Tom McClintock · TranslatePolitics.com

House of Representatives

Providing for the Condemnation and Denouncement of Socialism in All Its Forms, and for Other Purposes

2026-09-01

“Here's what I think. Capitalism is good. You help your neighbor. You figure out what they need. Socialism is bad. It takes from one person by force. Gives to someone who has not earned it. Freedom is good. It uses very little force. People are free to act. Socialism is bad. It needs crushing government force. In freedom, people vote with their dollars. In socialism, elites decide and impose by force. Free society helps both parties. Socialist society hurts one party. I think freedom is good and socialism is bad.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, when Tim Walz said that one man's socialism is another man's neighborliness, he got it completely backward. There is only one way to prosper in a capitalist society. You have to figure out what somebody else needs and get it for them better than they can get it for themselves. That might mean mowing their lawn. It might mean doing brain surgery on their child, but whatever it is, you have to help your neighbor. Socialism is the opposite. It is taking by force what one person has earned by helping others and giving it to someone who has not. If I take a dollar from Peter and give it to Paul, I have helped Paul in the amount of one dollar and I have hurt Peter by that very same amount. What I have really done is to rob both of them of one dollar's incentive of helping each other. Paul no longer needs to help Peter for his dollar and Peter no longer profits from helping Paul. Freedom requires very little force because people are free to act according to their own needs and judgment and to prosper for their own talents and labor. Socialism requires crushing government force because it must compel people to act against their own interests. In a free society, every person gets to vote every day with every dollar they spend on what the society will produce, who will produce it, and how much they are willing to pay, all voluntarily. In a socialist society, elites make those decisions for the people and then impose them on the people by force. In a free society, every transaction benefits both parties by definition. In a socialist society, every transaction benefits one party while it hurts the other. The lesson of history comes down to four words: Freedom rocks. Socialism sucks.

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House of Representatives

Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2027

2026-07-22

“I don't like this budget. But we need it. Our country is at war. People don't trust elections. We must spend more money on the military and on elections. I don't want to use this process. But the other side won't let us pass these things. So we have to use budget rules to pass them without the other side. I want our country to spend less. But not now.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Chairman, I think we can all agree that this is not what a budget resolution should be used for, but, unfortunately, necessity commands it. Reconciliation gives us a powerful tool to bring mandatory spending in line with revenues. Unfortunately, the exigencies that we face have left us with no choice but to use this process to assure that we can replenish our arsenals and strengthen the integrity of our elections. The minority Democrats have vowed to obstruct these necessities in the Senate at a time when we are at war with Iran and at a time when public confidence in our election process is at an all-time low. Reconciliation, which this solution sets in motion, is the only path that we can take to achieve these vital measures. I regret the circumstances that force us to employ reconciliation for this purpose, and I pray for the day when Congress fulfills its legal duty to enact a real budget resolution that sets our country back on the road to fiscal health.

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House of Representatives

Our Generation's Legacy

2026-07-14

“Someone said bad things about America. I don't like that. America is good. We need immigration laws. Socialism is bad. It takes away freedom. Socialists decide everything for you. Oligarchs are not bad. They make money from making things people want. Socialists are the real oligarchs. They take money from productive people. America is not perfect. But I want people to remember freedom. Socialism takes away freedom.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, on the eve of our Nation's 250th birthday, Zohran Mamdani sat at George Washington's desk and painted a dystopian picture of America: an oligarchy based on exploitation, discrimination, nativism, and bondage. Stripping away the anti-American rhetoric, he seemed to make three general points: First, that America is so racist and xenophobic that many insist it ``belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin.'' Yet, even as he spoke these words, foreign soccer fans with every accent and skin shade flooded social media to tell of their delight at the openness, hospitality, prosperity, happiness, abundance, and big-heartedness of middle America. Indeed, America welcomes more foreign immigrants than any other country in the world, but we insist that those who come to America do so with a sincere desire to become loyal Americans, to adopt a common language, a common culture, and a common appreciation of American constitutional principles and traditions, and to raise their children to revere and appreciate this country. It is called assimilation. It is why we have immigration laws. That is the only way to build one great Nation and one great people from all the nations and people of the world. Illegal immigration destroys that process. Mamdani, like so many on the left, obstruct our immigration laws and vilify those who enforce them. Yet, if we don't enforce our immigration laws, then we have no immigration laws. Without immigration laws, we have no border. Without a border, we have no country. Is it possible Mamdani does not understand this or is this his ultimate aim? His second point is that American exceptionalism derives not from the principles of liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, but, rather, that these principles can be exchanged for others, and Mr. Mamdani has one in mind--socialism. However, freedom and socialism are two antithetical and incompatible things. Our fundamental natural rights as human beings come to us either from God or from government. If from God--the right to chart our own course through life, develop our own talents, supply our own industry, and enjoy the fruit of our own labors--they are a birthright and are inalienable. If these rights come from government, then they can be extended or withdrawn at the whim of those in power. Mr. Mamdani and his friends will decide how much you may earn, where and how you can live, which groups will receive the favors of government and which will be denied them, who must live under the law and who can live above it, even the temperature that you must set your thermostat. Wherever the socialists take control, we see this fundamental change, and there is nothing exceptional about it. It is the consistent product of socialist regimes: confiscatory taxes, chronic shortages of basic necessities, rampant homelessness, rising crime, bitter racial strife, failing schools, shuttered businesses, and ultimately, fleeing families. His third point is that our founding principles create inequalities so vast that in America ``children go to sleep hungry, while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more.'' Well, no one starves in America. Indeed, the poorest Americans today are wealthier than the vast majority of mankind. Yes, in America extraordinary individuals, including legal immigrants, can achieve extraordinary success. The left loves to dehumanize them as oligarchs. Their vast fortunes were made because consumers found value in their products and freely bought them. They have provided mankind with quantum leaps in technological progress that in turn produced the jobs and goods and services that provide Americans with a prosperity and standard of living unparalleled throughout the world. As John F. Kennedy reminded us: ``A rising tide lifts all boats.'' The true oligarchs are the socialists who use the power of government to plunder the earnings of productive Americans in order to enrich themselves and their acolytes. As Winston Churchill warned: ``The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.'' Mr. Speaker, if America follows Mr. Mamdani, it will not be the first civilization to succumb to the siren song of a benevolent, all-powerful government, but every civilization that has done so has awakened one morning to discover that the benevolence is gone and that the all- powerful government remains. The American Founders feared that one day a generation might emerge that has lost the memory of freedom. Let that not be the legacy of our generation.

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