[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 2, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7107-S7111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, there were two headlines in most of the
major newspapers across the United States this morning. I saw it in
Financial Times as well as the Wall Street Journal. The headlines
noted: ``Americans flock to insurance exchanges.''
It was the first day when we had the rollout of the Web site where
uninsured Americans had an opportunity to shop--real competition, a
variety of plans. Illinois has 54 choices for uninsured people. This is
a dream come true. Most of these people have lived their entire lives
either without health insurance or with no choice, a take-it-or-leave-
it policy that may be worthless when they need it. These are situations
where many of them never once in their lives were able to be insured
when it came to health insurance. There were a lot of reasons for it.
Some of them had jobs that paid so little, offered no benefits, and
they couldn't afford to buy health insurance. Some of them had
preexisting conditions or perhaps a history of asthma in their family,
diabetes, cancer survivors. They couldn't buy health insurance if they
wanted to. It wasn't even offered.
Yesterday was different. October 1 was different as 2.8 million
Americans came on the first day to this Web site to go shopping for
health insurance. What a relief it must have been.
The Chicago papers told the story of a man who had just about given
up hope because he had a child with a mental illness and because of
that he could never buy health insurance. He was shopping yesterday. He
was disappointed. He wanted to sign up yesterday, but so many people
came to this Web site the first day that it wasn't able to meet all of
the needs of the people who were shopping, or wanted to.
It will. There will be an opportunity. I am sure it will be soon.
I can't get over when I hear the Republican leader come to the floor
and, with barely disguised glee, talk about the first day's problems
with the Affordable Care Act. There is no question that many
Republicans are not only praying for the Affordable Care Act to fail,
they are betting on it.
None of them voted for it, not one. Not a single Republican voted for
it. They are frightened--frightened at what is to come when the verdict
of history comes down on this program. I think I know what the verdict
will be. There will be some bumps in the road, glitches, maybe, some
problems with the Web site. But in the end the American people
understand the fundamental fairness of the Affordable Care Act; the
fundamental fairness that said, yes, we have a right as Americans to
health care protection. I believe we do and we should.
I have lived the life, a good one, but I had a moment in that life
when I had no health insurance. I was a brandnew father with a brandnew
baby with medical challenges and no health insurance. I have never felt
more helpless in my life, praying that my little girl would get the
best when I didn't have health insurance.
Multiply that times 40 million uninsured Americans and understand
what is at stake. Those on the other side who are opposed to affordable
care don't want to extend the helping hand of health insurance to those
who have been denied for years. They don't have anything to replace it
with. Stick with the current free market system.
Forty million Americans have been left behind with this current
system. That is why I supported the Affordable Care Act. This is why
the President is fighting for the Affordable Care Act. This is why we
have to continue to fight every single day to make sure it is not
defunded, as the Republicans tried to do only a few days ago, to make
sure the coverage for individuals is not delayed as the Republicans
tried to do only a few days ago.
No, we have to fight to make sure Americans have this chance. There
is no turning back when it comes to offering health insurance to
families who desperately need it.
What are the Republicans prepared to bet on this wager to end the
Affordable Care Act and health care reform? They are willing to bet the
Federal Government. They are willing to shut it down over the
Affordable Care Act.
Harry Reid, our Democratic leader, told the story that was reported
in the Wall Street Journal that the National Institutes of Health--not
far from here, in the near suburbs of Maryland and which is a beacon of
hope--this is where some of the most important medical research in the
world is taking place. The head of NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, may be one
of the most extraordinary people who has ever been involved in public
service. He was head of the National Genome Project. They said it would
probably take him 5, 6, or 8 years. He was so good and had so much
talent that he did it in a very brief period of time--mapping the human
genome. In doing so, he started opening doors to understanding,
knowledge, and finding cures. He took that back to the NIH and they
apply it every single day to save lives and find cures.
For the second day in a row, three-quarters of the scientists,
doctors, and researchers at NIH sit at home, unable to engage in this
critically important research, unable to find the new drugs, new
surgeries, new medical devices, and the new procedures to save lives.
That is part of the Republican government shutdown. Oh, they may
congratulate themselves on finally bringing this government to its
knees, but they have to take responsibility for what they have done as
well. They have shut down the National Institutes of Health. They have
shut down medical research. It is worse because the toughest medical
cases in America end up at the doorsteps of NIH. These are the most
challenging medical conditions, families and people who have just about
given up hope and think there is one last place to go, NIH, the very
best.
Yesterday Dr. Francis Collins announced that 200 people who would
have started clinical trials this week at the NIH were turned away
because of the government shutdown. Within that population of 200, 30
were children, most of them cancer victims. Imagine for a moment that
you are the mother or father of a child diagnosed with cancer and have
one last hope, the National Institutes of Health. It may be a great
personal sacrifice for you and your family to pick up and come out
here, but you are going to do it. It is your baby. Then when you arrive
at the door of the NIH there is a sign that says: This agency is
closed.
Why is it closed? Some national emergency, some disaster, some
crisis? No. It was a manufactured political temper tantrum coming from
the tea party, Speaker Boehner, and those who believe this is the right
way to go.
Excuse me if this example is so stark, but I haven't even begun to go
into the details. I would invite any family who has been a victim of
this government shutdown at NIH or any other medical facility, come to
my Facebook page, my Twitter account. Send me a message and tell me
your story. I wish to come to the floor and tell that story too.
People shouldn't disappear into the shadows as we make all this noise
over this political debate. They ought to be front and center. Please
share your story if you wish. I know it is a matter of privacy and
confidentiality. If you don't want to, I certainly understand.
This is what it has come down to. Yesterday, for example, in the
House they said: Oh, we are going to open the Veterans' Administration.
Senator Cruz has made a decision he is going to pick and choose the
agencies to reopen. We will start with the Veterans' Administration. In
other words, as former Speaker Pelosi said, they are going to release
one hostage at a time when it comes to our Federal Government.
But what Senator Cruz and the tea party Republicans failed to
acknowledge is of the 800,000 Federal employees who have been
furloughed, over 500,000 are veterans. They are out of work. If they
care about the veterans, put this government back to work, put 500,000
of our veterans back to work. Incidentally, one out of four of them is
disabled, disabled veterans put off the payroll and furloughed. There
is no
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promise they will ever be paid because of this tea party government
shutdown.
We have serious challenges facing America, but we need to reopen this
government now. Now. There are no excuses. Speaker Boehner sits there
with a bill that he could bring before the House by 11 o'clock this
morning. They could vote on it and the word would go out before noon
that the government is reopened. That is how quickly he can act. It is
there, but he won't call it for a vote.
What is he afraid of? Why won't he call this measure for a vote
before the House? He knows it will pass because every Democrat will
vote for it and moderate Republicans will step up and vote for it.
The only hope we have to end this tea party Republican crisis is if
moderate Republicans will step forward now and say we are not part of
this strategy. We want this government open. We are prepared to face
all the challenges that follow, but we are not going to move forward at
the expense of patients coming to the National Institutes of Health.
This is only one example. There are many more just like it.
I would say this in closing. Once again the Republican leaders come
to the floor and mention the fact that Members of Congress will be in
the insurance exchanges, the same insurance changes that were
advertised yesterday for the first time. To give a moment of reflection
in history, we are in the insurance exchanges because of an amendment
offered by a Republican Senator, Senator Grassley. This is an amendment
which was part of the Affordable Care Act, which passed. We will be
buying insurance, the same kinds of policies, exactly the same kinds of
policies offered to all Americans on the exchanges. There are no
special favors for Members of Congress.
Now we hear an objection from Senator McConnell to the employer's
contribution for our staff and for Members of Congress. Over half of
the American people get their health insurance through their place of
employment. Virtually all of them have employer contributions that help
them pay their monthly premiums. The same thing is true for Federal
employees. The same thing is true for Members of Congress. The same
thing will be true when it comes to the insurance exchanges. There is
no special treatment of Members of Congress. The notion that we can't
have an employer's contribution when it comes to the insurance
exchanges is flatout wrong. A business with fewer than 50 employees,
for example, can send their employees to the exchanges and continue to
contribute to their premiums. It is already accepted under law so there
is no special treatment in this. It is only another diversion.
Trying to find ways to create chaos and uncertainty when it comes to
the Affordable Care Act is the message of the Republican Party.
Unfortunately, it is being delivered at the expense of 800,000
furloughed Federal employees, the services this government offers, and
200 people turned away this week for clinical trials at the National
Institutes of Health.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I listened with great interest to the
comments of the distinguished deputy Democratic majority leader.
I was reminded of a radio commentator, who perhaps is not remembered
as frequently now, but when I grew up, he had radio show where when he
started out he would say: And now for the rest of the story.
I wish to offer the rest of the story. I listened as Senator Durbin
spoke about the fact that the National Institutes of Health is not open
for business. The good news is that Republicans and Democrats both
agree that we should reopen the National Institutes of Health. In fact,
it is my understanding that the House of Representatives will pass a
bill perhaps as early as today and send it over to the Senate.
I hope Senator Reid, unlike over the last few days where he has
killed every reasonable offer by the House of Representatives, will
reconsider and he will not kill that funding for the National
Institutes of Health during this partial government shutdown.
There are some other areas where I think we could work together.
Senator Reid knew that Republicans were going to come to the floor and
try to make sure that our uniformed military continued to get their
full pay on time during this impasse of Congress. Like the good
politician he is, he actually beat us to the punch. He came down here
first and made the same offer. The good news is there was bipartisan
support for funding our troops in full, our uniformed military, on a
timely basis during this impasse.
This has been sort of a surreal experience in so many ways because my
friends on the other side of the aisle have been making what I consider
to be some very strange arguments. The argument they have been making
is that President Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act,
otherwise known as ObamaCare, is untouchable, and that our efforts to
modify it in any way are illegitimate. Their favorite word is
``extreme'' or the product of some effort by the tea party Republicans
or some other disparaging connotation.
I am not sure exactly how to respond except to say this: If ObamaCare
is untouchable, if the Obama administration is perfect, if we can't
change one word and one sentence about ObamaCare, then you need to tell
the Obama administration. Since 2010, the administration has granted
more than 1,000 different waivers to its friends and political allies.
It suspended all work on a large portion of ObamaCare known as the
CLASS Act. It has delayed ObamaCare's basic health program and delayed
the employer mandate. When we tried to delay the individual mandate so
average Americans get the same sort of consideration from this
administration that employers get, that businesses get, we were told
this is an unreasonable request. Senator Reid tabled that, in essence
killing that provision rather than taking it up and embracing it and
saying: You know what. If employers get a break for 1 year, then let's
give average Americans a break.
The Obama administration has likewise delayed the eligibility
verification for the exchanges. It started yesterday. In other words,
you can apply for one of these insurance exchanges, but you don't have
to prove what your income is. If there is a bigger open invitation for
fraud, I am not aware of what it might be. But that is what the Obama
administration has done, delayed the eligibility verification for the
Obama exchanges, and they have delayed the cap on out-of-pocket
expenses.
In short, the Obama administration has, by its very actions,
demonstrated that ObamaCare is not perfect. The administration itself,
by its own actions, has acknowledged ObamaCare is not ready for prime
time.
This became painfully obvious to millions of Americans yesterday when
the ObamaCare exchanges encountered widespread problems on its first
day of operation. The President calls these glitches--glitches, a nice
poll-tested, fairly benign-sounding word. But these were systemic
failures of the ObamaCare exchanges yesterday when they came online--
obviously, not ready for prime time.
Meanwhile, there have been other changes in this perfect, inviolable,
can't-change-a-word ObamaCare. While the Supreme Court, we certainly
acknowledge, has upheld major portions of ObamaCare, it is important to
remember it declared a major piece of the law--the compulsory expansion
of Medicaid--as unconstitutional. Unconstitutional: incompatible with
our fundamental law of the land. Does that sound like a law that is
perfect, can't be changed?
Let me give another example. During the ObamaCare debate, Democrats
voted on a party-line vote to impose a medical device tax on medical
device manufacturers. It is not based on their income, it is based on
their gross receipts or how much money comes in the door, before they
even deduct their cost of doing business and their overhead. So they
would actually have to pay taxes without it generating any net income
because of the nature of this tax. This is a job-killing tax.
I have had constituents come into my office and say: We have
operations in Costa Rica, so we are going to have to move jobs we would
create in Dallas to Costa Rica because of this job-killing medical
device tax. You know what. Medical devices are some of the
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most innovative parts of our health care system. How better to
discourage medical innovation and lifesaving discoveries and
manufacturing than to impose this gross receipts tax on medical
devices.
That is not just my opinion. The last time we had a debate on the
budget resolution, 79 Senators voted against the medical device tax
because they realized it was a terrible mistake in this law we are told
today, yesterday, and the day before is perfect in every way, wouldn't
change a thing. But Senate Democrats are now lining up to repeal the
medical device tax. Somehow, in a schizophrenia I don't quite
understand, other Democrats are saying an attempt to do that would
represent partisan extremism. Which is it? I think the American people
know.
I am not sure exactly how our friends on the other side of the aisle
define extremism, but I would submit that very few extreme ideas gain
the support of 79 Senators in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. How is
it extreme to delay ObamaCare's individual mandate when the
administration has unilaterally done the same thing for businesses? How
is it extreme to ask Members of Congress to live by the same laws that
apply to everyone else?
The majority leader, Senator Reid, tabled two amendments to the
continuing resolution that would change this special carve-out for
Congress that would provide a delay of the individual mandate for
average Americans, such as the administration has already done for
businesses, and we are told that is extreme; that somehow we are the
ones who caused the government shutdown.
I am absolutely convinced President Obama and Harry Reid think this
shutdown is the best thing that ever happened to them politically in
recent memory. So rather than come out and tell sympathetic stories
about what is happening at NIH, let's work together to mitigate some of
the hardship and inconvenience. Let's talk about working through this
impasse. Why can't we get the President to do what he reportedly
intended to do in the first place, which is to convene a meeting at the
White House with Republicans and Democrats to work through this? They
are not just refusing to negotiate big compromises, they are refusing
any compromise. It is my way or the highway.
They will not even agree to keep the war memorials open for our Honor
Flights coming to Washington, DC. I would urge the majority leader and
President Obama to join with us in passing a bill today that would keep
our war memorials open.
My father was a World War II veteran. He is dead now, but he was a B-
17 pilot in World War II. On his 26th bombing mission, he was shot down
and captured as a prisoner of war. My father-in-law landed on Utah
Beach the second day of the Normandy invasion. He is 95 years old now.
His mind is still sharp, his body not quite what it used to be. He
would love nothing better than to come to Washington, DC, on one of
these Honor Flights. Unfortunately, his health will not allow him to do
it.
The chairman of the Honor Flight Network, James McLaughlin, has said:
It is beyond belief that those deserving men and women who
have waited decades to see their memorial and were selected
for this trip of a lifetime, to discover they may not be able
to see their memorial.
For many of them, this may be the last time they get during their
lifetime. I would ask that the President cancel his trip to Asia--he is
leaving on Saturday--to overrule Senator Reid and convene that meeting
at the White House and come together to try and work through some of
these differences.
We can fund NIH. We could do it today if Senator Reid and President
Obama would allow it. But, no, instead, we are told it is my way or the
highway. We actually like this shutdown, they are saying to themselves,
because they think they are winning politically. But they are not
winning politically when the American people are the net losers.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. My good friend, whom I saw in the gym this morning,
sometimes stretches credulity. Who shut down the government? Was it
Harry Reid? No. He kept passing messages to keep the government going.
Was it Barack Obama? No. We all know who it was. It was the small band
of tea party people in the House. It was his junior colleague in the
Senate, Ted Cruz, who had the idea of shutting down the government.
As Leader Reid said yesterday, we are not in 1984. Truth has some
degree of credulity. For my colleague from Texas to get up and say:
Harry Reid and Barack Obama open the government, when his junior
colleague led the charge to shut it down, when the cries of the tea
party are ``shut it down,'' and we are desperately trying to keep it
open makes no sense and it is not going to wash.
One of the amazing things about our politics is how rhetoric has
become so detached from reality, and then we have talk radio and some
of the networks, FOX News, that repeat it. I saw a cartoon in the New
York Post yesterday saying that Senators and Congressmen are exempt
from ObamaCare. That is just not true. We are part of ObamaCare, and we
will join the exchange--I will and so will my colleagues--because that
is what they have to do.
But that doesn't even matter. The hard right is so angry at ObamaCare
and, frankly, at President Obama and the fact he just trounced them in
2012 in an election that was run on their issues. They are so angry and
white hot that their rhetoric just becomes totally detached from
reality and totally detached from the truth.
I feel badly for the veterans who couldn't get to the memorial. But
why was the government shut down? Because Speaker Boehner and the House
wouldn't keep it open. Senator Cornyn and many other Republicans paved
the way for us to open the government with a vote to allow us to go
forward. That got 25 Republicans, even though Ted Cruz, his junior
colleague, was urging him not to vote that way. That was the right
vote. We know that. He knew, Senator Cornyn did, to his credit, that
shutting down the government was bad. So on the one procedural vote
that mattered, where he could have had the Senate say shut down the
government, he voted the other way.
The real onus here is on Speaker Boehner. The entire focus of this
debate should be on Speaker Boehner. Some might say it should be on Mr.
Cruz, the Senator from Texas. Some might say it should be on the 30 or
40 hard-line tea party people in the House. But in my view it is the
Speaker of the House who has the responsibility not to listen to a
small faction of his party when so much is at stake. Instead, Speaker
Boehner seems to be listening to the junior Senator from Texas. The
junior Senator from Texas has become the de facto Speaker of the House.
If he says jump, the House jumps.
The junior Senator wanted the House to embark on a crusade to defund
ObamaCare, so the Speaker, Speaker Boehner, did it. The junior Senator
from Texas told the House to delay ObamaCare for 1 year, so the
Speaker, Speaker Boehner, did it. Now this junior Senator from Texas is
telling the House to pass piecemeal bills in a cynical attempt to pit
important programs against each other, and now the Speaker is trying to
do just that.
Senator Cruz has driven Speaker Boehner to pit kids who should be
enrolled in Head Start against kids who should be enrolled in cancer
trials. He has driven the Speaker to pick families who want to visit
the Statue of Liberty against families who own a small business and
need help from the SBA. He has pitted research and cancer against
health care for our veterans.
It is a cynical strategy. Similar to all the others they have sent us
and that have failed, as these will fail today, it has one purpose: not
to get anything done but to try and wiggle out of this view that they
have shut down the government. Senator Cornyn's rhetoric will not work.
It is too far detached from reality.
So Speaker Boehner tries to come up with these gizmos, these
gimmicks, these legislative ploys to say: Hey, I am trying to do
something. At the same time he is in the vice grip of the tea party
members of the House who are taking their orders from the junior
Senator from Texas.
There is a simple way to open the government, I would say to my
friend--and he is my friend, Senator Cornyn of Texas--and my other
colleagues on the Republican side in the House.
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There is a bill sitting there waiting for a vote. It will open NIH,
it will open the Veterans' Administration, it will open the World War
II memorial, it will open the Statue of Liberty so the guy with the
little sandwich shop right by the Statue of Liberty can get some
business back. Make no mistake about it: This crisis doesn't just hurt
the Federal Government. It doesn't even just hurt 800,000 families who
aren't getting the paychecks on which they depend. This is not
abstract. It hurts lots of private sector people as well, whether they
be construction workers building a road using Federal dollars or the
veteran waiting for that disability claim to come through or the guy
with the sandwich shop next to the closed Statue of Liberty who is
making those sandwiches. It is not abstract. I get a little resentful
when I hear my colleagues talk about the Federal Government as if it is
some big ogre; shut it down.
If you watched Rachel Maddow the other night, she had a variety of
tea party congressmen who were running for the Congress in 2010 who
said they were going to shut the government down. I think it was
Congressman Mulvaney of South Carolina who said: When I get to
Congress, I am going to shut the government down. And the tea party
audience cheered and said ``shut it down'' before they even had a plan
because they hate the Federal Government so much. That is the goal, to
shut it down. ObamaCare is an excuse.
Mainstream Republicans know that shutting the government down is a
bad thing and know that they are indeed paying a political price. So
Speaker Boehner should follow the majority and stop being scared of the
tea party. He will face them down easily in a challenge for Speaker.
Speaker Boehner knows, as the ``National Review'' said this morning,
that more than 100 House Republicans would vote for our bill to reopen
the government if he put it on the floor. Instead, Republicans are
wasting time on political stunts in asking to go to conference on a
short-term CR.
The Republicans have this exactly backward. They say: Let's talk, and
then maybe we will open the government. They ought to say: We will open
the government, and then we can talk. If Republicans would simply
switch all the lights back on, allow hundreds of thousands of
furloughed Federal employees to go back to work, allow cancer research
to continue, veterans to get their disability claims, kids to go back
into Head Start, we could have a discussion about the budget, which
they rejected 18 times.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I woke up this morning feeling like I
think most Americans feel today--pretty disappointed in the antics of
Washington, DC.
As my colleague from New York just pointed out, we all know why we
are here: Speaker Boehner and the Republicans in the House demanded a
ransom in order to keep our government open, and their ransom was to
repeal a law they do not support--ObamaCare. They made it very clear
that the government was going to shut down. My constituents in
Washington State who were supposed to go to work today--thousands of
them--aren't going to get their paychecks because of that ransom. They
made it very clear that they were not going to open the government over
a policy about which they care passionately.
I have to say that I started my morning this morning talking to a
number of businesspeople involved in the construction industry in the
State of Washington. They told me that this uncertainty, this crisis,
this shutdown of government is impacting their small businesses at home
in the State of Washington because who is going to sign a contract to
build something new when it is so unclear where our economy is going to
be as a result of this shutdown and the looming debt ceiling crisis. So
they are seeing a real retraction of their own businesses right now--
not because of the government funding of a program or anything else
that is ongoing or in dispute but because of this shutdown today.
Just a few minutes ago, on the other end of a spectrum, I talked to
some moms and dads in Head Start from my home State of Washington. A
young mom from Bremerton, WA, who has a 2-year-old daughter, told us
that a few years ago she was on the streets, homeless, a victim of an
abusive partner, and because of Head Start and the wraparound services
they provide, they found her a place to stay and got her and her child
involved in early childhood education. Because of that support and an
early Head Start program, now 2 years later she is back at school
working on her degree, her daughter is doing well, and she is back on
track.
Thousands of moms and dads such as her exist across the country
today, with a helping hand at the right moment from the right program.
But because of sequestration and now because of the government
shutdown, we are telling moms and dads such as her: Sorry, we are not
going to be there for you.
I happen to be a very passionate advocate for early childhood
education. I was a former preschool teacher. I am using my skills as a
preschool teacher right now. I think all of our colleagues could learn
a lot from those kinds of skills. No bullying; it is my turn to talk;
be reasonable; teach our children to play well in the sandbox. Those
are lessons we teach in preschool. I think we could all learn from
that.
I think about that, and I think about those Head Start kids and the
children whom I taught before and who are not being taught now because
of the sequestration. What lesson are we giving them--that if I don't
get my way right now about a bill I fought against and voted against
and an election was run and won on, but I lost, and I am so mad that I
am not going to let you have anything else because I am just so
entrenched in that. That is not a lesson we should teach our kids.
Let's look at the other side of that argument. What if I came out
here and said: I am so passionate about funding early childhood
education because I know the research and what a difference it makes
and I know what that investment will do for our country not just for
today but for 10 or 20 years, and if I don't get my way to make sure
every child in this country has that start, this government is going to
shut down. That is not the way we run a country. I adamantly and
passionately fight for any cause I believe in. Any legislator here can.
But the way you get your way isn't to hold the country hostage.
We have a country that is counting on us to be responsible adults and
to come to the table and work out our disagreements between each other.
And they are large, there is no doubt about that, but you don't do it
by hurting every family, every neighborhood, every community, every
part of this country by holding this country hostage.
We have a responsibility. It is to pass a clean continuing
resolution. It is to get our government working again. It is to tell
people they are going to get their paychecks. We are going to
responsibly do that, and then we, as Members of Congress, are going to
take our differences to a negotiating table and hammer them out. I may
want $1 million for something. My House counterparts may say no. We may
meet in the middle. I may say: I didn't get my way; OK, you got yours.
That is what you do in a conference committee. You don't do it by
holding your country hostage.
So we say to Speaker Boehner today: Open the government. Let
everybody go back to work. Don't hold our economy hostage. And we will
then sit down with you and work out our disagreements, as the Presiding
Officer knows we have asked 18 times now to do and have been told, no,
we are not going to let you go to that negotiating table, we are not
going to let you talk--by the same people who want this government
shutdown.
I find myself in a very odd place where we have a country that is
closed for business. We are sending a very bad message and lesson to
the children of this country that we can't work and play well together,
that we can't even disagree together in an admirable way. And we are
doing it while people are getting hurt.
Speaker Boehner, open the country again, open our economy again and
agree to work out our differences the way responsible adults should do.
My understanding is, after trying all kinds of different ways to
appease some of his Members with all kinds of different proposals, the
latest proposal is
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to send us over piecemeal pieces of legislation. Well, OK. We feel bad
about the veterans--and we all do. I am the biggest veterans advocate
in here. We will take care of them now. And, oh gosh, some of our
constituents are mad because they have flown out here and the national
museums aren't open, so we will open those, and on and on, whatever the
cause of the day is. I guarantee that if we began to pass those
piecemeal pieces of legislation, my moms and dads in Head Start would
be at the end of the line and would never get funded. I am standing up
for them today and saying: You are first in line too.
We are all in this together. We need the government open--all of our
agencies. Everybody gets a chance and an opportunity in this country.
And we are going to stick together and say to Speaker Boehner: Pass a
clean CR, and then allow this country and this government and the
American way of life to function as our forefathers said--by sitting
down at a negotiating table and working out our differences. That is
what I have asked for as chair of the Budget Committee 18 times now. It
is what we need to say we are going to do again but not while our
country is shut down, not while my families in Head Start are held
hostage, not while our small businesses are held hostage, not while
everybody in this country is looking at us, wondering how we ever got
to this.
Open the government, and let's be responsible legislators. That is
what I came here to do. I certainly know it is what the Presiding
Officer came to do. And let's tell the kids in this country who are
watching us today that this country can function, we can work as
adults, and we have a responsibility to do that--here and abroad.
Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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