[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 136 (Friday, October 4, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6281-H6286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. PETERS of California. I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. PETERS of California. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the chance to
hold this Special Order with some of my freshman colleagues.
I heard some discussion from yesterday, and even some tonight, and
thought that it would be appropriate for some of the freshman who just
got here and don't have some of the perspective that has pervaded some
of the discussion, haven't been here for a lot of the most bitter
battles, maybe have a little bit more of a problem-solving attitude, to
give our perspective on some of these things and maybe have a
constructive discussion of the government shutdown and also the debt
ceiling, which I think is a very, very serious thing to discuss as part
of a negotiation.
The news today in San Diego will be about the cancellation of the
Miramar Air Show that was to take place this weekend. This is a great
tradition for our community, an important fundraiser for military
families, and really a sad casualty of the current shutdown.
I would like to start my comments by highlighting a more hidden and
much more serious effect of the shutdown, just by sharing a couple of
emails I received from constituents in the last 3 days. First:
I am an engineer that has supported the Navy and Marine
Corps for 26 years and have always given 100 percent to
ensure that our military has the best capabilities in the
world. Most of the people I work with have gone above and
beyond to give the Navy and USMC our very best, especially
during the many years of wartime.
Due to sequestration and previous furloughs, I have already
lost $10,000 of income this year and completely depleted my
family's savings account. Now I am being furloughed again and
this follows 3 years of frozen pay. I am worried for my wife
and two young children because I cannot pay the bills if this
shutdown continues.
I do not blame one party or the other. I am sure they both
think they are doing the right thing. But I worry that they
do not know the pain they are causing for the families of
dedicated and hardworking civil servants.
A second one:
I am writing to you today concerning our government
shutdown. I am an Active Duty spouse of 15 years with two
children.
We recently moved to Coronado from Naples, Italy. I have
made several sacrifices over the years to follow my husband's
career. I have always felt that my husband's job as an
officer in the United States Navy was worthy of my
sacrifices. I have stood proud by his side.
We have moved 11 times within our 15 years of service, and
as always we have budgeted our housing allowance, cost of
living, and pay. Today, as I read all the negative comments
on social media threads, I feel as though I have wasted 15
years of my life.
I almost fell off the treadmill on the base gym this
morning when it hit me: all of the holidays my husband has
missed--the birthdays and the anniversaries spent alone--for
what reason? For 535 of you to shut us down? Thank God I did
not fall off the treadmill this morning, as now our medical
staff is on furlough and the area is severely understaffed.
Finally, I am a proud American and that is why I proudly
work at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego as a nurse
practitioner with the Department of Surgery. I have already
endured one furlough. This resulted in a 20 percent pay
reduction this summer. I was grateful it ended earlier than
planned, but now I am furloughed with a 100 percent loss in
pay. It has to stop.
As a San Diego resident, I know you are aware that your
mortgages are higher than most. I am also a single mother of
two wonderful girls. This makes the additional furlough that
much harder to swallow.
Please work with your fellow Representatives to make this
government shutdown end as soon as possible. It is hurting
the average American much more than D.C. seems to understand.
If our elected officials were forced to take a 20 percent
pay reduction and have that followed by a 100 percent pay
loss, I am sure the budget would be fixed. I just want to
continue to do my job and would appreciate being allowed to
do just that. If this continues further, I will be forced to
seek other employment.
My faith in our government is failing quickly. Again,
please work together to end this situation.
There are stories like that from all these Federal workers. More than
800,000 Federal workers are out of work during the government shutdown.
It is not just the D.C. metro area that is affected, as you've heard.
From Hawaii to Georgia, workers in regions all over the country rely
heavily on the Federal Government. San Diego is the seventh-ranked city
with a high share of Federal employees. We have 151,000 workers--10.9
percent of our workforce is affected by this government shutdown.
Obviously, the same is true in Colorado Springs, which is number one;
Virginia Beach; Honolulu; the D.C. region; Ogden-Clearfield, Utah; El
Paso; Augusta, Georgia; San Diego; and Charleston. Every one of those
places has thousands of stories, just like the ones I have told.
It is important for us in D.C. to remember the effect that we are
having in the real world. That has often been the biggest surprise for
me, that when I leave my district and I've heard these stories and I
come here, and we hear that people are talking in these terms of blame
and calling each other names and not really doing credit to this
institution, and far from solving the problems that have gotten us
here.
I have heard a lot of people say: We don't want to shut the
government down. Well, we don't have to. I have heard a lot of finger-
pointing about who caused it.
But the fact is that today the power to reopen this government rests
solely
[[Page H6282]]
within the House of Representatives. We know what we have to do. We
don't have to wait for the Senate, and we don't have to wait for the
President. We can pass a continuing resolution, which is the resolution
that funds the government only for 6 weeks or 10 weeks that the Senate
has passed. We don't have to have any amendments or anything. We can do
that today--or we can at least do it tomorrow--and all these people
will be back to work and we can end these stories of fear and pain that
are affecting our families and the businesses that they work for.
There has been a lot of yelling about attaching conditions to the
continuing resolution. We have been voting on these really literally
for weeks now. I am not going to add my voice to those, but I will just
say that it seems that those have run their course. None of them has
gotten anywhere.
I myself supported some of these conditions. In fact, earlier this
year, I voted to delay the individual mandate to match the business
mandate. That wasn't something that was popular in my party. I voted
for that. But in the context of this continuing resolution, I supported
the repeal of the medical device tax. It happens also to be one of my
major legislative priorities. I think that is a bad way to fund any
part of the government. That got some Democratic votes, but didn't get
any support in the Senate.
Today, we got an email from the majority leader who said that ``House
Republicans believe it is critical we continue to engage and offer
meaningful solutions for the American people,'' which is why he said,
on a bipartisan basis with a total of 57 different Democrats voting
with us, we have passed bills to reopen the NIH, ensure that the
National Guard and Reservists are paid, fund veterans benefits, reopen
our national parks, and allow the District of Columbia to expend their
local funds.
I voted for all these too. Most of my party didn't. But I thought we
had one chance to open these areas up to make sure that they go back to
work. It is not the best budgeting thing. I voted for them. But the
point is they went nowhere. The Senate will not approve them. If the
Senate approved them, the President wouldn't sign them.
So it is time to recognize that we have reached the end of this road
and this is not getting us anywhere. We know that these things won't
sell, we know that they won't get support in the Senate, and it is time
to move on to a basic continuing resolution without amendment.
Now, I have heard people say--some of my colleagues on the other
side--say: Well, we need to get something. I just point out that if you
look at the numbers--and we all talk extensively about the need in
general to control spending and lower our debt--the Senate approved
spending until November at the Republican level.
President Obama's budget proposal was for $1.2 trillion. The Senate's
budget was for $1.06 trillion, or about $2 trillion less. And the
Senate approved a spending level of the continuing resolution at an
annual rate of $986 billion. That is a cut of $72 billion from the
Senate budget--that is 7 percent less than the Senate had proposed--and
$217 billion less than the President's proposed budget, 18 percent.
So to say that you needed to get something, I think certainly at this
point the Republicans have won the war over discretionary spending.
Now, that is not a war that people are going to give up on. But in the
continuing resolution, which we are asking to vote on, have a chance to
vote on in the House, the Republicans number was the number used.
At this time, I would like to yield to my colleague from the State of
Washington, Derek Kilmer, who serves with me on the Armed Services
Committee and also on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Mr. KILMER. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the good gentleman
from California for organizing this time.
Far and away the most common thing said to me over the last year has
been: Dear God, why on Earth would you want to be in Congress,
particularly when you have two little kids and Congress is such a mess?
I will tell you, at every occasion I have responded the same way: It
is because I got two little kids and Congress is a mess. I actually
care about what kind of country they grow up in. I think if people who
think that this is okay and sit on the sidelines, we are never going to
fix it.
I will tell you, it is strange to join an organization that,
according to recent polling information, is held in lower regard than
head lice. Having only been here for about 9 months, I have a pretty
good sense of why.
When I got here, Congress was in the process of enacting this policy
of sequestration across-the-board cuts, which have had dramatic impacts
in my neck of the woods where you have seen workers furloughed, cuts to
critical agencies and critical services. In Kitsap County, where I
serve, they have ended mental health outreach to senior citizens
because of sequestration.
We have seen impacts to our region's largest employer--the United
States Navy. We have seen impact after impact. If that wasn't enough,
we have gone beyond--we all remember the fiscal cliff. We are now at,
like, the fiscal mountain range, where we go from self-imposed crisis
to self-imposed crisis. First, it was sequestration, then it was a
government shutdown, and coming up next is the possibility that our
Nation defaults on its financial obligations.
Unfortunately, Congress is earning the low regard in which citizens
currently hold it.
Let me talk a little bit about the shutdown and how it affects the
folks that I represent. You have heard a lot about furloughs. I have
got in my district 3,500 workers at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard who are
now on furlough. Just outside of my district we have Joint Base Lewis-
McChord--10,000 workers have been furloughed. The largest land base in
my district is Olympic National Park, which is an extraordinary tourist
destination which is now closed for business--103 workers at Olympic
National Park out on furlough.
But it is actually not just the impact to the Federal workforce that
should concern us; it is the impact to the private economy. Before I
came here I spent my professional career working in economic
development. I spent 10 years working in economic development in
Tacoma, Washington.
I am concerned, for example, that you are seeing a delay in the
issuance of Small Business Administration loans because of a government
shutdown. I am concerned that this shutdown is at a cost to taxpayers
of $150 million to $300 million a day. But primarily I am concerned
that, as you have seen Congress govern from crisis to crisis, that we
figured the one thing that more than anything businesses want from
government.
In the 10 years I worked in economic development, the thing I heard
more often from employers than anything else was that they looked to
government for an environment of trust and predictability. I think
Congress has completely messed that up.
{time} 1945
I will tell you that I don't think it has to be like this. In fact, I
came out of a reasonably functional State legislature. The last three
bills we passed in the Washington State Senate before I left were a
balanced budget, a debt reduction proposal and a jobs bill. Out of the
49 members of the Washington State Senate, the balanced budget passed
with all but two votes; the debt reduction proposal passed with all but
seven votes; and the jobs bill passed with all but one. It was largely
because we worked together. We didn't define ``success'' as making the
other side of the aisle look like a failure.
I think, frankly, given the challenges facing our country, that gig
ought to be up. We should be leading by example. We ought to be working
together. We should be solving problems together. I am certainly, as
one of 435, trying to do that. It means, for example, when the
government shuts down and when the people whom I represent are no
longer drawing paychecks, I am not either. That's why I supported a
bill that many of us supported that was known as No Budget, No Pay,
which said: if Congress can't pass a budget, Members of Congress
shouldn't get paid.
When I served in the legislature, I knocked on 52,000 doors. The
biggest change in recent years was that people were home because they
were out of
[[Page H6283]]
work. I talked to parents who were concerned that our community's
largest export was going to be our kids, and the vast majority of
people I talked to actually did not give a rip about whether we get
more Democratic or more Republican or move more to the left or more to
the right. They just want us to stop moving backwards and to start
moving forward again. So, in the brief minute I have remaining, let me
talk about what I think ``forward'' ought to look like.
``Forward'' ought to look like reopening the government. End this
government shutdown now. It should mean taking action to make sure our
Nation doesn't default on its financial obligations, which is an act
that would ensure that costs go up for our small businesses, that costs
go up for our families and that everyone's retirement goes down. It
means working together to ensure that we actually pass a budget, and
that's going to take Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the
Senate to work together to pass a budget.
We're all freshmen up here. When we went through freshman
orientation, there was a presentation on how the budget process works.
The way it works is that the House passes a budget, and the Senate
passes a budget. Then it goes to conference. The House passes
appropriations bills, and the Senate passes appropriations bills. Then
they go to conference to compromise. After about 40 minutes of
presenting that, they then said, Well, that hasn't happened, though, in
years.
It ought to happen. We should get that back on track. We should get
this country back on track. We also need to focus on the economy.
I spent a decade working in economic development. We had a sign up on
the wall in our office that said: ``We are competing with everyone,
everywhere, every day forever.'' If we think our competitor nations are
participating in the frivolity that our government is currently
participating in, we have another think coming. China in the last
decade has doubled its number of higher education institutions. They
have multiplied five-fold their number of students at colleges and
universities on top of the 200,000 students who are studying abroad,
primarily in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.
And what are we doing? Here we sit with a government shutdown,
impeding our economic recovery, hurting our businesses in this Nation.
We can't afford this. We should stop this. We need to get people back
to work, but, Madam Speaker, we need to get this Congress back to work,
too. That's why all of us as freshman Members are here. We want to get
this country moving forward again.
Mr. PETERS of California. I thank the gentleman.
You talked about how we define ``success.'' I know you and I have
spoken, as have many Members, about how we can get away with what we
call ``success'' here.
So what happens--and what has happened in this context, too--is that
a number of things will be proposed, and they won't go anywhere. Then
what will happen is a bunch of finger-pointing will come after: well, I
proposed this, and I voted for it and I voted against it. Imagine if
you were a CEO of a company that made a product and that you said, I
created a great product, and I think you'll really like it.
It sounds great to the CEO, and the CEO says, Oh, that sounds
terrific. How many did you sell?
I didn't sell any, but they really should buy it.
That's what Congress is doing. That's kind of how we define
``success'' around here: well, I stuck them with a good bill even
though no one's going to vote for it. Of course, in business or in your
family, you'd actually have to listen to what the other side wanted if
you wanted to reach a result that was a success. That's what
``success'' would be, and I thank you for pointing that out.
I would also say, on No Budget, No Pay, which I also supported, it
was the concept that, if Congress doesn't do its job, we shouldn't get
a paycheck. We were proud that day when we worked together with our
Republican colleagues, and we passed No Budget, No Pay. We forced the
Senate, controlled by Democrats, to pass the first budget that they
passed in 4 years. That's all well and good unless we actually talk
together. I saw a picture this week of Mr. Cantor and some of his
colleagues waiting at a table for people to come have a conference.
We've been waiting for that all year on this budget, and we came in
good faith and tried to pass No Budget, No Pay. Wouldn't it be good if
we could use this time or if we could use the next few weeks to sit
down and actually hammer out a budget through that process, and this is
the time to do it.
Before I turn it over to another colleague, I'll just remind my
colleagues of the report from The Washington Post last December
regarding President Obama's budget proposal back then, which said that,
for the first time, he is formally proposing to trim Social Security
benefits--a GOP demand that is anathema to many Democrats; that he is
also offering to make meaningful reductions in Medicare benefits,
including higher premiums for couples making more than $170,000 a year;
and that he visited each of the caucuses earlier this year and told the
House Democrats, by the way, you can't take $3 out of Medicare for
every dollar you put in. He said that our corporate tax rates were too
high for our companies to compete internationally.
This has been going on all year, ladies and gentlemen, with no effort
to negotiate at all because it's the leadership of the Speaker here who
won't appoint conferees because, apparently, they're concerned about
getting it. So we waited until this moment of crisis to talk about
something that you and I have been waiting for all year.
With that, I would like to yield some time to my colleague from New
Hampshire (Ms. Kuster).
Ms. KUSTER. I want to thank my colleague from California (Mr. Peters)
for the opportunity this evening to talk about civility, to talk about
coming together and finding common ground and, most importantly, to
talk about getting things done.
I first ran for Congress because our Congress here, our government,
was mired in dysfunction, and I truly felt that our country needs our
help. I want to say that I believe my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle who are new Members of Congress, including the gentlelady in the
chair, share that concern. We have found common ground on a number of
issues. I was very proud to work with another freshwoman, Mrs.
Walorski, to pass a bill unanimously in this House to help victims of
medical, sexual trauma. We came together, and we got 110 bipartisan
sponsors, so I know that what we bring to this august body is the
ability to find common ground.
Then, as now, my goal is to bring people together. These are
commonsense solutions. My colleague Mr. Peters has just reiterated
discussions that have been going on in various rooms in this building--
from the White House to Capitol Hill--throughout this year about
entitlement reform, about tax reform, about controlling spending, but,
most importantly, about providing the services that people across this
country need from our government.
I come from New Hampshire, the Granite State. We are frugal people,
and New Hampshire families don't need more bickering in Washington.
They need real solutions to grow the economy, to foster job creation
and to expand opportunity for the middle class. That's what they sent
me here to do. One of my staffers said to me today that, after the week
we've just had, you can't fix the roof when it's pouring out by
plugging up just a few holes.
We've got to come together and solve the whole problem; and I, for
one, know that we can do it. I know that we actually have the votes in
this body right now to come together and take that vote, a bipartisan
vote, to get the country and our government opening again.
Honestly, Granite State families don't expect Congress to agree on
everything. We don't. We have significant differences. Some of them are
religious. Some of them are political. Some of them come from our
backgrounds and our life experiences. We have real disagreements on
issues of significant importance to our country, but they do expect us
to work together when we can find areas of agreement. We cannot have
cooperation without open dialogue. That's what we're asking for here
tonight--civility--which is a common theme, and coming together and
creating dialogue, especially now.
[[Page H6284]]
This is the moment for which we ran for Congress. Our government is
lurching from crisis to crisis, and what the American people expect and
need from their leaders is to come together and find that common
ground, to work across the aisle, break the gridlock, end the shutdown,
take this bipartisan vote, and restore services for the people we
represent and get our country and government working again. We won't
get this done solely with Democratic ideas or Republican ideas.
Frankly, I don't care if an idea is proposed by a Republican or a
Democrat. If it's a commonsense solution to the problems we face, let's
support it.
In New Hampshire, here is how we get things done. I've been making
calls all week back to my district as we've been here, voting, to find
out what is the impact of the Federal Government shutdown and what I
can do to help. So I've talked to mayors all across my district. Let me
tell you that these are real people's real lives, and it's going to
cause serious pain. I called a small town up north, near the Canadian
border. It is a paper mill town. They've lost thousands of jobs in this
community.
So I asked the mayor, What is it that's happening on the ground
there?
He started to tell me about a woman who works for the United States
Department of Agriculture, and what she does is help with rural
economic development. She helps with small business loans.
He said, She's not at work--she has been furloughed--and there are
eight small business applications sitting on her desk.
Now, this is a small town. If there are eight small businesses in
this town that won't get those loans and can't create new jobs, that's
a problem.
Because this is the kind of person he is and this is the kind of town
it is, he said, And she is a single mom without a paycheck.
He wanted me to know that.
Then I talked with mayors of big cities and smaller towns. I talked
to businesses. I wanted to understand what's the impact on the business
community. Now, I've talked to lots of Federal employees this week, and
I've talked to their unions, and I have tremendous compassion for the
folks who have been sent home, but I want my colleagues across the
aisle to understand the impact on our economy.
So, today, I was talking to large employers. These are government
contractors. They're vendors. They build things, and they provide
services for our military, for IT--for everything that we use in this
country to keep us safe and to keep us strong. They said thousands of
jobs will be lost; and if you read the headlines today, we have already
lost thousands.
I know that, with civility and trust and mutual respect, we can
resolve these tired, partisan battles and that we can renew our focus
on what really matters: fostering job creation, making smart spending
cuts, taking the responsibility to reduce the deficit, encouraging
innovation, growing the economy, growing opportunity for the middle
class. With a little more civility in the Halls of Congress, I am
confident that we can resolve this crisis and redouble our focus on our
shared priorities.
Finally, I spoke with our Governor. Our Governor, Maggie Hassan, said
to me, Annie, tell them how we get this done in New Hampshire.
We have a Democratic Governor and a Democratic House and a Republican
Senate. It sounds familiar. It's a little bit twisted from what we have
here in Washington, but it's the same effect. It's a divided
government. Yet, in New Hampshire, we don't see it as a divided
government. We see it as an opportunity to reach across the aisle and
to bring people together and find common ground.
She said, Remind them that we have just passed a budget in New
Hampshire that was unanimous in the Republican Senate, virtually
unanimous in the Democratic House, signed by the Democratic Governor
and, most importantly for all here in Washington, it was a balanced
budget. The revenues and the expenditures were equal.
{time} 2000
That's what I'm talking about here today. Come together and have the
discussion about how to get our fiscal house in order, how to create
jobs, and how to provide opportunity.
Finally, I'm going to close with a phone call that I got this week,
Scott, that made a tremendous difference in my perspective on this. It
was a crackly line coming into my office. A young intern answered the
phone. When she could finally understand the speaker on the other end
of the line, he said, This is Joe. I'm calling from Afghanistan.
He is a soldier in Afghanistan, and he's there to serve our country.
He said, I am here working hard for my family and my country, and I
want you to do the same.
The message that Joe had for me is that he wants affordable,
accessible health care for his family and for families all across New
Hampshire and all across this country. He said, Do not give up on that,
but you have got to open this government.
People need the help that they deserve. Our economy needs the
strength and the vitality. We can't leave thousands of people without
their jobs, without their pay. I ask you, Mr. Speaker, to please bring
this vote to the floor. We can pass this with a bipartisan vote, and we
can move our country forward.
I thank the gentleman from California for giving us this opportunity.
Mr. PETERS of California. I thank the gentlelady from New Hampshire.
Again, you're absolutely right. All we have to do to get this started
again is to put the Senate resolution before this House. We could vote
on that tomorrow, and the government would be open immediately
thereafter. I think obviously that's what we would all like to do.
I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Murphy).
Mr. MURPHY of Florida. First, I want to thank my good friend from
California (Mr. Peters) for organizing this important discussion this
evening and reminding all Americans how important it is to end this
ridiculous and disgraceful shutdown we're in right now.
The damage this manufactured crisis is causing is unacceptable. I've
heard daily from hundreds of my constituents who have already felt the
pain from the shutdown over the past 4 days. They all express the same
sentiment: Enough already. I share this frustration.
I received a letter today from a local Navy veteran, and it
particularly stood out to me. I just want to share a brief part of this
story that I read.
I'm a recently discharged veteran of the U.S. Navy.
During the 5 years I served, I was told continually that
when I left the service behind, I would be taken care of, and
I believed that implicitly. Well, I couldn't have been more
wrong.
Since I was discharged over 2 months ago, I've struggled to
get unemployment and find work. I am currently receiving VA
disability for service-connected injuries, or at least I was
before the government shut down yesterday.
I rely on my disability to survive, and now I don't even
know when the next payment will arrive. To complicate matters
further, I've attempted to start up school and use my GI
benefits only to find out that the VA will run out of money
by the end of this month if the shutdown continues. So no
more disability or education benefits, benefits I've earned,
benefits I got for sacrificing 5 of the best years of my life
for. So, essentially, I paid into this program, made
sacrifices too numerous to count, was deployed around the
world twice in support of the global war on terrorism, and
now I come to find out all of that amounts to nothing.
This shutdown has negatively impacted my life more than I
ever thought possible. The mere fact that veterans benefits
were even on the table as part of the shutdown is an outrage
in itself. Have we not done enough? What more do I need to
sacrifice? We have a hard enough time surviving overseas, and
this is the treatment we come home to, our own government
shutting down and unable to take care of us.
I plan on applying for food stamps soon. I never dreamed my
life would come to this, especially after serving my country.
But, hey, I guess that's what our government has come to.
Please do whatever it takes to end this shutdown.
Well, Joshua, I never dreamed it would come to this either, that our
Nation would be willing to break its promise to the brave men and women
like you over partisan games.
I called Joshua today to let him know that I, too, am appalled and
that I am here fighting for him, alongside my colleagues, alongside our
Nation's veterans, seniors, and all Americans who have had enough,
enough of the shutdown, enough of the games,
[[Page H6285]]
enough of these manufactured crises. That is why I'm leading efforts
urging leadership to immediately vote on reopening the government. Our
fragile economy cannot afford one more day of this disgraceful
shutdown, and neither can veterans such as Joshua.
I urge the House to pass a clean spending bill immediately and put an
end to this nonsensical shutdown.
Mr. PETERS of California. I thank the gentleman from Florida.
I guess it is cold comfort to Joshua to hear that the House has been
voting on these piecemeal approaches. I'm not saying that they were
ill-motivated. Many of us supported them, but they're not working. It
is time for us to learn the lesson, I believe, and I agree with you.
Put the Senate resolution on the floor and open this government back
up, and we can do our work in Congress that we were sent to do and we
were paid to do without stopping the government. I think those comments
were very well put, and I thank the gentleman.
The other thing we heard about, in addition to we need to get
something or we need to sit down and talk, is the idea that we have to
repeal or do away with the health care law. I would just say this about
being a freshman. We weren't here for these votes. None of us cast a
vote either way on the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare, but we heard a
lot of questions about it and we took those questions very seriously.
Most of us said we should try to fix them, but we're also realistic.
We've seen that the health care law was passed by Congress a few
years ago, signed by the President; it was okayed by the Supreme Court,
and it survived a number of additional repeal votes here in the House
of Representatives. It appears that it's here to be with us to stay.
It's been rolling out with mixed reports this week, but I think in many
places people are finding hope that they can get affordable health
care. Clearly, we have more work to do, and I stand here willing to
help fix the Affordable Care Act to the extent we need it.
I've expressed my own concern about the medical device tax. I think
that's something that should be repealed. There are others, like the
Cadillac tax. I think we should provide new incentives for wellness. I
think we should get out of the way of technology and encourage
technology as an approach to lower costs. I'm willing to get to work on
that.
That law took a long time to pass. It was very contentious. Those
problems won't be solved to the satisfaction of the Congress or to the
completion of the task within the time we're talking about while
shutting the government down, so let's get to work and not hold the
government up for that.
My final observation about this shutdown is that I feel I'm reminded
of when I practiced law and I tried cases. I liked having a case with a
good lawyer on the other side, because a good lawyer knew where he or
she was going, and you could tell kind of what the strategy was and
where you were going to end up. I feel, in this case, like I'm trying a
case against a lawyer who is inexperienced or doesn't know what he's
doing in the sense that I can't figure out where he's going. I'm hoping
that if there is some resolution that can happen, we would love to be a
part of it. I think it starts with passing the continuing resolution
that the Senate passed and getting this government open right now.
I would like to close with a few comments on the other issue that we
haven't gotten to, but I think it concerns me greatly. That's the debt
ceiling. It's one thing to argue over the continuing resolution--we've
been talking about that--and shutting down the government. That's a bad
thing. It's something I hope we'll end soon. As I said before, it's
something that's entirely within our power to do without the help of
the Senate or the President. We just vote for that resolution that the
Senate passed, and the government would be open tomorrow.
I hear talk about the debt ceiling as though it's the same thing. It
is not. The debt ceiling is a dangerous tactic for negotiation. It's
bad business, it's bad economics, and it's bad government.
First, I'd start by talking about what it's like to do business in
this way, and it occurs to me that my parents must be asking themselves
about the people who would play with the debt ceiling, Who raised these
people?
What we're doing here with the debt ceiling, talking about not paying
our debts, it's like getting the credit card bill, opening it up and
seeing how much you bought, and deciding at that point, Well, no, I've
got to control spending. I don't want to pay this. That's too late to
have the discussion.
I remember my parents--my father is a minister. My mom stayed home,
worked part time to help us with college. I have vivid memories of them
laying out the bills on the dining room table to make sure they could
figure out their cash flow, how they were going to pay each bill, what
day of the month each bill was due. They made every payment because
they always taught me about making sure you kept good credit. We know
now about credit scores and how important it is to be on time, and
families all over the country understand that kind of approach. For us
to take this approach that we're not going to pay the debts that we've
incurred is just the wrong way to do business, and it's terrible
economics.
The Treasury reported this week:
With the government likely to exhaust its cash reserves
around October 17, the Treasury said being forced into
nonpayment of any of its obligations--and in particular, its
debt--would spark turmoil in the financial markets and
possibly send the country back to recession as deep as that
of 2008 and 2009.
We know we've been coming out of that, but very slowly. We don't want
to go back there.
In the event that a debt limit impasse were to lead to a
default, it could have a catastrophic effect not just on
financial markets but also on job creation, consumer
spending, and economic growth.
Credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could
plummet, U.S. interest rates could skyrocket, the negative
spillovers could reverberate around the world, and there
might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the
events of 2008 or worse.
This is not some political statement. This is what we're hearing from
The Wall Street Journal, from the banking community, from the financial
sector. They're saying stay away from this. CNNMoney said:
Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it's
the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the
Nation into a recession.
About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNNMoney say a
recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the
Nation's debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash
later this month.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's not get to that point.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot mess with the debt ceiling. The government
shutdown is bad enough. We're kind of playing around the edges. I urge
that we put the Senate resolution before the House so we can vote on it
and open this government tomorrow. Let us not touch, let us not play
with the notion, let us not suggest to anyone that America won't pay
the debts it's incurred.
Finally, from an article called ``After the Shutdown'' posted by
James Surowiecki, I just offer this--he is speaking in partisan terms,
but anyone who thinks this I think it applies to:
This is why the Republican approach to the debt ceiling is
not, as people like Zeke J. Miller of Time have argued, the
kind of hostage-taking that's a ``standard way of doing
business in Washington.'' This is really an attempt to
remake the legislative process itself and to do so by
threatening to do something--default--that no one,
including the people making the threat, believes to be in
the best interest of the United States. We can't be sure
of exactly what would happen if the U.S. stopped paying
its bills, but at the very least it would lead to havoc in
the bond market and the financial system (which depends on
U.S. treasuries as risk-free collateral), higher interest
rates, and an immediate hit to economic growth. It's not a
road that anyone should want to go down.
Mr. Speaker, in my view, it is not a road we should even be
considering going down. As bad as the continuing resolution is and the
fight over the shutdown, I know that just behind us is a much more
dangerous prospect, and I want to warn of that.
Finally, I suggest to folks that I have offered two bills that would
provide an alternative and would help us deal with the national debt.
They would work very simply. When debt was declining as a percentage of
the economy, which means we have it under control, the debt ceiling
would adjust without a vote, payments would go out; and when debt
started to increase as a percentage of the economy, which means we're
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not having it under control--we all understand that long-term debt
can't continue to rise as a percentage of the economy without hurting
our economic future. In that case, we need a mechanism to do something
more than just yell at each other and call each other names, which I
know the freshmen that were with me tonight are still amazed that
that's what happens here, but that's what happens way too often.
{time} 2015
We need a mechanism to force a discussion of really how to manage the
debt. And our bill would provide that, if we are in the condition where
debt's rising as a percentage of GDP and the President and the leaders
of Congress didn't do anything about it, which is a condition we find
ourselves in today, then individual Members, Mr. Speaker, would be able
to propose their own measures without the blessing of leadership but
with the sponsorship of only 50 of their colleagues to force a
discussion on how to manage that debt and get it under control. Now
that's just one idea. But at this point, I think it's the only idea on
the table to actually avoid this in a constructive way.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the chance to offer some thoughts on these
issues with my colleagues. And with that, I yield back the balance of
my time.
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