[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14867]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       IT'S A SAD DAY FOR AMERICA

  (Mr. RAHALL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, nobody in this House has wanted the 
government to shut down, as it has today. Indeed, Speaker Boehner 
himself predicted no government shutdown several months ago and was 
holding by that--until he became hijacked by a certain element of his 
party.
  In May of 2007, President George Bush was President, the Democrats 
controlled the House and the Senate, and 140 Democrats in the House of 
Representatives voted to defund the Iraq war. In September of the same 
year, Congress voted to increase the debt limit.
  Now imagine if Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had threatened to 
breach the debt limit unless the Republicans agreed to defund the Iraq 
war. At that time, approval of the Iraq war was polled at 33 percent in 
favor and 64 percent against.
  So today is a sad day, in view of the fact that our government has 
shut down. It's a sad day for workers across this country--especially 
government workers. Those on the extreme right are happy about it. We 
read their quotes every day in the press. Michele Bachmann said:

       We're very excited. It's exactly what we want. We got it.

  Another Member on the majority side from Texas said:

       Let's roll. Let's go for it.

  It's a sad day.

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