[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3522]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       A REPUBLIC OR A MONARCHY?

  (Mr. LATTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, 233 years ago this May, a group of American 
patriots met in Philadelphia to create a Constitution which has been 
the guiding light to freedom-loving people around the world. Now, as we 
gather here, the majority is planning a procedural gimmick to get 
around having to vote for a health care bill that Americans don't want 
or can't afford. Let's not circumvent the Constitution. Outside 
Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention concluded in 
September of 1787, a Mrs. Powell of Philadelphia is reported to have 
asked Benjamin Franklin, ``Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic 
or a monarchy?'' With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, ``A 
Republic, if you can keep it.'' Let's keep this Constitution.

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