[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H7058-H7059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ELECTION THOUGHTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, we just wrapped up an election here, and 
we were told this election was about hatred and bias. I don't really 
know any haters on my campaign, and I don't think there is this huge 
amount of bias, in general, in this country that some people tried to 
make this election about.
  Recently, I did have a woman come up to me from my district talking 
about real bias and perhaps hatred in America. She talked about her 
children who went to college. Her and her husband got married before 
they had children, and both worked hard and made an average income. 
Both of her kids had about 30 or $40,000 in student loan debt, and she 
had good kids who were working hard to pay off that debt.
  But she felt that if her and her husband had not gotten married, the 
government probably would have given them something they couldn't get 
as married and working people. Her kids may have gotten $30,000 plus in 
Pell Grants, and they were probably eligible for other grants. At least 
in the State of Wisconsin you would receive similar State grants, as 
well as be eligible for a work study program.
  Unfortunately, her kids were not eligible for that, and at least she 
feels they are being significantly discriminated against, and hatred is 
being displayed by the American Government. Here is real hatred and 
real bias.
  Is she right? Is there really U.S. Government hatred and bias against 
people who got married?
  How did this happen? I have talked about this issue before, and 
people imply that maybe it happened by mistake, not just the Pell Grant 
program, but other government assistance programs just inadvertently 
sprung up and punished people who got married.
  However, in this election I had a little bit of an eye-opener.
  In this election we had Black Lives Matter get involved. If you read 
the website, which was eventually scrubbed or taken down in part about 
two months ago with a month left to go in the campaign, on its website 
it said, first of all, two of its three co-founders were trained 
Marxists, and secondly, it said one of their goals was to disrupt the 
western-prescribed nuclear family structure.
  First of all, I think they are a little bit historically inaccurate. 
I think there are all sorts of cultures in the world, other than just 
European cultures, in which you have a wife and a husband and kids. But 
nevertheless, they clearly consider it a problem. And it doesn't 
surprise me that this group would have this on their website that they 
consider it a problem, since they were founded by two Marxists.
  And when I think of Marxists, I think of three things: First of all, 
of course, I think of Socialism and the fact that government should own 
everything, and we shouldn't have lots of different people own lots of 
different businesses or different rental units or what have you. They 
want everything controlled by the government.
  The other two things I always think of when I think of Marxism is: 
First of all, they hate God. And whether you are talking about 
countries in which Marxists take over, be it Red China, Vietnam, 
Russia, they follow Karl Marx in saying abolition of religion is 
demanded for the true happiness of people. So when I associate Marxism 
and people associating with such a group, I associate the hatred for 
God.
  But the other thing we have got to remember is Karl Marx himself was 
very antifamily, and that is why I assume on the website it appeared 
that Black Lives Matter wants to disrupt the western-prescribed nuclear 
family.
  So here is a group that I am sure cheers programs which penalizes 
people who are married and discriminates in favor of people who aren't 
married. And to my surprise, people did not run from this group.
  To me, every politician should say for some groups, I am not going to 
ask for your help. Years ago, when I was in the State legislature, I 
fought the drug companies who I think are over-drugging our kids. I 
fought the drug companies who I think were prescribing too

[[Page H7059]]

many opiates, which were leading to deaths, and so, I don't take money 
from the prescription drug companies. I don't take money from the 
payday lenders because I think it is a horrible service, and they rip 
people off. I have known people who got cancer. I don't take money from 
the cigarette companies.
  So you don't have to take support from everybody who is willing to 
support you. But when Black Lives Matter puts on their website, we 
disrupt the western-prescribed nuclear family, and we have an American 
government right now which, to me, is discriminating against couples 
who are married, you have to wonder, was this by chance, or are these 
people who want to set up government programs to discriminate against 
families?

                              {time}  1130

  I would like to give people a chance to publicize this problem in 
hearings and see if there's something we can do about this problem.
  So I have asked the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, 
which has something to do with programs like Pell grants, to have a 
hearing and see whether my constituent is right: Are we really, in the 
United States Government, expressing strong bias against couples who 
are married, and penalizing them?
  I have forwarded a request like this to the chairman of the 
committee.
  I think it is a problem that has been out there ever since Lyndon 
Johnson, in the 1960s, began his war on the family.
  I personally think he was the worst President in this country's 
history, and it is not just because he declared war on the family. He 
did a bad job in prosecuting the Vietnam war, his personal life was a 
hodgepodge, but of all the bad things he did, I think his programs 
aimed at destroying the family was the worst thing.
  So I guess to illustrate that Members of the other party are also a 
little bit concerned about these programs that penalize what they refer 
to as the traditional western family, though it is the traditional 
family used by people who are not western European at all, I would like 
to ask for such a hearing.

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