Stop Playing the Blame Game, Name Calling, and Finger Pointing

Floor Speech

Mr. BERA of California. Mr. Speaker, day No. 4 of a government shutdown, day No. 4 of not doing our job.

To the folks in the gallery, if you sit here all day, you're going to hear people throwing the blame game and playing that blame game--Democrats blaming Republicans, Republicans blaming Democrats, the House blaming the Senate, the Senate blaming the House, and the House blaming the President. Let's stop this madness, and let's stop the blame game. Let's stop pointing fingers at one another, and let's just do our job.

Mr. Speaker, it's time we did our job. You're the Speaker of this House. This is the House that has both Democrats and Republicans. It's time that you were Speaker of this House.

Yesterday, one of our colleagues said that we're being disrespected by the other party and we won't be disrespected by the other party. This can't be about Democrats looking for respect from Republicans and Republicans looking for respect from Democrats. That's the problem. We've lost the respect of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, this body, Congress, has lost the respect of the American people, and that's who we should be looking for respect from. Eighty-seven percent of America feels like Washington, D.C., is going in the wrong direction.

Mr. Speaker, let's spend time working to earn the respect and the trust of the American people. This has to be bigger than political parties. It has to be about America.

Here is who deserves our respect: the United States Capitol Police. Did you see how great they were yesterday? They performed admirably. They did everything that they had to do, and they did so without getting paid. They're not getting paid. They show up, though. They do their duty, and they do their work. They deserve our respect, and they have the respect of everyone in this body and the United States because they're doing their job. Mr. Speaker, if we want to get their respect back, we'd better do our job.

Here's some other people who deserve our respect. When I visited our troops in Afghanistan earlier this year, those are some of the most professional young men and women that I've ever met. When they're called and asked to serve, they just show up for duty. They do what they have to do--one tour, two tours, three tours. They are doing their jobs. They deserve our respect.

Mr. Speaker, if we want the respect of the American people, we need to do our job as Democrats and Republicans. You're Speaker of the House. Bring us together. The leadership needs to start coming together and doing their job. That's how we get the respect back.

Mr. Speaker, the men and women behind us, they show up every day. They're doing their job, but they're not getting paid. The way we can show our respect for them is let's open the government up, and let's make sure that the men and women in America get paid. Let's start rebuilding jobs. That's how we can earn their respect. Let's do our job.

Mr. Speaker, every year, thousands of Americans show up, young college students show up in Washington, D.C., to serve their country. They show up as unpaid interns. They show up as low-paid staff members. In my office, we have a young college graduate, Kelvin Lum. He shows up for work every day. He helps me deal and talk and manage the constituent requests that are coming in. He's not getting paid. Let's show our respect to those folks that care deeply about our country, about the United States of America. Let's open government up again.

Mr. Speaker, it's time that we work to get the respect of the American public. Let's do our job.

My father taught me a little bit about respect. He said: Son, the way you get respect is you don't ask for it. The way you get respect is you go out and do your job. You work hard. You do it with integrity. You don't blame others when things fail; you just work harder.

Mr. Speaker, let's get the trust and the respect of America back again by doing our job, which is opening up government, which is starting to put together a real budget that relieves our children and grandchildren of crushing debt that's coming at them. Let's do our job as Democrats and Republicans, listening to each other, taking the best ideas out of both parties and doing our job.

Mr. Speaker, if we want to get the respect of America back, we will do our job. The Democrats and Republicans in this body are ready to open government. We have the votes. It's up to you now just to bring legislation to the floor to let us open government again, to make sure our Capitol Police are paid, to make sure the men and women serving this country are paid, and to make sure that tourists that are coming to the United States Capital to visit and show their respect for America are able to visit the monuments.

Mr. Speaker, it's in your hands. Let's do our job, and let's get that respect back.

Source