Squander is the Word of the Day

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, the word of the day is squander, defined broadly as the majority party having the votes to pass solutions that fit what America needs and wants, but instead moves forward with an approach to appease an angry faction of their party, and in doing so advances nothing but its own political shortsightedness while making a mockery out of public policy. Squander.

In the House, we have had political theater of a piecemeal approach, where parks and cures for life-threatening diseases are used as rhetorical props. But this approach has done nothing to address the real danger to our national security and how this shutdown hinders our ability to keep Americans safe from terrorists.

The government shutdown has furloughed 70 percent of the intelligence community, 70 percent of the civilians in the intelligence community. The Director of National Intelligence called the government shutdown a, quote, ``dreamland,'' unquote, for enemies that want to steal our Nation's secrets, and said it ``seriously damages our ability to protect the security and safety of this Nation and its citizens.'' And with each passing day, he thinks the damage becomes more insidious.

Well, here we are talking about parks, talking about our venerable veterans. We haven't said a word, really, about our intelligence community. We have basically, and I say this to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, you have put out the welcome mat for every terrorist around this world to know that right now we are vulnerable.

Maybe it was a clever concept behind closed doors several weeks ago. Delay the individual mandate of the Affordable Health Care Act for 1 year in trade for the House GOP approval of a government funding bill. Ignore the fact that the Affordable Care Act is law, and that attempts to repeal it over 50 times have failed. Ignore the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled it is constitutional. Ignore the fact that 72 percent of the American people do not want to have the government shut down over the Affordable Care Act.

Ignore John McCain, who said ObamaCare will not be repealed, and it is irrational to think so. Ignore the fact that on the same day that my friends on the other side of the aisle were patting themselves on the back for shutting down the government, the health care marketplaces around this country were overloaded. More than 10 million people were on that Web site and calling that telephone number because they want health insurance.

My friends, to ignore is to be ignorant in this case. But take note: the real pain has started with the shuttering of many government services, the furloughing of 800,000 workers, and the real threat that people who depend on partial government assistance will get nothing.

My colleagues, we are squandering this moment to lead. Those on the other side of the aisle that are the majority are squandering their majority and replacing their principled views of government with fruitless extremist objectives.

Mr. Speaker, the last time I looked, Senator Cruz was not a Member of the House of Representatives. But somehow it appears that he is running the show over here.

The shutdown is keeping people from seeing their families. In San Francisco, Dave Donohue planned to take his wife and his 11-day-old child to meet the grandmother in Mexico. Baby Milo doesn't have a passport. And the passport office is closed. So they are going to have to forego that trip.

Danny Aiello, a retired beat cop from Philadelphia, brought to Washington, D.C., by his daughter and son-in-law because he had just lost his wife to cancer, was here to see the Washington monuments, except now he is seeing them all from the outside. Never going to go in to see the Air and Space Museum.

What do we tell Victoria Thomas, 26, who has a 4-year-old daughter, who cannot find child care now because there have been nine Head Start programs that have been closed? ``I can't afford child care with my limited resources,'' she said, as a single mom who is studying for a master's degree in business, and she worries that her daughter will fall behind. ``She is learning so much,'' she says. ``The program is preparing her for kindergarten next year.''

Mr. Speaker, the word is squander, and it's time for us to reopen the government.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source