David Skaggs: “Mr. Chairman, the question is, majority rule, or minority rule? This is my voting card. Each of us is privileged to…”

“Mr. Chairman, the question is, majority rule, or minority rule? This is my voting card. Each of us is privileged to possess one of these. We worked hard for it. It represents a sacred trust, not just between us and our constituents, but between us and all who have come before us in this body and all who will follow. I was not elected, figuratively or literally speaking, to clip about one-sixth off of this voting card, walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and throw it over the White House fence. That would be an incredible breach of the sacred trust that every Member of this body should try to honor. Our responsibility is to the Congresses of the future and to the future generations who will be looking to the Congresses of the future to provide the principal protection against overreaching by Presidents of the United States. The gentleman from Montana and the gentleman from Wisconsin have given us real reasons to worry about that. This is not some illusory or academic point. The threats to liberty in this country have not arisen here, and they will not. But we should be mindful of the risk that we run by a wholesale transfer of power to the executive branch. The issue here ought to be one of accountability. The amendment offered by the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] meets that purpose. It will put us all on record when we need to be put on record with regard to particular items of spending.”