Matthew Russell: “There is a lot of discussion as we gather to talk about the role of government and almost everything that we do day to…”

“There is a lot of discussion as we gather to talk about the role of government and almost everything that we do day to day. I think most Americans, as they go to work and they look at how the government's role is in their lives, they don't really give the government a lot of thought. They want to be left alone. They are willing to pay some measure of taxes to have things that we all agree on, like schools, roads, bridges, stoplights, national defense, other things. We like to see efficient government. We like to see it small. We like to see it without waste. If there are things that other services can provide without it being done by government, we like choices. We like privatization. We like the private sector. But there are certain things, Mr. Speaker, that the government does have a role in. This was recognized by perhaps the finest American we ever produced, Abraham Lincoln, when he said: ``The legitimate object of government is to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves.'' Mr. Speaker, there are three sectors in which the government does have a role; and we as conservatives might want limited government, efficiency, and lack of waste, and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would want similar things, but they might approach it a different way. We all, as Americans, have a moral obligation to protect the security of the United States of America.…”