CHRISTMAS 1777

On 2024-12-10, Representative Chip Roy (R-TX-21) delivered a floor speech titled "CHRISTMAS 1777" in the House. The speech addressed immigration and also covered healthcare, the economy.

CHRISTMAS 1777

Congressional Record, Volume 170 Issue 183 (Tuesday, December 10, 2024) [Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 10, 2024)] [House] [Pages H6582-H6586] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CHRISTMAS 1777 The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Wied). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time to come here in December. I am not sure if we will get time next week here on the floor. As we look forward to Christmas, I think it is important to remember why we are here and why we are here in the House. Christmas 1777 was one of the lowest and most desperate points of American [[Page H6583]] history. General Washington, fresh off defeats at Brandywine and Germantown had marched the battered Continental Army to winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Frozen rain, snow, and brutally cold temperatures tested not only the men's resolve to fight for freedom, but their bodies' ability to withstand the elements. They showed up low on provisions. It was so bad that in a letter on December 23, General Washington wrote to Henry Laurens of the Continental Congress: ``I am now convinced beyond a doubt, that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place . . . this Army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things: Starve, dissolve, or disperse. . . . [This] is not an exaggerated picture. . . . `' Historians estimate that as many as one-third of them didn't have boots or shoes. Washington ordered soldiers to build wooden huts for themselves to stave off the cold and search the surrounding countryside for straw to make bedding to keep them warm. They didn't have enough blankets to go around after all. In the same letter, Washington also noted that his Army was in danger from the enemy. General Howe was nearby, and Washington needed his men ready to rock and roll, but they couldn't do it. ``I ordered the troops to be in readiness,'' for an attack, Washington wrote. ``When behold to my great mortification . . . the men were unable to stir on account of provision. . . . `' ``All I could do under these circumstances was to send out a few light parties to watch and harass the enemy. . . . `' His officers were resigned to leaving the camp, and he fretted that without congressional action otherwise ``I much doubt the practicability of holding the Army together much longer.'' Mr. Speaker, how did we get here? Twelve months earlier had been one of the high points of the Revolution and Washington's military career--victories at Trenton, victories at Princeton, the Crossing of the Delaware and the daring Christmas Day surprise attack on the Hessians. This year it was burnt mutton and watered-down grog for an Army that was cold, starving, and on the brink. Mr. Speaker, 2,100 out of 10,000 would die there from disease and exposure. We know that is not the end of the story. We know that because I am standing here on this floor in the United States House of Representatives as a citizen of the greatest country in the world. Baron Von Steuben got to camp in 1778 and started whipping the Continental Army into better shape, and Washington's men kept up the fight until Yorktown 3 long years later. However, now, Mr. Speaker, to my friends and colleagues who are here in the Chamber, the few remaining, it is now our turn to fight. We are at a relatively speaking low point in our country's history due to the unbelievable but yet completely observable negligence, nay, I say purposeful actions of the current administration to undermine the safety, security, prosperity, and well-being of our people and our Nation. We have millions of people who have been dumped into our country illegally, including criminals. We have $36 trillion in debt, another $2 trillion a year. It is really another $1 trillion every 100 days, a little over 3 months. Americans are in record levels of personal debt because of the record levels of inflation and a hamstrung economy by bureaucrats and progressive radical Democrats who want to micromanage your life and regulate your life to death, tell you what stoves you can use, what cars you can drive, drive up the price of cars, your houses, your schools, your healthcare, and then thank you for the privilege. The world around us is in chaos. We see what is happening in Syria. We saw what is happening in South Korea, and we see what is happening around the globe, Ukraine, and Russia, the empowerment of Iran, although, thankfully, the resolve of Israel is standing strong while our country has walked away from that fight. That is all due to the weakness of the Biden administration that it has shown for 4 years. Now it is our calling in this Congress to stand up alongside President Trump to stand up and fix it. However, the calling for our Congress is not to simply walk back some of the failures of this administration. It is not to ask for some quick fixes. It is to fundamentally change the trajectory of our country. {time} 1730 It is to take bold action. It is to pass serious legislation. It is to fundamentally change our reliance on debt and profligate spending that is indebting our children and driving up inflation because we are spending money we don't have. We have an obligation to fight for the American people. That is our calling as we wrap up this year. We have several really important fights and debates to continue to finish, such as the National Defense Authorization Act, which, unbelievably, our Democratic colleagues are resisting and saying they aren't going to support. Why? Because Republicans have taken the position that we shouldn't have taxpayer funding at the Pentagon for transgender surgeries for children. Our Democratic colleagues are so committed to the mutilation of children that they would choose not to authorize the defense of the United States. That is the world in which we are currently operating, and it is Republicans who are standing here in defense of our children while trying to make sure our defense is strong. The NDAA is not where it should be. Let me be clear, because of radical progressive Democrats in the Senate and the House, we have miles to go. We have an obligation to do our job. We have an obligation to not spend money that we don't have. We have an obligation to pay for the disaster aid that so many of my colleagues understandably want and seek for their constituents in the wake of hurricane damage, drought, or issues that are facing our people. We have an obligation to pay for these things, or else we are no better than the people we criticize. Come January, after we do whatever we are going to do here in December with respect to the funding of government, such as the disaster funding, the national defense bill, the farm bill, all issues that are still ripe before us--we have a new President, a new Congress coming in, a new Senate, all Republican--what will we do? I am here to suggest to you that, through the reconciliation tools, we can make serious change. Now, here, I pause for a second. I have colleagues of mine who, rightly, on both sides of the aisle, will point out that reconciliation is supposed to be a budget tool for reconciling the budget and ensuring that we are, frankly, working to achieve balance and not spending more money than we should. That very much should be the priority of budget reconciliation, and I will endeavor to ensure that we follow that path. I remind the American people that the reason they cannot afford healthcare, the reason they cannot go to the doctor of their choice, the reason they are frustrated with the American healthcare system today, and the reason insurance companies are making billions of dollars while they suffer is their Federal Government. It is a Federal Government that has overpromised, overregulated, and is now telling you precisely what kind of healthcare you can have while then enriching insurance companies to administer it for you. You can't go to the doctor of your choice. You can't get the healthcare of your choice. We don't have robust health savings accounts. We haven't empowered you. We have empowered bureaucrats in Washington at HHS and bureaucrats at CMS who are managing Medicare and managing Medicaid. We have empowered insurance bureaucrats. We have empowered corporate cronies. What we have not done is empowered you. What we have not done is empowered doctors. We must do that if we are going to claim the mantle of not just healthcare freedom and making America healthy again, but if we are going to actually say that we are going to be fiscally responsible, we can't solve our $36 trillion of debt if we don't solve the burden of healthcare. When we get to January, when we are sworn in, when we have counted the electors for President Trump, when the Senate is in session, we should act with dispatch to pass a reconciliation package right out of the gate that secures the border of the United States. [[Page H6584]] It was the fundamental promise of the Trump campaign but, more importantly, what President Trump has campaigned on all the way back since 2016, what President Trump did while he was in office from 2017 to 2021. It was the fundamental failure of the Biden administration to purposefully flood our country with some 10-odd million human beings, including criminals, weakening our border, fentanyl, all the dangers that have been posed to the American people, including the murders of Americans, deaths from fentanyl poisoning, putting the burden on our social welfare state and our schools, jails, and hospitals. Obligation number one for this Republican Congress is to ensure that we secure the border, or at least take step one to secure the border. What will that mean? Well, we need to build the wall. President Trump ran on building the wall in 2016, so let's provide the funding thr