Chairwoman McClain Marks America's 250th Birthday by Celebrating the Values That Make Our Nation Great

WASHINGTON
-Today, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) delivered remarks ahead of Independence Day celebrating America's 250th birthday and reaffirming House Republicans' commitment to peace through strength, patriotism, and military readiness.

Remarks as prepared for delivery:

This week, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. And I've been thinking about what that actually means for us in 2026.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of people decided that freedom was worth fighting for. They were outnumbered by the British. They were outgunned by an empire. And they won anyway.

So what does 250 years mean? It means freedom isn't self-sustaining. Someone always has to be willing to defend it.

And strength isn't just about having the biggest, most lethal army. It's about having the will to use it. Because deterrence requires not just capability, but also the will.

That's always been the American way: peace through strength.

Now, the greatest military in the history of the world doesn't happen on its own.

It takes investment, focus, and leadership that never loses sight of one fundamental truth: the best way to prevent a war is to make absolutely certain your adversaries know you have the capability-and the will-to defeat them. Decisively.

For four years under President Biden, we clearly didn't have that will.

Instead of asking questions like "Are we lethal," "Are we ready," and "Can we win," Biden's Administration asked, "Are we meeting our DEI quotas?"

They handed out promotions based on checked boxes. Readiness conversations were crowded out by woke mandates. And they created a military that the world's bad actors began to see as distracted and soft.

That is dangerous. But we're fixing it. The Working Families Tax Cuts rebuilt the foundation of a military that is focused on one thing: warfighter readiness.

Not quotas. Not ideology. Readiness and lethality. That's the way it should be.

Now-I want to talk about the contrast we're seeing, because it's stark and it matters.

Republicans believe in a strong America. We believe our military should be feared by our enemies and trusted by our allies. We believe in fair and just enforcement of the law.

And then you look at the other side. We've watched the radical Left call to "defund the police"-turning their backs on the men and women who run toward danger so the rest of us don't have to.

We've heard Democrat voices say that America deserved what happened on September 11th. That we somehow brought it on ourselves. 2,977 Americans went to work one morning and never came home-and someone decided that was justice.

We've watched members of their coalition say Israel-our closest ally in the Middle East-doesn't have a right to exist. A democracy. An ally. Gone, just like that, if they had their way.

And just recently, someone the Democrat Party is lifting up as a leader said she uses the American flag as a napkin. As. A. Napkin.

That flag has been draped over the coffins of eighteen-year-olds who never got to come home. Fathers who kissed their kids goodbye one last time without knowing it. Husbands whose wives still sleep on one side of the bed.

It has been folded-slowly, deliberately, with shaking hands-and placed in the arms of mothers and fathers, of widows, of children too young to understand why their mom or dad isn't coming back.

They will hold it for the rest of their lives because it's all they have left.

It flies over every veterans cemetery in this country. It is the last thing some families ever receive.

But it's more than that. Around the world-in countries living under oppression, under tyranny, under regimes that crush the human spirit-that flag means something.

It is the symbol of freedom. Of liberty. Of the idea that people deserve to determine their own destiny. There are people on this earth who would risk everything just to stand beneath it.

And someone the Democrat Party wants to send to Washington admitted to wiping her greasy hands on it during her meal.

That is who they are lifting up. That is the direction of the Democrat Party.

And the American people deserve to know it.

Here's what I know. Most people-left, right, center-don't want that. They want safe communities. They want a military that can protect them. They want a country they're proud of.

That shouldn't be a Republican idea. That's an American idea.

As we head into this 250th birthday, our job is simple. Leave this country stronger than we found it. A military that is ready. A republic that is free.

The generations before us did their part. Now it's our turn.