On the recordJanuary 9, 2014
I want to thank my friend and colleague Tom Rice for introducing this important resolution. I am proud to stand in support of this, and I thank him for giving me a few minutes to discuss what is a very, very important issue today. My friend knows that I was a writer. Before I came to Congress, I wrote a number of books. I spent a lot of time writing about and studying this great Nation--about the history of this Nation, about the history of the world--and I think I know a little bit about some of these things. I think one of the most remarkable but underappreciated characteristics of General George Washington, who was, I think, a hero for many of us, was his deference to the Continental Congress during the American Revolution. Although in many cases he knew what needed to be done, he always recognized that he derived his authority--he derived all of his power--not from himself but from the Congress, and he understood that the Congress was the organization and the body that held the power and the keys to a successful government. It is a lesson, as we have been discussing here tonight, that, unfortunately, this President does not seem to appreciate or to even understand. Our Founding Fathers made it very clear in the Constitution that the responsibility of the President was to take care that the laws be faithfully executed--not selectively chosen, not preferred or some of them ignored, but faithfully executed.…
