[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14947-14948]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             ISN'T IT TIME TO END THE REPUBLICAN SHUTDOWN?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, this is day two of the Republican 
shutdown, holding America hostage. The stated objective of their fury 
is what they feel to be the ``unconstitutional'' Affordable Care Act 
that will wreck the economy and destroy health care in America.
  They harbor these feelings and will not relent until the law is 
defunded, even if it means shutting down the government, denying people 
essential services, furloughing Federal employees, and raising the 
specter of default on our national debt. This is despite the fact that 
the health care bill passed 3 years ago. It was declared constitutional 
by the United States Supreme Court and was argued extensively in the 
2012 elections, which the Republicans lost.
  We've now seen the first day of the Affordable Care Act, already 
about 10 million visits to the Web site, phone lines jammed, hundreds 
of thousands of Americans--doctors, nurses, people in hospitals, 
insurance companies--involved in making the biggest advance in health 
care since Medicare 50 years ago.
  Are the Republicans afraid that the program will succeed, that 
Americans will see that this effort to help 40 to 50 million Americans 
with low income or people with preexisting conditions will actually get 
help?
  Republicans, in any event, should not pull the rug out from 
underneath the

[[Page 14948]]

people who could benefit from the law or the hundreds of thousands of 
people who have made significant investments and are working to improve 
the delivery of health care in America at great effort and expense for 
themselves.
  According to the independent Congressional Budget Office, this is 
going to provide more access at less cost and lead to a deficit 
reduction on the order of $1 trillion over the next 20 years. In fact, 
the Republicans in the House of Representatives have taken $500 billion 
of these savings from the Affordable Care Act and stuffed it in their 
budget to make it appear that it's more affordable.
  If they were serious and not cynical, they would remove the money 
from their budget that's attributed to the bill they're working so hard 
to defund. While they're at it, if they're serious and not cynical, 
they would have a conference committee on the budget.
  Wasn't it interesting, the 11th hour Hail Mary proposal late Saturday 
night to have a conference committee on the continuing resolution 
despite the fact that there was nothing to conference--it was defund 
ObamaCare or nothing.
  But if House Republicans really think conference committees are such 
a good idea, why don't we have a conference committee on the budget? 
The Senate has been waiting for the House Republican leadership for 6 
months to approve conferees so we can see if we can reconcile some of 
these differences.
  If my friends were serious and not cynical about saving money, they 
would bring their own spending bills to the floor. Remember, it's been 
over 2 months since they abruptly stopped the appropriations process 
with the Treasury-HUD bill still in limbo, just walked off the floor 
halfway through the debate. The remaining eight spending bills appear 
to be so bad under the Ryan budget, which uses those evil ObamaCare 
savings, that their own Members don't even seem to want to vote for 
them.
  Finally, if they are serious and not cynical, they should absolutely 
take the debt ceiling blackmail off the table. There's no reason to 
threaten to destabilize not just our economy, but the global economy, 
by pretending for 1 minute that America won't pay its bills. We will. 
But to threaten we would do otherwise invites chaos.
  This is day two of the Affordable Care Act. The sun came up in the 
East. No one was forced to go to the post office for their prostate 
exam. No women had to go to the airport screeners for a mammogram. No 
doctors have been arrested or hospitals shut down. What did happen is 
people are getting better insurance with more choices at more 
affordable rates. I even bet that the sun sets in the West tonight.
  Isn't it time to end the Republican shutdown?

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