[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14610]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CONTINUING RESOLUTION AND DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, we are here in the Capitol awaiting a 
decision by the Republicans in the House about the next step to deal 
with the fiscal crisis they have created.
  It is not really that complicated. The Monday deadline approaches to 
continue the operation of the Federal Government with a shutdown 
looming because the Republicans have refused to work on a bipartisan 
basis to resolve the funding issues.
  The centerpiece of their rhetoric has been objection to the 
Affordable Care Act and their childish insistence that a program that 
has been approved by Congress, President Obama reelected defending it, 
and validated by the Supreme Court, that somehow this bell can be un-
rung.
  Billions have already been spent, hundreds of thousands of people are 
working to make the reform operational, and it seems to be working. 
Better prescription drug benefits for senior citizens are putting more 
money in their pockets. Children under the age of 26 have been able to 
stay on their parents' policies.
  Beginning Tuesday, enrollment starts for the exchanges, and on 
January 1 it goes live with better health insurance. People can't be 
refused insurance for preexisting conditions. There will be no lifetime 
limits on benefits. Health insurance will be more affordable with 
subsidies for millions, and there will be more competition for all. 
These provisions are overwhelmingly supported by the American public.
  The health insurance program will save billions of dollars for the 
Federal Government, reducing the deficit. That's the judgment of the 
CBO. In fact, isn't it ironic that having campaigned against these 
health care savings and losing, Paul Ryan and the Republicans include 
those very savings in their budget?
  My Republican friends are paralyzed in part because they've adopted a 
draconian budget that actually requires savings in the very health plan 
they want to defund. They claim to want to reduce government spending; 
yet they have refused to allow the House to vote on the spending bills 
their budget calls for.
  We have been waiting for 2 months to finish the transportation and 
housing spending bill. They got halfway through it on the floor of the 
House, and they realized that their own Members wouldn't vote for it 
because it was so awful, and they stopped. They didn't even bother to 
bring the Interior spending bill to the floor.
  If their budgets are so bad that their own Members won't vote for 
them, they shouldn't throw a tantrum, threaten to shut down the 
government, or destabilize the global economy by playing games with the 
debt ceiling. If they're afraid to have their own Members vote on their 
spending bills, shouldn't they allow a conference committee between the 
House and the Senate to resolve budget differences? That's how the 
system is supposed to work.
  They whine the President won't negotiate with them. How is the 
President supposed to deal with people who are unwilling to face up to 
the consequences of their own irresponsible budgets or refuse to allow 
Congress to work the process to establish a consensus budget by having 
a conference committee? How are Democrats supposed to deal with the 
Republicans as they up the ante, seeking to damage the American people 
by cutting off vital services in a shutdown? How do you deal with 
Republicans who are willing to default on paying America's debt, 
breaking our moral and legal obligations, and risking not just 
America's, but the world's, economy?
  Earth to my Republican friends: America pays its bills. Always has, 
always will. It is the height of hypocrisy to blame this on the 
President, the Affordable Care Act, or the Democrats.
  We wait breathlessly to see if the Republicans can agree to have 
anything to be voted on today; but the American people should insist 
that if my Republican friends are serious, they should bring their own 
budgets to the floor, allow the process to work to have a conference 
committee between the House and the Senate to reconcile our 
differences. Then we can act like grownups, not children throwing 
tantrums, and we wouldn't need to threaten the global economy over the 
debt ceiling.

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