Americans Want Their Country Back

Floor Speech

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as we end the month, the year, the decade, this session of Congress, some observations:

Fifteen million Americans are unemployed. We have 10 percent unemployment and higher throughout the United States.

Spending is totally out of control. The country is broke, so we borrow money from China and Japan, and it seems they own our Nation. And the taxacrats have not seen a tax bill they didn't believe in.

Domestic policy is simple: Spend money, spend money we don't have, then borrow it, and then raise taxes on the American people.

The government's financial system is also simple: If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; and if it stops moving, then subsidize it. Today we raised the debt ceiling so more money can be spent as soon as we get back in January. Now we're over $12 trillion in debt.

The House has turned our Nation's health care over to the government. You know, the government who tried to run a health care vaccine program that was a total failure, where school kids didn't get the vaccine while Wall Street fat cats did. And yet the Federal Government wants to now run America's health.

The House voted on a cap-and-trade tax bill that will add a tax on energy consumption for all Americans and punish energy consumption and encourage domestic oil producers to go somewhere else.

Congress has given more money away to foreign countries that hate us while ignoring problems at home.

Many Members of Congress have already left on planes, headed to Denmark to talk about how we must control the climate because man is the evildoer and scourge of the Earth. Of course, the Al Gore warmers have been caught this year hiding data that shows reasonable minds disagree with their theory of global warming. Plus, the warmers want to force Americans to spend millions of dollars to implement changes on their yet unproven theories.

The government, in essence, has taken over Wall Street, the financial industry, the automobile industry. You know, General Motors needs to change its name to Government Motors. The Federal Government has taken over the mortgage industry, the banks, and the salaries of some executives.

More American freedom and liberty has been stolen from us, and more assaults on the Constitution have occurred than at any time in our history. And today, the radical open border crowd has announced new legislation, arrogantly demanding amnesty for millions of illegals in this country with, also, visa preferences for those nations with the most foreigners in the United States. So much for border security.

We have a new military strategy that's implemented. It's called the surge and retreat plan. That strategy is in Afghanistan where we're going to surge and send a bunch of troops in, but yet in 18 months, according to the administration, they're coming home. No strategy like that has ever been used in military history before.

And of course Gitmo, down there in Cuba where we house terrorists, it's getting a new ZIP Code. We're moving it to the United States and putting it in Illinois. And of course the country has seen that we've prosecuted our Navy SEALs and given rides to terrorists.

What an odd year it's been. It is the arrogance of power that says government is the answer to everything. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor have been turned over to government opportunists. Reagan said that government is the problem, not the answer, and I agree with him.

But, Mr. Speaker, not all is gloom, doom, and despair. There is great hope. The American people are not fooled. People in our country now fear the government, and people are mad, and people are involved. And even though the D.C. crowd pays no attention to them, I've got news for the elites: The people are not going away in the darkness of the night. They will not give up without a fight, because the American cause is righteous, and the people's actions are just.

Government should not underestimate the American soul and the American spirit. They are a force to be reckoned with. Mr. Speaker, the people want their country back, and they will get it back. After all, the Constitution says, ``We the People,'' not, ``We, the subjects.''

And that's just the way it is.

Source