[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15929-15930]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          SHUTDOWN AND DEFAULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Speier) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, we are now 16 days into a government 
shutdown and standing on the precipice of defaulting on our debt. 
Families around the country are worrying if they will be able to pay 
their water bills, but the Members' gym has stayed open during the 
government shutdown so my colleagues can live rent free in their 
offices and use the gym to shower and shave.
  One of my colleagues who is using his office as a Holiday Inn has 
nearly 43,000 households on SNAP in his district. These people don't 
have the option of curling up in a government building or getting 
dinner at a congressional reception to cut costs, but my colleague 
does. The only inconvenience for him is that his office doesn't have a 
kitchen, so he stocks his office annex with a crock pot, an electric 
griddle, a microwave, a toaster, and a refrigerator. He told CBS News:

       You can put some frozen chicken in with some bouillon, some 
     vegetables. Let it simmer all day, and you are ready to rock 
     and roll.

  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. economy is not ready to rock and roll as long 
as Congress refuses to pay the government's bills. American small 
businesses are not ready to rock and roll when the markets worry that 
we will default and not pay the bills that we have already incurred. 
The American people are not ready to rock and roll when they don't know 
when the government will reopen to provide them with the services that 
they have already paid for but are not receiving.

[[Page 15930]]

  The House of Representatives is not a campsite. It is embarrassing 
that Americans have been kicked out of Yosemite and national parks 
across the country; yet Members sleep in their offices that taxpayers 
foot the bill for.
  As bad as this government shutdown is, however, the debate over the 
debt ceiling is taking this dysfunction nuclear. A default would bring 
on an economic catastrophe that would cost Americans who have been 
prudent with their money, paying their debts and investing in their 
401(k)s, billions of dollars in lost value in their investments, in 
their homes, in their jobs, and in increased lending rates.
  Every American in this country knows that every Member of the House 
of Representatives makes four times the amount of money than they do. 
We are paid to come up with solutions for the American people, not to 
sabotage their 401(k)s.
  This is what Warren Buffett said last week about trying to use the 
debt ceiling as a political ploy:

       It should be like nuclear bombs, basically too horrible to 
     use.

  In military terms, it is known as MAD, mutually assured destruction. 
Some on the other side of the aisle seem intent on pushing the button 
and sending our economy into a nuclear winter. Debt ceiling deniers 
have now emerged, espousing the belief that the debt ceiling is a 
figment of our imagination, that it is a part of a liberal agenda to 
get them to the negotiating table: We are not going to default, there 
is no default. Or: We shouldn't accept this as the date beyond which we 
can't go without what they call default. We can go a long time. We can 
go indefinitely without hitting default, says another.
  Mr. Speaker, a reckless faction of your party is not only holding 
your caucus hostage; it is holding the American people and the global 
economy hostage. Calling the dealings with this faction as 
``negotiating'' is absurd. The reality is there is no negotiating with 
this reckless faction, which seems bent on the destruction of the 
American economy and the full faith and credit of the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, these Members who are sleeping in their offices should 
be thinking of all of the Americans who will be sleeping in the streets 
if this reckless Republican faction gets its way.

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