[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 149 (Wednesday, October 23, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6688-H6689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONSEQUENCES OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important before we move into 
the weeks ahead that we take a minute and ask ourselves what happened 
last week during the shutdown? What were the consequences of the 
shutdown? What did the shutdown mean to Americans? It is important to 
pause and ask, What really happened? Because as the days roll by, 
people are going to just move on to the next thing.
  Let's be clear: this irresponsible shutdown cost the economy $24 
billion in lost economic output, or about 0.6 percent of annualized 
growth, according to Standard & Poor's. That is $24 billion of people 
not making purchases that they had planned to because they thought they 
had better hold on to their money because they didn't know what was 
going to happen. That is $24 billion of businesses that did business 
with people who were Federal employees who didn't have their check or 
didn't know if they were going to have it.
  I mean, the untold damage that the Republican majority in the House 
did to this economy is a shameful thing, and they did it for one reason 
and one reason only: to deny millions of Americans affordable health 
care. Now, I think that it is important to mark this moment and to be 
very clear about what happened and the losses we incurred. This economy 
lost 120,000 jobs, according to the Council of Economic Advisers; 
120,000 jobs because of lower demand, because of a number of things. A 
number of people were losing their livelihood because of the shutdown, 
again, because the majority in the House sees fit to deny millions of 
Americans affordable health care.
  Now, in the days to come now that the shutdown is over, there is no 
question they will try to amp up and build up the bugs in the computer 
system, but thousands of people are getting health care and signing up 
right now. The news is actually good, and there has never been a system 
that is new that didn't have problems. In fact, my friends on the 
Republican side of the aisle, I invite them to go back to Medicare part 
D, the prescription drug benefit in which they said that Big

[[Page H6689]]

Pharma didn't have to compete for prices, they just could demand the 
price and we had to pay it, the one that created the doughnut hole. In 
the beginning, there were all kinds of glitches associated with that 
system.
  So, yes, we are working out bugs, but they are being worked out, and 
there are thousands of people every day who are getting the health care 
access they never would have had and insurance reform that they never 
would have had if the Republicans would have had their way.
  Also, I just want to make clear that people should know that there 
were individual stories that occurred that people should never forget. 
Hundreds of people were furloughed, and thousands more didn't know if 
they were going to get paid in the month of October. Consider the 
anxiety that the Republican majority needlessly inflicted on American 
families, and inflicted it on public employees who serve our country 
every single day to the best of their ability. People seeking new 
Social Security cards in Minneapolis found the office closed. That is 
my district. People saying, Wait a minute, I need a new Social Security 
card and can't get one because of the Republican shutdown--that was 
wrong.
  The Veterans Administration offices were understaffed, and school 
trips were canceled because national parks were closed. It was galling 
to me that as the Republicans shut down the national monuments, they 
had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to go to the World War II 
Memorial and act like somebody shut that memorial down other than them. 
It is amazing.
  I can tell you that this moment, these last 2 weeks that we saw, 
shouldn't be forgotten. They should be remembered.
  I want to thank the 87 sensible Republicans who voted with the 
Democrats in order to reopen the government, and I just want to let 
everyone know that we can debate things here. We can try to improve the 
Affordable Care Act. We can talk about parts that could be better, and 
we can make it better. I encourage us to do that.
  But can we not shut down the government and do damage to the American 
economy just so we can score a political point and deny health care to 
thousands of people, perhaps millions of people? Can we work out our 
differences in the normal course of legislating?
  The Republicans know how to change the Affordable Care Act. They even 
know how to legitimately try to get rid of it through the 45 ways that 
they offered legislation to destroy or defund or delay ObamaCare. They 
have done it before, but this time, they didn't go through the normal 
course. They shut down the government and threatened default, and that 
was wrong.
  I just want people to remember what happened. Maybe we can avoid it 
in the months ahead, and I certainly hope you will.

                          ____________________