[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21521]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, freedom's bell has sounded across this 
Nation. It is loud; it is clear. The people's resistance to big, 
bloated government has begun in the hearts and minds of the American 
people.
  It was shown in their actions over the weekend. Over a million 
Americans took time off from work, gathered up their families, made 
their signs, brought their flags and came to D.C. with the cry for 
government to listen. Their message to Congress and the administration: 
We have had enough.
  They have watched in stunned horror as this Congress has made 
government bigger and less accountable. Congress has lavishly spent 
trillions of their tax dollars, money that does not belong to the 
government, but to the people.
  Now the threat of a government takeover of their health care has made 
it personal to them. It doesn't matter how many times it's said 
otherwise, the American people understand what government-run health 
care looks like, and they don't like it.
  Thomas Jefferson once said: ``The natural progress of things is for 
liberty to yield and government to gain ground.'' But the tide is 
turning, Mr. Speaker. The American resistance is awake and on its feet 
and on the move. People are not happy, and we ignore them at our own 
risk.
  And that's just the way it is.

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