Is America the world?
If you love America, I would be more impressed if you could find something truthful to say about it, Congressman Paulsen. The quotation you've selected isn't true--it's insipid.
After pondering Paulsen's Ben Franklin quotation, I did a bit of Googling--and quickly learned that contemporary scholars do not find Paulsen's attribution credible. (You can view all sourced Franklin sentences here.)
When our US Congressman makes a statement which is immediately demonstrated to be factually incorrect, I believe he has an obligation to publish a revisal.
I have tweeted to Paulsen twice, politely telling him that he owes us a correction: He should state that he is now aware that his Franklin quotation is apocryphal--that no serious scholar currently attributes the quotation to Franklin.
As upright citizens, we have a duty to communicate to our Congressman that we don't enjoy being lied to; when he publicly states a known falsehood, he should feel pressure to update the record.
