[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3] [House] [Page 3709] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]HEALTH CARE REFORM The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, this is a defining week in the history of this Republic. At no time in history has the Federal legislature mandated that everyone in this country buy anything; yet this week we are going to mandate, if this bill passes and is enacted into law, that everyone in this country under the force of law has to buy health insurance. The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves today because they knew that we should be leery of a large central government mandating things to even the States that they have to comply with. They told us to have a healthy distrust of Big Brother, the Federal Government. They told us basically to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed because our freedoms could be at risk from within. We are at that moment in the history of this great Nation, and we must stand strong and resolute. In Tennessee where I live, our Democratic Governor, Phil Bredesen, has called this the ``mother of all unfunded mandates,'' because it forces all these new people into State Medicaid programs. In our State it is called TennCare. It is a multibillion dollar mandate to the people of Tennessee, and we don't have the money to pay for it. And we will not raise taxes to pay for it; we will not go into debt to pay for it. It is wrong for the States to be run over like this. They carved out the 10th Amendment and gave States some sovereignty. There are liberal publications today writing that article VI allows the Federal Government to override the States. But that is on matters of equality and justice, not a decision of policy by the Federal legislature to mandate costs and taxes and debt on its people. We must stand strong against this bill this week in the Congress. But if it is enacted into law, we must lead a repeal movement to immediately, as soon as possible, repeal this bill before it goes into effect. And then, if we are not able to repeal it, the Governors of this country should come out of their chairs and stand against this bill. I will tell you, in Tennessee, if I am to become the 49th Governor of our great State, we will meet the Federal legislature and the Federal Government at the State line to oppose this mandate, because we will not raise taxes, we will not go into debt, we will not be violated like this. And we must let our Founding Fathers rest peacefully, knowing that these living laboratories of democracy, our States, are allowed to exist, setting our own taxes, setting our own rules, living in the United States but not being run over by the United States. Mr. Speaker, this is a defining moment in the history of our country. We must be resolute. We must fight with every ounce of our energy to stop this Federal invasion and this overriding of States' rights. ____________________