[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15338-15339]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




THE PRESIDENT'S REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE IS HURTING OUR ECONOMY AND PUTTING 
                          OUR COUNTRY AT RISK

  (Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues over the last 10 days have 
been through quite a bit. We sent four bills to the United States 
Senate to keep our government open and to protect the American people 
from the harmful effects of ObamaCare. Each of these requests was 
denied by the United States Senate.
  After the fourth effort, we asked to go to conference and sit down 
and resolve our differences to keep the government open and to provide 
fairness to the American people under ObamaCare. The Senate Democrats 
once again said no.
  The President had us all down to the White House last week, only to 
remind me that he was not going to negotiate over keeping the 
government open or over the looming need to increase the debt limit.

[[Page 15339]]

  The President's refusal to negotiate is hurting our economy and 
putting our country at risk.
  This morning, a senior White House official said that the President 
would rather default than to sit down and negotiate. Really? I am going 
to say this again: a senior White House staffer this morning said that 
the President would rather default on our debt than sit down and 
negotiate.
  Now, the American people expect when their leaders have differences 
and we are in a time of crisis that we will sit down and at least have 
a conversation. Really, Mr. President, it is time to have that 
conversation before our economy is put further at risk.

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