Glenn Grothman

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, the population ought to be aware of the fact that very late in the last month the administration released the new figures on what we will call legal immigrants crossing into this country. This was before there were any changes in title 42, and a lot of the focus lately has been on title 42. We had another all-time record in November with 210,000 people crossing the border and staying here. This is a national scandal. Just making a brief appearance at the border shouldn't get Joe Biden off the hook. 210,000. By comparison, a year ago, it was 140,000. Two years ago it was under 25,000. When you are going under 25,000 to 210,000, that should be the headline in every paper of the country, and I don't care whether you release the numbers late in the day on a Friday or not. I hope this institution does all we can to pick up the mantle that President Biden has dropped and do something about the massive increase in illegal immigration.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have a very high opinion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, but what scares me in this bill are the numbers. Right now, the IRS has about 78,000 employees, of which about 10,000 are what they describe as agents. It is not surprising that is less than you had in 1954 because, in 1954, nothing was computerized. Now, the 1099s, the W-2s, they come in and automatically the computers show whether they are on your return or not. If they are not on the return, you get a letter from the IRS saying you owe X amount of money. Now, we are going, in one bill, from 78,000 employees, adding an additional 83,000. We have no idea how many of those are going to be agents poking around, looking at people, but you have to figure it is going to be an increase of five or six times what they already have. Wisconsin and Massachusetts are States about the same size. You are talking about adding 1,600 employees--assuming it is the same per capita, about 1,600 new employees to Massachusetts and Wisconsin. What are they going to do with 1,600 new employees? I mean, I can't imagine. If you deal with the IRS, the way they deal with it, they do things like: ``Well, you owe $20,000.'' You have to find a lawyer to fight that.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, just a few minutes ago on this floor, we were admonished for not wrapping up our budget in time. That is a fair thing. We are supposed to take care of our budget. Another thing we are not taking care of, and the American public ought to be appalled until we do, is the new news on the border. I talked to a prior expert down there and got even more terrifying information. Now, first of all, in November, we had 73,000 what they call got- aways, people not even touched by the Border Patrol, breaking the previous all-time high by 24 percent in one month. Isn't that something we ought to come back next week to take care of? Not only that. I had suspected this, but apparently the Border Patrol is concerned about where the unaccompanied minors are winding up. These are minors who come here without their parents. All they have is an address. We don't confirm--or they believe we don't confirm--that parents or aunts or uncles or somebody is at that address or if they show up at a house and maybe there are 10 single males in the house, a young woman--we don't even know. It is time this place began to do some committee hearings on where the unaccompanied children, who should be spun back around to their home country, wind up.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I one more time plead with the press corps here to report what I thought was the most significant story to come out in the last 2 weeks. And that is, that there were 73,000 got-aways who came across the southern border in October. So our listeners are aware, there are two large groups that have come across the southern border when we talk about illegals coming here. Some turn themselves into Border Patrol and ask for asylum and are given a court date. But there are other more dangerous ones, the type that are not subject to background checks and may be sneaking across the border with illegal drugs who we refer to as got-aways. Until last month, the all-time high for got-aways was around 59,000. In one month, we had a 23 percent jump to 73,000. That ought to be a banner headline in every newspaper across the country. And the fact that it is not, should make the entire Washington press corps ashamed of themselves.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 514. Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress Axne (Pappas) Baird (Bucshon) Bass (Cicilline) Beatty (Neguse) Brooks (Fleischmann) Doyle, Michael F. (Pallone) Gibbs (Smucker) Gonzalez (OH) (Moore (UT)) Hayes (Neguse) Herrera Beutler (Stewart) Huffman (Levin (CA)) Jacobs (NY) (Sempolinski) Johnson (LA) (Graves (LA)) Johnson (OH) (Fulcher) Johnson (TX) (Pallone) Kahele (Correa) Kildee (Pappas) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) Lawrence (Garcia (TX)) Lieu (Beyer) Long (Fleischmann) Meeks (Meng) Napolitano (Correa) Nehls (Mace) Newman (Correa) O'Halleran (Pappas) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Pascrell (Pallone) Payne (Pallone) Peltola (Correa) Pressley (Neguse) Ruppersberger (Sarbanes) Rush (Beyer) Simpson (Fulcher) Sires (Pallone) Suozzi (Cicilline) Swalwell (Correa) Titus (Pallone) Welch (Pallone) Wexton (Beyer) Williams (GA) (McBath)

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, it is always difficult to follow the always interesting Congressman Schweikert. There are a variety of issues that we haven't addressed for a while but that are in the news and demand some attention. First of all, I noticed our President Biden was down near the Mexican border and was quoted as saying, when he was asked whether he would go a few more miles to the border, he said there are more important things to do. One of the more shocking statements in an administration of shocking statements. It has come out recently that in November we had 73,000 got-aways at the southern border. Now, I would like to point out, there are two groups of people who are coming here who shouldn't be here. One group insists they are asking for asylum, and they turn themselves in to the Border Patrol, they get an interview, they are registered to come in here and are given a date to appear before some tribunal. The other group--the more dangerous of the two, I think--are those people who don't want to be seen by the Border Patrol. They want to sneak across the border and are what the Border Patrol refers to as got-aways. In November, the highest number that I can remember, the Border Patrol estimates there were 73,000 got-aways. They are more dangerous because, for example, if you are sneaking drugs across the border, you don't want to turn yourself into the Border Patrol, you want to sneak across somehow. That 73,000 was a 23 percent increase in the estimate compared to the prior month. A huge increase. Like I said, for people who have a criminal background--because our Border Patrol is able to check as to whether you have a prior criminal background in the United States or a prior criminal background in Canada. But again, if you molested somebody or committed harm, you would try to sneak across the border. Why are more people sneaking across the border? I assume it is because it is getting easier and easier. We have a shortage of members of the Border Patrol there. They are busy doing the administrative work. Because they are doing more administrative work, they don't have time to guard the border, and as a result, we have an all-time high. Not only more people probably who are the type of people who would commit crimes, we have more of the type of people who bring drugs across the border. If we do have anybody from foreign countries who wanted to cause harm to the United States, they would be got-aways. That is the way to come here. I think it is entirely scandalous that President Biden would be so breezy as to say: I have more important things to do than see what is going on at the border. It was very disappointing. I could argue maybe some poorly run campaigns, that President Biden was only mildly struck down by the results on November 8. I hope the American public wakes up--I don't think they were educated on these numbers enough--wakes up to the huge number of people coming across our border. I also hope the American public remembers that the 188,000 people who die every year of illegal drug overdoses in this country it doesn't just happen; it happens because we are neglecting the border where so much of the fentanyl comes across. I would also like to point out that America is not anti-immigrant. I think it is so slanderous when he says that. Last month, I attended a ceremony in West Allis, Wisconsin, where they swore in, they estimated, over 100 people to be new American citizens. We were told by the representative there that last year was the first year, in her memory, in which we swore in 1 million new, all- legal citizens. So don't let anyone tell you that America is not being kind to people from other countries who want to come here. Last year, 1 million people managed to legally be sworn in as citizens. That is quite enough. I don't think we are being at all nice, we are being cruel to our own country to allow so many other people to come across here--73,000 got- aways, and approximately 100,000 other people, I believe, when the figures are released, coming across in October. The next issue to talk about that has been in the news is in my home city of Milwaukee, or the city of my birth: there were 211 murders that took place. Milwaukee, when I was growing up, depending on the year, was either the safest or second safest city next to San Diego, among the 25 biggest cities in the country. We now have--and the population has fallen since that time--we have now hit today 211 murders, which is an all-time record for Milwaukee; they never before even hit 200, now we just blew by that number. Probably by the time we are done we will be up around 220. There is going to be all sorts of analyses as to what causes it. Some people are going to say it is caused by lack of good schools, but I want to point out that in the future when we analyze this number--and there should be an analysis done on the number--we should look a little bit at the family situation of the murderers, insofar as what type of family were they brought up in and what type of family do they live in now. I do believe there has been significant breakdown of the traditional family in this country over the last 50 years, and I personally think that is the primary reason why we are blowing by the 200 figure in Milwaukee right now. In any event, as this horrific year in Milwaukee is analyzed, I hope, given all the money we spend on studies, that some work is done studying the people who are caught for these murders, the background they have, and they realize that, in the future, as we try to avoid more murders in Milwaukee, we don't do silly things like look at the guns; we look at the background of these people; look at the war on the family that has been going on in this country for over 50 years and try to work our way back to where we were in the 1970s and the 1960s and, even more, the 1950s, when the murder rate in this country was a fraction of what it is today. I will point out, even when you look at the 211 murders, we have top- of-the-line medical care now. The number of murders has skyrocketed over what it was, say, 40 years ago or 50 years, skyrocketed over what it was 55, 60 years ago, despite the fact that medical care was nowhere near as great at that time. So I hope people look at the family and analyzing what we can do to get that murder rate back down a little bit toward where it should be. The next issue I want to address today concerns the efforts being made, which I believe will be successful, to remove the vaccine mandate for our brave soldiers, sailors, and airmen and women who operate in our Armed Forces. Earlier today, I talked to Lieutenant Colonel Theresa Long, who is from Fort Rucker, Alabama, and is a whistleblower, as to what is going on with the vaccines for our servicemembers today. I would hope that all members of the press would be crowding on a chance to talk to her on her observations at Fort Rucker and throughout reports made to the military on what is happening after our soldiers get vaccines. Right now, a lot of the focus, understandably, is on the fact that the effort to require vaccines is reducing the number of recruits. It is causing people to leave the military at a time when we need more people in the military, and that is a big problem. But I think we have not spent enough time looking on the fact that the military members who do not want to get these vaccines may very well be right. If you look at the number of soldiers and sailors aged 19 to 40 who are getting cancer, who are getting pulmonary embolisms, who are getting heart problems, myocardial heart problems, are all increasing significantly over what it was 3 years ago. Indeed, she has seen things at Fort Rucker she has never seen before. And one has to wonder whether it is the huge number of military members who are getting these vaccines. She feels that this has been really a fraud on our servicemembers telling them that these vaccines are all safe, when we have the most in-shape group of people in this country, people in the military, aged 19 to 39 and, despite being in such good shape, particularly males 19 to 39, we see a significant increases in deaths from sudden cardiac arrest. We see, among the women, an increase in miscarriages, perhaps an increase in infertility. We have big problems here. I think before we advise these healthy people in their 20s and 30s to get the vaccine, they ought to sit down with Lieutenant Colonel Long and look at the figures which she has been talking about, a whistleblower trying to save the troops under her from getting any more life-threatening events. So I hope that Congress weighs in here. I hope the Biden administration shows a little bit of sympathy with the soldiers and removes even the request that people under 40 get the vaccine. I hope that Congress weighs in in that regard, requiring that the medical personnel in the military be a little bit more forthcoming on the results that they see, the health problems that have become apparent in our troops today, compared to 2 years ago, and compared to 4 years ago. You are going to find more bad things going on, and it seems to me common sense that, given the great increase in vaccines on these young people, you have to kind of assume that the vaccines are causing these additional problems. So I hope that Congress wakes up. I hope even more that our slumbering media wakes up, who should be looking out for the poor and defenseless--I don't like to call our military poor and defenseless, but when they try to kick them out of the military, they kind of are-- and see whether the government is, in their policies here, are they looking out for the good of the pharmaceutical industry or are they looking out for the good of our troops? In any event, there are three issues that we deal with tonight: The bad outcomes of the vaccines on our troops; the new, all-time high in murders in the city of Milwaukee; and the record-high number of people, number of got-aways crossing the border that apparently President Biden does not think is a serious problem. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lamborn for organizing this little group of speeches. As has been mentioned, the first National Bible Week was less than 2 weeks before Pearl Harbor in 1941. Why do we have a National Bible Week? Because the Bible was the preeminent text of our forefathers when they wrote our Constitution. To leave you with a couple quotes, George Washington said: ``It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are indispensable supporters.'' John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: ``The Bible is best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and regulate your life by its precepts.'' Clearly, if you want to understand the Constitution, you have to understand the Bible. That is why John Adams said that the Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people and totally unfit for any other kind. The most read book or most cited book, by our forefathers, in the Old Testament was Deuteronomy. I have always felt the reason they quoted Deuteronomy so much is they wanted America to be the type of country that God had wanted Israel to be. Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. As has been mentioned, in the relief up here, the wisest man, or the man with the most important position in this room, is Moses, which shows that Congress, even at the time we built this Capitol, talked about the importance of the Bible in understanding what behavior should be and in understanding what our Constitution has made a reference to. In any event, I thank Congressman Lamborn one more time for putting together this ceremony and encourage, particularly all of the young people out there, to read the Bible so you understand the basis of our country.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the problems in China, the protests in China, and the degree to which perhaps the largest American corporation, Apple corporation, out of sheer greed, is weighing in and preventing protesters from communicating with each other. Their CEO, Tim Cook, who is making over $90 million a year, is right now preventing AirDrops from being made between different protesters. Without communicating with each other, those protests will not succeed. China right now has one of the most repressive regimes in the world, atheistic totalitarianism. It has been the greatest threat to freedom in this country for the last 100 years. It is disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, that American corporations, the wealthiest country in the world, cannot resist shutting down free speech in China to make a few more dollars. Mr. Speaker, I urge Congress to act and do something with these large corporations that, in America as well, have a monopoly on free speech, a monopoly on communication, and are using it to support atheistic totalitarianism.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, for those folks back home and the members of the news media, when we talk about the number of illegal immigrants coming here, they basically come in here two ways. Either they check in with the Border Patrol, say that they are going to show up for a hearing, eventually, to see whether they are an appropriate subject for asylum, and then they disappear into America. At least we know a little bit about them because they check in with the Border Patrol. More dangerous is what they call the got-aways who just run through the many holes of our southern border. We have no idea who they are. They are more dangerous because we know nothing about them. It recently came out that there were 73,000 got-aways who entered the country in November. That is the all-time high. As far as the last 2 years are concerned, it blew by the old all-time high by 22 percent. I would hope that our slumbering news media would wake up and do a story about this so the American citizens know what a rapid increase we have of people coming into this country who don't even get the cursory examination that people who come here seeking asylum do. So please, news media, wake up.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I use this opportunity to try to wake up our slumbering press corps on another very relevant story related to the southern border. In the last week, it became apparent that, in the last month, 73,000 illegal immigrants snuck across the border without touching the Border Patrol. So you understand, when you hear these numbers, 150,000, 180,000 people crossing every month, most of those people are people that are at least touched by the Border Patrol before they are given an appearance date at which they have to appear before some judicial forum. But there are also people who sneak across the border without being touched by the Border Patrol. We had 70,000 gotaways in November. That is the all-time high-- without any perfunctory analysis at all, 73,000. The border crisis is the greatest it has ever been. I beg the press corps in this country to wake up. That 73,000 figure ought to be the banner story in every newspaper across the country. We know that most of those papers won't even cover it. They are off covering some Hollywood floozy.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about some issues that I feel the mainstream media is ignoring. If anybody is listening here today, please put them on page one where they ought to be. The first issue I am going to talk about is Ukraine. I have felt all along that this is a disaster. It is obviously a disaster for all the family members of both the military and the civilians who have died during this conflict. It has the potential to become a huge disaster for the other countries in Europe and the United States of America, given the potential of what Russia is able to do. Nevertheless, until apparently very recently maybe, the Biden administration has not been looking for an end to this war. Now, maybe the United States cannot broker an end, but maybe France or Turkey or Israel can. They should be encouraged to go down that path. Every day the war continues, more people die. Every day the war continues, it is more of an economic catastrophe to Russia, an economic catastrophe even more to Ukraine. In the relatively recent background, we had huge numbers of a much closer relationship with Russia, and I thought Russia was moving slowly toward being a more westernized country, having McDonald's and what have you. But in any event, the sooner this war wraps up, the better. Above all, the sooner the war wraps up, the less likely it will become a war in which there are huge catastrophes as things get worse. I think there are some of my fellow Members who would not mind getting American troops involved in Ukraine. I do not want to have that happen. I hope we get a little more pressure out of the press corps to say let's look for off-ramps for both of these countries and see what we can do about beginning a peace, as well. The next topic that I think hasn't been reported on enough is the border. Just because the border is a mess does not mean we ought to not be reporting the new numbers of people who are coming here every month. They are released every month. We recently got the totals for October 2022. When I am talking about the numbers here, I am talking about the people who come into the country. My colleagues sometimes refer to the number of people who are met by the Border Patrol. Many of these people are still turned around and sent back. I am not talking about encounters. I am talking about people who really come here. I think since last Congress came in, we have had two new numbers come out. First of all, we had September 2022. I am going to be talking about the numbers for this year, a year ago, and 2 years ago. Two years ago in September 2020, 15,000 people came across the border who we really didn't appropriately vet. Last year in September, 116,000 people came across the border that we really didn't vet. This year, 178,000 people in September came across the border. That should be a banner headline in every newspaper in the country. It hasn't been. It should be covered. Now, let's look at October, the numbers that just came out. Two years ago, in October 2020, a little under 20,000 people entered the country. In October 2021, it was about 99,000, so jumping from 20,000 to 99,000. This year, miraculously, just like September--actually, a couple hundred less--178,000 came across the border. Again, we go from 19,000 to 99,000 to 178,000. The situation keeps getting worse. I don't think, if there is such a thing as a responsible media, they are doing a good enough job of explaining the degree to which this number is growing. Just because it was a horrible situation and we were at 140,000 in August doesn't mean we ought not talk about the fact that there were 178,000 in the most recent month. We know, of course, this huge increase in the number of people coming here almost certainly means that there is an increase of fentanyl streaming across our border. We are at 108,000 deaths a year from illegal drugs in this country. When I think of all the parents, siblings, and children who are without sons or daughters or mothers or brothers or sisters, it just breaks my heart. That also ought to be a banner headline, and I am sure that this huge increase of evil coming across the border means probably more fentanyl and probably more deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. We are going to be working on appropriations bills soon, and I sure hope the 108,000 deaths of people every year from illegal drug overdoses in this country--twice the number of people who died in 12 years in Vietnam--is something that Congress takes into consideration when we put together that budget. The next thing I would like to look at is sad news from the city of my birth adjacent to my district. Earlier this week, Milwaukee had its 197th murder. That is tied for their all-time high. Obviously, we have about 5 weeks to go, so barring a miracle, Milwaukee, like so many other big cities in this country, just has a horrific crime problem-- 197 deaths. There will be analysis about it, but I have a feeling that one more time they will not get to the real root cause. To me, the real root cause here in Milwaukee, as in so many other big cities, is a breakdown in the family. It is true we could use more police. It is true we should not constantly be attacking those police as racists so that they are afraid to do their jobs. But I hope in some of the analysis of the pundits, analysis of the talking heads out there, we talk about the decline of the role of husbands and fathers in families as one of the problems out there. When I was a child, Milwaukee, depending on the year, had the lowest murder rate of the 25 biggest cities in the country. We were right down there with San Diego. Now, we are hitting records at 197. Given that we have about 6 weeks to go in this year, you are almost certainly going to clear 200 murders for the first time ever. Please, journalists, pundits, talking heads, when you analyze what went wrong in Milwaukee, how come we are so much worse than we used to be, please look at the broken family, look at the role of fathers in their families, and also look at the role of families and their fathers. One of the problems we have--and George Gilder talked about this at length--it is very important for men to become part of a family. A 25- year-old guy who is married with two kids at home is much less likely to engage in criminal behavior, much less likely to take illegal drugs, than a 25-year-old guy who is out there on his own without those responsibilities. It is sometimes not talked about. This breakdown in the family not only hurts the kids, but it hurts the men, as well. If you will notice, the vast majority of people who are committing these murders are men. We always talk about what we can do about the children, what we can do about the single moms. Let's spend a little bit of time saying what we are going to do about these guys who don't have a family that they are connected with. In any event, I hope a little bit more thought is given when, later this week, everybody in the Milwaukee area is expected to weigh in on those currently 197 deaths. My final comment for the press to look into a little bit for today is, earlier this year, there were reports from people who like to pay attention to military matters. Given what I would argue is the recklessness of the Biden administration, we have more danger of war in the future than we have had in a long period of time. There have been articles about aircraft carriers. There were articles regarding training exercises with France. The aircraft carrier, I think it was the Theodore Roosevelt, one of our big aircraft carriers, which costs huge amounts of money. There was a French submarine involved in training exercises with the United States. That French submarine was able to sink that aircraft carrier. I think that should cause concern for people. I mean, we build these aircraft carriers--first of all, we have about 5,000 people on the aircraft carrier, so if an aircraft carrier ever sinks, you have about 5,000 people dying right there, which by itself is a huge tragedy. Secondly, I think we have to begin to stop and look at: Are we spending a lot of money on fighting past wars? Aircraft carriers were very important during World War II. They had a use still in the Vietnam war, which is hard to believe was about 40 years ago. They have a use in places around the world. I really believe antimissile defense, cybersecurity, building more submarines of our own would perhaps be a wiser use of our military dollars than having 11 or 12 aircraft carriers. I think they may be more useful in future wars. Hopefully, we will not have another war, but I think if we did, they would be more useful. I encourage the press that follows this sort of thing to pay a little bit of attention to what we found out when we had training exercises with France, read a little bit about what would happen with the hypersonic missiles that are out there today, and wonder if maybe it is more important to deal with hypersonic missile defenses than aircraft carriers, which I think in major battles with, I will say, first-class military enemies could be sunk relatively quickly, together with all the people aboard the ship, and focus a little bit more on high-tech things. In other words, look at what war will look like in 2025 or 2024 rather than what war looked like in 1944 and 1943. So, there are some issues for you all, both the people who like to watch C-SPAN and some issues that should be taken up by our press corps. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 478.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, 150 years ago, four young entrepreneurs--John Kimberly, Charles Clark, Frank Shattuck and Havilah Babcock--signed a partnership and invested a total of $30,000 to build a paper mill and established Kimberly, Clark & Company. Kimberly, Clark & Co.'s resulting Globe mill and its 40 employees began making newsprint on October 22, 1872. Since then, this company has invented five of the eight major consumer product categories it offers--facial tissue, paper towels, toilet tissue on a roll, feminine hygiene pads and disposable training pants. Kimberly-Clark is now a global consumer products manufacturer whose brands include Kleenex, Cottonelle, Depend, Kotex, Huggies, and Pull-Ups. Led by CEO Mike Hsu, Kimberly-Clark employs more than 45,000 people and has net sales exceeding $19 billion annually. While Kimberly-Clark now does business in 175 countries, it still has a substantial amount of its manufacturing in Wisconsin and has been an incredible community partner in the local area. Kimberly- Clark has donated tens of millions of dollars over the decades to local non-profits, as well as volunteer hours and countless product donations to help make life better for those in need. Again, congratulations to Kimberly Clark on 150 years of success. It is an honor to represent them and so many of their employees in Congress. I will continue to advocate for pro-business and pro-worker policies in Congress and look forward to seeing where this great company goes in the future.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, from time to time we talk about the crisis at the border, but we still don't talk about it enough. A lot of times I get people saying, well, maybe these are all wonderful people, maybe they will get a job. It is still a big problem because you are having people skip in line ahead of people who are doing things right. But something came out in the last few weeks that ought to have people really mad--it maybe should even wake up the Biden administration, who has done so much, I think, to permanently damage this country--and that is news that Venezuela may be sending people here out of their prisons. Can you imagine any quicker way to ruin America than to accept people from other countries who are emptying out their prisons? But that is apparently what is going on. And nothing is done. We still have over 150,000 people a month crossing the border, even now, knowing that probably we are getting people who are committing crimes, heinous crimes in Venezuela, and sending them here, and the communist government of Venezuela, I am sure, is laughing all the way. Please, America, and, please, our comatose press corps, wake up and educate America that we may be ruined because we have criminals coming here from Venezuela and allowed to cross the border.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, there are so many things we can talk about, so many challenges for the American people over the next few months as they try to restore America to its place as the envy of the world, a great country. We could be talking about immigration and 150,000 people a month crossing the border. We could talk about the divisive rhetoric from way too many Democrats finding racism here, there, and everywhere, and blaming all of America's problems on racism. We could be talking about other problems. But tonight we are going to be talking about the ridiculous amount of overspending, which is debasing the value of the dollar and resulting in the inflation that is hurting and harming American families so much, be it the cost of cars, be it the cost of food, be it the cost of energy. America must not forget where this inflation came from. It came from the American Rescue Plan, one of the first bills passed under President Biden. It was continued by the infrastructure bill, another over $1 trillion of spending. And, finally, the reduce inflation act, another $700 billion. This is in addition to the large increases in the regular budgets Congress always passes. We have been out of control on the regular budgets, and now you hear these three additional bills, which are causing the huge increases in prices that you see at the gas pump, but even more at the grocery store and at restaurants, and when you are looking to buy a house or rent. Where did this come from? It is not a natural thing to happen. It came because of out-of-control spending on all three of these bills. And worse, in addition to the out-of-control spending leading to the inflation, we have where the money went. We are spending more and more money on programs conditioned upon not working very hard, programs conditioned to take the benefit of not getting married. So in addition to, I assume, intentional desire to debase the currency, we continue down the path of moral decline as we encourage money to be spent in the wrong place. Mr. Speaker, I encourage the American people in the future, when you decide how you want your country governed, when you go to your Representative's office hours back home, when you call your Congressman, ask them: Where do you stand on these big spending programs? And now we have another one coming down the pike, another $400 billion in student loan debt forgiveness. Where is that money going to come from? I will tell you where the money is going to come from. To a certain extent it is going to be paid by future generations, but more immediately it is going to be paid for by the American public again. The $400 billion will result in higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher automobile prices--that is where the money is going to come from. Wake up, America, these things are not free. The politicians who have passed these programs in the past are responsible for the additional amount of money we are spending. There are a variety of things that we could look at. We worry so much about this great America that was built by our ancestors, all the people who died in the wars, that we may have this great, free country, and we see it slipping away as we have out-of-control politicians--as people frequently say happens in democracies--politicians buying votes by spending more money on everybody under the sun. That is where this inflation comes from. Please, America, wake up. Like I said, we could talk about what is going on at the border. We could talk about inflation. We could talk about the attack on the police, and with the attacks on the police the inevitable rise in crimes because the police are afraid to do what they want. Tonight, we talk about the out-of-control spending as way too many Americans, including a lot of businesses, by the way, again and again come to their Congressmen and ask for more free money. It wasn't free. I hope the next time you go to the grocery store or the next time you go to buy a new car and you see the huge sticker shock, you remember the politicians who are bragging about all the new money they are spending.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, over the last couple of weeks, there have been stories again about our southern border, which I think is the biggest crisis facing America today. We will refresh the American public and remind them that whereas 2 years ago, 5,000 to 10,000 people were crossing our border and being let in the country, we have now, in an average month, over 150,000 entering the country. In any event, there are rumors that, right now, Venezuela is--as there were rumors about Cuba about 40 years ago--letting people who are prisoners out of Venezuela to come to the United States. Given that Venezuela considers the United States an enemy, a country that they are hostile to, why wouldn't they? The question is, where is the press corps? And why isn't the press corps demanding more information about the type of people that are crossing our southern border and particularly about Venezuelans who are coming in the country and whether there are any particular traits that these people have? I beg the press corps to wake up a little bit and do a little research here.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about several issues which have either not been covered enough lately or not covered in the appropriate way. The first thing I would like to talk about is the loan forgiveness program and the recent change in the law increasing public loan forgiveness. When my constituents back home ask me, what is the biggest problem? I say, well, we certainly have problems with the economy, we certainly have problems with education, we certainly have problems with crime-- but I say the biggest problem is we are in a moral breakdown in this country. I would like to address the way the loan forgiveness program and public loan forgiveness is changing America, I think, for the worst. The first thing I would like to address is the fact that this institution has apparently felt that you are a lot better off, or it should be much easier for you to have your loan forgiven if you work for a nonprofit organization or a governmental entity. Now, whenever I go around my district, the manufacturers, the farmers, a couple of big insurance companies, they are all looking for more people to work. But the message out of Washington is, don't work for business, which, after all, is the engine that really makes our country go around. It shows kind of a hatred for manufacturers, a hatred for agriculture, a hatred of retail, a hatred of insurance. People working in this building who work with our government employees, their staff is government employees, apparently felt: Well, I think those hardworking people in government, they ought to be offered a tremendous benefit that people who don't work for the government don't get. We are going to find a way to forgive the people's loans if they are the nice, noble people who work for government. And if they are somebody who, say, works for a manufacturer--which is so important for the country--well, we don't care about those people. We hate those people. The next message in our loan forgiveness policy is the dislike of people who don't go to college. One of my goals in the legislature-- which I think I am succeeding at a little bit--is educating people about all the good, necessary jobs we have in our country that don't require a 4-year college degree. Recently, The Wall Street Journal pointed out--I am told--that if you are a plumber and compare your lifelong earnings to someone who is a general practitioner, it is about the same. We so desperately need more people in the trades. We so desperately need more people who are skilled in the manufacturing field. But what do we do here? We turn around and put them or their children in greater debt with this loan forgiveness program or it will likely drive up insurance more with the loan forgiveness program that is going to cost over $300 billion a year. We benefit the people who go to college. We treat the people who don't go to college like dirt: No, you are not getting anything, inflation is going to go up and hurt you because we have to give money to the people who went to college. The next bad message that it sends is, I think it is discriminating against the hardworking. I ran into somebody recently, heard about somebody who got a nice job out of college, but with pride he said he was going to work extra hard and pay off that student loan. So he got a job as an Uber driver and he got a job as a bartender. I am sure between them both he was working well over 60, 65 hours a week but he was proud to pre-pay that student loan. And what does the government say to somebody who works especially hard and pays off their student loan? Sucker. We are going to give the same benefit to someone who didn't work that second or third job. Again, you are eating away at the moral fiber of America. The next group is the frugal. I always thought it was wise to be frugal, wise to be debt-free, pay off that debt before you take out your credit card and buy a fancier car or buy more furniture or buy a fancy vacation or something. But we look at the people who are frugal and use their frugality to pay off their student loan. Again, we say: Sucker, you shouldn't have paid off your student loan. The government will pay off the student loan for somebody who wasn't as frugal, and we consider you kind of foolish for being frugal. And the final thing I would point out is that under the proposed forgiveness by President Biden, we give out twice the forgiveness if you originally took out Pell grants. Now, one of the problems I have talked about with the Pell grants in the past is that it is easier to get a Pell grant if you are not married, which probably isn't a good thing, but that is the way it is. Now, you already get the benefit of the Pell Grant for not being married in the first place. Now we double the amount of loan forgiveness if you wind up originally getting this additional boost with the Pell grant. So, again, it is sending the wrong message to people. In addition to the fact that it is another $360 billion log on the fire of inflation. And then people will pretend they don't know where inflation came from. But when the Treasury is spending 360 billion bucks, that is where the inflation came from. The next thing I am going to address is what is going on at the border. And as I mentioned before, this is another topic that the press underreports. Earlier this week, one more time, we had the information come out on the number of people who came across the border in August. It varies from month to month, between 140,000 and 180,000 people crossing the border. But that is just totally inappropriate. It makes a mockery of our immigration laws to people who are doing it right. We know that some of these people, after all, had to break the law to come here, and are going to be disproportionately in a situation in which they have to take advantage of the public benefits of this country. And we don't know whether they have been adequately blended into America, think like Americans, think with the self-reliance that Americans should have. I don't think any serious country believes in open borders, except for we do here. In addition to the obvious problem of the adults coming here, we have--depending on the month--about 10,000 unaccompanied minors coming here to be dropped off, presumably at relatives, somebody or other. I don't know where the press is that always worries about broken families, when our open borders results in 9,000 or 10,000 people, who at least claim to be minors, without a parent around. The next problem, a humanitarian problem, when you have such a huge number of people crossing the border, people die coming over the border. The last time I was down on the border, they found two bodies of people around San Diego and the Pacific Ocean. We were told it was more common to find bodies on the Mexican side of the border. We hear about people dehydrating to death in the Arizona desert. We hear about people drowning in the Rio Grande. Nevertheless, these things are not talked about. They are an inevitable consequence of sending a message to people all around the globe that we don't care what happens at the border. Another problem is, depending on the person, they frequently are charged $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 to come here. Who is benefiting by this? The Border Patrol believes that the drug cartels are right now making more money smuggling people across the border than they do selling drugs. So what is the effect of the drug cartels making more money? It gives them even more of a stranglehold on our southern neighbor, Mexico, which is quickly becoming more and more of a narco State. I think part of that is our fault in America for having too many people consume drugs that are snuck in across the southern border. But some of the fault also has to lie in this open-door policy pursued by the Biden administration as the Mexican drug cartels get wealthier and wealthier and wealthier. Another thing to point out is we are not inappropriate otherwise as far as letting people in this country. Depending on the year, we have over 800,000 new people sworn in as American citizens. That is certainly very generous, particularly when compared to other countries. Meanwhile, we have a situation in which we are encouraging people to come here right now. Madam Speaker, 65 percent of the bursts of illegal immigrants are people on Medicaid, which would indicate that it is still a greater burden on our budget to have more people come here. The American Medical Association points out the huge number of illegals who show up in emergency rooms. Of course, as a practical matter, they are in charge of this if something passes through to the other people who are paying for their medical care. But, again, we have to say one of the reasons for the spiraling costs of medical care in this country is people who show up in the emergency rooms and don't pay. That would be illegals. I recently talked to someone who operates a free clinic in my district. And they told me that a significant number of the people that they deal with at the free clinic are people here illegally. This could become even greater if eventually President Biden gets his dream--it could very easily happen if the elections go away. I don't want to have them go away--in which we give Pell grants to people who come here illegally which results in close to a free college education that the American middle class doesn't get. But apparently an inducement to have more people come here is we are going to give Pell grants to people who come here illegally. I hope that the American press corps pays more attention to the numbers introduced earlier this week, as far as the number of people who came here illegally in August. It should be a banner headline. It will be a permanent change in America when over 150,000 people come here. And I should point out that as more people come here, it doesn't mean we are kicking out more people who break our laws. At the same time, we are deporting only about a quarter of the number of people who President Trump was deporting for breaking the law. So we are, in essence, allowing more people who are criminally prone to come into this country. The next issue I want to talk about that the press should be paying attention to: I recently talked to someone who claims that in the military, where they had required vaccines, we have recently heard of increases in miscarriages, cancer, blood clots, neurological complications, and deaths. I would hope the press would dig into this, make some freedom of information requests. If it really is true, as my friend tells me, that there is an increase in medical problems at the same time that our military was required to get the vaccine, it is something we should know not only for the benefit of the military but the rest of America as well. I haven't seen this being adequately covered given the huge amount of money we are putting in these vaccines, as well as the fact that we are encouraging children to get these vaccines. I would hope that a lot of attention is being paid to the effect of vaccines on the primarily young military population, and a population that is generally in shape. The next thing that not only the press should be paying attention to but, quite frankly, the business lobbyists should be paying attention to is something called the PRO Act. The PRO Act passed the House of Representatives two terms in a row. It is being held up in the Senate right now only because of the filibuster rule. Depending upon what happens in the elections in November, one could easily see the PRO Act become law. The American public does not know what is in the PRO Act. Lobbyists in this building, who should know better, don't know about the PRO Act. We are very close to changing the labor laws in this country where you can wind up having an election to unionize with only 14 days' advance notice. These elections would take place with an open ballot. You fill out your ballot, and people can know how you vote. If it is perceived that the management team did something untoward during the election, the labor relations board can deem there to be a union, even though nobody even voted to be unionized. It can create a situation in which different franchisees can be lumped together, and even though no employees in one location want to unionize, they can be forced into a union. It would be a fundamental change in the way we do business in this country. I have nothing against people who belong to a union, but this would overwhelmingly shift the bias toward forcing people to join a union when they don't necessarily want to. It is something our business groups, whatever association it is, should familiarize themselves with and make sure their members know what could very easily happen. I also think the PRO Act has been very underpublicized by our press corps. If it turns out in January that we begin down a process of mass unionization and we go down a path in which all employees' numbers have to be turned over--their address, their email address, their phone number--without their say so, the American public ought to know what they are voting for in November. I don't believe the press corps in this country has adequately explained to both management, employees, everybody, how close we are to that PRO Act becoming law. Everybody ought to know it. I think it would be devastating for American business, particularly American business that has to compete abroad, if the PRO Act were to pass. But if it passes, I bet very few people will understand what effect this election has on it. There is another significant bill that is being held back only because of the filibuster rule in the Senate. Even though this bill passed this session, the average American does not know how close we are to this becoming law. I speak about the LGBTQI+ Data Inclusion Act. In this act, both for the purpose of censuses and other government forms, American citizens and American children will be asked to declare a sexual preference or sexual identity, be it bisexual, be it binary, be it transgender, what-have-you. I think this is highly offensive. There was a time when the gay rights movement meant we weren't supposed to ask what people do in bed. Now, it is going to be the government's business, and you are going to be asked to declare your sexual preference, which by itself is outlandish. But just as outlandish is this declaring goes all the way down to kids who are 7 or 6 or 5 years old. Now, there the form may be filled out by parents or by a teacher. It includes forms other than just the census, forms that school districts are required to fill out. Nevertheless, I think it is a fundamental change in America that we are going to be collecting data on sexual preferences from any age group. Outlandish for age 5; outlandish for age 12. But this, to me, is a fundamental change in the way America operates, and the information that people are supposed to turn over to the government is a fundamental change. I would be surprised if one out of 300 Americans knew we are so close to making that requirement in the United States. I hope that our slumbering press corps--I don't mean to refer to them that way--but I hope that the average American knows how close we are to that bill becoming law. The next issue that I think we ought to look at a little bit concerns the continued effort to claim we have a huge racism problem in this country. I do not believe we have a racism problem in the country. The easiest way to see that is when you look and see how well the immigrants who just come here are able to do, despite the fact that many of the immigrants who come here don't even know English. I have recently spoken to people from the Hmong community, from the Indian community, and from the Filipino community, and all of them are so happy to be in America and think America is the land of opportunity, that people do so well in America. I talked to a Hmong individual recently, and he had between himself, his children, and his siblings' children, about 30 children or nieces or nephews. Every one of them is thriving in America. Nobody has broken any laws. They all have decent jobs. They are educated in one fashion or another. These are people who came here from an entirely different culture. Many were not Christian. Their parents or grandparents did not know English when they came here, but they thrive in America. I have been talking to some Indian immigrants, and they say how wonderful the opportunity is here. Again, I talked to somebody recently who came here, didn't know any English. He had to start out as a dishwasher. He worked his way up and is doing fantastically well in America. The fact that he is of Indian heritage had no effect on him whatsoever, and he couldn't think of any way in which he had been discriminated against. Same thing is true with somebody from the Philippines. But what do we get here out of Washington? We get Joe Biden talking about we have to pass a bill--I will talk about in a second--we have to make it easier to sue police, in part, because we perceive the police are prejudiced. We continue to promote the Black Lives Matter movement, which is built on the lie that we have a huge problem with racist police in this country. But nevertheless, we coddle them, people give them money, and they are treated with respect. In our election law, we are told we have to get rid of photo ID, something that many other countries have, because it is racist to require photo ID. That is some horrible slander that Joe Biden has against the people of this country. I would ask that the press begin to treat these claims of racism a little more skeptically. I think they should ask people details when they claim racism is a big problem, because it is not without harm. I think it causes people to walk around with a chip on their shoulder. I think that it causes unnecessary divisions in Americans. I think America has been a melting pot my whole life and well before I was born. People come here from all around the globe. I should point out that insofar as there are ethnic problems, they are frequently greater in other countries. That is one thing that people from India pointed out to me, that there are problems between different religious groups or ethnic groups in India in which people even get killed. There is nothing like that in the United States. It is time the politicians of this building, rather than trying to take political advantage of the grievances that they try to bring up, they should tell people that anybody who works hard in America has an opportunity to succeed and that that is something they can be proud of about of America. They can just use their common sense. If you are down at the border, the people who come here, come here from all around the globe, because they know that despite the fact they might not know the native language, despite the fact that they don't have a job lined up when they get here--whether you are coming here from Peru or Cuba or Ecuador or Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, anywhere--you are going to be better off in the United States. Not Christian, not northern European, not European at all, you are still going to be better off in the United States. So many immigrants have told me there is unlimited opportunity in the United States. That is why they are here. One of the major reasons, I think, why some people don't succeed in taking advantage of that opportunity is because they are told by opportunistic politicians that America is a racist country and you cannot succeed in America. The final comment that I think the press should be picking up going into the election cycle is a law that right now has passed the House twice but has only not passed the Senate because of the filibuster rule, which could change with a shift in just two votes in the U.S. Senate, is the law making it easier to sue police. There are a variety of reasons why crime has gone up so dramatically in this country in the last 2 years, and there is no question that part of it is we are not adequately funding our police departments. But even more than that, we are not speaking positively about police. Now, we have a bill out there making it easier to sue police if they handcuff somebody or if they wrestle with somebody. This rhetoric from politicians and also this proposed law causes police, I think, to be very reluctant to physically engage somebody, very reluctant to be aggressive. As a result, we have in Milwaukee, the city of my birth, and many other urban cities, including Washington and Baltimore, right up the freeway, dramatic increases in the number of homicides. It didn't just happen. It happened, in part, because of rhetoric from politicians tearing down police, encouraging lack of respect for the law. The final highlight of this drive to dislike police could easily happen in January when we get rid of the limited immunity that police currently have if they have to engage someone. It would dramatically change policing, make it more difficult to find police, and make it easier to sue police. I hope our press corps pays special attention to these laws, which did not pass out of this Congress, but passed only out of the House. But if there is a slight shift in the partisan makeup in January, they could easily become law. The American citizens ought to know about these laws before they go to vote in November. I am afraid they are not going to know it, because they are not adequately covered by our slumbering journalists. I ask one more time that they pay attention to laws related to racism; laws related to suing police; laws related to the LGBTQI+ Data Inclusion Act, in which they go around and try to collect data on sexual preferences from all Americans; and the PRO Act, in which we, I think, just shamefully tip the balance of the scales toward forcing people to become members of a union. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I arrived 20 seconds late in a meeting. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 441. Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress Baird (Bucshon) Bass (Correa) Boebert (Gaetz) Chu (Beyer) Conway (Valadao) Garcia (IL) (Correa) Gomez (Evans) Gottheimer (Neguse) Johnson (TX) (Jeffries) Jones (Beyer) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) Lamb (Pallone) Lawrence (Stevens) McEachin (Beyer) McHenry (Donalds) Meng (Escobar) Napolitano (Correa) Newman (Beyer) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Ruiz (Correa) Rush (Bowman) Ryan (OH) (Correa) Sanchez (Pallone) Soto (Wasserman Schultz) Swalwell (Correa) Vargas (Correa) Waltz (Gimenez)

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I bring attention to the American people of what should be the number one story in every newspaper in the country tomorrow, but we know they won't even cover it. Today were released the encounters and releases at the southern border for August--just shy of 140,000 people. By comparison, 2 years ago in August of the prior administration, it was 13,000. So, in 2 years, we have gone from 13,000 to 140,000. That also means a corresponding increase in the amount of fentanyl crossing the border, and we all know that, right now, we have well over 100,000 illegal drug deaths in America, and of those 100,000, the vast majority contain fentanyl. I also point out that, right now, the deportations are about one quarter per day as to what they were for people committing crimes 2 years ago. I want the American people to wake up and demand something serious be done on the border, and I beg the press corps to talk about the new August numbers for people crossing here illegally.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, the 87,000 figure is entirely reasonable, given we have an $80 billion increase. Now, is it exact? It might be 86,500. I don't know. It is a big number. First of all, it is that many more people monitoring Americans. Anybody that wants a free society should be afraid of that. Secondly, with 86,500 people poking around small business, it means that much more accountant time that has to be paid for by the small businesses. It means that many more lawyers hired by the small businesses. It is really an accountant and legal make-work program. Auditing on this scale will really change the amount of time you have to deal with this. Other things, you are getting rid of--I am very disappointed--the good provision you had with regard to carried interest. You are finally going after some of the billionaires of this country, and I wish you wouldn't have caved into the Senate and removed that provision. That was a very good thing. Next, you have way too much corporate welfare in here. $134 billion in tax credits for so-called favored green industries. What is it? It is that many more businesses depending upon government, and their way to make money is not by providing something the American citizen wants. They are making money because of tax credits they have been given by Congress. Otherwise, the bill is full of other big spending, as well. There is a 22 percent increase in Bureau of Indian Affairs, 22 percent at a time when we are choking on inflation because of excessive government spending. That is one more spending program to put in here.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, everybody is obsessed with inflation, as well they should be obsessed, but there are so many stories out there that the mainstream media is not covering that the American public ought to be aware of. Right now, ICE is proposing identification cards for illegal immigrants. First of all, we have a situation in which there are over 170,000 people allowed in this country every month who should probably not even be here illegally. Why is this? Already we promised free healthcare, and I think in many cases people coming here illegally are getting more healthcare or easier access to healthcare than people are originally. They are allowed to travel all around the country. Now there is already a concern in my State that many illegal immigrants are getting public benefits, as well. I am afraid that these cards will be used to further solidify the programs to give free public benefits to those people who shouldn't be here. I hope the press looks into it.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, we all know that inflation is the big topic on people's tongues nowadays, but what we can't let people forget is that high inflation is caused by high spending. Now, what did Congress do after returning to this floor this week and spending the weekend hearing people complain about high gas prices, but even more high housing prices, high food prices? They passed the CHIPS bill today for $76 billion. Now, I know why they thought they could vote for a $76 billion bill. They thought the public wouldn't know the difference between $76 billion and $76 million. $76 billion is $230 for every man, woman, and child in this country. If you are a family of four, Congress just spent $1,000 of your money and didn't think anything about it. Now, the other thing that bothers me about it is, I like to look out for the average guy. Who owns these chip companies? The uber wealthy. Seventy-six billion dollars toward the uber wealthy and corporate welfare. A lot of people think the majority party likes to freely spend money for welfare, for the people who don't work. And that is true; they do. What is not as known is they love to spend money on the uber wealthy as well. Every newspaper in the country ought to have a banner headline in the morning: ``$76 billion spent again by Congress.''

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I think we need a little more talk about inflation. I know when we get home it is always the number one issue that is out there. I don't think there has been enough talk about how the inflation came about. The inflation came about because of excessive spending. Every middle school student should know that if the Federal Government spends wildly more on the amount going out than the amount going in, the Federal Reserve has to, in essence, print the dollars to make those payments, and when the Federal Reserve prints more dollars, the value of the dollar drops, which is why we have these huge spending increases. Now, I will make a couple of comments on them. First of all, I think the numbers that we are supposed to talk about, the 9.1 increase in inflation, are woefully underrated. Here is the graph that all of us politicos are supposed to talk about. Does anybody believe that the cost of shelter in the last 12 months has only gone up 5.6 percent? Where is the press? They ought to be making fun of that number. When I talk to my landlords, when I talk to my builders, nobody thinks things have gone up only 5.6 percent in the last year. I think the cost of a new house has gone up 20 to 25 percent. I think the cost of rentals has gone up by 10 or 15 percent. It is way more than the 5.6 percent on this chart. The same thing is true of automobiles. They tell us used automobiles have gone up by about 11.4 percent in the last year. Talk to your car dealers. They will laugh at the idea that used cars have only gone up by 11.4 percent in the last year. Things are much worse than the numbers that are put out there by the Biden administration. Therefore, the American public is suffering a lot more than even this so-called record inflation increase of 9.1. It is much more than that. But once we get done looking at that, let's look at the new spending bills that are coming out. Have people learned their lesson? All of a sudden, we are going to produce even on the relatively small part of the budget, this discretionary spending, which is the part we vote on around here? Are we going to do something to maybe have no increase there or 2 or 3 percent increase there? No. When we look at the bills, some of which we passed last week, and they break up what I think the people at home would call the budget into a variety of different bills, military construction and veterans affairs, people want an 18 percent increase for the year beginning October 1; financial services and general government, 17 percent increase; the Department of the Interior and the environment, up 18 percent. In other words, even after the horrific inflation, when we come back to the regular budget, this place has the pedal to the metal, trying to spend another huge amount. I think the press ought to wake up and pay attention to both of these issues. I beg the press to talk to your local car dealers, to talk to your local landlords and see: Have we only had a 5.6 percent increase in shelter? Have we only had a 7.1 percent increase in used cars? No way. They are giving us numbers that are much lower than the reality. The press ought to look at this, and rather than just sleepwalk through these budgets that get passed around here, we ought to be paying a little bit more attention to the sizable increases in these budgets, line by line, or the amount of inflation we have seen so far would be a drop in the bucket. Wake up, American press corps.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 397.

Mr. GROTHMAN

Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask that my name be removed as cosponsor of H.R. 8167.