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Press Release : FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2008

ACCOUNTABILITY, FINANCIAL MARKETS, and CONGRESS
Delivered on the floor of the United States House of Representatives

By Congressman Louie Gohmert
September 23 in the Year of Our Lord 2008

     There is great concern all over the nation by those who follow what is going on in our financial institutions. That concern is entirely appropriate. 

     There is great anxiety all over the nation by hardworking men and women who do not know how they are going to be able to continue to pay the soaring energy costs for both their vehicles and their homes. Yet, STILL the Congressional leadership continues to refuse to put a piece of legislation on the floor for a vote that could immediately send us well on our way to energy independence by allowing us to produce that with which this nation has been blessed.

     There is much anger over the disgusting immorality of corporate executives who padded their own pockets with millions of dollars by creative bookkeeping and representations that mortgage securities had value that they did not actually have.

     There is incredulity in America over members of Congress who have spent years decrying the “Culture of Corruption” only to have information come out establishing the failure to pay proper taxes under the income tax laws that person helped write. There is incredulity that the FBI might find cold hard cash secreted in a freezer three years ago with no noticeable consequences. 

     There is amazement from those who have bothered to notice that last year a vote could be lost by the Democratic majority fair & square, then the rules were changed to allow a different outcome. There is astonishment among those who have bothered to notice that the Majority leadership could continue to advertise on line that this would be the most open Congress in history with complete use of the committee process and each bill being subjected to full amendment opportunities and across the board input_ yet we continue to have the most closed and dictatorial Congress in memory. While people in America were being overwhelmed by killer gasoline prices and home energy costs, the United States Congress took off for 5 weeks_ When over 100 Members of Congress played by the rules and signed up in a timely manner to speak for 5 minutes on the last day of our session before the 5 week recess, the majority party used that majority yet again to cram down an abrupt adjournment on us to prevent our speaking with the microphones on. BUT, we spoke anyway with the microphones off.

     When points of order have been raised regarding rule violations or alleged ethical malfeasance, the majority has used their power to table legitimate objections to prevent the violations from being corrected and from even being called violations.  They have even gone so far as to have the transcript of the proceedings in this chamber changed to help cover up the inappropriate behavior and rulings from the day before_ but the video certainly revealed the truth. I simply could not and still struggle to understand how this body could go so far off course.

    When we find that our nation has been brought to the brink of financial failure and doom, there was fear with whaling and nashing of teeth. But, we find that in 2002 & 2003 when the Bush administration was pushing for and demanding reforms to Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to avoid a financial disaster that they foresaw, the efforts at reform were blocked by people in the house and senate who were reported to have gotten sweet heart deals from the financial industry.

     The foresight was to the Bush administration’s credit, but the failure to continue to beat the warning drum til something was done does fall at the feet of the administration and members on both sides of the aisle in Congress.

     There is one word that can prevent the destruction of our experiment in democracy going, and keep the trains running on time, while also keeping people from destroying a family, a company, a society, a government, or a nation. That word is “accountability”. 

-When Adam & Eve were convinced that there would be no accountability, they fell from grace.
-When the only man mentioned in the Bible who was said to have had a heart after God’s own actually had no earthly accountability, King David committed atrocious wrongs.
- When people are convinced that there is no accountability for sexual relations outside marriage and there turns out to be consequences of a pregnancy, some think it would be punishment to allow the child to be born alive.
- When the highest officers in a company think they can raid the retirement funds of their long-standing employees and be mega-wealthy with no one to whom to account, they raid whatever is in the company as if it were their own.
- Some corporate leaders allow workers to come into this country illegally just so the owners can pocket a little more profit, despite the fact that it diminishes the society and nation from following the rule of law, and though these same people can’t see it coming, history says it will destroy that nation and society. It makes us appear to be a corrupt third world nation where the law does not mean much.
- When a society believes that “if it feels good you can do it” and there is no accountability, society ceases and an animal kingdom full of the basest instincts of animals takes over. 

     In 1995, the House and Senate both passed a bill that would bring about drilling in ANWR_ in the coastal area where there is no wildlife and there are billions of barrels of oil. Pres. Clinton vetoed the bill.  In the last Congress, we passed a bill to provide for drilling the Outer Continental Shelf in the House, but the Democrats blocked it from getting the required 60 votes to allow cloture, or a vote up or down on the Bill itself, and it finally died without a Senate vote.  Here our country is in a terribly difficult time without extremely high energy rates, and our Demcratic leadership still supports sending $700 billion a year to nations, many of whom do not like us.  If that $700 billion sounds familiar, it is because that is also the amount that Sec. Paulson says it is going to take to save the mortgage and financial system. 

    Congressman Joe Barton proposed that in this time of financial crisis, we open up ANWR and the OCS for drilling and use the billions of dollars our federal government gets for that to shore up our national financial system. What a great idea!

  
 The majority leadership, however, does not see that this nation will have an accountability judgment day where we will be accountable for what we did not do to use the blessings we have in the way of energy.  What will it take to get you to see that you can not spend unabatedly, and you cannot send money overseas with reckless abandon. At some point, there will be a price to pay.

    As Chuck Colson has said before, “You can not have the morals of Woodstock and NOT have the current problems.” If you DO have people whose world view is that “if it feels good, you should do it,” then as Chuck Colson says “you are going to have Columbines.”  When the message of a majority of those serving in Congress is that we will only follow the rules when it is convenient, then the message to the world is that we will not be bound by the rule of law as we will change it whenever we want.  When our nation’s children see the adults sending a clear message by their conduct that we believe “If it feels good, do it;” and that the rules do not apply to us, then you can expect the nation’s children to soon follow suit.  That leads to the Enrons, the Fannie Mae fiascos, and from our children you begin to see wayward kids thinking maybe it will feel good to shoot people, so they do.

 - If there is a Higher Power, then there is a reason for accountability.
 - If there is no Higher Power, then there is no reason to worry about our accountability.  You can get away with all you can in this life with no adverse consequences at all.

 For those who think there is no ultimate accountability, no ultimate judge of the Universe, then I would point you to the discussions that C.S. Lewis had in his book,  Mere Christianity. He said that when he was an atheist, he used to love to tweak Christians by saying “Why don’t you just admit that there cannot be a just God over the universe when there is so much injustice in the world.” No matter what the Christian said, he would say “Well that’s all well and good but wouldn’t it just be easier to admit that there is no God.    

    Eventually, it hit him like a ton of bricks: “How can he say there is injustice unless there is some absolute, unwavering, outside source of right and wrong. If there were not such a universal source of right and wrong that is written on the hearts of people, then how could anyone ever know or say that there was injustice in the world?”

    Once you come to grips with the fact that there is a universal source of right or wrong in the world, then you have to come to grips with the fact that there must be a God that made it so and that there will be accountability someday. Therefore, no one will ultimately be above the ultimate law. Now, not everyone sees everything exactly the same, of course. But as CS Lewis noted, just because some can come closer to singing the exact notes on a sheet of music, does not mean that the music does not exist.  There is a right and wrong in the world and most people innately know that. But, they rationalize that it is more fun to say there is no God, no Creator, so they do not have to feel guilty or consider that someone someday will judge them. 

     So as long as we recognize that there is a Creator who has endowed us with unalienable rights, then we should recognize that we have a duty to protect those rights for the sake of ourselves and others. Perhaps that is why there is such an effort under way to sterilize and remove God or any reference to Him from all public buildings and documents.  If we keep mentioning God as the founders of this nation did constantly, then it reminds us that we will someday be accountable, even if we get away with things today. But, people do not like to feel guilty; so they want to strike God out of everything.

     For example, as our society progressed to the point that we were too smart and too elusive to be accountable to God, we had our first national memorial in 2003 open that does not anywhere in it mention the word “God.”  That was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. In all those acres of the expansive memorial, there is no mention of God, Creator, Providence, Holy Trinity, Holy Spirit, Lord  - all those words that are found throughout the founders’ work and throughout our founding documents. Nor is there any mention of the Latin words that are found in our official great seal that is on the back of every dollar bill. Those Latin words are, “Annuit Coeptus” - meaning “He [God] has smiled on our undertaking.” Those words are also found around the Capitol and in the Senate Chamber and in the Congressional Prayer Chapel.  Franklin D. Roosevelt personally was a leader of this nation who believed strongly in accountability and that there was a God before whom that would happen. On June 6, 1944, which was DDay, Pres. Roosevelt went on national radio and did an amazing thing as President: he led the nation in prayer, and I would like to read that for you at this time:

F D R’s  PRAYER  FOR  NATION (June 6th, 1944):

My Fellow Americans:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.    And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
           
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.
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     In the 1950's, Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson was sick of having churches harp on him over alleged immorality, so he fixed them. He added a provision to the charitable institution laws that governed churches that said in effect, that you could not maintain your charitable, tax-free status if you got involved in politics.  That dramatically changed the nation that was known to that time.  There again, Johnson’s efforts were an attempt to prevent judgment for what was alleged as improper conduct. No one enjoys accountability, but to have a free nation, a just nation, a prosperous nation, and a BLESSED  nation, there must be accountability.

     Then, in 1962, an unaccountable Supreme Court that begins every single session with a prayer that God will save that honorable court, changed 200 years of precedents by ruling that there could be no prayer in schools.

     As mentioned, in 2003, the first national memorial opened as the FDR Memorial that never mentioned God.   In 2004, the second memorial in United States history opened that did not mention God anywhere: that was the World War II Memorial.  Understand, these are beautiful memorials; they are just Godless, yet their subjects were not. Amazingly, the park service had quotes from Eisenhower and Roosevelt which had to cut off the quotes so that they did not mention God or Almighty God.

     I have a New Testament Bible here that my Aunt gave me that belonged to an uncle that he received from the Army in World War II.  Let me read to you what is on the fly leaf page, the first inside page:

THE WHITE HOUSE
 WASHINGTON
 As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.
 Franklin  D. Roosevelt 
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    Let me also read to you the Speech that was given on the floor of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd on June 27, 1962, which is the day or two after the Supreme Court ruled that there could be no public prayer in school.  I am reading it as Senator Byrd’s speech appeared in the Congressional Record:

SEN. ROBERT BYRD’S SPEECH on the Floor of the U.S. Senate - June 27, 1962:

 Inasmuch as our greatest leaders have shown no doubt about God’s proper place in the American birthright, can we, in our day, dare do less?...

 In no other place in the United States are there so many, and such varied official evidences of  deep and abiding faith in God on the part of Government as there are in Washington… 

 Every session of the House and the Senate begins with prayer. Each house has its own chaplain.

 The Eighty-third Congress set aside a small room in the Capitol, just off the rotunda, for the private prayer and meditation of members of Congress. The room is always open when Congress is in session, but it is not open to the public. The room’s focal point is a stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer. Behind him is etched these words from Psalm 16:1 “Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.”

 Inside the rotunda is a picture of the Pilgrims about to embark from Holland on the sister ship of the Mayflower, the Speedwell. The ship’s revered chaplain, Brewster, who later joined the Mayflower, has open on his lap the Bible. Very clear are the words, “the New Testament according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” On the sail is the motto of the Pilgrims, “In God We Trust, God With Us.”

The phrase, “In God We Trust,” appears opposite the President of the Senate, who is the Vice-President of the United States. The same phrase, in large words inscribed in the marble, backdrops the speaker of the House of Representatives.
 
 Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments, with the great American eagle protecting them. Moses is included among the great lawgivers in Herman A MacNeil’s marble sculpture group on the east front. The crier who opens each session closes with the words, “God save the United States and this honorable Court.”

 Engraved on the metal on the top of the Washington Monument are the words: “Praise be to God.” Lining the walls of the stairwell are such biblical phrases as “Search the Scriptures,” “Holiness to the Lord,” “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

 Numerous quotations from Scripture can be found within its [the Library of Congress] walls. One reminds each American of his responsibility to his Maker: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8).

 Another in the lawmaker’s library preserves the Psalmist’s acknowledgement that all nature reflects the order and beauty of the Creator, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). And still another reference: “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not” (John 1:5).

 Millions have stood in the Lincoln Memorial and gazed up at the statue of the great Abraham Lincoln. The sculptor who chiseled the features of Lincoln in granite all but seems to make Lincoln speak his own words inscribed into the walls.

 “…That this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

 At the opposite end, on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address alludes to “God,” the “Bible,” “providence,” “the Almighty,” and “divine attributes.”

 It then continues:
As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be said, “The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
  
 On the south banks of Washington’s Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson still speaks:
 “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

 [These words of Jefferson are] a forceful and explicit warning that to remove God from this country will destroy it.
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     We have a Visitors Center that cost over $621 million that is slated to open on December 2nd of this year. So far, it had been completely sterilized of any mention of God in any form.  It was not until over 100 Members of Congress began by sending a letter then following up with more concern that there was finally a concession to put in God We Trust on the ledge above the Speaker’s rostrum area as part of the mock up of the Speaker’s area here in the House Chamber.

    There will also be accountability someday for this Majority leadership playing so fast and loose with the rules. When rules and laws don’t matter, then we lose this blessed country that was founded as a nation of laws, because people are not perfect and need rules. We need accountability.  That means that the Majority Leadership, if they play by the rules, is going to lose a vote every now and then. They do not have to break the rules just to win.   It also means that the Speaker and other leadership of the majority must abide by the Rules as you promised and the promises that are actually still on your website, but have not been followed.

FROM SPEAKER PELOSI’S WEBSITE (still on as of 9-23-08):
Excerpts - 9-23-08

Every person in America has a right to have his or her voice heard. No Member of Congress should be silenced on the fl oor, as has been the practice of Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives. Respectful of both the wishes of the Founders, and the expectations of the American people, we off er the following principles for restoring democracy in the “People’s House,” guaranteeing that the voices of all the people are heard.

BIPARTISAN ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOUSE
Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of offi cial business for gifts.  Honest leadership is not a partisan goal. It is the key to a stronger union. We must all work together to put the progress of all Americans ahead of the special interests of the few. With honest leadership and open government, America’s leaders can once again focus on the urgent needs of the American people . . . Bills should be developed following full hearings and open subcommittee and committee markups, with appropriate referrals to other committees. Members should have at least 24 hours to examine a bill prior to consideration at the subcommittee level.      [An example is the Energy Bill passed by the Democrats was filed at 9:45pm the night before we were forced to vote on it with no amendments allowed. That is pretty much the way things have gone this entire Congress.]       
Bills should generally come to the fl oor under a procedure that allows open, full, and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to off er its alternatives, including a substitute.  Members should have at least 24 hours to examine bill and conference report text prior to floor consideration. Rules governing floor debate must be reported before 10 p.m. for a bill to be considered the following day.
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    These promises on the Speaker’s website are so far from what has happened in this the most closed-door Congress in history. We hardly ever have conference committees under this Speaker because that would allow a Republican in the House to have some input into a bill and that, as a general rule, is what is not allowed to happen these days.

    All I can say is that because of the vast abuses, the Democrats will at some point lose the majority again; maybe not this year, but at some point, because the American public will eventually, one day, be finally shocked at what was promised and never fulfilled. You can only fool the American people for so long before they figure it out. 

    There may even be consequences for people across the aisle, apparently only for show, being on the Abercrombie alternative Energy Bill and then having two dozen Democratic sponsors vote against their very own bill that actually WOULD have provided some additional energy supplies. Somehow they were persuaded to vote against their own bill and for one they had admitted was not as good.

    This nation being for most of our history, a Nation of Laws, means that the law applies to everyone. In corrupt third world countries, they are nations of people, because laws are not enforced fairly across the board. It just all depends on whom you are. Laws are enforced according to whom you are, not because the law is the law.  Now, the law or rules have been shown NOT to apply in many circumstances if the offender is in the Majority party, because they simply table any disciplinary or enforcement efforts that arise.

    Accountability and fairness also mean that if people are going to use electric or fossil-fuel-produced energy, they should not try to prevent people who are not as wealthy as they are to be able to have the same opportunities to purchase that fuel, by allowing more to be produced. It means if you are going to use energy, then allow us to get it in America so it produces American jobs, increases America’s Gross National Product, creates a better standard of living for more Americans. It would stop funding nations that allow their assets to slip into the hands of those who want to destroy us.  You cannot keep sending our money abroad and not have a day of accountability when it will come back to haunt and hurt us badly. It is time to quit sending $700 billion a year out of the country for energy we have. Sure let’s develop and produce the renewables and alternate energy sources and we can conserve better, but USE what we have.

    Accountability to strengthen the nation means that children have to have rules, and when a man and a woman voluntarily have sexual relations, they have made their CHOICE, and they will be accountable and bear the consequences of igniting a life in this world.  Accountability means that if you are a CEO of a company and you run a corporation into the ground, you do not receive millions of dollars in severance and a thank you for your greedy destruction. Instead, YOU should have to PAY.

    So tonight I want to close with a motion and its supporting speech made by Benjamin Franklin. Let me set the stage:

 - Treaty of Paris, 1783,- This was the document that forced Great Britain to recognize that the United States was truly independent. The Surrender at Yorktown had been the end of the war, but a treaty was necessary to be recognized as truly independent. The U.S. negotiators knew that they needed to get the English to swear and commit under such an important name that even the British would be afraid to break their word. These first words are in big bold letters so they were stand out and insure the unmistakable name was notived and honored. It begins “In the name of the most Holy & Undivided Trinity . . .”

 - At the end of the Revolutionary War, George Washington did something that no one had ever done in the history of the world_ he led a revolutionary army, won, then simply resigned and went home. When the leader of any revolutionary army wins, then he can be anything he wants to be_ tsar, caesar, king, pharaoh, emperor_ whatever he wants to be. That is why when King George III heard that Washington was just going to resign and go home, he didn’t believe it; he said it wouldn’t happen. In fact, his exact words were, “If Washington were to do that, he would be the greatest man alive.” He probably was.  But the Articles of Confederation were too loosely woven; there was no common currency. The country was falling apart. Leaders went to Washington and begged him to come preside over a new Constitutional Convention. Washington felt he had done what he was best at and someone else could preside. The problem was that no one else was so trusted. George Washington had shown repeatedly, he was humble, honest, and not out for himself, but for the good of his country.

-They finally got George Washington to come back to preside. However, once he did, they got nowhere for nearly 5 weeks. Things seemed hopeless. They could agree on virtually nothing. That is when an elderly Benjamin Franklin sought recognition. When recognized by Washington, Franklin stood up and spoke these words as recorded by James Madison with some help from some friends to make sure he got every word verbatim.

FRANKLIN’S MOTION FOR PRAYER at the Constitutional Convention-June 28,  1787

Mr. President,
 The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other—our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. 

Mr. Sherman seconded the motion.

(The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 which Framed the Constitution of the United States, Reported by James Madison, [Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut], 181-82 
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   Franklin’s motion passed unanimously and we have begun every day we are in session in Congress with the prayer as Franklin had requested.  There is a higher power; there has to be accountability; decisions in this body must be made in deference to the Father of Lights with prayer, as Franklin prayed, that God will illuminate our understanding. We are in a perilous time and it is time for responsibility and accountability, or otherwise, we lose the country.

   It is time now for the majority leadership to stop playing so fast and loose with the rules and with enforcement of the rules. It is time that after two years in the majority that promises of opportunities to amend bad Democratic bills be fulfilled.

   It is time that Rules apply to CEO’s, Speakers, Committee Chairmen, and that leaders start leading by example. George Washington once said, “A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.” We were taught in the Army that you lead from the rear and send others out front. That is not what George Washington did. He was out front leading as an example of courage.

   Someone once pointed out that we have the only National Anthem in which the first verse ends with a question:  “Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” The answer as to whether that banner will yet wave, depends on whether this Congress begins to acknowledge some accountability, and do the wise thing; not the convenient or political thing. Do the legal, ethical and moral thing, not the Woodstock thing. 

    May we get back to following God’s directives so that this does not cease to be the land of the free, and God’s gracious blessings will once again flow.