Obamacare
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Minnesota for helping to lead this effort today with our other colleague from Tennessee and all of our colleagues who are going to be here today.
I think it's really important that we shed a lot of light on a couple of issues that are going to be discussed. They were discussed in the 1 minutes this morning, and I want to compliment all of our colleagues who came down to talk about this problem that we are facing with the implementation of this unaffordable, unworkable, unfair, unpopular bill that was passed in an unprecedented way, as you said.
I also think that it's important that we throw light on the issue of what happens if our government is shut down. As our colleague, Congressman Dent from Pennsylvania, was saying, House Republicans want this government to stay open. We have acted to keep the government open. We don't want a government shutdown. We voted a week ago to pass a continuing resolution in advance of the new fiscal year, which lays out how the government will be funded, how the troops will be paid, how the parks will remain open, and how day-to-day government operations will continue. Yes, we oppose this bill, but we want to keep our government running.
The Democrats in the Senate have yet to pass this legislation to protect the American people from a shutdown or from the unfairness of ObamaCare. America is waiting for the Senate. Because the clock is running, the country is nearing the edge of the 18th government shutdown since 1976.
I want to thank our colleague, particularly Michele Bachmann, for calling to our attention the article that ran in The Washington Post this week that pointed out the history of government shutdowns. We don't believe in government shutdowns on the Republican side, but contrary to what our colleagues are trying to say and what the President is saying, this is not an issue that has been brought on only by Republicans in the past. Government shutdowns have occurred with Democrats and Republicans in the White House. They have occurred with divided Congresses, with a Congress of one party and a White House of the other. They have even occurred when Democrats have controlled both the Congress and the White House.
We don't want to add another chapter to that history, so we have asked our colleagues in the Senate to do their part. We know that the threat of a shutdown breeds uncertainty and confusion for American families when too many are already concerned about how ObamaCare will be making unwelcome changes to their health care and making health care more expensive, as has been pointed out by several of our colleagues today. So we want the Senate to act, to follow the lead of the House and move the country away from shutdown and away from ObamaCare. By the way, let's point out again that our bill passed with bipartisan support.
The right step to take is to repeal ObamaCare--at the very least to delay ObamaCare--because of the problems that it presents and not shut down the government. That's the message Republicans are bringing. Unfortunately, it has not been the message that has been out there in the media. I am thankful, again, to my colleagues for being here today and leading this Special Order to make sure that, at least here, we can get that message out.
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