[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 147 (Wednesday, October 16, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H6612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NO MORE DAMAGING TACTICS
(Mr. WELCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives has put this
country through a spectacle these past few months; and it was a
spectacle that was based on the proposition that it was legitimate to
actually have a discussion about whether we had to pay our bills.
Mercifully, we are on the threshold of a bipartisan agreement
whereby, number one, the Affordable Care Act will be the law of the
land, and the debate in the future is not about its repeal; it is about
improving it. It is about facing the challenges of implementation.
Number two, we are repudiating as legitimate tactics to get your way,
by any faction--it could be Democrats in the future--the use of tactics
that do damage, threatening to default on our obligations and shutting
down the government and inflicting pain on innocent people.
So this struggle has damaged the institution, but the principles that
were at stake are now resolved: one, the Affordable Care Act is the law
of the land; two, you cannot use the tactic of shutdown or the tactic
of default as a way to get your way on your agenda.
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