00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. There have been many powerful, logical, cogent arguments
00:09made today and so I hope my humble comments can just add a little bit. I would like to
00:14direct my comments to those Democratic advocates in our state who are questioning whether this
00:22is the right move for us to make, who are wondering whether this political effort to
00:29counter Texas is the appropriate thing. But I'd like to say to them, let's put this moment
00:37in national perspective. Let's put it in global perspective. Let's put it in historical perspective.
00:45And that is that there's always been a fundamental question, how do you transfer power? How do
00:52governments transfer power? And it can be done by violent brute force or it can be done by
01:00democratic actions. And our founding fathers, to their great credit, and I wish there were
01:07mothers there also, right, they sent us down on a path where we transfer power peacefully
01:16by following certain democratic rules and norms as we move on. And following those rules has
01:24been essential for us as we move. But today in the world, in this country and in the world,
01:32we have autocrats that are desperately trying to consolidate their power by weakening democracy,
01:39by changing the rules of the game. And so to my friends out there that are questioning whether
01:45this is the right move, I want to say autocrats are counting on you to stand by and say, you know,
01:54I like the old rules. I want to play by the old rules. I don't like the new rules. And they're counting
02:00on you to do that while they consolidate power with their new rules. And it's a false scenario to say that
02:10we can defeat that, that we can win by holding on to the old rules while somebody consolidates power.
02:17A few decades ago, Russians had a democracy, but Russians lost that democracy as autocrats and the
02:27oligarchs consolidated power. They only have to get enough to be at a tipping point. And now today,
02:34I want to compliment my colleague across the aisle who admitted that what Texas is doing is wrong.
02:42I really admire that. But turning the other cheek is not the way to fight this particular situation.
02:50Russians turn the other cheek and they no longer have the ability to fight back.
02:56Today, Texas is changing the rules in a way that weakens California's ability to have input on who
03:04controls the vast powers of the federal government. If California's don't take this opportunity
03:12to block Texas's action, we come one step closer to losing our ability to block the autocrats and the
03:20oligarchs out there. We come one step closer to becoming a country dominated by those oligarchs.
03:28One step closer to letting intimidation and deceit and false outrage that's paid for by the oligarchs
03:37with media outlets that put daily false outrage that appeals and confuses the voters of the United
03:47States. And we come one step closer to that kind of society if we don't take this very important step
03:56to counter this. Because once you lose, once you cross that critical threshold, you may never be able
04:04to go back to what we had. So to my dear friends that are out there that have contacted me and say,
04:11I don't know, I hope you will remember and keep in mind the historical moment that this is here today.
04:2030 seconds. Thank you very much. I'll concede my 30 seconds and respectfully ask for the aye vote on ACA.
04:29Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Members.
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