And appreciate his great service to our country and look forward to hearing from him thank you I appreciate the passion of my good friend from from Texas and and many of the points he’s making need to be heard and understood even if it’s uncomfortable the truth has to be told
But Mr Speaker I rise today to talk about legislation I’m promoting to return the United States to the gold standard as was discussed earlier our nation is facing an inflation crisis not seen in over 40 years inflation is a regressive tax hurting lower income Americans more than anyone else West
Virginians have seen the value of their savings erode before their very eyes as a result of the Reckless tax and spending spree of President Joe Biden and the Washington Democrats and an overzealous Federal Reserve thanks to Democrats your 401k is now more like a 301k it’ll go even lower if they stay in
Power today our national debt is over 32 trillion which is borrowed not only from Americans but also from foreign adversaries we know who’s responsible for the current uh debt crisis but the question has to be asked what in our country’s history allowed us to get to this point
The answer can actually be traced back to 1971. when President Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard rather than tackle the root causes of economic challenges Nixon severed the Dollar’s convertibility to Gold once and for all President Nixon said at the time that that would actually combat inflation
Art Laffer a well-known and respected Economist accurately warned that taking the United States off of the gold standard would actually only exacerbate these problems What followed was a period of severe inflation rivaled only by what we’re seeing today domestic production became more expensive and corporate profits declined so companies were encouraged to shift
Production abroad overseas where labor costs were cheaper today our number one economic arrival is China which continues to attract American companies due to the cheapness of production there now the gold standard as we know it is not actually using the gold as currency but rather tying the dollar bill
Directly to the value of that gold under the gold standard any American would be able to trade their dollars for a fixed amount of gold by linking the dollar to the value of gold the money supply could only be increased if the supply of gold increases this connection protects the
Purchasing power of your hard-earned tax dollar the gold standard would protect against Washington’s irresponsible spending habits and the creation of money out of thin air prices would be shaped by economics rather than instincts and wishes of federal bureaucrats with the gold standard no longer would our economy be at the mercy of the
Federal Reserve and Reckless Washington Spenders through government mismanagement and economic manipulation is it any surprise that many Americans are looking for alternatives to you to the US dollar in cryptocurrencies Americans are losing confidence in our currency it is long past time for Congress to begin considering a return
To the gold standard that’s why I’ll be introducing legislation to do exactly that as I have in previous congresses under my proposal the Secretary of the Treasury would Define the U.S dollar in terms of fixed weight of gold based on the market price while allowing dollar
Bills to be exchanged for gold at that rate had the United States been on the gold standard or some other fixed standard we would not be in the inflation crisis we’re in today I hope to work with the new Republic majority to make sure this issue gets the attention it deserves
Thank you Mr Speaker I rise today to address my bill the expanding access for capital for Rural job creators Act earlier this year the house resoundingly passed my bipartisan expanding assets to capital for Rural job creators Act rural small businesses fake face unique challenges that big city businesses do not
Nearly 20 percent of the United States population lives in rural areas and yet businesses in rural areas raised under two percent of total Capital over the last three years West Virginia which I’m so proud to represent is a very rural state where no city has a population greater than 50 000 people
So my legislation simply requires these the Security and Exchange Commission SEC uh advocate for small business Capital formation office to identify and report to Congress those challenges rural small businesses face when trying to access our Capital markets this will make it easier for congress than an act to address these problems
My bill would make it easier for Congress to do our jobs and make sure rural small businesses like in West Virginia are not left behind and I hope the Senate takes up this Common Sense measure promptly so thank you uh thank you Mr chairman for for yielding I yield
Back the time to the gentleman from Texas and keep up the good work I think the gentleman from West Virginia and appreciate his uh strong passion representing the great people of West Virginia and he’s a good friend and and glad that he could join us here today
Earlier I was talking about the need for this country to reclaim economic growth in order to dig ourselves out of the hole that this absurd institution and lack of leadership from Washington DC has created for the American people in the form of 32 trillion dollars of debt uh ridiculously stagnant economic growth
After Decades of being able to achieve growth in the three and four percent range we are now sitting in the doldrums of one percent type economic growth but that might even be rather robust in the era of Joe Biden and so I’d like to yield to my friend a gentleman from
North Carolina to expand upon this important point I thank Mr Roy for yielding and Mr Roy I uh we of course the president’s budget recommendation came over a month late yesterday and there was one detail I read in the New York Times so it must be true
Uh although it’s the only place I’ve had a chance to see it yet uh and and it and it and what immediately popped into my mind when I read this detail is that Karine Jean-Pierre said last week I can remember saying it that the president’s economic plan is working for the American people
And that pop back into my because into my head because the detail disclosed by the New York Times is the administration predicts economic growth in this fiscal year not three and a half percent not four certainly not two and a half percent not one and a half percent six tenths of a percent
You have to start talking about economic growth and what the economists call basis points because it’s so small so if the economic plan of the Biden Administration is working for the American people that means 60 basis points of economic growth anticipated in the year and guess what the Biden Administration says about that
We should do nothing different we should keep doing the same thing that’s producing six tenths percent of economic growth except one other thing we should pile the burden of a lot more taxes on the economy because apparently that’s going because what do we need 30 basis points of economic growth
Republicans believe we need to change I yield back the gentleman from Texas I appreciate my friend for North Carolina I’d inquire how much time we have remaining the gentleman has eight minutes remaining well I appreciate it I don’t know that I’ll use every bit of that I appreciate the point that General from
North Carolina just made because it’s critically important and it merits at least one final repetition that this great country racked up the level of debt that we currently have today relative to the size of its economy in 1946 but why was that to rid the world of fascism
To confront our enemies defeat those enemies and protect this great country and then we embarked for 50 years and grew ourselves to the pointy to be able to balance the budget by 2000. with strong economic growth it took that much time and here we sit today in 2023 with 32
Trillion dollars of debt sitting at the president’s own admission of 60 basis points economic growth this year he wants his Grand solution to be oh we’ll just rack up 17 trillion dollars more debt in the next decade because I’m going to save three trillion dollars by taxing the American people and
Regulating the American people it doesn’t work this is President Biden’s actual form of voodoo economics he’s going to level this country layer mountains more debt on our kids and grandkids all while funding the very things that are undermining our ability to have economic growth prosperity and freedom
As I noted before the millions of dollars going to the EPA to turn an American citizen into a felon and put him into jail because he had a pond on his Ranch the millions of dollars in the name of clean air that is going to regulate with methane regulations to drive the price
Of gas the price of energy up for the average American every single American should demand of his or her representative in this body that we stand up to an tyrannical executive branch overstepping its bounds undermining our freedom undermining economic growth and every member of this body should look to cut spending this year
Of the federal bureaucracy return it to pre-covered levels as a Baseline save three trillion dollars by getting government out of the way restore economic growth and hope and opportunity for our kids and grandkids stop funding the very things that are undermining our well-being secure our country secure our
Border have a sparingly used but lethal non-woke military that will kill people and Destroy things when they need to and restore the greatness of this country by shrinking Washington and growing America and with that I would yield back to the chair
