[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10400]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MINNESOTA GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Ms. McCOLLUM asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, this week in Minnesota our State 
government is shut down due to a budget crisis. I want to applaud 
Governor Mark Dayton for negotiating in good faith, making productive 
compromises, and for never forgetting the needs of Minnesotans, 
especially our most vulnerable citizens.
  The Republicans controlling the Minnesota Legislature issue 
ultimatums, and they want to mortgage our State's future by cutting 
health, education, and law enforcement. In Congress and in Minnesota, 
Republicans use the same playbook: First, create a crisis, put jobs at 
risk and the economy in peril; then ignore the needs of middle class 
families, and then fight to protect the interests of millionaires and 
billionaires.
  What we are seeing in Washington and St. Paul is the radical tea 
party Republican extremism threatening jobs and the economy with 
destruction in the name of political advantage. This is a dangerous 
political strategy, and it needs to end now. Democrats and Republicans 
need to work together to solve our Nation's problems. The American 
people and Minnesotans expect that of their elected leaders.

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