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I appreciate the congressman from Missouri's indulgence for a little time here.
I've been watching this conversation you've been having on the floor, the gentleman has, along with the gentleman, and it seems like we're in the middle of an ideological battle in this country. On the one hand, you have folks on the left that argue that government is the solution to all the problems our country is facing. Unemployment, their argument is that we need to create more government jobs, that Washington can solve these problems.
And out in Kansas we know that it is the private sector. It's the individual that creates jobs in this country. We know that it's hard work and determination. And you can't substitute that with government bureaucrats or government mandates. You can't mandate or regulate someone into prosperity. It just doesn't happen. And that's a real battle that's happening in this country right now, and I think this is a challenge that we've really got to face in this Congress
On the one hand we have more entitlement spending, greater deficits, higher taxes. And the other hand you've got free enterprise, economic freedom, prosperity. And to me, that's the real essence of this challenge: Are we going to create a free enterprise country or are we going to be an entitlement society?
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I think what the gentleman is speaking about is the American dream. It's the American free enterprise system. It's the essence of what makes America what it is. And to watch and to see it under threat here in Washington, it angers and it frustrates Americans.
And that's what we saw this last year, Americans coming out to town hall meetings and expressing themselves. They don't feel like their voices are being heard on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. They want people to stand up and to explain that greater spending and greater deficits, that's not the road to prosperity.
The road to prosperity is built brick by brick by hardworking Americans out in Kansas and out in Ohio and out in Missouri and all across this country as they work to put a little of their own money in and build a business or to take care of their family. They work hard. Sweat equity. That's what built this country.
And when they see the folks in Washington believe that that money isn't the people's money, it's Washington's money--and in fact, the folks in Washington, they don't even spend the money they're given; they spend as much as they want, regardless of how much money we have.
So part of this job situation, this American prosperity situation, it comes back to spending. And what we do here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives and how we advocate and stand up for those people that sometimes aren't always heard, that's what we have to do here.
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