House Chamber, Washington, D.C.,
March 20, 2010.   

M. Speaker:  

In the introduction to his epic “Ten Commandments,” Cecil B. Demille asked the question: “Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under God?”

Congress will fundamentally address that question tomorrow. 

Will the federal government order Americans to buy products that government thinks they should buy, and to fine or imprison them if they refuse? 

Will it empower a new health Czar to make decisions over the most minute details of every American’s health care? 

Will it set loose 16,000 new IRS agents to enforce its edicts?

 This vote transcends any questions of health care.  It introduces a proposition that will fundamentally alter the relationship between the government and the people for all time.

 I pray that my Democratic colleagues, drunk as they may be with power, consider carefully the implications of the action they are about to take.
 

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