[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H3302-H3303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     LIMITING GROWTH IN GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 23, 2002, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, like many Americans, I learned last week of 
the President's intention to create for the first time since the 1970s 
a Cabinet-level Department of the executive branch; and like most 
Americans, I support the idea of a Department of Homeland Security, 
bringing together various and diverse elements of our investigative 
branches, of our counterterrorism branches and, more importantly, 
border security, to create a leaner, more efficient means of protecting 
our citizens than we have under current and, in many ways, antiquated 
structures in the executive branch.
  While I support the reorganization of government, Mr. Speaker, I rise 
today to speak against big government and the growth in government, Mr. 
Speaker, that has been the natural antecedent to emergencies and crises 
throughout American history.
  The Bible tells us that there is nothing new under the sun; what has 
been before will be again, in the book of ``Ecclesiastes.'' And as I 
see these events unfold and I see our President beginning to call for 
the largest potential expansion in the executive branch in my lifetime, 
I cannot help but feel that what has been before is about to come again 
if we, who believe in limited government and personal responsibility, 
do not exercise the franchise of our vote and our conviction in this 
institution.
  The idea that the unrestrained growth of government is a natural 
antecedent to emergencies was, to be perfectly honest, first posited in 
a book titled ``Crisis and Leviathan,'' by a little-known professor 
named Robert Higgs, 1987, first published. Very simple thesis in this 
book. Professor Higgs argues that the growth of the Federal

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Government has been relatively constant through our national history 
except for spikes in the growth of government immediately following 
national crises and emergencies such as the Civil War, the Great 
Depression, World War II, the Kennedy assassination and social unrest 
of the 1960s and now potentially 9-11.
  He offers what he calls the ``crisis hypothesis'' of the growth of 
Federal Government, and it is a powerful one; and he maintains that 
under certain conditions national emergencies call forth extensions of 
governmental control over or outright replacement of the market 
economy. In a time of economic crisis, ``When critical extensions of 
government power are likely to occur there is little opportunity for 
meaningful vote on whether or not as a matter of principle the powers 
of the State should be extended.''
  Even Herbert Hoover, attempting to stem the enormous tide of the call 
of growth of government during the Great Depression, said, ``Every 
collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of emergency. It was 
the tactic of Lenin, Hitler and Mussolini in the collectivist sweep 
over a dozen minor countries in Europe. It was the cry of men striving 
to get on horseback.''
  It has also been practiced many times throughout our history, not for 
a second to refer to President Truman and the likes of that litany; but 
it was not long after the Truman administration took office, the United 
States found itself in a fight with Korea and the government greatly 
expanded.
  On December 16, 1950, as just one of many examples, Mr. Speaker, 
President Truman proclaimed a national emergency, calling in familiar 
words to this day, on all citizens to make a united effort for the 
security and well-being of our beloved country, to place its needs 
foremost in thought and action to our farmers, our workers in industry. 
So the President established the Office of Defense Mobilization, the 
Defense Protection Agency, and government grew in permanent ways.
  Even in his book, in its closing chapters, Robert Higgs perhaps even 
wrote in 1987 about our own times saying that, ``We know that other 
great crises will come in America, whether they will be occasioned by 
foreign wars, economic collapse or rampant terrorism. No one can 
predict with assurance that in one form or another great crises will 
surely come again as they have from time to time, and when they do, 
governments, almost certainly,'' Professor Higgs wrote, ``will gain new 
powers over economic and social affairs, unless,'' he offers, and I 
argue, ``the American people rediscover the worth of individual rights, 
limited government and a free society under the true rule of law.''

                              {time}  1300

  Mr. Speaker, let us recognize the times that we are in. Let us 
recognize that the gale force wind of big government is upon us, and as 
we reorganize a Department of Homeland Security, let us not make it an 
excuse to simply organize big government in a permanent way.

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