[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 687]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               NATIONAL HEALTH CARE AND THE CONSTITUTION

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, the United States Constitution is a 
document to limit the Federal Government. Thomas Jefferson said, ``Free 
government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence, which 
(requires) limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged 
to trust with power.''
  As the all-seeing eye of the government tries to take care of us, and 
since it believes we are subjects incapable of taking care of our own 
health, nowhere in the Constitution is the Federal Government given the 
enumerated privilege to make a power grab and control the Nation's 
health. The Constitution sets limits on what dictates of pain the 
Federal Government is allowed to inflict on the rest of us. George 
Washington didn't fight the Redcoats so people would be the subjects of 
a new oppressive, untrustworthy Federal bureaucracy, and the Colonists 
didn't die in the War of Independence so a health care czar could have 
the rule over us. It is an unconstitutional abuse of power to 
nationalize American health care and trust the government with our 
health.
  And that's just the way it is.

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