Card Check

Floor Speech

CARD CHECK -- (House of Representatives - March 10, 2009)

(Mr. CASSIDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, secret ballots say a lot about the societies that defend and preserve them. They say that society trusts the people, and given the facts and the arguments, the people themselves are trusted to make the right decisions. You can be persuaded. You can be begged. But in the privacy of the voting booth, your vote is your own.

When government attempts to abolish the private ballot, it says that people are not trusted. It says to every citizen, you, do not know what is good for you.

For over 60 years, American workers have decided whether to unionize in secret ballot elections, for the very same reasons that in political elections we cast our votes in private. Card check assaults that right. It imposes coercion over conscience, force over freedom.

Since 1776 Americans have expected Congress to defend their democratic rights, not abolish them. Card check denies fundamental democratic rights to over 100 million Americans. Congress should defend this right.

Source