[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 30, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H7937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IT TAKES AN ACT OF CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Woodall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOODALL. I'm happy to be down here this morning. I often come 
down here with something on my mind, Mr. Speaker. Invariably, one of my 
colleagues says something that inspires me even more than what I had on 
my mind when I came down. That's the case this morning.
  My colleague who was here right before me said the value of higher 
education in terms of future earnings is undisputable. The value of 
higher education, Mr. Speaker, in terms of future earnings, is 
undisputable. And he then went on to talk about all the Federal 
programs that provide money so that people can seek higher education.
  Now my question is, Mr. Speaker: If the value is undisputable, why do 
we have to pay people to do it? If the value is undisputable, why do we 
have to pay people to do it? That's what happens in this Chamber too 
often, Mr. Speaker.
  I think back to 1787 and the passage of the Constitution. The 
Constitution, as conservative as it is in terms of preserving 
individual liberties, would not have passed, would not have been 
ratified, without the addition of the Bill of Rights. Our Founding 
Fathers were so concerned about a Federal Government trying to do too 
much that the colonies would not ratify the Constitution in the absence 
of the Bill of Rights--the Bill of Rights, which sole purpose is to 
protect individual liberties.
  Mr. Speaker, as I look around at what makes America great, it's never 
something that comes out of this United States House of 
Representatives. It's something that comes out of a family next door 
back home. It's something that comes out of a community back home. It's 
something that comes out of individual liberty and freedom back home. 
And my job as the representative of 900,000 folks in the great State of 
Georgia is to protect their liberties from the natural inclination that 
exists in this body to think they have all the right answers.
  We talk about higher education Mr. Speaker. In the great State of 
Georgia, we have what's called the HOPE Scholarship program. It's 
funded by lottery money. I would have voted against the lottery, but 
the lottery won anyway, and now it funds higher education for all 
Georgians. It's a huge job creation tool. Folks want to come and 
relocate their business to Georgia because they know kids with an 
accomplished high school record are going to be able to go to college 
for free.
  That's a State initiative, Mr. Speaker. We're not going to pass a 
national lottery up here and try to provide free college education for 
everybody in the country. That's not the right answer. The right answer 
is to have States and local communities exercise those freedoms and 
implement their ideas back home.
  When I was growing up--and it didn't occur to me at the time, Mr. 
Speaker, how meaningful it would be--but there used be a cliche that 
when something was really hard, you'd say: It takes an act of Congress 
to solve it. Have you heard that cliche, Mr. Speaker? It takes an act 
of Congress to solve that because the problem is so hard and it's hard 
to pass something in Congress. It's hard to get an act of Congress. And 
yet every time we make a mistake, Mr. Speaker, in the name of trying to 
do good, in the name of trying to have the best idea, in the name of 
trying to tell everybody in America if only they'll do what we tell 
them to do they will be happier, every time we make a mistake it 
literally takes an act of Congress to fix it.
  Mr. Speaker, we're not in charge of providing happiness to America. 
We are in charge of preserving Americans' freedoms so that they can 
find their own happiness.
  Mr. Speaker, there are lots of countries on this planet that do not 
share the freedoms that we have. There is only one country on this 
planet that protects individual liberty and freedom as we do. When we 
talk about the direction of America, Mr. Speaker, we have to decide are 
we going to protect those things that have always made this country 
great--individual liberty and individual freedom--or are we going to go 
the way of the rest of the world, which is looking to a central 
government that thinks it has all the right answers.
  Mr. Speaker, they had it right in the summer of 1787. I hope we get 
it right here in this Congress.

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