, Republicans are confusing socialism with despotism or authoritarianism.
Despots try to control the press, education, 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've worked hard for and what they've earned.
Well, I want to ask you: what is this administration doing when it takes 10% equity stake in Intel, 15% equity stake in MP materials, and 10% equity stake in lithium Americas, 10% equity stake in triology medals, and a quote, golden share in U.S. steel corporations?
What is that?
Now, the Republicans have tried to confuse you on what is socialism and even called it communism light.
That is an absolute distraction from what we're discussing here today.
Communism is communism.
Socialism is socialism.
a government run by someone who is not taking into consideration the facts and the harm and the threat that they're 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.
And so we could talk about this all day, but absolutely you're looking silly when you try to talk about communism light or you try to describe socialism when you don't know what it is.
And so I am saying that I denounce this administration, this Trump's family, and all that is going on that's 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're in a terrible time in this government with a president of the United States and a family who are 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're enriching themselves every day.
I think the president has enriched himself by maybe $1 trillion already in the limited time that he's 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're going to do to strengthen our democracy.
How you're going to make sure that we have an education system for all of the children rather than an education system that has been torn apart by the President of the United States.
Talk about how people stop sleeping on the street, homeless, while we're cutting Section 8 programs in housing.
Oh, we could go on about this all day.
But I reserve the balance of my time so I can rest a bit, let them say what they want to say so I could come back and tell them what they need to hear.
I recognize the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Alfred, on the Oversight Subcommittee as chair of Small Business Oversight and as a distinguished member of the Appropriations Committee.
I cannot believe just what I heard on the House floor, the ranking member of this distinguished committee denouncing Trump, but will not denounce socialism on the House floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
If there is someone who has seen the horrors of socialism up close within the Democratic Party, it is in the House, and it's the Honorable Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
And I would love for you to support this resolution specifically, because, Madam Waters, for decades, you traveled to Cuba dozens of times to visit Fidel Castro personally, whom you consider your friend.
Congresswoman Waters was in Havana, and she saw the destruction of biblical proportions that Castro cost on that island, who at the time in 1960 had the highest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere.
At that time, Madam Waters knew that thousands and thousands of Cubans were escaping on a raft, exposing their lives and their children to be eaten by the sharks.
She knew that Afro-Cubans were being beaten on the streets of Havana, discriminated against by Fidel Castro, Mr. Speaker.
And for that reason, I am bringing up all these facts because Madam Waters knew that the Cuban jails were full of political prisoners and the Cubans did not have the same privileges that we are having right now to speak freely.
At that time, Madam Waters never raised her voice to denounce the horrors of socialism, Mr. Speaker.
unidentified
For that reason, I am asking Madam Waters for what purpose the lady from California seeks recognition.
So I'm asking for unanimous consent to withdraw the violations of the rules and continue with my speech, which is that if there are many people on this floor that have seen without objection, the words are withdrawn.
There are many people on this floor who have seen the horrors of communism.
They have been to Cuba.
They have been friends with Fidel Castro.
They have seen the jails full of Cuban prisoners.
They have seen people preparing rafts to die in the middle of the ocean, eaten by sharks.
There are many people on the Democratic Party who have witnessed that and have not said anything.
So for their reason, Mr. Speaker, I am asking some of my colleagues on the side, on that side of the aisle, many of them who are very good friends of mine, to understand that denouncing communism and socialism is the right thing to do for the Democratic Party.
And if some of the highest, most important members of the Democratic Party on that side of the aisle were to vote with us, they would be doing a very favor to the Republic, and not only that, to the Democratic Party, they will become the new champions.
And the Democratic Party will be now the champion for freedom in the Western Hemisphere.
Let's get on with this discussion about socialism.
Mr. Speaker, instead of legislating and doing the work to tackle real problems that Americans face, like the skyrocketing cost of groceries, rising rents and mortgage payments, and the absolute ladies and gentlemen, the House is not in order.
Americans again face the skyrocketing costs of groceries, rising rents and mortgage payments.
And the Republicans have always opposed Medicaid and Medicare, and they've been undermining it since day one.
And they do not want to fix the catastrophic economic policies of this administration.
And 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 respect, 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, in the short time we have remaining this morning on this important resolution, let's cut to the chase.
America stands as a beacon of freedom.
America stands as a place of choice.
America stands as a place of initiative and opportunity.
What the gentlewoman from Florida brings to the House today is a resolution that says that we condemn the horrors of socialism, not just the atrocities associated with mass murder in Ukraine or Cuba or Venezuela or imprisonment, but the capture of the spirit that ends individual freedom, ends individual opportunity.
And I want to say that I've been shocked at some of the debate today that we hear from a daughter of Korea, two daughters from Cuba, who've seen firsthand the dangers, the fear, the atrocities, the restraint, the constraint, the end of freedom that they experience and their families experience personally.
In my young life, I worked to bring freedom to Eastern Europe.
I saw East Germany empty shelves, empty eyes, empty spirits, no choice, and in West Germany, vibrancy.
And yet today we would even have to debate that socialism has some value to the human spirit across the land.
It's amazing to me, Mr. Speaker.
So I urge a yes vote on this resolution.
Whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, old, young, no matter what your political philosophy is, let's unite on this floor and reject the evils of socialism.
I yield back the balance for my time.
unidentified
Today, on C-SPAN's ceasefire, at a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, Florida Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz and Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett come together for a bipartisan dialogue on the Epstein files, health care, and top issues facing the country.
They join host Dasha Burns.
Bridging the Divide in American politics.
Today at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
I think C-SPAN is a huge, huge asset to America, not just the coverage that we get of both chambers on one and two, but programs like Washington Journal that allow policymakers, lawmakers, personalities to come on and have this question time during Washington Journal.
unidentified
So it's a huge benefit.
I hope that all these streaming services carry C-SPAN as well because it's an important service to the American people.
I'm actually thrilled that this time in Washington Journal, I'm getting a lot of really substantive questions from across the political aisle.
Our country would be a better place if every American just watched one hour a week.
They could pick one, two, or three.
Just one hour a week, and we'd all be a much better country.
you for your service.
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