[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15616]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ENDING THE SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President of the United States 
had the House Democratic Caucus in the East Room for a discussion. 
Today he will have the Republican caucus, and he will also have the 
Democratic Senators.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope all the Republicans go engage the President, 
because the President gave such a clear and convincing argument about 
why what is going on is wrong and has to stop. If the President is told 
by the minority party in one of the Houses to get a funding bill passed 
to fund the government that he has to repeal some act, where does that 
stop? If we get a continuing resolution, and this one was until 
December 15, and they ask the President to abolish the landmark 
legislation that he signed and that this Congress passed a few sessions 
ago, the next thing could be, well, we are not going to continue the 
government again unless you repeal the EPA, or we are not going to do 
it unless you repeal the Fair Labor Standards Act, or maybe 6 months 
down the line we are not going to repeal it unless you and Vice 
President Biden both resign.
  You can't give in to these types of tactics to have bills repealed 
because of a minority within a minority of one branch of government and 
not go through the regular order of the House passing, the Senate 
passing, the President signing or vetoing, and then let the Court 
decide if it is constitutional, which has happened with the Affordable 
Care Act.
  The President made it clear that he wants to work with both sides; 
but he is not going to give in to these types of tactics because it 
wouldn't be fair, not only for him but for the next President and the 
next President and for the United States of America. Presidents and the 
country should not be held ransom by the demands of one group, and the 
President is standing for the Presidency and for the country and for 
the Constitution.
  The Affordable Care Act is not going to be repealed, and the other 
party knows that. Now they have proposed working on entitlements and 
long-term deficit reduction. The President will talk to them, engage in 
dialogue; and hopefully after the Republicans attend and listen to the 
President today, they will see that this has been a mistake for the 
American people and a mistake for their political party and they will 
end this shutdown, reopen government, pass a continuing resolution, and 
pass a debt ceiling, even if for only 4 or 6 weeks, which the pundits 
think may happen. It will get us out of this crisis.
  And hopefully the minority group within the Republican caucus will 
let the Republican Party continue to be what it had been in the past, a 
party of business, and not a party that was anti-business and 
threatening a debt ceiling issue and a default on our debt which would 
be catastrophic to the national markets and world markets. Hopefully, 
within those 6 weeks of dialogue with the President and the leaders of 
Congress, they can come to some agreements, and we won't have this type 
of brinksmanship again.
  The President is a convincing individual. He is very knowledgeable, 
he has great people working for him, and he is looking out for the 
future of this country. This shutdown was totally avoidable. The 
continuing resolution, which was only going to be to November 15 on the 
Senate side and December 15 on the House side, accepted the House of 
Representative's budget figures, which was the Paul Ryan budget.
  The Paul Ryan budget is anathema to Democrats. We don't like it. It 
has got cuts to so many services that are important to people in this 
country: cuts to Head Start; cuts to SNAP payments, formerly known as 
food stamps; cuts to veterans; cuts to programs that help people get 
through the day; energy programs when it gets cold to help you pay your 
utility bills. These cuts are anathema to us, but we accepted them to 
keep the government going. The Democrats in the Senate accepted them, 
the Democrats in the House, the President.
  But the House Republicans who put that figure out and got accepted, 
that wasn't enough. They had said, all right, now you have got to 
repeal, abolish, and/or change to the point of trying to get to 
abolishment of the most important bill that has been passed in this 
House of Representatives since 1965 when the Civil Rights Act and 
Medicaid and Medicare were passed.
  It is not going to happen. We are the last industrialized country on 
the face of the Earth to have national health insurance. It is the 
right thing to do; and it is folly for Governors and the States that 
haven't allowed the Medicaid expansion to go forward to do that and I 
hope they would.
  I hope the Republicans come to their senses and we end this shutdown.

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