Bob Good

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD

Mr. GOOD. Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Virginia, I am privileged to recognize Ms. Robin Mahan of Gretna, VA as she retires from her position as clerk of the Halifax County School Board after 45 years of service to the school system. Ms. Mahan officially retired on September 30th after serving with seven superintendents. It is truly an honor to recognize your commitment and devotion to Halifax County schools and our students. I wish her the best in her retirement and may God bless her in her future endeavors.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Virginia, I am privileged to recognize the 100th year anniversary of Main Uno Baptist Church in Madison County, Virginia. Main Uno Baptist Church celebrated their 100th birthday on October 9, 2022. One hundred years of a church serving the spiritual needs of a community is truly significant and worthy of celebration. I truly hope that this day is special for the each of the church members, and that each one of you remembers with fondness and gratitude everything God has done amongst your congregation and in your community.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Virginia, I am privileged to recognize the 90th anniversary of the Christiansburg Hunting Club. The Christiansburg Hunting Club celebrated their 90th anniversary on September 24, 2022. Hunting is truly a great American pastime and outdoor tradition. Since 1932, the Christiansburg Hunting Club has served as an organization where generations of families have bonded over hunting and sportsmanship. An organization that has preserved this tradition, and the deep relationships that come alongside it, for over 90 years is truly worth celebrating.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the preamble to the Constitution states that its purpose is, in part, to ``secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.'' Are we doing that today? This legislation represents Congress at its worst. We are voting to let government funding expire on December 16, just days after dozens of Democrats are fired by the voters on November 8. But before this Congress adjourns and new courageous conservatives are sworn in, Congress wants to stick it to the American people one more time. The funding for 2023 and beyond should reflect the will of the people and how they vote on November 8 when they reject the policies under which they are suffering today. No Republican in the Senate should have, and no Republican in this House, and even those on the other side, should give one more cent to a government that doesn't care about our border but wants to send $12 billion more to secure the border of Ukraine. We should not fund a government that is allowing an invasion across our southern border and is giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the countries that are facilitating that just south of our border. We should be cutting our spending and not increasing inflation by more massive spending, as reflected in this package today. We should support American energy production, not subsidize unreliable energy and Biden's gas price hike. We should not be funding the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents to go after regular, hardworking Americans. We should end the vaccine mandate and the COVID China virus emergency and not fund an administration that wants to fire healthcare workers because they don't get a vaccine. All Republicans should oppose this CR, not give one more vote for one more cent for this tyrannical government that is hurting all Americans.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 7780. The China virus lockdowns of our schools resulted in an undisputed increase in mental health issues for our students, for our children. This bill is yet another leftist response to the lockdown problems that Democrats created. Thanks to Democrat lockdowns in collusion with their beloved teachers unions, students across this country are suffering academically and mentally. You know, students--remember, the ones who we were supposed to put first in decisions regarding our schools. That is what we used to do. But 9-year-old students have suffered a 7-point drop in math scores and a 5-point drop in reading scores since 2020, losing 20 years of academic progress, meaning children today are posting the same test scores in reading and math as they did 20 years ago. The CDC reports that students who experienced long-term isolation from schools because Democrats would not reopen or let the kids come back to school, they have experienced acutely higher feelings of hopelessness and higher rates of attempted suicide as a result. According to one report, emergency room visits for young girls for attempted suicides were 51 percent higher in the spring of 2021 than in the same period in 2019. History will judge us harshly for how we treated children during the China virus pandemic, regarding how this government crushed the economy, this government crushed small businesses, this government crushed individual liberties and sacrificed our children on the altar of the leftist political agenda and the special interest groups. Yet, Democrats still don't want to acknowledge that the pandemic is over. The President said it. Then, of course, his staff is walking that back. Maybe it is because they want to hold on to the power that they have accumulated in the name of the emergency, or maybe they want to hold on to proxy voting in this Chamber, or maybe they want to hold on to the expansion of government and the expansion of the welfare state. But with poll numbers plunging and suburban moms and minorities and others fleeing the Democratic Party, not to mention literally fleeing blue States that are even more destroyed by their policies, they are suddenly realizing and Democrats are saying: Houston, we have a problem. Their solutions are all wrong and promise more of what created the suffering across America. They don't want to understand or don't care to understand that it was government that exacerbated the problems from the China virus lockdowns that caused the mental health issues for our students, and expanding this government will only increase the problem. H.R. 7780 prohibits arbitration and conflict resolution clauses in employee benefit plans, creating an opening for trial lawyers--perhaps the only group that the Democrats love more than teachers unions, trial lawyers--allowing them to sue and trip up businessowners in troublesome and expensive litigation. Instead of empowering businessowners after the harmful lockdown mandates from the Democrats, they instead want to create more ways to hurt the American economy. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of my constituent, Mr. William Eckerson of Crozet, Virginia, who celebrated his 100th birthday on August 20, 2022. Mr. Eckerson currently resides in Virginia's Fifth District but, as a young man, he faithfully served the United States marines during World War II, even serving in Iwo Jima. Following his time in the Marines, he worked in the private sector but maintained his commitment to the Marines by participating in the Marine Band, various parades, and many World War II marine reunions. Mr. Eckerson has further demonstrated his commitment to the Marines and this country by spending years of his life cleaning up veteran cemeteries. When he is not serving others, Mr. Eckerson is also an avid golfer and cheers for his beloved Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. It is a great privilege to honor my constituent following his 100th birthday and thank him for his many years of service to the United States of America and his local community. Mr. Eckerson, I certainly hope that you and your loved ones enjoyed a great day and celebration. May God bless you, and happy 100th birthday.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to S. 1098, which expands the Secretary of Education's already illegitimate, unconstitutional authority, so-called, to transfer student loan debt from those who borrowed it to those who did not. How egregious, once again, that we would try to force taxpayers who did not go to college, who worked their way through college without incurring debt, or who paid off their student loans to now have to carry the debt for those making up to $250,000 a year, from a family standpoint. This is an effort to double the number of student loans where the debt will be transferred to hardworking taxpayers. This bill allows new authority for the Secretary of Education to allow for new loans if it is in the ``fiscal interests of the Federal Government.'' Now, that is an interesting concept. Since when does this majority consider the fiscal impact of their decisions? There is no limit to how many illegals they will allow to invade our country through the southern border, and there is no limit, seemingly, to how much money they will spend. The answer to every supposed problem is to spend more money, irrespective of the fiscal impact. Instead of considering the fiscal impact on the Federal Government, by the way, which I suspect we will not do since the Federal Government doesn't have any money, since the Federal Government is in debt for $31 trillion, which is $90,000 per citizen, how about if we consider the fiscal impact on the taxpayers who are on the hook for that $31 trillion and will be on the hook for this new spending that is being advocated for today? The truth is this bill, this legislation, would add billions more to the already terrible decisions we have made fiscally in this Congress. The majority's response to the $31 trillion national debt that we have already referenced most recently is to pass their inflation increase bill. That added $800 billion more in spending, half of it for green raw deal spending, a couple hundred billion dollars for IRS agents, because I am sure you hear all across your district, like I do, that the only thing we need is more IRS agents. Then, our other response, in addition to the inflation increase act, is to the student loan transfer fiasco, transferring debt from those who borrowed it to those who did not. Today, we will add billions more to that $600 billion conservative estimate on what the cost is of the student loan transfer scheme. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the Democrats are determined to make inflation worse by continuing their disastrous policies that caused it in the first place. Do they not understand the concept of pouring gas on a fire? Beyond the reckless spending of nearly another trillion dollars on top of the $30 trillion national debt--there is no climate crisis. It is a hoax. This is the one crisis that even Democrats couldn't create. They have been crying about the climate sky falling for 40 years now, predicting the world would end in 12 years. It is a lie. We are the cleanest large energy producer in the world, and fossil fuels are a wonderful thing. They are essential to our economic and national security. Worse yet, Democrats want to spend $80 billion to hire 87,000 more armed IRS agents to terrorize Americans with 1.2 million more audits of hardworking taxpayers. No one in my district has ever told me that the one thing we need is more IRS agents. Mr. Speaker, the American people will vote against this bill on November 8.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, today I honor the life and service of Sheriff Carl H. Wells of Bedford County, VA, who passed away on July 12th, at the age of 86. Sheriff Wells, a lifelong resident of Bedford County, faithfully served as sheriff in his community from 1974 to 1995. I know my friends from Virginia, Congressman Morgan Griffith and Congressman Ben Cline, who both also represent the region, join me in honoring Mr. Wells for a life well-lived and a legacy of faithful service and commitment to Bedford County. My prayers are with his wife of 64 years, Ora, and the family, friends and community who are grieving his passing. In addition to his 22-year commitment to serving his county as sheriff, Mr. Wells was also a member of Bedford Baptist church for many years and was actively engaged in his community through participation in multiple volunteer service groups including the Bedford Elks Lodge, the Lions Club, the Shriners, and many others. On behalf of my constituents and my colleagues, it is a privilege to recognize Sheriff Well's life and service to Virginians. He will be missed but not forgotten.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 6929, another Democrat bailout bill by the sponsors of the nanny state. It is clear that ``Bidenflation'' is crushing the American people with the Biden price hike that is causing sky-high gas prices, and Americans are struggling to stay afloat as the economy limps toward recession. Not surprisingly though, Democrats are trying to redefine the term ``recession'' to avoid recognizing the failures of their damaging policies. Let me help them out by quoting, paraphrasing from the former President Ronald Reagan: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. But a recovery is when Democrat Members of Congress lose their jobs. This legislation would make hardworking middle-class taxpayers reimburse pension plan participants who were employed by the now- defunct Delphi Corporation and add 6 percent interest. The Democrats insist that this is just an attempt to rightfully recover losses suffered by these former employees. But early in my own career, I actually experienced this kind of unfortunate situation firsthand. In fact, my first employer after college ended their cash balance pension plan just a couple of years after I started with the company. But it never occurred to me that other hardworking taxpayers should have to pay me for the benefits and earnings that I missed out on. My next employer sold my division to a competitor, and then the former parent company went under, and the value of their stock that made up a significant portion of my retirement account went to zero. But, again, it never occurred to me that other, hardworking taxpayers should have to pay me to restore my lost investment value. In both cases, recognizing the risks and rewards associated with our nonsocialist, free enterprise economic system, I just kept working hard, saving money for retirement, with no help from Congress or confiscation of resources from other hardworking taxpayers. To my benevolent colleagues on the other side, I have one question for you: Where does this end? And we know where it ends, with these policies carried to its logical conclusion, with the physical ruin of America. But I should say benevolent with other people's money and with our children's financial and economic future. Should Congress reimburse every American's investment retirement plan when it suffers a loss? What if all Americans seek repayment for their losses in this failed Biden economy, because it does affect everyone. But hardworking Americans have had enough. Why should the constituents of my Virginia Fifth District pay for someone else's retirement plan? Enough with the stimulus checks; enough with the bailouts; enough with paying people not to work; enough with growing the welfare state; enough with incentivizing and rewarding the wrong behavior, while punishing those who do the right thing. Let's get back to the Trump policies, 1 percent inflation, $2 gas prices, and put Americans back to work. I urge all of my colleagues to vote against this Democrat bailout bill.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the chairman of our Freedom Caucus, for allowing me to join tonight. It is the fireman whose solution is to start more fires, quite frankly. You wonder, this President, his administration, is there a devious, malicious intent, or is there just an illiteracy, a failure to recognize basic economic principles, as the gentleman from Arizona was just talking about tonight? Their war that they have declared on fossil fuels, their war that they have declared on the American energy industry, is dishonest and dangerous demonization of an industry that is vital to our economy, vital to our industry, vital to our national security. To inherit a year and a half ago American energy independence for the first time ever and $2 gas prices--I know we talked about the 2020 campaign over and over. Do you like Trump's $2 gas prices, or do you like Obama-Biden's $4 gas prices? Who would have known that in just a year and a half's time, they would be so good at jacking those prices up to $5 a gallon? What is their solution to that? Oh, just go spend 70,000 bucks on your Tesla. The more pain that you experience, said their Transportation Secretary, who knows nothing about transportation, has no experience in transportation, but said: Hey, the more pain you experience, that just means the more benefit that is being enjoyed. So, hey, buy yourself a $70,000 Tesla if you can't afford to put gas in your cars. It is making no measurable or negligible difference on the cost of gas or the cost of fuel, but what it has done is to compromise our national security, once again, our economic security, once again. Emptying our Strategic Petroleum Reserves for political purposes is just an egregious failure, once again, by this administration.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That is right.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Well, you might think you can go to President Trump and get him to sell it at those prices from 6 years ago.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. They are executing the plan.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. To Mr. Hice's comment about $6,000, the average family paying $500 more a month, $6,000 more per year, that is net take-home cost. That means you have to earn some $10,000 to make the $6,000 that you are losing just to break even. So essentially we have lost $10,000 worth of gross income to Bidenflation, the Biden price hike. You wonder about the administration, you know, do they not know or do they not care? It is not just the gas prices, which as we know--and we would hope that they would understand, but perhaps they don't or, again, perhaps they don't care, whichever is worse--but the number one thing that impacts American families--middle-income, low-income, fixed-income folks--is what they are paying at the pump. It is not just the gas prices that have doubled under this administration, but it is all the other fuel costs that are going up. It is everything that is shipped, which is everything that we buy, so it is driving up inflation across the board. It is everything that is produced from petroleum products driving up prices further. Then there is the lie about the fact that we could ever move to renewables anyway, which is a lie to begin with. Then there is the climate damage that they are causing because we are buying fuel from other countries who are not the clean producers that we are. Meanwhile, it is being shipped across the ocean, which causes more pollution, so it is contrary to what they say they want to believe from a climate standpoint, not to mention the embarrassment of sending our President overseas, as Mr. Perry said, proverbial gas can in hand, pleading and begging with other countries to provide what we can produce for ourselves, not to mention the national security risk, being dependent on foreign countries--who hate us--for vital energy, not to mention enriching Putin with the ability to sell fuel at a higher price to fund his war, not to mention having Europe get greater dependence on Russia. The whole piece together--economically, national security, even the climate concern that he claims to have--is all compromised by what he is doing, intentionally, willfully executing the plan, Mr. Perry, as you said, on the war on American energy.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Who he thinks is a competitor, not an adversary.