Reopen the Government and Pay Our Country's Debt

Floor Speech

Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I think it is so important as we come here today to take us back where this whole shutdown-debt ceiling crisis began, and that is when my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said that we will not open and fund the government, we will not pass a continuing resolution unless you repeal, defund, delay the Affordable Care Act.

That was their mantra. They were standing at those microphones right over there. They were gleeful; they were pounding the table; and they were really thinking that--you know what?--the Democrats are willing to go back to a day when Americans were filing for bankruptcy because they got sick or got injured. They really believed we were going to allow America to go back to a day when you couldn't get insurance if you had a preexisting condition. They thought we were going to return to a time when we weren't trying to address this big doughnut hole that they created with Medicare part D.

We told them, it is not because we spent so much time on it, that it is not because you tried to repeal it 45 times and you failed, that it is not because the Supreme Court said it was constitutional, and that it is not because in the last election the Presidential candidate who said I am going to implement health care reform in the Affordable Care Act won and beat the one who said he would repeal it by 5 million votes. Those are not the reasons we stand here.

We stand here because we have little kids and seniors and hardworking Americans who go bankrupt when they get sick, who sometimes are denied access to care which results in loss of life. That is why we said no. We said we can talk about a lot of things--we can negotiate on anything you want--but we are not going to say, if we repeal, delay, defund the Affordable Care Act, then you will do what it is your duty to do, which is to open the government.

So my friends in the Republican caucus knew that--you know what?--the American public is on to our game. We are trying to do everything we can to trick people into thinking it is not really us who are being obstructionists, extortionists, hostage takers. We don't want people to believe that is really us doing it. So, you know what? We have got to say something else. We have got to do something else.

Many of you, Mr. Speaker, who were listening heard a very interesting dialogue that occurred--and you can look it up on YouTube--between Senator Rand Paul and Senator Mitch McConnell, in which they were sort of gaming out what words they should use and how they should sort of reposition themselves to look reasonable, to say, oh, let's negotiate, let's negotiate, when, in fact, they knew that their position was to defund the Affordable Care Act. They started saying things like, Negotiate. Let's negotiate. They even came up with this hash tag, Let's talk.

The bottom line is it was 6 months ago when we wanted to talk--and we still do--but we are not going to say we are going to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and put millions of Americans back in jeopardy, and then as a condition of doing that you will reopen the government.

What they are trying to do, Mr. Speaker, is to say, in exchange for throwing people off health care, they will then do their job. In exchange for putting people back at the tender mercies of an insurance company, they will do their job.

Now, Mr. Speaker, things have gotten really bad because the fact is we are only a few days--we are two days--away from when the Treasury has said they cannot engage in extraordinary measures anymore, that they cannot negotiate America's bills anymore, and on October 17 it is D-day. We have got to do something or bad things are going to happen.

As Mr. Himes pointed out, no one really knows everything that is going to happen because no Congress in the history of the United States has ever failed to pay its bills. It will be the Republican House majority that has failed America for the first time in American history by refusing to pay our bills, not because we don't have the money, not because we are not good for it, but because their political ideology dictates that, so they are sacrificing our Nation.

Here is what is going to happen. We don't know all, but we do know a few things. We know there will be higher interest rates and less access to business loans needed to finance payrolls. We know the businesses that want to build inventories and invest in equipment and in construction are going to face higher interest rates. It is going to cost more to do that. We know it is estimated that there are about 3.4 million veterans who may see their disability benefits in jeopardy. We will see catastrophic economic effects to our economy. We could see the average home buyer pay an extra $100 a month.

Mr. Speaker, I will just close by saying this: we have to get our business in order, and I urge Republican moderates to join with us to reopen the government and to pay this country's debts.

Source