American Heritage
AMERICAN HERITAGE -- (House of Representatives - February 28, 2006)
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Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Congressman Price. It is a real pleasure to be here tonight. I am grateful for the words of our colleagues earlier, Congressman Gohmert and Congresswoman Schmidt. I appreciate what they have said, and you. I am really proud to be a part of the Official Truth Squad.
And while I did not hear all of the comments that were made just prior to our beginning our session here, I did want to respond to one thing that you said. That is that we all are entitled to our opinions, but the facts are the facts. And it is important that we get the facts straight here. And I think many of the things that we are responding to are things that have been purported to be facts which are not facts at all. And I think it is important that we set the record straight.
I also noted tonight in the presentation by the Blue Dog Coalition that they are very concerned about the deficit, but they want to do away with the tax cuts and spend more money.
The problem with the deficit is that we are spending too much, and we need to cut back on the spending. And that is a fundamental issue. I think it is pretty much a fundamental law of economics, which I do not think can be done away with simply by talking about it. I think that we are going to have to come to grips with it.
As our colleague from Ohio was saying, it is such a great honor to be able to serve in this House. And I want to say that I grew up in a house in western North Carolina with no electricity, no running water, about as poor as anybody you will ever meet. And it is a true miracle that someone with my background could come here and represent the 5th District of North Carolina. And I am in awe every day of the fact that I have this great opportunity and am grateful for it.
And I think about the way this country was formed, and I think it is important that we talk a little bit about that.
I am troubled that so few people even know the basis of our government. People do not know the Constitution. They do not know the basis of our laws. They do not know the history of this country. And I want to talk some more about that, but I know we are not going to have as much time tonight as we had thought we would originally, so I am going to make a recommendation of a couple of books which I think are wonderful books to read.
Anything by David McCullough is great. I know that he was being quoted earlier. I had a chance to read 1776 recently, which is the story of the first year of the revolution, and it is wonderful.
And tonight I was reviewing the Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis. And he talks a lot about the things that came together to make the United States possible, to make the Revolution possible. And I do want to quote one piece from Ellis, or maybe a couple of pieces from the book Founding Brothers. I do highly recommend it as something so easy to read.
But he said, No one had ever established a republican government on the scale of the United States. And the overwhelming judgment of the most respected authorities was that it could not be done.
Well, here we are over 200 years later proving that it can be done. But it is our job as representatives of the people to make sure that this wonderful experiment in liberty is sustained. And as, again, our colleague from Ohio said, it is a great honor to serve here.
And some people may not know this, and I think it is important to know, that the only way anybody can serve in the United States House of Representatives is to be elected. People can be appointed to every other office in the United States, but they cannot be appointed to serve in the United States House of Representatives. One must be elected, and we are elected every 2 years.
And I hope in this course of time, as we talk about the principles of this country, that we will do something that I do not think people do often enough, that is read the Constitution. I think it is helpful for us to reflect on the Constitution. And as we talk about the Truth Squad, I want to read two pieces from the Constitution tonight, and then turn it back to you, Mr. Price, to conclude our time here.
But I think so often even the Constitution itself is not quoted accurately. And I think that part of our job should be to remind the people what the Constitution says, and how it is the basis for everything else that we do.
Now I am going to read just the Preamble to the Constitution. And by the way, I borrowed this from the Parliamentarian. And I find it interesting that we tie back to Mr. Jefferson and the Founding Fathers. This is, in one manual, the Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives.
As I understand it, in almost every elected body in the United States, they go back to Jefferson's Manual when there is any dispute on whether the rules apply or not. And so I think the fact that we do that is a great tribute to again our Founding Fathers and particularly Mr. Jefferson and the care he took with these things.
Let me read the Preamble:
``We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.''
I think that the key words for me here are ``provide for the common defense.'' That is the role of the Federal government. That is the number one role of the Federal government. We do want to promote the general welfare, but that is not the primary goal of the Federal government. It is to provide for the common defense.
Promoting the general welfare can be done in lots of different ways. And I have heard some people on the other side say we should change those words around and say, provide for the general welfare and promote the common defense. I think that that is one of the problems that we are having in our country these days.
And the other piece of the Constitution that I want to read tonight that I think is a part of tying back into our being the Official Truth Squad is amendment 1 to the Constitution:
``Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.''
I find that in most days, when people want to quote the first amendment, they often quote that first phrase and leave out the second phrase. And I think that that is so important; I think it is a part of tying back again to the Truth Squad.
Many times you hear people quote, ``Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,'' that says we should take the words ``In God We Trust'' off of our money, the words ``Under God'' out of our pledge. But what is so important is the second half of that sentence, ``or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.''
Unfortunately, those who would take away our freedoms are the ones who so often leave off the second half of that phrase. And it is extremely important that we not distort the words of the Constitution. And it is important I think that our Truth Squad remind people of those words so often, and I think we need to do that.
I hope we will in our sharing things with the people talk more about the Constitution and how the truth of the Constitution itself has been distorted by some of our colleagues.
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