In Opposition to H.R. 3843

Congressman McClintock delivered the following remarks on the House floor.

Watch the full remarks here and a transcript is below:

Mr. Speaker:

This bill imposes $1.4 billion of new fees on large companies seeking mergers and makes it easier to block those mergers.

Now mergers only occur when they promote efficiency and productivity – they only occur when they enhance a company's ability to provide better goods and services at lower prices. Interfering in this process harms the prosperity of every American.

Let's start with the simple fact that taxes and fees on businesses aren't paid by businesses. They're paid by consumers through higher prices, employees through lower wages and investors through lower earnings. How does increasing consumer prices protect consumers?

Where will these fees go? Well, they're going to go to increasingly corrupt bureaucracies like the FTC. That agency is now led by a radical leftist who has declared her intention to use the powers of government to replace consumer decisions with her own – all to advance her brand of ideological zealotry.

The worst damage this does is to make the marketplace less efficient, which makes prices higher, consumer choices less satisfying, and ultimately diminishes our prosperity as a society.

Markets are inherently democratic because they fundamentally are regulated by consumer choices. Consumers vote every day with every dollar they spend what the market will provide and at what prices. Consumer choices reward companies that best meet their needs and punish the companies that don't.

Now the left seeks to substitute its judgment for yours. It seeks to tell YOU what choices YOU may make to advance THEIR political goals.

I don't care for Jeff Bezos' political views. But he has built a successful gigantic company by satisfying his consumers. Americans have voted with their dollars every day that the services that Amazon provides are better than the many other alternatives they have to choose from. The moment they decide otherwise, Amazon will shrink, and competitors will emerge and grow to fill those gaps.

Substituting government's judgement for yours, as this bill does, ultimately undermines your right to decide for yourself who is best at providing for your own needs.

Mr. Speaker, we need to reject not only this bill, but the poisonous, authoritarian and destructive ideology behind it.