Congressional Record, Volume 157 Issue 34 (Tuesday, March 8, 2011)

[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 34 (Tuesday, March 8, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H1603-H1610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

{time} 1910
CONSTITUTION CAUCUS

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fleischmann). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Stutzman) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to represent the people of
Indiana's Third District, and I am also proud to serve as a cochair of
the Constitution Caucus here in Congress. The hottest fires make the
strongest steel. After seeing Washington assail the Constitution,
Americans went to the polls last November and demanded a return to our
first principles. As a result, the membership of this caucus has more
than doubled. We began this Congress by reading the Constitution right
here on the floor. We have come here this evening in that same spirit.
I rise today to continue a conversation that used to fill the halls
of this great building. There was a time in our Nation's past when
Members of Congress openly and passionately debated the interpretation
of the Constitution. We are here tonight to renew that discussion.
When we were sworn in, each of us took an oath to uphold and defend
the Constitution. This means that we are required to interpret and
apply it to our daily work. I am sure that we all take that oath very
seriously. However, I am also sure that, without vigilance, we slip out
of tune with the principles enshrined in that founding document.

[[Page H1604]]

Today, we have an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to those
principles, to limited government and individual equality. In the
coming months, my colleagues and I will come again to the floor to
discuss federalism, checks and balances, and enumerated powers.
Today, however, we ought to begin by asking ourselves a very simple
question: ``What is so wonderful about the Constitution?'' After all, I
believe, the last election was a mandate to return to its wisdom and
guidance. We ought to at least begin by asking why it should hold such
prominence in our hearts. Why, for example, did Abraham Lincoln declare
so forcefully, ``Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution.
That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our
liberties''?
The answer is elegantly simple. The Constitution enshrines the
enduring principles of limited government, and limited government is
the surest guardian of human dignity. The Constitution gave form and
shape to the philosophy put forth in the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration, it has been said, was the promise; the Constitution is
the fulfillment.
I cannot overemphasize the truly revolutionary nature of our War for
Independence. For the first time in human history, when a group of
people overthrew an oppressive regime, they began by espousing a
vigorous and eloquent philosophy: That all men are created equal. They
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Even as
lives, fortunes, and sacred honor hung in the balance, these men began
with a summary of human nature.
America was founded on the idea that humans have a specific
character. We are wired a certain way. Our Founding Fathers understood
two basic and profound truths about human nature. First, we are not
perfect. We err. We will never reach perfection. To believe that man is
perfectible is to engage in fanciful speculation. Second, in spite of
our fallen natures, we are dignified and equal. We each possess reason
and the ability to determine our own lives.
As James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, eloquently stated:
``What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on
human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If
angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on
government would be necessary.''
How then can imperfect beings govern in a way that respects human
dignity? The answer is found in limited government. Again, James
Madison said this: ``You must first enable the government to control
the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.''
Limited government justly defends the dignity of the individual
through specific and checked powers. Do not confuse limited for weak.
Government ought to be strong in those areas where strength is required
and specifically enumerated. In all other areas, the government must
defer to the judgments of free men and women.
In our Republic, the dignity of the individual citizen is paramount.
It would be arrogant to believe that a few elite can discern and direct
over 300 million souls here in America. I fear, with ballooning
government and near unstoppable deficits being run every year, we are
dangerously close to abandoning the principles that brought us here
safely thus far. As regulations infringe on nearly every aspect of
daily life, human dignity is endangered.
Those of us here this evening are ready to work against this tide, to
return our government to its proper role of defending individual
freedoms. I am eager to continue this conversation in the coming
months, because there is much work to be done.
Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Garrett), the original founder of this caucus.
Mr. GARRETT. I thank the gentleman from Indiana for being here
tonight as we talk about the Constitution. And who was it that said
that the Constitution, it may not be perfect, but it's better than what
we have now?
As we talk about kicking off tonight's Special Order, this series
here in the 112th Congress, I am pleased to be here with my colleague
from Indiana and my colleague also behind me, the gentleman from Utah
(Mr. Bishop), to talk about these most important issues, the foundation
of the Constitution.
Back at the very beginning, back in 2004, 2005, there really were not
that many Americans talking about the proper role of the Constitution
and the limitations that it does place both on the size and also on the
scope of the Federal Government. But as the years went by, over the
last several years at least, interest in the Constitution has grown as
new government programs have whittled away basically at the protections
in the Constitution that guarantee to us certain liberties to the
people and authorities to the States. So, as we come here tonight, and
as we have pointed out in the past, we will continue to highlight until
Congress' recent course is reversed.

This body has drifted away from the principles of limited government
enshrined in this, the Constitution. This document, the finely crafted
sections and verses that are in it, the guidelines and the limitations
that we see in it of the powers of government it was written to impose,
does not have the same personal meaning and importance to Americans it
seems it had during the times of the federalist and anti-federalist
debates.
Is that because it is a different time, and now we're in a different
age where we have long since forgotten what it is like to live under
tyrannical rule? It may be, Mr. Speaker, because of that, or perhaps
otherwise, it could also be because we don't simply cherish and study
the Constitution like our forefathers once did.
So we come to the floor tonight, through these Constitution hours, if
you will, and we hope to, by them, increase the knowledge not only of
this body but also of the American public as well. And we do so, taking
a look at the intricacies and the nuances of this, the Constitution.
Also, I think, we also help to shed some light on the circumstances and
the times that inspired the Founding Fathers to write our country's
founding document.
Tonight, we specifically want to spend some time talking about
limited government and its role in protecting human dignity. ``Liberty
to all,'' President Lincoln once wrote, back in 1861, ``is the
summation of the Declaration of Independence.'' He said further, ``the
principles which have proved an apple of gold to all of us.''
Yet the mere assertion of those principles for him was not enough. As
Lincoln later pointed out, for liberty to have real meaning, it must be
enshrined, and it must be enshrined in law. The Constitution, as he put
it, is the picture of silver subsequently framed around. Then he went
on to say that the picture was made not to conceal or to destroy that
apple as it was framed, but rather to adorn and to preserve it.
This, Lincoln said, drawing upon the book of Proverbs, is ``a word
fitly spoken.'' So to understand America, you must understand our
founding principles. To understand the Constitution and why government
should be limited, you must then, therefore, understand also the
Declaration of Independence.
So, the structure of the Constitution follows the principles and the
arguments of the Declaration, where it says, of course, all men are
created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights. This great statement, that we are hopefully all
familiar with, at the outset of the Declaration, a truly revolutionary
claim at the time, is followed by a list of complaints lodged against
the king at that time, King George III.
To just spend a moment or two to go into this in a little bit more
detail and to delve down into it, these then can be divided into three
categories, corresponding with the legislative, executive, and judicial
foundations of government.

{time} 1920

So to step back for a moment, the list takes up over half of the
Declaration, and the complaints there specify exactly where their King
had failed. And so, too, why government by consent is therefore
necessary. Now he refused to enact necessary laws, they said. Harmful
ones took their places, they said. Judges entirely dependent upon the
King's will were rendered mere puppets at the time; and when the King
did act, he flooded American shores with soldiers and bureaucrats.

[[Page H1605]]

Their complaints there were specific. The King suspended
representative Houses for opposing with manly firmness invasions on the
rights of the people, he wrote. He went on to say, he has obstructed
the administration of justice. How? By refusing his assent of laws for
establishing judiciary powers. He went on to say he was also guilty of
imposing taxes on us without our consent and also suspending our very
own legislatures and declaring themselves vested with powers to
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Yet another complaint alleged against the King was that he ``erected
a multitude of new offices and thereby sent hither swarms of officers
to harass the people and eat out their substance.''
So, when all power is taken from the hands of the people and
accumulated in the hands of a single person, or single head, if you
will, it breeds a similar power grab by who else? The bureaucrats, who
have no job but to consume the productivity and resources of the
people, of the populace. So the overweening Federal Government today is
guilty of the same offenses of liberty as back then as well.
Americans who are desperately trying to figure out and file their own
income tax returns right now know this all too well, I think. And so
the Declaration anticipates what we have here, the necessity of
separation of powers and just society.
So its message is clear: No single person or political force can
rightfully possess all the powers of the one government. Only the
Divine, only the Divine who is named in the Declaration of Independence
as the Author of the laws of nature, also named as the Creator, also
named as the Supreme Judge of the entire world, and finally also named
as Divine Providence, only the Divine justly exerts complete power. But
in the hands of a human being, such power is, as it's stated there,
absolute despotism.
Our Founding Fathers did not believe that human beings could be
perfected. We were not divine. We were capable of both good and evil.
James Madison later wrote in defense of the Constitution: ``As there is
a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of
circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human
nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and of confidence.''
So to assume that man's goodness will always direct his actions is to
ignore reality. People, therefore, are imperfect and cannot be
perfected. And so no edict of government will change that fundamental
fact.
To step back again, what, then, is the role of government? Calling
government the greatest of all reflections of human nature, James
Madison said that the government must start where? Well, with the
understanding that men are not angels, as the gentleman from Indiana
stated before. And as he said, were they perfect or angelic, no
government would be necessary.
Jefferson, Madison's friend, implicitly argued the same thing in the
Declaration. So, today, when we speak of ``the government,'' we often
think of an impersonal force, somehow out there and above everything,
above human nature, if you will.
But what is government? Government is composed of what you see here.
It is composed of human beings, all of whom are imperfect. And so to be
in the public sector or to be elected to office does not automatically,
by any means, transform a human being into that angel. And so for that
very same reason, that very same reason that human beings are not
perfect, government therefore must be limited and its duties therefore
must be delineated.
Going back to what President Lincoln once said, he further elaborated
on the importance of human dignity, which is our discussion tonight,
back in 1861 where he said a couple of things, and I will close on
this: ``Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have
attained the result; but even these are not the primary cause of our
great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself
more closely about the human heart.'' And what is that? ``That
something is the principle of 'liberty to all'--the principle that
clears the path for all--gives hope to all--and, by consequence,
enterprise and industry to all.''
Over the course of this 112th Congress, this caucus and my
colleagues, hopefully, on both sides of the aisle will continue to
sponsor these discussions, these Constitution hours, if you will, to
expand upon our understanding of these core principles of limited
government enshrined in our Constitution.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to speak tonight on this
very important topic, and I yield back to the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. STUTZMAN. It is my pleasure to now yield such time as he may
consume to the fellow chair, the cochair of the Constitutional Caucus,
the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop).
Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I thank the gentleman from Indiana. Mr. Speaker,
it is a pleasure for me to be here and be part of this significant
issue.
In the Constitution it says that certain things are self-evident. And
what are the things that were self-evident in the Declaration of
Independence? I have to get words right, don't I? In the Declaration of
Independence there are things that are self-evident. And what was self-
evident is that all men are created equal in a political sense. And
because of that, because all men are equal, the Creator has given us
certain inalienable rights.
And then it goes on to say the next step in that process is once you
have those inalienable rights, it is the purpose of government to
secure those rights. That's what we are talking about here, that within
the concept of our country, which was written and established in the
brilliant prose of Thomas Jefferson, every individual has an innate--
almost divine--worth within them which signifies that they all have
certain rights that are there from the Creator.
In England, those rights were established in law starting with the
Magna Carta and then building on, so that at the time of our country's
founding, everyone knew what the rights of Englishmen were. Our
Revolutionary War was not about taxes being too high. It was, not as
some revisionist historians will say, about impressment of colonials
into the British Navy. It was about the rights of Englishmen which were
being denied British subjects living in America at the time. That's
what they argued about. That's what in Philadelphia they were talking
about is the denial of those individual rights which are basic to all
people because we all have that spark of divinity and we have those
inalienable rights.
That's why as part of the debate that was established there was an
exchange in which Benjamin Franklin took part in which he was talking
with another person that said, there are more important things in life
than simply having our rights protected. The fact is we are British
citizens. To which Franklin then said, to be called a British citizen
without given the rights of a British citizen is like calling an ox a
bull. He is grateful for the honor, but would much rather have restored
what was rightfully his. That's the key element to which we were
talking here. With that, the Constitution was written as a
fortification of those individual rights and freedoms.
And it is the purpose of limited government to protect those
individual liberties. The Constitution created limited government, the
purpose of which was to protect our individual liberties.
Now as I try and talk to my old students to try and sometimes define
the term ``individual liberties,'' because it becomes somewhat vague in
the minds of people, I look at individual liberties as the concept that
individuals have choices in their personal lives. It is not the role of
government to pick winners and losers in society, whether that be
socially or economically. That is our rights as individuals.

{time} 1930

It is the right to have choices in my life. You know, I look around
the world in which we are, and it seems like all the time I am given
choices and options, even when I don't want them. I can pick a cell
phone plan from a myriad of options that are there. If I want a
breakfast cereal, there is a whole row of choices that are there. Even
if I want Pringles potato chips, there are 16 kinds of varieties for
me.
The entrepreneurial world has understood that people in America want
choices and options. That's their liberty. It is only government,
especially here in Washington, that seems to see that one size fits all
and mandates so that the government chooses winners and losers rather
than allowing that

[[Page H1606]]

for individuals. It is only us it seems who have not learned what is
yearning within the soul of all Americans that they understood when
they wrote the Declaration of Independence and then formalized the
Constitution of the United States.
I wish to quote someone here, and I don't know who actually wrote
this, but it is brilliant so I am going to claim that I said it: In the
first 150 years of this country, under the Constitution, we can sum up
in the following way. In the early years of this country, measures to
expand government's power beyond those enumerated in the Constitution
rarely got out of Congress because they were stopped by the objections
in that branch. Constitutional objections in Congress.
Members of Congress actually debated whether they had the power to do
whatever it was that was being proposed. They didn't simply assume they
had the power and then leave it to the courts to check them, Congress
took the Constitution and the limits it imposed on congressional action
seriously. Then when constitutionally dubious bills did by chance get
out of Congress, Presidents vetoed them not simply on policy but on
constitutional grounds. Indeed, the first six Presidents thought the
veto was supposed to be used only for constitutional purposes. And
finally, when that brake failed, the courts stepped in. In short, the
system of checks and balances worked because the Constitution was taken
seriously by a sufficient number of those who had sworn to uphold it.
We seem to have forgotten that in probably the last 60, 70, maybe even
100 years.
If I can give a religious reference, at some time the children of
Israel, as we read in the Old Testament, wanted to have a king so they
could be likened to all other nations. They went to the prophet who
tried to dissuade them, but they were insistent that they have a king
to be likened to all other nations, so the king could do marvelous
things. And, indeed, they had a king. And the first kings did great
things. They unified a nation; they built a beautiful temple. But
ultimately, those kings became the millstone around the neck of the
people that brought them down to destruction.
We have a change that took place almost 100 years ago where people
decided to change what the Federal Government was designed to do. It is
not that they did not understand the Constitution. They understood it
perfectly; they just didn't like it because it prohibited us from doing
marvelous things. We have now run through almost two generations, three
generations of individuals under a system of government in which we
look not to limit what government does to protect individual liberties,
but to try to make sure that government does those marvelous things. We
have come to a period of time where economically and socially we are
now in a period of distress simply because we forgot the original
foundation of this country, the purpose of the Constitution, the joy
and brilliance of limited government whose sole purpose should be to
protect individual liberties, not for government to do marvelous
things.
If we restore ourselves to that purpose and reinvigorate the concepts
for which this country was established, which I do believe to be the
concepts of federalism and limited government here, then indeed we have
a chance of restoring this country and solving our problems. If not, we
face very dark and difficult times indeed.
For the first 150 years, they understood that. They acted that way.
We can do the same thing again. We have the same spark of divinity
within us that they had back then. We can do it; we should do it.
I thank you for this opportunity of being here. I know you have other
speakers who will speak on this particular issue far more eloquently
than I, and I yield back to the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Next I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina,
District Three, Jeff Duncan.
Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. As a new Congressman back in January, I
was never prouder than when I took this floor to take part in reading
the United States Constitution. That day, I brought with me to the
podium a copy of the Constitution that I carry in my pocket every day.
Ronald Reagan, in his farewell address to the American people in
January 1989, said: Ours was the first revolution in the history of
mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three
little words, ``We the people.''
We tell the government what to do, President Reagan stated, it does
not tell us. A simple phrase, ``We the people . . . '' put down by our
Founding Fathers who defined self-government. Self-government. Those
words ring true.
I think daily about that government that they formed--a limited
government, one with powers for each branch that are clearly spelled
out in this document, clearly defined. And, you know, we are a long
ways from the limited government and enumerated powers that they
strived to corral.
I am concerned that we don't read and study the United States
Constitution enough in our public schools like we used to when I grew
up. I am worried that we the people don't know or remember why our
Founding Fathers divided power into three separate branches of
government, why they defined the powers of each, and why they were
inclined to spell out our liberties in a Bill of Rights.
They formed this government that has lasted well over 200 years. But
after they formed that government, they decided that they better spell
out the liberties. In fact, they had to do that in order to have the
States ratify this great document.
Everywhere I travel around my beloved Palmetto State and around this
country, I ask folks: What are your First Amendment rights? And almost
to a person, they mostly answer: Freedom of speech. But, you know, let
me remind you here today that the first thing our Founding Fathers
addressed was your freedom of religion. In fact, the first sentence in
the First Amendment to the United States Constitution says Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
They do that before they address your freedom of speech, before they
address your freedom of the press, before they address your right to
peacefully assemble or your right to petition this government for
redress of grievances. Folks, I remind you that our freedoms are slowly
being eroded in this country, and I believe that we as Americans need
to get back to doing what we did in that first week in this United
States Congress, and that is take this document out, read it,
understand what our Founding Fathers were trying to do when they said
we the people will govern ourselves.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Thank you. Very eloquently said.
I would like to touch on a couple of things that the gentleman from
South Carolina said, Mr. Speaker. As we did have a great opportunity to
read the Constitution on the House floor, I found it not only to be one
that should be a lesson for all of us, but also one that will remind
each American of the great document that we have that governs our land.
I would like to read just a couple of statements that some of our
Founding Fathers made that I believe are so important for each one of
us to remember today. First of all, I would like to start with George
Washington, who is my political hero. What a great man who not only was
so willing to sacrifice and was willing to serve his great country, and
he could have been king if he was wanting to, but instead knew that
limited power was going to be the real answer to America's new
Constitution and to its new Government.
George Washington said: ``The power under the Constitution will
always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes
and for a certain limited period to representatives of their own
choosing. And whenever it is executed contrary to their interest or not
agreeable to their wishes, their servants can and undoubtedly will be
recalled.''
Mr. Washington was referring to elections. I think what has not only
solidified our government for years and years has been that it is the
people, the people's government. The people have the ability to recall
those who are elected to go to their representative capitals, whether
it is in the State governments or here in Washington, D.C., and if
their wishes are not received by the people, the people can recall them
back to their State and elect someone new.

[[Page H1607]]

{time} 1940

Also, I would like to read another statement by Thomas Jefferson:
``On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to the
time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested
in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out
of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in
which it was passed.''
Thomas Jefferson was our third President and was one of the great men
who took part in building our great democracy and our Republic here in
the great country of the United States.
I would also like to refer a little bit to my time in having the
opportunity to serve in the Indiana State legislature and knowing that
Thomas Jefferson was a Federalist who believed in States' rights. And
one of the things I have seen in my short time in Washington is that
the States have so much flexibility, have so much more ability to serve
the people, as well as our local governments. And that is one of the
reasons that I believe the Constitution was formed to protect that
local control.
As we've seen time and time again, there is more influence by our
Federal Government in reaching further and further into our communities
with more mandates, with more legislation that continues to take away
our freedoms.
And having the opportunity to serve in the State legislature in
Indiana, I would also share that we can see how each State has
different needs, and the Constitution addresses that by limiting the
powers of the Federal Government. And we're seeing more and more waste
of tax dollars, something that I believe that the American people are
tired of, and they want to see Washington fix its problems just like
the American people do every day in tightening their own belt.
We tighten our belt in our small family farming operation back in
Indiana. We do that with our family budget. And people are asking
across the country, If we can do it, why can't Washington?
And we're seeing overlap of Federal and State and local governments;
and I believe if we would get back to the constitutional roles, the
constitutional role that the Federal Government is given, and focus on
the priorities that our Founding Fathers gave to us and the
Constitution as a government, then we will be more effective, we will
serve the people who have elected us to serve, and instead of
infringing upon the responsibilities and the rights of those in our
States that we will have a more efficient government and we will also
have a government that is closer to the people and one that I believe
serves best when government is close to the people and will serve and
respond to the needs of them.
At this time I would like to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Conaway).
Thank you for being here and I look forward to your comments.
Mr. CONAWAY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I appreciate being here to participate in the Constitution Caucus's
comments on our Constitution.
We labor under sometimes, basically all times, the misguided idea
that we're the smartest people that ever walked the face of the Earth,
that no new ideas are created except through us. Sometimes it's helpful
to look back at some of the things folks who have gone before us have
said to help us reflect on those and see how they apply to today's
circumstances.
A couple of those things, one is from a speech that Robert Kennedy
made on the Day of Affirmation address that he gave in South Africa
back in 1966. And while much of what he talked about, the revolution of
youth and the civil rights movement and other things, are not germane
to what we're talking about tonight, there is a section that is
particularly relevant to this conversation, and I would like to read
into the Record his comments in some of those early paragraphs.
He started off by saying: ``We stand here in the name of freedom.''
``Freedom'' is that wonderful word that conjures up inside of all of
us those kinds of feelings that are unique to just certain words.
``Liberty'' is another word that does that, that has that kind of
visceral experience inside each one of us. It's different but
nonetheless inspiring almost every single time you hear that.
Kennedy went on to say: ``At the heart of that Western freedom and
democracy is the belief that the individual man, the child of God, is
the touchstone of value, and all society, groups, the state, exist for
his benefit. Therefore, the enlargement of liberty for individual human
beings must be the supreme goal and the abiding practice of any Western
society.
``The first element of this individual liberty is the freedom of
speech, the right to express and communicate ideas, to set oneself
apart from the dumb beasts of the field and the forest; to recall
governments to their duties and obligations; above all, the right to
affirm one's membership and allegiance to the body politic, and to
society, to the men with whom we share our land, our heritage and our
children's future.

``The essential humanity of men can be protected and preserved only
where government must answer, not just to the wealthy, not just to
those of a particular religion, or a particular race, but to all its
people.
``And even government by the consent of the governed, as in our
Constitution, must be limited in its power to act against its people so
that there may be no interference with the right to worship or with the
security of the home, no arbitrary imposition of pains or penalties by
high officials or low; no restrictions on the freedom of men to seek
education or work or opportunity of any kind so that each man may
become all he is capable of becoming. These are the sacred rights of
Western society.''
Senator Kennedy got it right. These are the sacred rights of Western
society, and we are in danger of having those rights trampled on by
this continued growth in the size of our Federal Government.
If you look at the trajectory that we find ourselves on from a
financial standpoint, you can have estimates by think tanks on the
left, estimates by think tanks on the right, the CBO, the GAO--all of
these have 75-plus-year projections on the path that we're currently
on. If you stack each of those projections on a light table to look
through all of them at the same time, there's not a chigger's whisker
difference between the path that we're on.
Nobody disagrees that the path that we're on is absolutely
unsustainable. I tell my constituents back home we're very much like
the fellow who fell off the 10-story building. As he passed the fifth
floor, he said, So far so good, so far so good. Well, we are that guy;
and although our financial wreck is 10, 15, 20 years down the road, we
are in a free-fall that has an abrupt immediate stop somewhere in our
future.
We are bright, intelligent, smart people, present company excepted.
We ought to be able to look at those projections, Mr. Speaker, and take
action. We have for 5 years now, 6 years this August, failed to reform
Social Security. When I first joined Congress in 2005, that was one of
the leading issues on our table at that time. And, yes, we got
distracted about whether or not part of it should be personally owned
and part of it should not; but at the end of the day, we had set the
predicate for why Social Security needed to be adjusted. Most of us
spent that first 8 months in 2005 trying to lay out to our constituents
exactly what the issues were that are familiar to all of us in this
Chamber. That lasted until the end of August 2005. And then Hurricane
Katrina happened and distracted us from the goal of getting it done,
and we have not touched Social Security since.
We've continued to choose each and every year to not adjust and not
renegotiate Social Security. That choice has a consequence, and the
consequence is that we're adding about $600 billion of unfunded
mandates to the debt of future generations of Americans because we
choose not to take action.
That choice is ours to take. It is our freedom to take that choice.
It's our liberty to take that choice. But collectively both sides of
the aisle--this isn't a Republican issue or Democrat issue--both sides
of the aisle have, for good or for bad--I would argue for ill--chosen
to not address a fundamental spending issue that, among those that we
have to face, I would argue is the least difficult.

[[Page H1608]]

Let me finish a quote from George Washington in his first inaugural
address. George Washington declared: ``The preservation of the sacred
fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government
are finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the
American people.'' Trust is placed in the people precisely because they
are, in the words of the Declaration, equally created and endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
We have that precious gift in our hands: those of us in the 435 of us
who get to vote in this House, the 100 on the other side of this
building who get to vote, the man, the woman who occupies 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue. We have the tools of choice in our hands. Do we
choose to preserve liberty and freedom for future generations, or do we
choose to continue, as that fellow falling off the 10-story building
said, So far so good, so far so good? I argue that we should not. I
argue let us use our intellect, let us use our will, let us use the
wisdom of the American people who last November made a pretty dramatic
statement as to what they thought we ought to do.

{time} 1950

We now need to take those reins of choice in our hands and lead this
Nation to a sustainable Federal Government that does not mortgage our
grandchildren's future and that does not hand off to them an America
that is less prosperous and that has less opportunity for standard of
living increases that you and I enjoyed as we stepped into adulthood.
If we continue to ignore the problem and stick our heads in the sand,
as the ostrich sometimes does--a pretty unflattering position, quite
frankly, for any of us, including for the ostrich--then the future
generations will simply ask: Why did they do that? They saw it coming.
They understood the consequences. They had within their power the
ability to make it different.
We have chosen so far not to do that. We have chosen so far to expand
the Federal Government at an unprecedented rate. We have chosen to take
away from States the rights to conduct those affairs that are
individualized, that are properly left to the States and to our local
governments and that are, quite frankly, left to us alone, as
individuals. We have chosen as a Nation to empower this Federal
Government, year in and year out, to take away our freedoms and our
liberties.
All I can say to that, Mr. Speaker, is shame on us. Shame on us if we
don't right this ship of state by shrinking the size of this
Government, by limiting what it does in our day-to-day lives, by
getting back to the fundamental founding principles that our Founding
Fathers built this country on: that of a limited Federal Government,
one with limited powers and everything else being reserved to the
States and/or to the local municipalities--or not at all--and left to
the people.
So, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to express these
comments tonight, and I yield back.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Thank you.
I would like to yield again to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Garrett).
Mr. GARRETT. Again, I thank the gentleman from Indiana for hosting
tonight's Special Order dealing with the Constitution. More
specifically tonight, we are spending a little time talking about, as
the previous gentleman just did, unlimited government and its role in
protecting human dignity.
Now, the gentleman from Texas was just referencing the issue with
regard to the unsustainable projection and trajectory of spending at
the Federal level, and with regard to the burden, therefore, that we
place on untold generations that follow after ours. You have to then
ask: What sort of respect does this generation have for the human
dignity of future generations who encompass their lives with the
specter of having limitations on their abilities to make fundamental
choices for themselves because of the obligations that have been placed
upon them by this generation?
Earlier, I spoke about the Divine, and I think you need to do so when
you're asking the fundamental question, as we're doing tonight, with
regard to the issue of human dignity. I was quoting, not from myself,
but from Lincoln and also from our founding documents, which speak of
the Divine and name the Declaration as the Laws of Nature by the
Creator--the Supreme Judge of the world, the Divine Providence. All
areas of this, as is set forth in our documents, talk about human
dignity coming not from man, himself, but from the Creator, from the
Divine. Then it's the imperfect--man, human beings--who distort that in
some way. Government, as I said before, being not perfect and not
capable of being perfected, has the obligation to protect human dignity
as best it can, but it obviously does so in an imperfect manner.
The gentleman from Utah talked about its not just occurring over the
recent decades but over the last generations--probably going back over
100 years, he said. Actually, if you think about it, it was probably to
the beginning of--what?--the Progressive Movement, I guess you would
say here in this country, where there began this distortion of the
understanding of the Constitution.
The Progressive Movement elaborated upon the powers of the Federal
Government to expand in areas that never were envisioned by our
Founders. As a matter of fact, as I talk about the Progressive
Movement, we have the Progressive Caucus here on the other side of the
aisle, I guess, which speaks about these things all the time but in a
much more favorable light than we talk about it from this side of the
aisle. So, if you go back about 80, 90, 100 years, to the Progressive
Movement, it began to crimp upon the human being and the rights of
man--basically, therefore, what we're talking about tonight, human
dignity--in some very profound and fundamental ways.
What are some of the basic issues that a man is able to decide about
himself? What he is able to eat and what he is able to grow to eat.
It was the Progressive Movement. It was during the time of Roosevelt,
who finally said the Federal Government knows better when it comes to
what man can eat and what he can grow for himself, and he put a
limitation on an individual farmer as to what he could grow in his own
backyard to sustain himself and his family. The Federal Government
said, No, we are going to have the long arm of the powers of the
Federal Government reach into that farmer's backyard and dictate to him
that, no, he cannot grow those particular crops even though he was not
selling them, and they were not in the stream of commerce, and he was
not transporting them across State lines, and interstate commerce was
not involved whatsoever. Rather, the Government said: We, the Federal
Government here in Washington, can constrict him as to the very food
that he provides for his own family.

Now fast-forward to this generation and to this past Congress, and
you'll see that the same sort of thing goes on here. It's not only food
but all the regulations that entwine in that area, which have grown
into a multitude of regulations over the years--from food to water.
Washington now dictates your very own water use, and we're all familiar
with that infamous decision with regard to the toilets that you have in
your own house and with regard to the water consumption that you have.
These are not even things that you can decide for yourselves. The
Government steps in.
How about the lights that you turn on? How are you going to
illuminate your home so you can have a light to read your book in the
evening? Now the Federal Government says that is not the province of
man. That is the province of the Federal Government's to dictate as
well. So, in each area, we take one more chip away at individual human
dignity--in deciding how you're going to control and live your own
life. Washington is now the arbiter in those things.
We rise now to, perhaps, one of the most fundamentals after food and
water and light--and that's health care. Of course we saw what happened
in the last session of Congress here when the Federal Government said
that we here--the bureaucrats, the elected officials, the politicians--
know better than you as to just what sort of health care you need, as
to just what sort of doctor you should see, how often you should go,
and all the other myriad of decisions that were wrapped

[[Page H1609]]

up in that semblance of: How do I take care of my own human body? How
do I take care of my own health decisions?
Now we have passed a bill, under our objection, of course, on this
side of the aisle, but with the complete support on the other side of
the aisle and with the White House as well, saying, No. Washington can
now dictate those areas to a point that we have never seen before in
the history of this Government and in the history of this country,
which is that the price of citizenship is the purchase of a particular
product that the Federal Government bureaucrats dictate. The price of
citizenship, the price of freedom, the price of liberty--the price of
being an American--is now dictated to you by the Federal Government and
by bureaucrats here in Washington. They will dictate and control your
health care just as the previous Progressive Era politicians said they
would dictate with regard to the food that you grow, with regard to the
water that you use, with regard to the lights that you light--and now
in the area of health care as well.
So where do we then end up going from all this? What is the next
step?
As I said before, government is not perfect, and man cannot be
perfected, so we should not look to the government, as we said before,
as the angelic beings who are going to give us all the right rules and
regulations in this area. We should not look to the government to
provide for us in these respective areas. Rather, that we are
individuals made by our Creator, and we have our own worth and our own
human dignity, and Washington should not take that away from us.
So I will close where I began some time ago.

{time} 2000

We will look then not to the imperfect bureaucrats or to the
imperfect politicians but, rather, to the people who inherently have
the power to send us here or to return us, those people who have the
power to create governments or not: the population of this country, the
citizens of this country, from which all power truly emanates
originally, for them to speak up loudly, to have their voices heard as
they did in this past election in November, to make sure that their
human dignity is protected, that it is not eroded upon anymore, and
that, rather, it can grow and prosper and expand as our Founding
Fathers intended and why these rights and limitations on powers were
rather limited in the founding documents that we cherish so greatly.
And that is why, as I said at the beginning, I appreciate so much the
gentleman from Indiana for your working in bringing this message here
to the floor, the Members that are here, the Members that are
listening, and to the American public. I look forward to further work
from you and the rest of the caucus and other the members of this
conference to expound upon these areas, not only of human dignity but
also of our issues of federalism and protected rights to the States and
the individuals as well.
I look forward to those discussions on the floor in the future.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would inquire how much time we have
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 10 minutes remaining.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I just would like to make a couple of
comments in closing. I have appreciated the comments that were made by
the other gentlemen that were here this evening.
You know, one of the things I believe is that the American people
that have been given the rights and the responsibilities to elect those
of us who are fortunate enough and honored to come to Washington to
serve are paying attention and that they are paying attention to what
we are doing in response to the actions that have been taken over the
years here in Washington. Washington seems to be the problem.
When I go back home to Indiana, I hear repeatedly from folks that,
you know, Republican, Democrat, we can point the finger from side to
side, but it has been Washington that has been out of touch with the
American people, and that Washington needs to be changed, not
necessarily America needing to be changed.
And that is why I believe it is so important for us as Americans that
we get back to our founding documents, to realize the truths and the
principles that are in these documents that our Founding Fathers wrote
over 200-some years ago.
And I would like to read just a couple of lines from the Declaration
of Independence, as Mr. Garrett was referring to earlier, the freedom
and the opportunity that each of us as Americans has is given to us by
our Creator, but also the Declaration of Independence and our
Constitution give us rights and freedoms as well.
I'd like to refer to these lines in the Declaration of Independence.
Many of these are obviously very familiar to us, but: 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, that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Now, I would submit, Mr. Speaker, that the people are the ones who
are giving us the power to govern and that the Constitution, as it was
written back by our Founding Fathers, was written in the effort to
protect each individual and to protect each individual freedom that we
have and enjoy every day.
I would also mention, as was mentioned before, that it is important
for us as Americans to not only take on that personal responsibility
but also to realize that our freedoms are given from our Creator, and
it's important for each one of us to not only fight to protect those
freedoms but remember some of the words that our Founding Fathers used
as well, going back to what Benjamin Franklin said, and I quote, Only a
virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and
vicious, they have more need of masters, end quote.
So it is up to each one of us as Americans, Mr. Speaker, that we are,
first of all, as individuals and as communities involved in our
communities, whether it's our churches, whether it's our schools, that
we are taking on each responsibility and looking around us and who can
we help, how can we make a difference in someone else's life.
I'd also read John Adams. He said this, quote, Our Constitution was
made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to
the government of any other, end quote.
How fortunate we as Americans are to have not only this founding
document but many other founding documents written by men who were
given such a great responsibility and a great opportunity to create one
of the longest-lasting governments in world history; and I'm so proud
to be an American tonight and believe that, even though we have many
challenges in front of us, we have great debt, we have great deficits,
and this is because of the irresponsible actions taken by those in
Washington.
I believe that today it is important for each one of us as Americans
to become more familiar with our Constitution and to read the words, as
it may seem sometimes dry and not as exciting, but this document, these
words give each one of us as Americans the opportunity to make life
better than what we may have entered.
I know for myself as a son of a farmer in northern Indiana, I was
raised in an old farmhouse; and now I have the great opportunity to
serve in Congress, that each one of us can do great things if we set
our minds to it, and it's because of this document that gives us that
liberty and that freedom.
So I have great hope that the American people and that those who are
elected to serve will make those choices that will not only continue to
grant us those freedoms but also steer the ship and turn the ship and
change the mindset of Washington and the way that our Federal
Government has responded and acted over the years recently, that will
not only give our children and our grandchildren the same opportunities
that we have but to work together across the aisle, knowing that we all
serve and have sworn to uphold the Constitution to make those changes.
I'm optimistic, I'm hopeful; but I know that we have a lot of work
ahead. And I believe that the document we have been given and was
signed by our Founding Fathers has given us that guiding light, and I
am looking forward

[[Page H1610]]

to working together with the Members in this Chamber, both sides of the
aisle, to making a difference and to getting back to our constitutional
responsibilities.

____________________