[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 28, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H438-H442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AMERICAN HERITAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Davis of Kentucky). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Price) is recognized for half the time remaining until midnight, 
approximately 42 minutes.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to 
come and chat with the House and to maybe set the record straight a 
little bit.
  As a freshman Member of the House, we have 24, 25 freshmen on our 
side of the aisle, and over the past 13 months we have grown a little 
weary with what we see as the amount of misinformation and 
disinformation that we so oftentimes see brought by the other side, so 
we have developed what we call the Official Truth Squad. And so I am 
here to bring you some messages with some of my colleagues from the 
Official Truth Squad, which is an effort to try to embrace the American 
Dream, to embrace the American vision, and to present to the American 
people and our colleagues the story that Congress is working in a 
positive manner, that we are optimistic about the Nation's future in 
spite of some things that you hear from some of our friends on the 
other side of the aisle.
  When I go home and I talk to constituents, I oftentimes hear them 
say, What is going on up there? Why all the negativity? Why all the 
pessimism? Why all the misinformation that we appear to hear all the 
time? And I commiserate with them. So this Official Truth Squad is an 
attempt to try to bring some light to truth, to some of the information 
that we believe the American people ought to have in contrast to some 
of the things that you have heard, even here tonight.
  I am pleased to hear the Blue Dogs present a proposal or two. They 
talk about being fiscally conservative. They talk about being fiscal 
hawks. But my recollection is a little bit to the contrary of that. 
There is a wonderful quote that I like from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a 
former United States Senator from New York, Democrat. And he was such a 
cogent individual. He was one of those individuals who worked for the 
truth regardless of where it led. And he had this wonderful quote. He 
said, ``Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own 
facts.'' Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own 
facts. And I really think that that kind of crystallizes what we have 
heard in this Chamber over the past few minutes.
  You have heard the other side talk about deficit spending and how we 
ought not be spending into the deficit, and they are right. They are 
right. But when they had an opportunity to decrease spending by nearly 
$40 billion just a few short weeks ago, not a single one of them, not 
one of them, voted for it. A $39.8 billion decrease in spending and not 
a single one voted in favor of it.
  You heard them talk about the alternative minimum tax and how it is 
an unjust tax and it needs to go away, and they are right. They are 
right. A colleague of mine, Congressman English, has a bill, H.R. 1186, 
that would repeal the alternative minimum tax. Not a single Democrat on 
that bill, not a single cosponsor from that side of the aisle.
  You hear them talk about the need to balance the budget and not spend 
so much money, and they are right. They are absolutely right. But when 
the proposals are put on the table to do away with programs that are 
wasteful or do away with programs that have significant abuse, where 
are they? Nowhere to be found.
  So you are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to 
your own facts. And to crystallize that a little more because the 
disinformation that we heard over and over about budgetary cuts really 
does a disservice to the debate, does a disservice to the discussion, 
does a disservice to the American people, because when you look at the 
numbers, when you look at the truth, that is not what is going on.
  And this evening you have heard the other side talk about budgetary 
cuts in the area of defense spending and spending on veterans. So, at 
home, if I were sitting there listening, I would say, well, my 
goodness, they must have addressed the amount of money that was going 
to the military or decreased the amount of money going to veterans.
  Mr. Speaker, is that not what you would think? That is what I would 
think if I heard that. But here we have the Defense Department 
appropriation, budgetary authority from Congress from the year 2000 
projected through 2007. In 2000 it was $287 billion. In 2001 it was 
$303 billion. That does not sound like a cut to me. In 2002, $328 
billion. That is real money. That does not sound like a cut to me. In 
2003, $365 billion.
  Remember, down here in 2000 we were at $287 billion.
  So these are the actual numbers. Fiscal year 2006, $411 billion of 
budgetary authority for the Department of Defense. Mr. Speaker, that is 
not a cut. That is responsible spending on the part of the United 
States Congress. And I am proud of the support that we have given to 
our military. And I am proud of the support that we continue to give to 
veterans.
  You have heard this evening that veterans' budgets were cut. Here are 
the numbers, the actual numbers, from 1984 through 2005, and I want to 
draw your attention to what has happened in the last 10 years. In 1994 
discretionary spending for veterans: $17.2 billion; 1995, $17.6 
billion; 2005, $30.7 billion.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not know what arithmetic they are using. I do not 
know where they went to school, but I do know that that is not a cut in 
anybody's book.
  So when we get this kind of misinformation, this kind of 
disinformation, it does not contribute to the public debate. It is not 
honest. It is not truthful. So the Official Truth Squad is here to try 
to bring some truth to the situation.
  This is veterans' medical care, and you heard it talked about this 
evening, how we have these incredible cuts in medical care for 
veterans. Mr. Speaker, here are the numbers: 1994, $15.6 billion; 2005, 
$29.9 billion. Mr. Speaker, that is not a cut. It is an appropriate, 
responsible move by Congress to take care of those who are protecting 
our freedoms.
  So remember what Mr. Moynihan said, You are welcome to your own 
opinions but you are not welcome to your own facts.
  So I would like to highlight this evening what is called the politics 
of division that seems to be practiced by so many here in Washington, 
and it is disheartening and it does a disservice to all of us. We are 
going to talk tonight in a positive way about America. We are going to 
talk in a positive way about our future. We are going to talk in a 
positive way about our Founding Fathers and about our history and about 
our heritage.

[[Page H439]]

  And just to identify the destruction of the politics of division that 
is so often practiced here, I have got a quote from Abraham Lincoln 
that I would like to share with you and it is kind of his philosophy on 
the social fabric. He said: ``You cannot bring about prosperity by 
discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the 
strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. 
You cannot encourage the brotherhood of man by encouraging class 
hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot 
keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build 
character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. 
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could do 
for themselves.''
  Mr. Speaker, the politics of division has no place in the public 
arena. It does a disservice to our Nation. It does a disservice to the 
debate. Frankly, it is an embarrassment for the individuals that 
practice it.
  So I encourage all Members of Congress, Republican, Democrat, all of 
my colleagues, to go about our debates and the discussions that we have 
and the challenges that we face in this Nation in a positive and honest 
and truthful manner. Then we can get to the right solutions.
  As I mentioned, the Official Truth Squad comes almost every evening 
since we began the first of the year and talks about some positive 
aspects of America, talks about the importance of honesty and 
truthfulness in the debate. And tonight we are going to concentrate on 
our heritage, our American heritage, our wonderful American heritage.

                              {time}  2245

  I have been joined by a number of colleagues tonight, and they are 
going to share a story or two about maybe the Founding Fathers, some 
heritage that we have. I hope that what that will do is inspire some of 
our colleagues to remember the principles that brought our Nation about 
and remember, remember, the ideals that we are bound to uphold.
  With that, I am honored to yield to my good friend Louie Gohmert from 
the great State of Texas. He is a judge by profession and is a member 
of the freshman class as well, and has just a wealth of knowledge about 
American history and our heritage. Congressman Gohmert, please share a 
few words with us.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my good friend from Georgia, 
the eminent physician, healing not only bodies in the past, but coming 
in and healing with the good elixir of truth. We appreciate that 
tonight, Mr. Speaker, and we appreciate the opportunity to be here.
  You are talking about truth, and you have the poster that says the 
Official Truth Squad. Something that has been neglected for far too 
long is the truth about our history. You look back, there was a school 
I read not too long ago that was going to change their name away from 
George Washington, and I thought how tragic. They do not know history.
  You go back, and above the Speaker's head up here, we see ``In God We 
Trust.'' George Washington, there was a time when he was in desperate 
need, and he prayed to that God in whom we trust.
  Going back to 1755, a young man in his early twenties, Washington was 
headed up toward Fort Duquesne with about 100 American soldiers and 
about 1,300 British soldiers. As they proceeded up through 
Pennsylvania, they had to go through a wooded area, a large wooded 
area, and there was a ravine that they marched through. There were 85 
soldiers on horseback, those were the officers, and that included 
George Washington.
  As they made their way through, the Indians and French were lying in 
wait, this was the French and Indian War, and here this young man with 
boldness, gallantry, was on horseback, he led his soldiers. When the 
ambush started, it was horrible. Bodies were flying everywhere, bullets 
taking them out.
  After about 2 hours, there were over 700 who had died. There were 84 
of the 85 officers that had been shot off their horses. Only one 
remained. That was George Washington. Finally, after a couple of hours, 
the remaining British and Americans retreated from the woods, and when 
they got a good distance away, they reformed and retreated, I believe 
it was back to Maryland.
  There was a letter that Washington wrote back to his mother and 
brother accounting what happened. There are other accounts that seem to 
all tell the same story. But Washington wrote that when he took off his 
hat and shook his head, bullet fragments fell out of his hair, but 
there wasn't a scratch on him. He said when he took off his vest, there 
were bullet holes in his investigate, but not a scratch on him. As he 
wrote to his mother and brother, he said, ``Truly God was with me,'' 
that God in whom we trust.
  Fast forward 15 years later. Washington and a friend of his named Dr. 
Craig were going up through Pennsylvania. Washington was going to go by 
and show him this place where this horrible thing happened, where so 
many people died.
  As they approached the woods, they were met by a group of Indians, 
and it turned out an old Indian chief was with them. They had a council 
fire, and during that time the chief disclosed that 15 years earlier, 
he too had been in that wood, and that he had heard Washington was 
coming to that area so he journeyed to meet him.
  He said, ``I gave the order to my braves to shoot at you, because we 
could see you coming from a distance and I knew if we shot you, that 
your men would flee in fear. We could just tell the way you rode.'' He 
said, ``I personally shot at you around 17 times. I traveled this 
distance to meet the man that God would not let die.''
  This was a man who was prepared for that. Through it all, through 
that horror of that event, you look back and see how that was worked 
together for good. He saw how the British reacted when they were under 
fire. He saw effective tactics. But, even more so, all those people saw 
him. They saw his gallantry, his bravery, his courage, his leadership. 
They knew this was a guy that they could trust, even in his early 
twenties.
  So as we move toward the 1776 time, in the days when he would lead 
this country, a lot of people don't realize, but he was just the man 
for just such a time.
  Mr. Speaker, I was talking to a group of youth from Grace Community 
School there in Tyler. Those kids know so much about our history. They 
know. But not every school teaches the history. I am proud to have a 
school like that in my city in Tyler where they know those kinds of 
things.
  But after 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was signed, 
things looked so grim that the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence knew that if their troops failed, they were all dead 
people. Their families were dead, everything they owned would be taken, 
their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor, everything would be 
gone. Yet they put their trust in George Washington, along with the God 
that we trust.
  On December 27, 1776, when things looked so bleak and they knew that 
shortly, just a matter of a week or so, the enlistment of these men 
would be up, they knew if they headed home as they were intending to 
do, all was lost. So they passed a resolution as a Continental Congress 
that basically gave Washington all the power that they had, power to 
pay money, to make orders, to tell people to do whatever. Then, 
interestingly, the letter that accompanied that resolution that they 
sent to Washington included this line. It said, ``Happy it is for this 
country that the general of their forces could be safely entrusted with 
the most unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty nor 
property be in the least degree endangered thereby.''
  Mr. Speaker, I know my good friend from Georgia feels the same way. I 
trust so many people, but I don't know of a single person in this 
country right now I would trust with that kind of power. But that is 
what George Washington had.
  One of my favorite paintings, as I was telling the group from Tyler 
earlier today, from Grace Community Church, is the painting of 
Washington coming back in to the Continental Congress saying here is 
all the power back. Nobody had ever done that before.
  This was a guy that had won the war. He had won the day. He was 
entitled to be called czar, emperor, dictator, pharaoh, whatever he 
wanted to be called.

[[Page H440]]

Yet he came back in and, just as the resolution and the cover letter 
said, they knew he could be trusted. He came back in and said here is 
all the power back. It is yours. I am going back to Mount Vernon, and 
he did.
  Some people don't realize just how brave he was. At the battle of 
Princeton, January 3, 1777, a young soldier wrote, and it is a recorded 
part of our history, ``The sight of Washington set an example of 
courage such as I have never seen. I shall never forget what I felt 
when I saw him brave all the dangers of the field and his important 
life hanging as if it were by a single hair with a thousand deaths 
flying around him. Believe me, I thought not of myself.'' That is not a 
picture we see much these days.
  Nathaniel Green wrote, ``He will be the deliverer of his own 
country.''
  The Pennsylvania Journal wrote of Washington in 1777 as the 
revolution went on, ``If Washington had been born in the days of 
idolatry, he would be worshipped as a god. If there are spots on his 
character, they are like the spots on the sun, only discernible by the 
magnifying powers of a telescope.''
  As David McCollough wrote, ``Without Washington's leadership and 
unrelenting persistence, the Revolution almost certainly would have 
failed.''
  That is the kind of heritage we have. That is the kind of truthful, 
honest, courageous man that helped start this country and to whom we 
owe so much.
  In conclusion, as our good friend and fellow Republican, we didn't 
know him personally, but God rest his soul, what a legacy, Abraham 
Lincoln, said in his second inaugural, ``With malice toward none, with 
charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the 
Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and 
for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.''
  God has blessed America. Mr. Speaker, it is my prayer that will 
continue.
  I thank my good friend from Georgia for yielding to allow me to 
address those comments.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thank you so much, Congressman Gohmert, for 
bringing us those words and the inspiring stories of American history. 
You have highlighted one of my absolute favorites with Washington 
withstanding the onslaught of the attack and then meeting the Indian 
chief years later and the Indian chief telling him that he understood 
and knew and it was clear that Washington had been touched by the hand 
of God. That just is so inspiring when we hear those words.
  Washington himself talked a lot about our Nation. He talked a lot 
about what it took to preserve the Nation. He was concerned that the 
Nation might have difficulty in the future, and he felt that the only 
way to keep our Nation strong was on what he called teaching the 
science of government. He said a primary object should be the education 
of our youth in the science of government. By that he meant learning 
about government, learning about our republic.
  He went on to say, ``In a republic, what species of knowledge can be 
equally important and what duty more pressing than communicating or 
teaching it to those who are to be the future guardians of the 
liberties of our country?''

  That is why it is important that I think we come here this evening 
and talk about our heritage, talk about our history, talk about the 
wonder of America.
  It has been said if you want to see the future of a nation and what 
it will be, look at what the children are being taught. So we hope by 
some small measure to assist in the education of all of us and to 
remind us about the wonder and the beauty and the awe of our Nation and 
its heritage.
  I am joined now by Congresswoman Jean Schmidt. Congresswoman Schmidt 
is a fellow freshman and an active participant in the Official Truth 
Squad. We are so pleased to have her join us this evening and bring 
some comments about our heritage and about the principles of our 
wonderful Republic.
  Mrs. SCHMIDT. Thank you so much.
  Tonight, I really want to talk about what I believe freedom is all 
about. As we sit in this beautiful Chamber, we must be mindful that we 
are the luckiest people in the world to live in the greatest Nation in 
the universe.
  So I stand here tonight on the floor of this great Chamber like 
thousands of Representatives before me as living proof that democracy 
works. I share the same love for my country as my 37 predecessors from 
the Ohio Second Congressional District. I am the 38th Member of 
Congress from my district and the first woman. And I may be the first 
to wear high heels, but I am not alone in my support of this great 
country and for all that it stands.
  Our country was founded on the principles of freedom: freedom to 
pursue life, liberty and happiness; freedom to bear arms; freedom to 
voice your opinion in the market square, or in this very Chamber; 
freedom to print what you decide to be printed is fit to be printed.
  Freedom is a wonderful thing. It is an infectious thing. Millions of 
the oppressed around the world yearn for this very thing called 
freedom: free from oppression, free from terror, free from tyranny. 
Freedom is a powerful drink. It spills 1 million people into the 
streets of downtown Beirut demanding to be free from the rule of Syria 
and its dictator. It causes men to take up arms against their 
oppressors on the streets of Baghdad and Kabul. Just the dream of 
freedom caused men and women to risk their lives by organizing 
opposition in places like Beijing and Havana.

                              {time}  2300

  Far too often we Americans take our freedom for granted. We forget 
about the heroes before us that gave us this right, this privilege, 
this ability.
  Thomas Jefferson said, ``The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.'' 
He knew, even as freedom was being brought to our new country, that our 
very freedom would be constantly at risk.
  ``Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, 
undergo the fatigue of supporting it,'' said Thomas Paine. As we stand 
here tonight, the Official Truth Squad, surrounded by the glorious 
testament of our democracy and freedom, we must be mindful, mindful 
that democracy is on the march, mindful that 50 million people are 
newly free thanks to our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Let me repeat that. Fifty million people have the same opportunity 
that we have to taste and drink freedom, but most importantly, mindful 
that much more needs to be done. Tonight, the oppressed are dying at 
the hands of evil in far too many places around the world, in the camps 
of Darfur, in the jails of Havana, in political prisons in Asia.
  Dwight David Eisenhower once said, ``History does not long entrust 
the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We did not chose to lead 
this fight, history has chosen us. Only we have the power needed to 
spread freedom. We indeed have been given the responsibility.''
  Our forefathers knew that when they were participating in this grand 
experiment so many years ago. We have been handed that torch. History 
will judge not what we say, but what we do.
  I am honored to be here tonight to speak about this very important 
principle, because if we do not continue to lead this march, someone 
will come and take that torch from us.
  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak my mind in the 
greatest Nation, in the greatest chamber.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thank you, Congresswoman Schmidt. It is just a 
pleasure to hear your words and the very inspiring words.
  You talk about freedom being infectious. It truly is. But you also 
talked about freedom not being free, and that the price of freedom, the 
price of liberty, is eternal vigilance.
  I am proud to stand with you this evening and continue, continue to 
try to assist others to appreciate the fact that that eternal vigilance 
is necessary now, as never before frankly.
  So we appreciate so much your words this evening and your 
participation.
  Mr. Speaker, I am also joined this evening by another fellow 
freshman, Congresswoman Foxx from North Carolina, just a great, great 
member of the freshman class, an individual whom I respect highly, who 
spent a number of years in the education community, understands what it 
means to impart the importance of our heritage, of American principles 
and fundamentals.

[[Page H441]]

  I welcome you this evening and look forward to your words.
  Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Congressman Price. It is a real pleasure to be 
here tonight. I am grateful for the words of our colleagues earlier, 
Congressman Gohmert and Congresswoman Schmidt. I appreciate what they 
have said, and you. I am really proud to be a part of the Official 
Truth Squad.
  And while I did not hear all of the comments that were made just 
prior to our beginning our session here, I did want to respond to one 
thing that you said. That is that we all are entitled to our opinions, 
but the facts are the facts. And it is important that we get the facts 
straight here. And I think many of the things that we are responding to 
are things that have been purported to be facts which are not facts at 
all. And I think it is important that we set the record straight.
  I also noted tonight in the presentation by the Blue Dog Coalition 
that they are very concerned about the deficit, but they want to do 
away with the tax cuts and spend more money.
  The problem with the deficit is that we are spending too much, and we 
need to cut back on the spending. And that is a fundamental issue. I 
think it is pretty much a fundamental law of economics, which I do not 
think can be done away with simply by talking about it. I think that we 
are going to have to come to grips with it.
  As our colleague from Ohio was saying, it is such a great honor to be 
able to serve in this House. And I want to say that I grew up in a 
house in western North Carolina with no electricity, no running water, 
about as poor as anybody you will ever meet. And it is a true miracle 
that someone with my background could come here and represent the 5th 
District of North Carolina. And I am in awe every day of the fact that 
I have this great opportunity and am grateful for it.
  And I think about the way this country was formed, and I think it is 
important that we talk a little bit about that.
  I am troubled that so few people even know the basis of our 
government. People do not know the Constitution. They do not know the 
basis of our laws. They do not know the history of this country. And I 
want to talk some more about that, but I know we are not going to have 
as much time tonight as we had thought we would originally, so I am 
going to make a recommendation of a couple of books which I think are 
wonderful books to read.
  Anything by David McCullough is great. I know that he was being 
quoted earlier. I had a chance to read 1776 recently, which is the 
story of the first year of the revolution, and it is wonderful.
  And tonight I was reviewing the Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis. 
And he talks a lot about the things that came together to make the 
United States possible, to make the Revolution possible. And I do want 
to quote one piece from Ellis, or maybe a couple of pieces from the 
book Founding Brothers. I do highly recommend it as something so easy 
to read.
  But he said, No one had ever established a republican government on 
the scale of the United States. And the overwhelming judgment of the 
most respected authorities was that it could not be done.
  Well, here we are over 200 years later proving that it can be done. 
But it is our job as representatives of the people to make sure that 
this wonderful experiment in liberty is sustained. And as, again, our 
colleague from Ohio said, it is a great honor to serve here.
  And some people may not know this, and I think it is important to 
know, that the only way anybody can serve in the United States House of 
Representatives is to be elected. People can be appointed to every 
other office in the United States, but they cannot be appointed to 
serve in the United States House of Representatives. One must be 
elected, and we are elected every 2 years.
  And I hope in this course of time, as we talk about the principles of 
this country, that we will do something that I do not think people do 
often enough, that is read the Constitution. I think it is helpful for 
us to reflect on the Constitution. And as we talk about the Truth 
Squad, I want to read two pieces from the Constitution tonight, and 
then turn it back to you, Mr. Price, to conclude our time here.
  But I think so often even the Constitution itself is not quoted 
accurately. And I think that part of our job should be to remind the 
people what the Constitution says, and how it is the basis for 
everything else that we do.
  Now I am going to read just the Preamble to the Constitution. And by 
the way, I borrowed this from the Parliamentarian. And I find it 
interesting that we tie back to Mr. Jefferson and the Founding Fathers. 
This is, in one manual, the Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the 
Rules of the House of Representatives.
  As I understand it, in almost every elected body in the United 
States, they go back to Jefferson's Manual when there is any dispute on 
whether the rules apply or not. And so I think the fact that we do that 
is a great tribute to again our Founding Fathers and particularly Mr. 
Jefferson and the care he took with these things.
  Let me read the Preamble:
  ``We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America.''
  I think that the key words for me here are ``provide for the common 
defense.'' That is the role of the Federal government. That is the 
number one role of the Federal government. We do want to promote the 
general welfare, but that is not the primary goal of the Federal 
government. It is to provide for the common defense.
  Promoting the general welfare can be done in lots of different ways. 
And I have heard some people on the other side say we should change 
those words around and say, provide for the general welfare and promote 
the common defense. I think that that is one of the problems that we 
are having in our country these days.
  And the other piece of the Constitution that I want to read tonight 
that I think is a part of tying back into our being the Official Truth 
Squad is amendment 1 to the Constitution:
  ``Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion 
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of 
speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assembly 
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.''
  I find that in most days, when people want to quote the first 
amendment, they often quote that first phrase and leave out the second 
phrase. And I think that that is so important; I think it is a part of 
tying back again to the Truth Squad.
  Many times you hear people quote, ``Congress shall make no law 
respecting the establishment of religion,'' that says we should take 
the words ``In God We Trust'' off of our money, the words ``Under God'' 
out of our pledge. But what is so important is the second half of that 
sentence, ``or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.''
  Unfortunately, those who would take away our freedoms are the ones 
who so often leave off the second half of that phrase. And it is 
extremely important that we not distort the words of the Constitution. 
And it is important I think that our Truth Squad remind people of those 
words so often, and I think we need to do that.
  I hope we will in our sharing things with the people talk more about 
the Constitution and how the truth of the Constitution itself has been 
distorted by some of our colleagues.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Foxx. I tell 
you, it does my heart good to listen to your comments about the 
Constitution, about our Founding Fathers, and the kinds of things that 
they held dear.
  I want to just highlight again that Preamble, the first line of the 
Preamble, ``We the people of the United States in order to form a more 
perfect union.''
  The Founding Fathers used these words to remind us that preserving 
the Constitution that they created is as difficult, maybe even more so, 
as writing and ratifying it in the late 1780s.
  The words remind us that it is we the people that educate ourselves 
on the issues, become involved in choosing our leaders, and committed, 
those leaders, make sure the leaders are committed to governing by 
constitutional principles. And again the issues that we

[[Page H442]]

face today are equally as dangerous as those that the Founders faced.
  I wanted to highlight very briefly another document that is one of 
our founding documents, that is the Declaration of Independence. One of 
the early paragraphs in the Declaration I think crystallizes something 
that is incredibly important, we all know those words, but I think it 
is important to repeat them:
  ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,'' 
and ``that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among 
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.''
  Incredible, powerful words.
  But the message here that I always harken back to is that the power 
that government has is derived from the people, because the people 
derive their power from the Almighty, and the power that people have 
they then cede to government. It is not the other way around.

                              {time}  2315

  We do not believe that government has power and gives it to people. 
We believe that people, because of the inherent power from the Almighty 
and because of the inherent quality of life, have that power and cede 
it to the Federal Government and to the State government to bring about 
the kind of things that Congresswoman Foxx talked about.
  The founding of our Nation truly is tied to a reliance on a higher 
authority and everyone at the time knew that. We have gotten a bit away 
from that, and I think one of the things that is incumbent upon us as 
leaders is to make certain that we remember that and that we remind 
people of that and that we talk about it freely and openly make certain 
that everyone understands and appreciates the importance of the 
Almighty.
  One of the items that I will close with that moves me so every time I 
read it is Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting and 
Prayer. There are a couple of portions of that that I find incredibly 
eloquent. I quote from the proclamation:
  ``It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their 
dependence on the overruling power of God, and to confess their sins 
and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine 
repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime 
truth announced in the holy scriptures and proven by all history that 
those nations only are blessed whose God is Lord.
  ``We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We 
have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have 
grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. 
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which 
has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened 
us. And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that 
all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of 
our own.
  ``Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too 
proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble 
ourselves before the offended power and to confess our national sins 
and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.''
  Mr. Speaker, we live in a wonderful and a wondrous Nation, a Nation 
that has blessed more individuals on the face of the Earth than any 
nation in the history of mankind. It is our privilege to serve in the 
United States House of Representatives and to bring this message of 
hope and optimism and positive speaking to the American people.

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