Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) says that America has practiced the free market system over the last 40 years and “that it doesn’t work.”

Johnson made the comments while speaking on the House floor Thursday against the Sunshine For Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act. The bill aims at making the government give public notice when entering into legal negotiations that may result in new regulations.

“There has been a movement over the last 30, 40 years to turn people against the government,” Johnson said. “This mantra is that government is too big, we don’t need any rules to govern human conduct, let everything work itself out and the free market system will make it rain for everybody. Well, we’ve seen after 30, 40 years of practicing that free market way of thinking that it doesn’t work.”

“This is what this legislation is about gutting the rulemaking process,” Johnson later added.

“This is one of many attempts- incessant attempts by my friends on the other side to try and cut government and so that their friends in big business on Wall Street can make it rain for the rest of us. But they don’t make it rain for anybody but themselves.”