[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7479]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
        FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS TOO LARGE AND HAS TOO MUCH CONTROL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Johnson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I find it would be irresponsible if 
I didn't mention this. It sounds like the lightbulb has come on for my 
colleague from Maryland. He now says that we should replace the 
sequester. I only wish that that lightbulb had come on when the House 
passed under Republican leadership--twice--legislation in the 112th 
Congress to replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts. So it 
looks like here we are again.
  The recent admission by the IRS that it used its considerable 
authority and resources to target certain Americans because of their 
political affiliation should serve as an urgent warning to all 
Americans: the Federal Government is getting too large and has too much 
control. The simple truth is that when the government expands, personal 
liberty contracts.
  I found it both stunning and revealing when the former adviser to 
President Obama, David Axelrod, said this:

       Part of being President is there's so much beneath you that 
     you can't know because the government is so vast.

  For a member of this President's inner circle to admit that the 
Federal Government is so massive that it is essentially not practical 
for the chief executive to hold it accountable or for the President to 
effectively manage it is simply stunning. It also begs the question, if 
it is no longer possible for the President of the United States to 
oversee all the Federal agencies assigned to him and to hold them 
accountable, then who is? Is anyone?
  As if the IRS scandal wasn't bad enough, there are other troubling 
stories that have arisen in the last few weeks. The Associated Press 
has said that the administration monitored hundreds of private phone 
calls between reporters. Is this really freedom of the press? Then we 
find that talking points given to the administration to tell the 
American people what happened on that fateful night in Benghazi were 
twisted, cut, turned, and edited to the point that the truth wound up 
on the cutting room floor in the White House, or at the State 
Department, or at the CIA, or at the Department of Defense. Actually, 
we don't even really know. But we're going to find out.
  But we do know one very troubling thing: the Federal Government, with 
the IRS leading the way, is about to become exponentially larger and 
more powerful because it's about to get into the health care business. 
ObamaCare will be fully implemented by next January. And, according to 
the Treasury Department's inspector general, the new health care law is 
the largest set of new tax law changes in 20 years.
  The IRS will be hiring more bureaucrats to make sure Americans comply 
with these new laws and to oversee the flood of new personal 
information the Federal Government will be collecting on the American 
people. For example, under ObamaCare, the Federal Government will 
require insurance companies to report to the IRS the name, the address, 
the identification number, and type of policy purchased by every 
customer. And, if that weren't enough, the IRS will also require 
insurance companies to detail whether or not individuals purchased 
``government-approved health care'' to ensure compliance with 
ObamaCare's individual mandate.
  And, just yesterday, Lois Lerner, head of the IRS' Exempt 
Organizations Division, announced that she would be invoking the Fifth 
Amendment to protect herself from self-incrimination.
  The truth is that our Federal Government is too big, too intrusive, 
and it's seeping into every aspect of our lives. It's taking away 
personal freedoms and collecting personal data. It has shown it can be 
manipulated to punish fellow Americans for their political beliefs, all 
at the expense of the American taxpayer.
  And let me be clear: I'm not a no-regulation guy. We need commonsense 
regulations to ensure that our food is safe, our air and water are 
clean, our transportation system and infrastructure are sound, and that 
our financial transactions are secure, among other things. However, 
this administration has issued more than 10,000 regulations to date, 
including 106 major new regulations imposing $46 billion in additional 
costs that are being paid for by the American people. This means more 
rules, more bureaucrats, bigger government, and less freedom.
  Most troubling to me is that we were founded as a constitutional 
Republic, governed by the rule of law. But there are those in 
Washington who think we should be a Nation governed by the law of 
rules, where the President and his bureaucratic agencies make up the 
rules. This represents a fundamental break from our history and 
traditions dating back to our Founding Fathers. Our Founders placed 
their trust in the American people to elect their representatives to 
make the laws necessary to allow Americans to prosper.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the American people to consider America's 
government is getting too big and too out of control.
  As members of the House, we serve at the pleasure of those we 
represent. The tens of thousands of bureaucrats implementing the more 
than 10,000 new regulations are accountable to no one, let alone the 
American people.
  Those that will be making health care decisions for the American 
people on the Independent Payment Advisory Board, IPAB, will never 
appear on a ballot. The American people will never be able to hire or 
fire those making medical decisions on their behalf. Is that fair? Is 
that democratic? Is that what America is all about?
  Mr. Speaker, this need not be a partisan issue. The American people 
deserve an effective, efficient Federal Government--a government that 
works for them and not the other way around.
  I fear that as the government continues to grow and Obamacare is 
fully implemented, the consequences of transferring so much power, 
national treasure, and control to the Federal Government will be felt 
widely, personally, and painfully.
  In the meantime, it is the duty of this Congress to vigorously 
oversee the Federal agencies, and root out those political appointees 
and bureaucrats who've abused their positions and violated the trust of 
the American people.

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