[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 147 (Wednesday, October 16, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6609-H6610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WORK TOGETHER ON BUDGET MATTERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gene Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, 17 days ago, I came to the 
House floor to talk about how disappointed I was that a topic of such 
importance, the medical device tax repeal or delay, was being reduced 
to the level of political squabbling over whether we are going to 
continue the function of the government, but here we go again. We are 
here again to vote on that same policy 17 days later, but we have 
further delved into the realm of pettiness because the Republican 
leadership continues to insist that our economy's future should be tied 
to whether Members of Congress, Cabinet members, the President, and our 
staffs should have the same health care insurance that other Federal 
employees receive.
  I am surprised. Are we really going to keep the United States 
Government shut down and threaten the full faith and credit of our 
country based on whether Members of Congress, our staffs, and the 
President and Cabinet get the same health care that thousands of other 
Federal employees get? It is bordering on pettiness. It sounds so silly 
to be able to deal with this.
  I was fortunate enough. I worked 23 years at a company at which they 
not only subsidized my health insurance, but they paid for my family's. 
Governments all over the country do that. The State of Texas, where I 
am proud to be from, pays for health insurance for State employees. The 
City of Houston has a health insurance plan for their employees that 
they help pay for. Harris County does it. All governments do that. 
Frankly, I represent a lot of petrochemical refineries and plants. 
Exxon, Shell, the ones who are serving our area, all of them have 
``subsidies,'' as the Republicans call it, for the health care for 
their employees; and yet, on the floor of the House, we think it is a 
dirty word.
  Our goal with the Affordable Care Act was to have everyone in the 
country have access to quality health care, not just because you got to 
work for the government or work for an Exxon or a Shell, which are 
great companies--everyone. So that was the goal of it. If you look at 
the national exchanges, if we ever get the computers fixed, we will see 
that. People will have the option to be able to have the same options 
that we have as Members of Congress or as Federal employees or that I 
had in the private business that I helped manage. That is what we are 
talking about.
  But to put that in a continuing resolution to open up the government 
and to make it that you have to vote for this or we are not going to 
pay the TSA, who screens us when we go into the airport--they are 
working, but they are worried about getting their paychecks; so is the 
military; so are a lot of folks. But to make that the end-all, the be-
all--I can't believe our forefathers and our veterans sacrificed for 
our country to make sure we have this freedom--to lower it to the level 
of we are not going to vote for this unless we can take away the 
President's health care or the Cabinet officials' or the Members of 
Congress'.
  Our constituents expect us to act more responsibly. We should be 
ashamed of what this House of Representatives has come to over the last 
number of months, because we need to talk about making sure our country 
continues to grow. What is so sad is that, last week, some of us were 
briefed that every week of the government shutdown costs 0.3 percent of 
our gross domestic product. We want jobs, but here we are, 2 weeks and 
going on 3 weeks into the shutdown, and we are adding to that 
unemployment because of what the Federal Government is doing.
  Again, we should be embarrassed at what the House of Representatives 
is doing. Let us pass a continuing resolution. Let us pay our debts 
that this House of Representatives has voted for.

[[Page H6610]]

Every appropriations bill, every dime of that $17 trillion passed this 
House of Representatives. Why would we not want to pay those debts? 
That is like my saying in Texas, Oh, I don't want to pay my house note. 
Well, maybe they will not come after me the first month, but under 
Texas law, in 90 days, you are going to get your house sold from under 
you if you don't pay your debts.
  The Federal Government at various times has not paid its debts, one 
by technical glitch in 1979, but the last time we didn't pay our debts 
was when the British army burned the Treasury. I would hope this stance 
we have now is not compared to the British army burning our Treasury.
  We need to pass a continuing resolution, deal with our budget, and 
make sure we don't hurt the full faith and credit of our country.

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