[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 53 (Monday, March 30, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      AMERICA'S PATH TO SOCIALISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, my good friend Mr. Poe of Texas 
and I are down here almost every night, talking about our concerns 
about the country, and tonight is no exception. I want to compliment my 
colleague for his learned comments. I really appreciate his being down 
here with me. Sometimes it gets lonely.
  I think the thing that concerns me the most, which is the reason I am 
here tonight, is that I think America is heading toward a socialist-
type government, and it really worries me because, throughout our 
history, we have been a free enterprise government, a free enterprise 
society, and we have done very, very well. This country has been the 
greatest economic country in the history of the world because of free 
enterprise, and now we see, day in and day out, a movement toward more 
and more government control over the private sector.
  We have seen the huge bailout of AIG and of other financial 
institutions. Trillions of dollars are being put into these 
institutions along with government control, and that is not what this 
country is all about. These companies that are failing should go 
through the bankruptcy procedure, as has been the case throughout 
history, and because of this procedure, this legal procedure, the free 
enterprise system has had its ups and downs, but it has flourished year 
in and year out, decade in and decade out because the system works.
  Now we see they are moving toward the control of the health industry. 
In the budget that we are going to be discussing this week, we are 
going to have about $680 billion as a down payment on a socialized 
medicine system, and that, once again, is government control over the 
health care of this country. Government control over, as my colleague 
said tonight, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other institutions, really 
has not proven to be too successful, and yet we are going to have the 
government taking over and socializing medicine in this country. It has 
not worked in Europe. It has not worked in other parts of the world. It 
is not going to work here. It is going to end up rationing health care, 
and the people who are going to be hurt the most are senior citizens in 
this country, who will be put at the back of the line.
  So it has not worked in the private sector as far as financial 
institutions are concerned. It has not worked throughout the world when 
we have socialized medicine, and now we see that the government is 
moving toward control over the automobile industry. They are forcing 
the people out of leadership positions, like the president of General 
Motors. Now, maybe he should have been replaced, but we certainly do 
not need the government coming in and telling the private sector, the 
automobile industry, how to run itself. They should have gone through 
Chapter 11 in the first place, General Motors and Chrysler, instead of 
the government of this country and the administration putting $14 
billion to $15 billion into those companies which were failing. If they 
had gone through the bankruptcy procedure, we would not be facing right 
now another $20 billion or $30 billion of taxpayers' money that is 
going to have to be put into those institutions.
  So, tonight, I would just like to protest once again, one Member of 
Congress talking about the movement toward government control over 
every part of our lives. Socialism does not work. It is a repressive 
form of government, and it is something that is going to hurt everybody 
in this country, that plus the inflation that is going to be caused by 
these trillions of dollars that we are printing, these moneys that we 
are printing. It is going to hurt the future generations of this 
country.
  I listen to Sean Hannity and I listen to Rush Limbaugh and I listen 
to Mr. Beck, the so-called conservative right-wing radicals. In my 
opinion, they are the ones who really understand the direction this 
country is heading.
  I just hope the American people, Madam Speaker, would listen and pay 
attention, because I think they don't realize how quickly we are moving 
toward complete government control over our lives. It is something that 
we ought to all be concerned about. I am concerned about it, and I hope 
my colleagues who may be paying attention back in their offices are 
concerned about it as well.

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