Mike Johnson

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mrs. Murphy of Florida, and Mr. Higgins of New York be removed as cosponsors of H.R. 7648.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I recognize tonight my good friend, Mr. Robert J. Wright. He is a local legend and cohost of the ``Robert and Erin Show'' on KEEL Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. After 50 years on the air and an illustrious career, Robert has decided to retire. He will be sorely missed in our area. It is truly difficult to imagine our region without his voice on the airways. He is a consummate professional broadcaster, always informative, entertaining, and genuinely tuned in to the people and issues of Louisiana. Fifty years in any career field is an extraordinary accomplishment, but 50 years of consistently compelling radio is an achievement that few others can ever boast. I congratulate Robert on his retirement and on a half century of devotion to his craft. We all hope he will finally be able to get some sleep in the mornings. He has earned it. God bless.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is exactly right. It is time to shift back to American energy dominance, which we had under the previous administration. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to another doctor, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, according to The Washington Post, Washington Democrats have diagnosed their messaging as the source of their current political problems. My colleagues and I are here tonight to offer a second opinion. Mr. Speaker, the Washington Democrats certainly do have a problem, but it is not caused by their messaging; it is being caused by their policies. That is clear for everybody to see. You see, the phrase ``messaging problem'' is a phrase that is familiar to us on Capitol Hill. It presumes that the American people would support your agenda; they just haven't heard it yet, or they don't quite understand it. But that is certainly not the problem for these Washington Democrats. It is not their policies, and it is not that their policies are too sophisticated for the rest of us to understand, nor is it that the American people don't know what is good for them. It is exactly the opposite. The American people know what is best for them and their families, and they can see very plainly the results of Washington Democrats' one- party rule. They do not like it. The plain result of the Washington Democrat agenda can be summed up in what I have been calling back home the three i's. You might narrow it down to, currently: inflation, immigration, and incompetence. We can talk about the crippling inflation, the sky-high illegal immigration, and the unprecedented incompetence of the Democrats in charge in the White House, too. Let's talk about inflation. When President Biden and Washington Democrats assumed control of the Federal Government, inflation was at 1.4 percent. Now, here we are 1 year and trillions of dollars in government spending later, and inflation has reached 8.5 percent. It is at a 41-year high, and it is still climbing. For Americans doing the math at their kitchen table, let's put that in real terms. That means these price increases will cost you two paychecks this year and probably two more next year. Rather than accepting responsibility, what are they doing? President Biden and Washington Democrats have told us all that it is Russia's fault, and they advise that we should buy an electric car. Let's talk about illegal immigration. With regard to that, the policies of President Biden and these Democrats have resulted in record levels of illegal immigration, record levels of illicit drugs flowing into our country, and a humanitarian catastrophe at the southern border. Today, the Biden administration is actually planning to lift the public health restrictions of title 42 that were really the last remaining tool in the toolbox to control illegal immigration. Believe it or not--get this--this is happening at the very time that they are suing in Federal court to keep Americans masked up. According to the Biden administration, if you are an illegal immigrant, COVID restrictions are over. But if you are an American citizen, hey, you better buckle up because these COVID restrictions are going to be around for a while. Incompetence, I don't think we need to elaborate too much. Everyone can see this with their own eyes. It wasn't so long ago that Washington Democrats tried to cast themselves as the party of competence. Remember that, in the election cycle? But many congressional Democrats still can't be bothered to show up here at work. Many haven't voted in person in a long, long time. Some phone into committee hearings from bed, literally. The story at President Biden's agencies isn't much better. Another tax season has come and gone, yet Biden's Treasury Department is still working on getting last year's tax refunds out to the American people. Remember the fatal troop withdrawal, the debacle from Afghanistan. No one at Biden's Defense Department has been fired or held accountable for the chaos that left 13 American soldiers dead. The President himself continues to confuse basic policies from the White House podium on a near-daily basis. The American people deserve competence in government. But they have received, by far, with this administration, the most incompetent government of our lifetimes. Mr. Speaker, again, there is a reason that politicians like to blame their problems on messaging. It implies that if only the American people heard our message, they would support it. In this case, it is the American people who are hearing very clearly the Democrat message, and they reject it. I thank my colleagues for joining me on the floor this evening, where we will be talking about the broad array, the panoply, of crises created by this administration. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. Some wise counsel there. I wish they would heed it. Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I told my friend that I would be faithful to him because he has been faithful to participate in all the Special Order hours if I kept the trains running on time. I yield now to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), who I slighted earlier. I would invite him to talk more about all these crises we are facing.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for bringing that up. Coming from an energy State like Louisiana, just like Pennsylvania, we know how important this is to us. Under the Trump administration, we had achieved energy dominance. We could get back to that if they would just simply do the opposite of what they are doing. Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose) has articulated so well what is on the hearts and minds of so many of our constituents. Inflation is a very real problem for the American people. Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend so much for that and for his service to our country. Having defended our Nation you know that if we don't have a border, we not only don't have safety and security, but we also don't even have sovereignty. We don't even have a country. We have to have a border, and this administration has given us none. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas, (Mr. Hill).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. And I will tell him that he is not going to resign. The gentleman from Arkansas may not know this, but just a few hours ago in the Homeland Security Committee, one of our Republican colleagues from Mississippi, Congressman Guest, asked the Secretary under oath, he said: Are you testifying, as you sit here today, that the southwest border is secure? ``Yes, I am.'' The Secretary of Homeland Security actually said under oath that that border is secure. So we must just be imagining all of this. It is really unbelievable, as we said. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, we have been calling on this President to do his job since he entered that office, and he hasn't done it. I appreciate the gentleman's leadership on all these issues. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde), another good friend.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his clear voice and clarion call for competence and common sense. Mr. Speaker, what my colleagues have articulated tonight is our view, the American people's view on the debacle that is the unified government by the Democrats of the Congress and the White House. We have crippling inflation. We have sky high, illegal immigration. We have unprecedented incompetence at every level. It has yielded us, as you heard tonight, an energy crisis, a crime crisis, a foreign policy crisis, and an agenda that seems almost intentional in its design to put the American people last instead of first. This is the opposite of what was pursued under the previous administration, the opposite of the strides, the incredible achievements that we had accomplished in the first 2 years of the Trump administration with Republicans in charge of this House and the Senate. Mr. Speaker, I think the American people have had enough of this wildly progressive America last agenda. I think that they are going to let their voices be heard in this upcoming election. And it is our prayer that we can survive between now and November, and in January when we take control again. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to my colleagues for participating and joining me on the floor this evening, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Keller for that. These words are not hyperbole. This is what the experts are saying. Customs and Border Patrol agents, those officials who are there every day watching this chaos, this calamity that has developed, they are the ones that are giving us these numbers. They project 18,000 illegals a day. It is just hard to wrap your mind around that.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend; we always need a little moment of brevity, don't we? The news is so bad, but the gentleman pointed out and highlighted how difficult the times are, and that is a serious subject. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield next to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), who holds the distinction of being the highest- ranking military officer ever elected to the United States Congress, my classmate, president of our freshman class. I still call him the general.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, during the last election, the Democratic Party managed to win a razor-thin majority here in this House and a split Senate, 50-50. No objective person can look at those numbers and suggest that the President of this party, President Biden, was given any kind of authority whatsoever to try to radically transform our country, but, you know, that is exactly what he has tried to do for the worse. And the latest offense, the latest overstep, the latest overreach is this President has made the most leftwing nomination to the Supreme Court in American history. For those who didn't see this over the weekend, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testified in her post-confirmation hearing written questions for the record: ``I do not hold a position on whether individuals possess natural rights.'' You heard that correctly. President Biden's nominee for the highest court in this land cannot say whether individuals possess natural rights. We can hardly imagine a more un-American position than denying the first self-evident truth of America. The central and foundational premise of our great country is that all individuals are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among those are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have a newsflash for the judge: Those rights don't come from government; they don't come from any human authority. They come from our creator himself. We are endowed with those rights by God. The fact that Judge Jackson cannot or will not acknowledge this simple fact is disqualifying for the highest court in this land, period, full stop. Mr. Speaker, the President's nomination is truly out of step with the country and this fateful moment. And the primary job Americans elected President Biden to do was to help unite this country. This is doing the opposite. His nomination for the Supreme Court is the latest example of just how badly he has failed. I am very thankful to my colleagues for joining me on the floor this evening to discuss President Biden's radical nominee to the United States Supreme Court, but also, as you will hear, the myriad number of other crises the White House is creating at home and abroad. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for drawing attention to that. The gentlewoman is exactly right, and some of the Border Patrol officials have said that they estimate that by rescinding title 42, that the number of illegal border crossings will double overnight. So instead of having 7,000 a day, we will go to 18, 20,000 a day. The numbers are just staggering. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that fight and that very worthwhile legislation, and we look forward to seeing that. The gentleman is right. The surge in crime is directly related to border in so many ways because we know dangerous people have come across that border. It is completely open to MS-13 gang members, violent criminals, convicted persons, criminals who come from other countries. You have child predators, even terrorists who have come across that border. We know this for a fact, and still they won't change the policies. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa.)

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. So much of that is just common sense, and I appreciate him pointing it out. But sadly, unfortunately, this White House shows no intention whatsoever of reversing its policies and positions, which could fix these problems. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to yield next to the gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Babin).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, John Adams said facts are stubborn things, and those are some tough facts. They cannot refute it because everyone can see for themselves. By the way, Dr. Babin, I just pulled up the U.S. debt clock, this thing that everybody can see on their smartphone. Currently, right now, as we stand here, the national debt is $30,367,412,900. You can't count it or follow it with the naked eye. Unbelievable. And he is proposing more. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for highlighting that. It is a serious issue. The longest-lasting legacy of any President is who they put on those Federal courts, and, of course, the most important is the highest court in the land. We cannot overstate how important this is. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose), my good friend.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, that was so well said. I appreciate the gentleman highlighting that issue. It is one of so many that we have deep concerns about with this administration and their budget and everything they do. We have to protect the sanctity of every single human life. To defend the defenseless is the job that we have--the first job, the primary job. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of wisdom there. The gentleman is exactly right. If a judge begins with the premise that we have no natural rights, that does not bode well for where that logic leads. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Absolutely. And these are the results of policy choices, and they could easily be reversed if the White House would wake up and do something. So I thank the gentleman for bringing that to our attention tonight. Mr. Speaker, you have heard Members from across the country--north, south, east, and west--who have expressed their outrage and their concern with all of the terrible policy choices that are leading to absurd results for our country. These are very dangerous times. There is no leadership in the White House. There is no leadership in the administration. There is no leadership from the Democratic majority in this House or in the split Senate down the Hall. We can turn these things around, and we can stop these crises if we make different decisions, but they will not do it. Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for my colleagues who have shown up tonight to articulate this for the American people. We can't say it often enough or loudly enough. There is going to be a sea change in November, and we pray that we can hold on and keep this Republic until then. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.