[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                              CAN WE TALK

  (Mr. RICE of South Carolina asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. President, can we talk?
  I am pleased to hear that President Obama, 10 days into a government 
shutdown, is finally willing to talk with a contingent of House 
Republicans at the White House this afternoon. After all, there is 
plenty to discuss.
  Everybody in this room, Democrat or Republican, knows that too many 
of our youth are underemployed or unemployed. Mr. President, our youth 
want to work.
  Everybody in this room knows that we need tax reform to make our 
businesses competitive in the world and bring American jobs back to 
America.
  Everybody in this room knows that Social Security and Medicare are on 
a pathway to insolvency and have to be shored up so that we can make 
our promises good to our seniors.
  Thank you, Mr. President, at long last for sitting down to talk. 
Maybe if we could spend more time talking and less time posturing, we 
might be able to deal with some of these very significant problems.
  Let's all pray that these talks are fruitful and improve the lives of 
all Americans.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.

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