Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, through the looking glass, ``curiouser and curiouser,'' said Alice. I'm confused. It started out as: We're going to shut down the government until we repeal ObamaCare. Then it was: We'll shut down the government until we delay ObamaCare or the individual mandate or repeal the device tax, or something. Now, I just heard the gentleman from Texas say we're shutting down the government because we're concerned about the deficit. What is it? Which is it?

Come on, you're concerned about the deficit. We have a process. It's called the annual budget process in appropriations. It's a law. We should follow the law, which means temporarily continue the government. We don't shut down the government to deal with our differences in how much money we want to spend each year for what agencies.

This is getting absurd. We're now going to pay Federal employees to not work. Let's just declare them all ``essential,'' make them come back to work, and then we'll pay them later. Maybe in the Republican world that makes sense.

No. Let's just end the shutdown, bring them all back to work, give them their regular pay now, let them have their leave, and move forward with negotiations over the budget.

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