[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

[[Page H6286]]

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.

                          ____________________