Opposing Green New Deal
Floor Speech
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Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I had a young family in my office this morning, a wonderful, nice-looking 11-year-old boy who was in my office today with his dad, his mom, and several other people from southwest Kansas. He looked at me and he said: Congressman Marshall, will I be able to run cattle when I get older? My great-grandfather ran cattle; my grandfather ran cattle; my daddy ran cattle; and I would like to run cattle someday, but this Green New Deal scares me.
He said: Will the Green New Deal keep me from running cattle?
I had to say: Unfortunately, yes, it would.
The Green New Deal would be the end of agriculture as we know it in Kansas. Agriculture makes up 40 percent of the economy of Kansas. For all practical purposes, it would be the end of the Kansas economy.
Another large part of our economy is oil and gas, and the Green New Deal would be the end of that.
I always try to think about the impact of something like the Green New Deal. First of all, it would triple your taxes. I think that would be well proven. But I always am especially concerned for that young family, maybe that family that I delivered 5 or 10 or 15 years ago, and they have two or three kids at home. How would the new Green New Deal impact them? First of all, their grocery bill is going to double or triple, I suppose. They would have to replace all the appliances in their home. Their utility bill is going to go up.
Then I think about the price of gas. I always noticed in my obstetrical practice that whenever the price of gasoline got about $3 a gallon, women would suddenly ask: Do we have to come back this often? Quite a few of my patients live 60 or 90 miles from me, and it was quite a challenge to come visit us. When the price of gasoline got about $3 a gallon, they didn't want to come quite as often.
I can't help but think what the Green New Deal would do to the cost of gasoline, if there is such a thing. I suppose we would all be driving electric cars.
Where I am from, I only wish that we could hop on a train and take public transportation, but there are just not enough trains to go around in Kansas. We are lucky to have roads in most places where we live, so public transportation just isn't an option.
All that being said, Mr. Speaker, I think, like the gentleman from Arizona, I want to leave this country and I want to leave the State of Kansas cleaner than I found it. I am so proud that Kansas waters and Kansas air are cleaner today than when I was growing up. I am very proud of that. I want to keep going in that direction.
I am very proud that the carbon imprint from the United States is less today than it was in 2004, and I want to keep going in that direction. But it is my belief that innovation is what is going to drive this and keep us going in that direction.
I am so proud of what the American entrepreneurs have done in Kansas and across this country, our ability to get more natural gas and to make all of our refineries cleaner. Where we produce electricity, so many of them are 97 percent cleaner.
The issue of ecology is a worldwide problem. It is a problem that the United States cannot cure by itself. We need to be a leader and keep going in the direction we are going.
I look forward to working with folks across the aisle to come up with real solutions that will really work for this country. I think that the American innovator will do great things and that better days are ahead for America.
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