[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               STAND UP TO THE GREEDY HAND OF GOVERNMENT

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, Thomas Paine, a true patriot and American 
hero who, of course, is no longer taught in many public schools today, 
once wrote: ``We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting 
itself into every corner and crevice of industry and grasping the spoil 
of the multitude.''
  Although students today no longer find The Rights of Man on their 
reading lists, they would do well to take heed of Thomas Paine's 
observation that the government has an inevitable tendency to seek to 
expand its power and to confiscate the fruits of our labor. It is like 
a law of nature. Anyone who disputes this fact is invited to step 
forward and call his first witness.
  Government grows and grows, and it commands more and more of what we 
earn. Taxes go up and our freedom necessarily is reduced. Republicans 
believe that the greedy hand of government has reached too far, and 
that Americans have seen too many of their freedoms reduced. It is time 
to stand up to the greedy hand of government.

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