[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6396]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE WAY AND EMPOWER THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, I rise because I am concerned about the 
direction of this country and the fundamental and proper role of 
government.
  I still remember reading and seeing the old films and seeing 
President Kennedy stand up and say, ``Ask not what your country can do 
for you; ask what you can do for your country,'' and yet we seem to be 
moving in the wrong direction.
  The furnace, the engine that is the United States of America, what 
makes America so great are the entrepreneurs, that entrepreneurial 
spirit. It is the American people who grab hold of things and make 
things happen; and yet at every turn I look and I see government 
getting in the way.
  As I meet with entrepreneurs, as I meet with people who own 
businesses and employ people and have jobs, they don't sit back and 
say, boy, I wonder what the government is going to do to make my life 
better. The question that they ask is, what sort of hindrances are 
going to be in the way?
  We've got to understand in this country that manufacturing is good; 
it's good to manufacture. We have to actually create and build things 
in the United States of America. We can't simply be a service-based 
economy. And yet at every single turn I see these radical 
environmentalists who want to get in the way and prohibit us from 
actually developing and creating something. I see this so-called cap 
and trade--I think it's more like a cap and tax, where we're going to 
simply tax our way out of our problems and say every piece of energy 
that we create in this country we're going to add a tax to it. That's 
not going to grow this country; that's not going to propel us forward.
  We have created so many barriers to entry for the person who wants to 
start their own home-based business to the largest manufacturers that 
are in this country. We have to empower these people, and that means 
getting government out of the way, creating life that's more simple.
  Now, is there a role and responsibility for government to regulate 
certain things, for instance on Wall Street? Of course there is. Nobody 
has ever suggested that we just simply get rid of everything, but we 
have not streamlined the process.
  Look, I'm a Republican. The President has said several things that I 
agree with, that I applaud him for--the ending of no-bid contracts, a 
push for earmark reform; he said he wants smaller government. I even 
like the fact that he put the Iraq appropriations into the base budget 
instead of these supplemental appropriations, and I applaud him for 
that. But it is imperative for the American people to hold their public 
leaders accountable for what they say they're going to do. I think 
that's all we ask. I've got a wife, I've got three kids. All I want 
them to do is I just want my kids to do what they say they're going to 
do.
  And so when the President calls for appropriations without earmarks, 
and the very next day--the very next day--we get to vote on a bill with 
8,500 earmarks in it, you just have to look at that and say, wait a 
second, the talk is good, but are we actually walking the walk? It's 
not yet happening.
  We don't have time to wait anymore. We talk about smaller government. 
Well, we just passed the single largest spending bill in the history of 
the United States of America for $1 trillion--$1 trillion. We had just 
something like 13 hours to actually review it. Please, we have to be 
held accountable.
  I'm a freshman. It is an honor and a privilege to serve the United 
States Congress. I didn't create this problem, but I am here to help 
clean it up. And for those of us that have been elected, entrusted by 
the people, the constituents within our districts, I say, please, hold 
us all accountable; raise expectations. It is not government, it is not 
government that is going to get us out of this; it is going to be the 
empowerment of the entrepreneur, it is going to be the empowerment of 
the American people that will drive and propel this country forward. It 
is always what has created the greatest success in the United States of 
America. It is the power that makes us the greatest country on the face 
of this planet. But we have to make sure that we keep government in 
check.
  It's about smaller government, not bigger government. Please, I ask 
that we be united and fight for this cause, fight for the American 
entrepreneur. Keep government limited, keep it out of our way, and 
empower the American people.

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