Elijah Lewis: “Mr. Speaker, once again Republicans are ready to sacrifice our Constitution at the altar of partisan politics. It seems…”

“Mr. Speaker, once again Republicans are ready to sacrifice our Constitution at the altar of partisan politics. It seems that every day the leadership of this body comes up with some new stunt to prove they do not like taxes. Today they want to destroy the Constitution. They want to destroy majority rule. Majority rule is central to our Constitution. It is the foundation of our democracy. It is our core belief. And so it has stood for over 200 years. This amendment would allow minority rule. A minority of the Congress would decide when we can and cannot raise taxes. Mr. Speaker, if this amendment were allowed to our Constitution, do my colleagues have so little faith in majority rule? It is my hope and my prayer, my sincere hope, that enough Members of this body would have the courage to do what is right and vote against this ill-conceived, ill-constructed and ill-advised amendment. If we adopt this amendment, our Constitution will suffer. We will suffer. This amendment could force us to cut Medicare, this amendment could force us to cut Social Security, even if a majority of the Members opposed these cuts, because under this amendment, the majority does not rule. But we are not here because this is a well-written, well-reasoned amendment. This amendment is not even a good idea. We are here because today is tax day. We all know why we are here. Today is tax day.”