Restoring Election Integrity

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to give me this opportunity to speak.

I believe that the greatest issue that we face in this country is the extreme concentration of wealth and power at the very top. It is unprecedented and dangerous.

At the end of 2024, the 65 million Americans with the least amount of wealth had about $4 trillion in wealth combined. The 905 billionaires at the end of 2024 had nearly $8 trillion in wealth. So put another way, 900 people have nearly twice as much wealth as 65 million Americans. Mr. Speaker, 900 people is the size of a small high school. Mr. Speaker, 65 million is almost the population of the entire Midwest. And $8 trillion is double, double what every American owes in student loans, car loans, credit cards, and nearly every other type of debt combined, meaning that these 905 billionaires could pay for everyone's debt in the United States and still be superrich.

Now, this may have gotten worse in 2025 in large part because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that spent trillions and trillions of dollars on tax cuts for the superwealthy at the expense of millions and millions of Americans and that cut over a trillion dollars in healthcare. Fifteen million Americans are going to lose their healthcare to pay for tax cuts for the superwealthy. So that concentration of wealth and power got worse, probably worse in 1 single year, in one single vote than any other time in American history.

During my lifetime, since I was born, CEO pay has increased by over 1,000 percent, while worker pay has increased by 25 percent. On average, right now, a CEO makes more in a single day than a worker does in an entire year. The concentration of wealth and power has given a small group of superelites the ability to make all the big decisions in this country, and they have used their power and influence to further rig our economy and politics to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else. This obviously got infinitely worse with Citizens United.

This was a multidecade campaign that big corporations and the superwealthy paid for to get a Supreme Court that would change the law so that they could spend whatever they wanted on their politicians. Now they can spend unlimited amounts of money on elections, on campaigns, and on politicians, and they don't have to report any of it.

Every major issue in this country, whether it is the attacks on our democracy, the issues with our economy, or healthcare, it all can be traced back to the concentration of wealth and power and Citizens United.

It is why the American Dream is out of touch for the vast majority of Americans by nearly every measure.

Mr. Speaker, look no further than the fact that most Americans can no longer buy a home, and one in four Americans have zero dollars saved for retirement.

This is a crisis and a moment of reckoning. All of the money is stuck at the top, and our big mission, the thing that our generation has to do, is reclaim that money, that power and wealth, back for the American people. That is the number one thing. At the end of the day, our generation has to reclaim that power and wealth on behalf of the American people and return it to them.

The first thing we have to do is fix our democracy and politics, returning power back to the people. This includes banning dark money, reversing Citizens United, and ending voter suppression and eliminating partisan gerrymandering once and for all. It also includes government reforms to actually get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse and corruption of every kind.

Once power is back with people, we will be able to address all of the other major issues in our country.

We will have leaders who are willing to fix our broken economy and overhaul our tax code so that hard work pays off for every American.

Fixing the tax code does two things. One, it will ensure that the superwealthy and big corporations pay all their taxes just like the rest of us, and two, it will generate trillions of dollars that will be invested back in the American people. There will be trillions to help people with housing, healthcare, and education. It will help us pay down the debt. It will fix nearly everything that is broken in this country.

The economy belongs to all of us, not just the superwealthy. Fixing and reversing Citizens United will allow us to fundamentally improve the lives of every American and fundamentally improve our economy.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for leading this work, and I appreciate him allowing me to say a few words.

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