Speeches

Congressman Tom McClintock, Opening Statement:

Gifford Pinchot, the founder of the U.S. Forest Service, gave a series of lectures at the Yale School of Forestry from 1910 to 1915, in which he propounded maxims for the (quote) “Behavior of Foresters in Public Office.” Among them:

• A public official is there to serve the public and not run them.

• Public support of acts affecting public rights is absolutely required.

• It is more trouble to consult the public than to ignore them, but that is what you are hired for.

September 11, 2011. Cal Expo, Sacramento, California.

The attack against our nation ten years ago today was our generation’s Pearl Harbor. Indeed, in many ways it was far more infamous. More Americans died on September 11th than in the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was an attack not upon some distant outpost but upon our nation’s greatest city and our nation’s capital city. It was an attack not upon heavily armed warships, but upon defenseless Americans peacefully going about their business.

There were differences, of course.

Mr. Speaker: On June 26th, a roadside bomb in Jalula, Iraq claimed the life of a young man from Oroville, California. He was Army Staff Sergeant Russell Jeremiah Proctor, age 25, on his third tour of combat duty.

He was laid to rest last week in solemn ceremonies in California. Sgt. Proctor leaves behind a grieving widow, a devastated family, and a nine-month old son who will know his father only by reputation.

And it is reputation that I want to speak of today. I never met Sgt. Proctor. I, too, know him only by reputation.

This vote stands as a defining moment in this crisis. Every rating agency has warned that an increase in the debt limit without a credible plan to balance the budget will damage our nation’s credit. Worse, fiscal experts warn that without such a plan, we risk a sovereign debt crisis within just a few years.

M. Chairman: This amendment saves $166 million by relieving taxpayers of having to subsidize another year of handouts to the solar industry.

Solar power is not a new technology. Photo-voltaic electricity generation was invented by Edmund Becquerel in 1839 – more than 170 years ago.

And in more than 170 years of continuing research and development and technological advancement – not to mention untold billions of taxpayer subsidies – we have not yet been able to invent a MORE EXPENSIVE way to generate electricity.

M. Chairman: This amendment would save roughly ten percent from this appropriations bill, or $3 ¼ billion, by getting the federal government out of the energy subsidy business.

For more than 30 years, the Department of Energy has squandered billions of dollars subsidizing research and development that no private investor would touch – with the promise it would make our nation energy independent. Every year we have spent untold billions on these programs and every year we’ve become more dependent on foreign oil.

Mr. Chairman: For more than three months, our nation has been amidst a quiet constitutional crisis that carries immense implications.

The Gentleman from Florida is sadly mistaken to dismiss this as a meaningless philosophical discussion. This issue strikes at the very heart of our Constitutional form of government.

On March 19th, completely without Congressional authorization, the President ordered an unprovoked attack against Libya.

Congressman Tom McClintock today made the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to HR 2278 relating to Libya.

In Opposition to HR 2278

Mr. Speaker:

This bill purports to cut off funding for combat in Libya. In doing so, it simply forbids what the Constitution already forbids: the waging of war without explicit congressional authorization.

But then it specifically grants to the President what up until now he has completely lacked: