[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 148 (Tuesday, October 22, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H6646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, the Republican 
government shutdown is over, and the threat of the default has been 
averted for now; but no one is relieved.
  The crisis should never have happened. The shutdown really hurt our 
economy. Standard & Poor's estimated that it cost the country $24 
billion, and there is something even worse: each threat of shutdown and 
default slows economic growth by sowing uncertainty, dampens consumer 
confidence, and cuts jobs and income.
  The Wall Street Journal today ran an article this morning titled, ``A 
Confidence Shutdown.'' Reporter Gerald Seib wrote:

       Washington's misadventures have extracted a historically 
     high toll on America's confidence.

  ``A historically high toll,'' he wrote.
  How high? At no other time did consumer confidence plummet as far as 
it did in the Republican shutdown except for prior to the 2003 war in 
Iraq and the 1990 Persian Gulf war.
  The American people don't want a government that is shut down; they 
want a government that is on their side.

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