[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H8710-H8714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ANXIETIES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for 36 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, there's great concern all over the Nation 
for those who follow what is going on in our financial institutions. 
That concern is entirely appropriate.
  There's great anxiety all over the Nation by hardworking men and 
women who do not know how they're going to be able to continue to pay 
the soaring energy costs for both their vehicles and their homes.
  Yet, still, the Congressional leadership continues to refuse to put a 
piece of legislation on the floor for a vote that could immediately 
send us well on our way to energy independence by allowing us to 
produce that with which this Nation has been so blessed.
  There's much anger over the disgusting immorality of corporate 
executives who padded their own pockets with millions of dollars by 
creative bookkeeping and representations that mortgage securities had 
value that they did not actually have.
  There's incredulity in America over Members of Congress who have 
spent years decrying the culture of corruption, only to have 
information come out raising questions about failures to pay proper 
taxes under the income tax laws that may have been written by such 
person.
  There's incredulity that the FBI might find cold hard cash secreted 
in a freezer 3 years ago, causing people to wonder why nothing has 
happened.
  There's amazement from those who have bothered to notice that last 
year a vote could be lost by the Democratic majority, fair and square, 
then the rules be changed to allow a different outcome.
  There's astonishment among those who have bothered to notice that the 
majority leadership could continue to advertise on-line that this would 
be the most open Congress in history, with complete use of the 
committee process, and each bill being subjected to full amendment 
opportunities and across-the-board input, yet, we continue to have the 
most closed and dictatorial Congress in memory.
  While people in America were being overwhelmed by killer gasoline 
prices and home energy costs, the United States Congress took 5 weeks 
off. When over 100 Members of Congress played by the rules and signed 
up in a timely manner to speak for 5 minutes on the last day of our 
session in July, before the 5-week recess, the majority party used that 
majority, yet again, to cram down an abrupt adjournment on us to 
prevent our speaking with the microphones on. Yet, we spoke with the 
microphones off anyway.
  When points of order have been raised regarding rules violations or 
alleged ethical malfeasance, the majority has used their power to table 
legitimate objections to prevent the violations from being corrected 
and from even being called violations. They've even gone so far as to 
have the transcript of the proceedings in this Chamber changed to cover 
up the inappropriate behavior and rulings from the day before, but the 
video certainly revealed the truth.
  I simply could not and still struggle to understand how this body 
could go so far off course. When we find that our Nation has been 
brought to the brink of financial failure, there was fear with wailing 
and gnashing of teeth.
  But we find that in 2002 and 2003, when the Bush administration was 
pushing for and demanding reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just to 
try to avoid this type financial disaster that they foresaw, the 
efforts at reform were blocked by people against whom allegations have 
now arisen in the Senate who were reported to have gotten sweetheart 
deals from the financial industry. The foresight of such potential 
problem is to the Bush Administration's credit. But the failure to 
continue to beat the drum, warning that something was amiss does fall 
at the feet of the administration and Members on both sides of 
Congress.
  There's one word that can prevent the destruction of our little 
experiment in democracy, as some of our forefathers referred to it, 
that could also prevent the destruction of a family, of a company, of a 
society or of a government or a Nation, and that word is 
accountability.
  When Adam and Eve were convinced there was no accountability, they 
fell from grace.
  When the only man mentioned in the Bible who was said to have a heart 
after God's own actually had no earthly accountability, King David 
himself committed atrocious wrongs.
  When people are convinced that there is no accountability for sexual 
relations outside marriage, and there turns out to be consequences of a 
pregnancy, some think it would be punishment to allow a child to be 
born alive.
  When the highest officers in a company think they can raid the 
retirement funds of their longstanding employees and be mega-wealthy, 
with no one to whom to account, they raid whatever is in the company as 
if it were their own.
  Some corporate leaders allow workers to come into this country 
illegally, just so the owners can pocket a little more profit, despite 
the fact that it diminishes the society and Nation from following the 
rule of law and for being a Nation of laws.
  And though these same people can't see it coming, history makes very 
clear that such violations of the rules of law will destroy a Nation 
and society. It makes this Nation appear, at times, to be a corrupt 
Third World Nation where the law just does not mean much.
  When a society believes that if it feels good, do it, and there is no 
accountability, society ceases and an animal kingdom full of the basest 
instincts of animals takes over.
  When Members of Congress think that they're too big and important to 
ever be accountable, they display hubris or arrogance and engage in 
tawdry financial dealing with the taxpayers' money. When people in 
government begin to feel that there is no accountability for them, they 
will allow massive overspending that the country cannot afford. They 
will create monuments to themselves with other people's money. They 
will allow the vast national wealth to be sent to other countries that 
do not like us very much, just so the energy does not have to be 
produced in the backyard of the selfish.
  In 1995, the House and Senate both passed a bill that would bring 
about drilling in what Jimmy Carter, as President, designated for 
drilling, because there is no wildlife there. It's a perfect place for 
drilling. And that is in the coastal area where there are billions of 
barrels of oil. But President Clinton vetoed the bill.
  In the last Congress, we passed a bill to provide for drilling in the 
Outer Continental Shelf, but the Democrats blocked it from getting the 
required 60 votes to allow cloture in the Senate, so there was no vote 
up or down on the bill itself in the Senate, and it died there; while 
our country was dying.
  Here our country is in a terribly difficult time with these extremely 
high energy rates, and our Democratic leadership still supports sending 
$700 billion a year to nations, many of whom do not like us. If that 
$700 billion sends familiar, it's because it's also the amount that 
Secretary Paulson says that we need at this time to save the mortgage 
and financial system.
  Congressman Joe Barton proposed that, in this time of financial 
crisis, why not open up ANWR out of necessity? Why not open up the 
Outer Continental Shelf and use the billions of dollars that will come 
from that to help

[[Page H8711]]

mitigate the expense of financial crisis here?
  What a great idea. But the majority leadership does not see that this 
Nation will have an accountable judgment day where we will be 
accountable for what we did not do to use the blessings that we have 
here in this Nation of tremendous amounts of energy.
  So what will it take to get people here to see that you cannot spend 
unabatedly, and you cannot send money overseas with reckless abandon 
without an accountability, a judgment day coming?
  There will indeed be a high price to pay. As Chuck Colson once said, 
you cannot have the morals of Woodstock and not have the current 
problems. If you do have people whose world view is that if it feels 
good you should just do it then, as Chuck Colson says, you're going to 
have Columbines.
  When the message of a majority of those serving in Congress is that 
we will only follow the rules when it is convenient, then the message 
to the world is that we will not be bound by the rule of law, as we 
will change it whenever we want to suit us as we please.

                              {time}  2300

  When our Nation's children see the adults sending such a clear 
message by their conduct, and the rules don't apply to us if we don't 
want them to, according to the majority, then you can expect the 
Nation's children to soon follow suit. That leads us to Enrons among 
the adults, the Fannie Mae fiascoes among the adults. And from our 
children, you begin to see wayward kids thinking maybe it will feel 
good to shoot people, so let's see.
  Well, if there's a higher power, there's a reason for accountability. 
If there is no higher power, then there is no reason to worry about our 
accountability. You can get away with all you want in this life with no 
adverse consequences at all. For those who think there is no ultimate 
accountability, no ultimate judgment of the universe, I would point you 
to the discussion C.S. Lewis had in his book ``Mere Christianity.''
  He had said that when he was an atheist, he used to love to tweak 
Christians by saying, ``Why don't you just admit that there cannot be a 
just God over the universe when there is so much injustice in the 
world?'' And no matter what the Christian would say, he would come back 
and say, ``Yes, yes, yes. That's all well and good. But wouldn't it be 
easier just to admit there cannot be a just God over the universe when 
there is so much injustice in this world?''
  Eventually, it hit him like a ton of bricks. How could he say--and 
who was he to say--that there was injustice unless there is some 
absolute, unwavering outside source of right and wrong? If there were 
not such a universal source of right and wrong that is written on the 
hearts of people, then how could anyone ever know or say that there was 
injustice in the world? You couldn't know.
  Once you come to grips with the fact that there is a universal source 
of right or wrong in the world, then you have to come to grips with the 
fact that there must be a good God that made it so, and there will be 
accountability some day. Therefore, no one will ultimately be above the 
law.
  Now, not everyone sees everything exactly the same, of course. C.S. 
Lewis noted that that just because some can sing closer to the notes 
printed on a page doesn't mean the music doesn't exist. It just means 
some do a better job of hitting closer to what the exact and 
appropriate note is.
  There is right and wrong in the world, and most people innately know 
that. But they rationalize--and we find it all across the House and in 
Congress--people rationalize that it is more fun to say there is no 
God, perhaps no Creator so they don't have to feel guilty or consider 
that some day someone will judge them.
  So long as we recognize, as our founders did, that there is a Creator 
who has endowed us with unalienable rights, then we should recognize 
that we have a duty to protect those rights for the sake of ourselves 
and those that follow. Perhaps that is why there is such an effort 
underway to sterilize and remove God or any reference to Him from all 
public buildings and documents these days.
  If we keep mentioning God, as the founders of this Nation did 
constantly, then it reminds us that we will some day be accountable 
even if we get away with things today.
  People do not like to feel guilty so they want to strike God out of 
everything. For example, as our society progressed to the point that we 
were too smart, too elusive to be accountable to God, we had our first 
national memorial in 2003 open that does not anywhere in it mention the 
word ``God.'' First memorial to do that. That was the Franklin D. 
Roosevelt Memorial. In all of those acres at the expansive memorial, 
there is no mention of God, Creator, Providence, Holy Trinity, Holy 
Spirit, Lord, all of these different names that were in our founding 
documents. They're still found throughout our documents, if anyone 
cares to look.
  Nor is there any mention of the Latin words that are found in our 
official great seal that's on the back of every dollar bill. If you 
don't believe it, pull it out and look. Those Latin words are ``Annuit 
Coeptis,'' meaning He, God, has smiled on our undertaking.
  Those words are also found around the Capitol and in the Senate 
Chamber and in the congressional prayer chapel.
  Franklin D. Roosevelt was a leader of this Nation who believed 
strongly in accountability and that there was a God before whom that 
would happen.
  On June 6, 1944, D-day, President Roosevelt went on national radio 
and did an amazing thing as President: he led the Nation in prayer. And 
I would like to just read that for you at this time.
  And for those that may look in, Mr. Speaker, they will be able to 
know from the poster, this is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer 
during his radio broadcast to the Nation on June 6. Here is that prayer 
as I read it verbatim as President Franklin Roosevelt gave it.
  And understand, as President Roosevelt prayed this prayer, our 
soldiers were dying fighting valiantly during D-day trying to save the 
world and make it safer for democracy. This was his prayer:
  ``My fellow Americans:
  ``Last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at 
this moment that troops of the United States and our allies were 
crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to 
pass with success thus far. And so in this poignant hour, I ask you to 
join me in prayer.''
  President Roosevelt went on, ``Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our 
Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to 
preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set 
free a suffering humanity.
  ``Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness 
to their hearts, steadfastness to their faith.
  ``They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For 
the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Successes may not 
come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we 
know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons 
will triumph.
  ``They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--until 
the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's 
souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
  ``For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight 
not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to 
liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill 
among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, but their 
return to the haven of home.
  ``Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them. 
Thy heroic servants, into Thy Kingdom.
  ``And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and 
brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever 
with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves for renewed 
faith in Thee in this time of great sacrifice.
  ``Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of 
special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I 
ask that our people vote themselves into a continuance of prayer. As we 
rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of 
prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

[[Page H8712]]

  ``Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks to redouble the 
contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our 
Armed Forces.
  ``And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear 
sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons, wherever 
they may be.
  ``And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our 
sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the 
keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary 
events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment--let not these deter 
us in our unconquerable purpose.
  ``With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our 
enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. 
Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into 
a world unity that will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the 
schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in 
freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
  ``Thy will be done, Almighty God.
  ``Amen.''
  That was a prayer of our President, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  Now, in the 1950s, senator majority leader Lyndon Johnson was sick of 
having churches harp on him over alleged immortality, so he fixed them. 
He added a provision to the charitable institution laws that governed 
churches that says in fact you could not maintain your charitable tax-
free status if you got involved in politics. That dramatically changed 
the Nation that had been known from our beginning.
  There again, majority leader Johnson's efforts were an attempt to 
prevent judgment for what was alleged as improper conduct. No one 
enjoys accountability. But to have a free Nation, a just Nation, a 
prosperous Nation, and a blessed Nation, there must be accountability.
  Then in 1962, an unaccountable Supreme Court that begins every single 
session with a prayer that God will save that honorable court, they 
changed nearly 200 years of precedence by ruling there could be no 
prayer in schools.
  As mentioned in 2003, the first national memorial opened as the FDR 
Memorial that never mentioned God. In 2004, the second memorial in 
United States history opened that did not mention God anywhere either. 
That was the World War II Memorial.
  Understand, these are both beautiful memorials. They're just Godless, 
yet their subjects were certainly not.
  Amazingly, the park service had quotes from Eisenhower and Roosevelt 
in the World War II Memorial that had to be cut right at the right 
place so their quotes would not mention ``God'' or ``Almighty God'' as 
those two gentlemen and great leaders did.
  I have a Bible here. My aunt says my uncle, my late uncle, got when 
he entered World War II. On the front, it says--it has got a metal 
cover--``May the Lord be with you.'' He said he was issued this as he 
went into the Army.
  Right inside the fly leaf there's a message. It says, ``The White 
House, Washington. As Commander in Chief, I take pleasure in commending 
the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the Armed Forces of the 
United States. Throughout the centuries, men of many faiths and diverse 
origins have found in the sacred books words of wisdom, counsel, and 
inspiration. It is a fountain of strength. And now as always, an aid in 
attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.''
  Signed Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  They used to issue these to people going into the service.
  Let me read to you the speech that was given on the floor of the 
United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd on June 27, 1962, which is 
the day or two after the Supreme Court ruled there would be no public 
prayer in school.
  I'm reading it as Senator Byrd's speech appeared in the Congressional 
Record.
  And Mr. Speaker, I've got a chart here that says it's Senator Robert 
Byrd's speech on the Senate floor, June 27, 1962.
  And this is what he said. Senator Byrd, 1962:
  ``In as much as our greatest leaders have shown no doubt about God's 
proper place in the American birthright, can we, in our day, dare do 
less?
  ``In no other place in the United States are there so many, and such 
varied official evidences of deep and abiding faith on God in the part 
of Government as there are in Washington.
  ``Every session in the House and Senate begins with prayer. Each 
House has its own chaplain.
  ``The Eighty-Third Congress set aside a small room in the Capitol, 
just off the rotunda for the private prayer meditation of Congress. The 
room is always open when Congress is in session, but it is not open to 
the public. The room's focal point is a stained glass window showing 
George Washington kneeling in prayer. Behind him is etched these words 
from Psalm 16:1 `Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.'
  ``Inside the rotunda is a picture of the Pilgrims about to embark 
from Holland on the sister ship of the Mayflower, the Speedwell. The 
ship's revered Chaplain Brewster, who later joined the Mayflower, has 
open on his lap the Bible. Very clear are the words, `The New Testament 
according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.' ''

                              {time}  2315

  On the sail is the motto of the Pilgrims, ``In God We Trust, God With 
Us.''
  The phrase, ``In God We Trust,'' appears opposite the President of 
the Senate, who is the Vice President of the United States. The same 
phrase, in large words inscribed in the marble, backdrops the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives.
  Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten 
Commandments, with the great American eagle protecting them. Moses is 
included among the great lawgivers in Herman A. MacNeil's marble 
structure group on the east front. The crier who opens each session 
closes with the words, ``God save the United States and this honorable 
Court.''
  Engraved on the metal on the top of the Washington Monument are the 
words: ``Praise be to God.'' Actually, parenthetically, the words are 
Laos Deo, Latin, meaning ``Praise be to God,'' and actually, again 
parenthetically, that was put on the east side of the top of the 
Washington Monument for a purpose. Because those, so many decades, 
years ago, wanted it such that when the sun touched the Nation's 
capital, Washington, D.C., the first thing that the sun would touch 
would be the Latin words, Laos Deo, ``Praise be to God.'' Interesting.
  Lining the walls of the stairwell are such Biblical phrases as 
``Search the Scriptures,'' ``Holiness to the Lord,'' ``Train up a child 
in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from 
it.''
  Numerous quotations from scripture can be found within the Library of 
Congress' walls. One reminds each American of his responsibility to his 
Maker: ``What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and love 
mercy and walk humbly with thy God,'' Micah 6:8.
  Another in the lawmaker's library preserves the Psalmist's 
acknowledgement that all nature reflects the order and beauty of the 
Creator, ``The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth His handiwork,'' Psalm 19:1. And still another reference, ``The 
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not,'' 
John 1:5.
  Millions have stood at the Lincoln Memorial and gazed up at the 
statue of the great Abraham Lincoln. The sculptor who chiseled the 
features of Lincoln in granite all but seems to make Lincoln speak his 
own words inscribed into the walls.
  He said, ``That this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth.''
  At the opposite end, on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address 
alludes to ``God,'' the ``Bible,'' ``providence,'' ``the Almighty,'' 
and ``divine attributes.''
  It then continues: As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be 
said, ``The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.''
  On the south banks of Washington's Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson 
still speaks: ``God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties 
of a Nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these 
liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country

[[Page H8713]]

when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep 
forever.''
  These words of Jefferson are a forceful and explicit warning that to 
remove God from this country will destroy it.
  Those are the words of Senator Robert Byrd back in 1962.
  We have a visitor's center, the Capitol Visitor's Center, CVC for 
short. It cost over $621 million. It is slated to open December 2 of 
this year. So far, it had been completely sterilized of any mention of 
God in any form. It was not until over 100 Members of Congress sent a 
letter and followed up repeatedly with more concern that we finally got 
a concession this past week that ``In God We Trust'' would be put above 
the mock-up of the Speaker's rostrum area there in the visitor's 
center, because what had been there before was a fraud and a deception 
and attempted to represent that there was no ``In God We Trust'' above 
our Speaker's head.
  There will also be accountability someday for this majority 
leadership playing so fast and loose with the rules. When rules and 
laws don't matter, then we lose this blessed country that was founded 
as a Nation of laws, because people are not perfect. People need rules. 
We need accountability. That means that the majority leadership, if 
they play by the rules, they're going to lose a vote every now and 
then, and that's okay. Don't break the rules just to keep from losing a 
vote. The rule itself is too important to do that. It also means that 
the Speaker and other leadership of the majority must abide by the 
rules as promised, and the promises are actually still on the Speaker's 
Web site but have not been followed as expected.
  Let me just read you from the Speaker's own Web site. This is from 
the Speaker's Web site, as I pulled them off today.
  ``Every person in America has a right to have his or her voice 
heard.'' It would have been nice if that had been remembered the last 
day of our session on August 1 before there was a 5-week vacation. We 
didn't get to have the microphones on so we could be heard.
  But it continues: ``No Member of Congress should be silenced on the 
floor''--it would have been nice if somebody had noticed that--``as has 
been the practice of Republican leadership in the United States House 
of Representatives.'' A little slap there. Anyone smell hypocrisy?
  It goes on and says: ``Respectful of both the wishes of the founders, 
and the expectations of the American people, we offer the following 
principles for restoring democracy in the `People's House,' 
guaranteeing that the voices of all the people are heard.''
  That just makes me sick to read those words and to think about what's 
happened in the last year and a half.
  Then it goes on. It says: ``Bipartisan administration of the House. 
Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all 
levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that 
demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical 
ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards 
that prevent the trading of official business for gifts. Honest 
leadership''--on the speaker's Web site it said--``is not a partisan 
goal. It is the key to a stronger union.'' I agree.
  But it goes on to say: ``We must all work together to put the 
progress of all Americans ahead of the special interests of the few.'' 
I certainly agree with that, too.
  It goes on and says: ``With honest leadership and open government, 
America's leaders can once again focus on the urgent needs of the 
American people.''
  How about energy? American people need energy. They need cheaper 
energy. We need to get off the addiction to foreign oil. They're not 
addressing that. We took off on a 5-week vacation when the people 
needed us most.
  The Web site goes on and says--this is the Speaker's Web site--
``bills should be developed following full hearings and open 
subcommittee and committee markups, with appropriate referrals to other 
committees. Members should have at least 24 hours to examine a bill 
prior to consideration at the subcommittee level.''
  Boy, that would have been nice last week when we got slapped with an 
energy bill that didn't go through subcommittee, didn't go through 
committee, had not one single Republican getting to have any input in 
that energy bill last week, and it was posted, as I recall, at 9:45 the 
night before we had to vote on it. It would be nice if these things on 
the Speaker's Web site were followed.

  ``Bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that 
allows open, full, and fair debate consisting of a full amendment 
process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives, 
including a substitute.''
  How long has it been on a bill of any substance that the minority was 
given an opportunity to have amendments? Closed rules over and over and 
over and over.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will be recognized for the 
remainder of his hour, 24 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. The Web site goes on to say: ``Members should have at 
least 24 hours to examine bill and conference report text prior to 
floor consideration.''
  Oh, that's another thing. We don't even have conference reports 
anymore, because if we had a conference, then there would be 
Republicans from the House that would be required to get to have input, 
and that's not going to happen. So the conference reports instead 
became Democrats getting together, working out in the Senate and the 
House--though, I think they may have let some Republicans in the Senate 
throw in a line or two--but nobody from the House. Not fair, not open.
  And it says that it ``must be reported before 10 p.m. for a bill to 
be considered the following day.'' They found a way to completely avoid 
the conference process so that rule doesn't even matter anymore.
  Now, the promises on the Speaker's Web site are so far from what's 
been happening in this, the most closed-door Congress in history. All I 
can say is that because of the vast abuses, at some point the majority 
will change again. Maybe not this year. At some point it will, because 
the American people begin to notice eventually, and some eventually 
will be shocked by the broken promises that were never fulfilled.
  You can only fool the American people for so long before they figure 
it out. There may even be consequences for people across the aisle, 
apparently only for show, being on an energy alternative bill and then 
having two dozen of those people--it was their bill, and they voted 
against it, having already acknowledged that was the best bill. Maybe 
there will be consequences for doing that.
  Accountability and fairness also mean that if people are going to use 
electric or fossil fuel-produced energy they should not try to prevent 
people who are not as wealthy as they are from being able to have the 
same opportunities to purchase that fuel on less income, that they 
would have to allow more to be produced to do that.
  It means if you're going to use energy, then allow us to get it in 
America so it produces American jobs, increases America's gross 
national product, creates a better standard of living for more 
Americans. It will stop funding Nations that allow their assets to slip 
into the hands of those who want to destroy us. You cannot keep sending 
money abroad and not have a day of accountability when it will come 
back to haunt and truly hurt us badly.
  It's time to quit sending $700 billion a year out of this country for 
energy that we have. Sure, let's produce the renewables. We have got to 
go to those for our future. And alternative energy sources would be 
terrific.
  Some of us have come up with innovative things that will allow us to 
go way into the future with cheap energy, but right now, as my farmers 
tell me, we can't find a Prius tractor. When electricity was lost for 
days because of this Hurricane Ike that came through my district, as 
people pointed out to me, there are no hybrid generators. They run on 
fossil fuel.
  Accountability to strengthen the Nation means that children have to 
have rules, and that when a man and a woman voluntarily have sexual 
relations, they have made their choice, and they will be accountable 
and bear the consequence of igniting a life in this world.
  Accountability means that if you're a CEO of a company and you run a 
corporation into the ground, you should not receive millions of dollars 
in severance and a thank you for your greedy destruction. Instead, you 
should have to pay.

[[Page H8714]]

  So, tonight, I want to close with a motion and a supporting speech 
made by Benjamin Franklin.

                              {time}  2330

  Let me set the stage here.
  The American Revolution, you remember the Declaration of 
Independence, 1776. And then the war went on for 7 years. We got to 
1783. The revolution was won. There was a Treaty of Paris, 1783. I did 
not know until I came to Congress, as a historian, history degree I've 
got, I didn't know until I saw an original copy in the State Department 
of the Treaty of Paris of 1783--this was a critical document because 
this was getting Great Britain to acknowledge in writing that the 
United States was a country that was and should be free and they would 
have to recognize that. So they wanted it in the name that even Great 
Britain would be afraid to break and breach.
  I was shocked. It starts with big, bold letters at the top of the 
Treaty of Paris that forced Great Britain to recognize us; in these 
big, bold words it says, ``In the name of the most Holy and undivided 
Trinity.''
  Then we had the Articles of Confederation in this country, but they 
were too loosely woven. There were a number of problems, no common 
currency; there were problems and haggling between the States. And by 
1787, it was very clear that if the Nation was to survive, it was going 
to have to have a new constitution.
  So they went to George Washington and said, we need you to come back 
to preside. And he said, I did my part as God led me to do and you 
appointed me to do; I did my part. And they said, You don't understand; 
the 13 colonies will only come back together if you are willing to 
preside because they know you, they know your heart, they know you're 
not in it for yourself; you proved that the day you surrendered all 
power, as had never been done in the history of the world, surrendered 
all power and went home; won the revolution, commander of the military. 
You know, when you do that, historically, you could be called Czar, 
King, Caesar, whatever you want to be called. George Washington didn't 
do any of that.
  When King George, III heard that Washington might resign after the 
revolution and just go home, he knew history, he said that would never 
happen. He said, in his exact words, ``If Washington were to do that, 
he would be the greatest man alive.'' He probably was.
  So then we come to have the Constitutional Convention, with George 
Washington presiding. They went on for nearly 5 weeks with no success. 
At that point, Benjamin Franklin was recognized by the President of the 
Constitutional Convention, George Washington. And Benjamin Franklin 
rose to his feet and this is what he said--his exact words as recorded 
by James Madison with help from some of the others there. Benjamin 
Franklin:
  ``Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five 
weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other--our 
different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last 
producing as many noes as ayes, is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the 
imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own 
want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of 
it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government and 
examined the different forms of those Republics which having been 
formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And 
we have viewed modern states all around Europe, but find none of their 
constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
  In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to 
find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented 
to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought 
of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate understanding? 
In the beginning contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of 
danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our 
prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.
  ``All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed 
frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that 
kind of Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace 
on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we 
now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer 
need His assistance?
  ``I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more 
convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs 
of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, 
is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been 
assured, sir, in the Sacred writing that, ``except the Lord build the 
House, they labour in vain that build it.'' Firmly believe this; and I 
also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this 
political building no better than the builders of Babel.
  ``We shall be divided by our little partial local interest, our 
projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach 
and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may 
hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing 
governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
  ``I, therefore, beg leave to move that henceforth prayers employing 
the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held 
in the Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that 
one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate at 
that service.''
  According to the record, Mr. Sherman seconded the motion.
  Mr. Speaker, that was George Washington's recognition of Benjamin 
Franklin, and the words I read are verbatim from Benjamin Franklin.
  We've begun every day here in this House, here in session with the 
prayer, just as Franklin moved and requested. There is a higher power; 
there has to be accountability. Decisions in this body must be made in 
deference to the Father of Lights, as Benjamin Franklin called Him, and 
doing so with prayer, and as Franklin prayed, that God will illuminate 
our understanding.
  We are in a perilous time, and it is time for responsibility and 
accountability, or otherwise, we lose this precious country.
  It is time now for the majority leadership to stop playing so fast 
and loose with the rules and with enforcement of the rules. It is time 
that, after 2 years in the majority, that promises of opportunity to 
amend bad Democratic bills be fulfilled. It is time that rules apply to 
CEOs, to speakers, to committee chairmen, to leaders, and the leaders 
start leading by example.
  George Washington said, back during the revolution, these words: ``A 
people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.'' He 
led from the front. When I was in the Army, they taught you to lead 
from the back. Not Washington, he led from the front. He said, ``A 
people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.''
  As someone pointed out previously, we have the only National Anthem 
whose first verse ends with a question: Oh say does that star-spangled 
banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 
The answer as to whether that banner will yet wave depends on whether 
this Congress begins to acknowledge some accountability and do the 
right and the wise thing, not the convenient, not the political thing, 
do the legal, ethical and moral thing, not the Woodstock thing.
  May we get back to following God's directives so that this does not 
cease to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. May we get 
back to those things that cause God to pour out his richest blessings.

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