[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4530-4531]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HEALTH CARE: THE CRISIS OF CONSENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCOTTER. So this is what change looks like. If he were here, Mr. 
Speaker, in this time of momentous national distress, I would remind 
the President of the United States that he is not the leader of a party 
or an ideology. He is the leader of our country, one founded not to 
emulate others but to inspire the world.
  As families lose their jobs, their homes and their dreams for their 
children, as our troops fight and sacrifice in foreign fields for our 
liberty and security, President Obama's obsessive-compulsive pursuit of 
an abominable government takeover of health care has defied the 
public's objections, despoiled this, the people's House, and further 
alienated Americans from their representative government.
  As President Obama's campaign mantra of ``hope and change'' has 
degenerated into tax and hate, reputable surveys prior to this vote 
report: the public overwhelmingly thinks that the U.S. Government is 
broken; only 21 percent of the public thinks it is being governed with 
its consent; only 26 percent of the public trusts the Federal 
Government most of the time or always; 56 percent of Americans think 
the Federal Government has become so large and powerful that it poses 
an immediate threat to the rights and freedom of ordinary citizens; 70 
percent believe the government and big business typically work together 
in ways that hurt consumers and investors; and 71 percent of Americans 
think the Federal Government is a special interest.
  In the wake of this health care debate's despicable dysfunctional 
process and product, it is clear the most dangerous special interest is 
Big Government and President Obama is its lobbyist. In contrast to 
Americans' faith

[[Page 4531]]

in themselves, every major piece of legislation proffered by the 
President and his Democratic Congress expands and empowers Big 
Government at the expense of the people. Possessed of a smug, cynical, 
patronizing view of Americans as dependents desiring State benefits, 
this arrogant administration and its enablers have defied the American 
people and bipartisan opposition in Congress to unilaterally jam 
through a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care.
  Why? For so many Americans, the answer is that this President and his 
Democratic Congress think they are smarter than you, want to run your 
life, and want to make government your ruler, not your servant. Such 
hubris threatens not only our health care system, it tears the social 
fabric and political contract of our Nation. Instead of working for a 
more perfect Union, the President's ideological obstinacy exacerbated 
the disorder and divisions within our Nation and wrought a crisis of 
consent--one that puts America's exceptional experiment in human 
freedom and self-government on the precipice of implosion.
  To do so, the President has the power, but not the right. Thus he has 
merely scored a Pyrrhic victory over the American people. Ultimately, 
his government-run medicine scheme will be repealed and replaced with 
free-market, patient-centered wellness, because America's strength and 
salvation remains her free people, not a person.
  And this November, America's sovereign citizens will remind the 
President and his Democratic Congress that We the People do not work 
for government; the government works for us. No, the President and his 
Democratic Congress will not break us beneath Big Government. Devoted 
to our freedom and a more perfect Union, we will keep the faith, trust 
the public, calm the times, and heal our country.

                          ____________________