Let Us Vote

Floor Speech

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, this is a critical moment for the 113th Congress of the United States. We have an opportunity to let this House work its will, to end the government shutdown, to protect the full faith and credit of our country, to show the whole world that after a 3-week bout with insanity, the duly elected Representatives of the people in this Congress finally came to their senses.

But I am concerned that that is not where we are heading here in the 11th hour of this crisis as we approach the precipice of the debt ceiling and the prospect of default. Instead of working together to develop a budget that would work for Americans, my colleagues across the aisle in the Republican Party continue to let reckless ideologues drive their agenda and drive all of us further into a national crisis.

I have the honor of serving on the Budget Committee; and along with Ranking Member Van Hollen, the Democratic members of that committee have been calling since the spring for a conference committee so that we could actually work out a budget that could work for both parties and for the American people, but the GOP leadership in this House has refused to appoint conferees, has refused to go into that negotiation. Why did they do that? Because they preferred the strategy of taking us to this point, into this crisis with the government shutdown, up to the edge of the cliff with the possibility of default because they wanted to maximize their leverage.

Why have they shut down the government? Why have they put us in this position? Well, we heard for months that it was their obsession with the Affordable Care Act, with repealing, delaying, defunding ObamaCare. Yet all of a sudden, 3 weeks into this crisis, the goalposts are moving. It is not so much about ObamaCare. Sometimes it is in, and sometimes it is out on their list of demands. What about the deficit and the debt? Sometimes that is part of the stated reason for this manufactured crisis.

Back to ObamaCare. There is no question about it that the CBO says that moving forward with the Affordable Care Act will actually improve our deficit, will actually help us better manage our long-term debt. We know that there are all sorts of things that we could do together if reducing the deficit and managing our debt was the goal. For example, we could pass bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform, which again the CBO tells us would lower our deficits, lower our national debt, but that doesn't seem to really be what this Republican-manufactured crisis is all about.

It calls to mind the farewell address of our first President--the Founder of our country, George Washington--who warned about political parties who were at war with their own government. He warned about factions that were driven to defeat other factions by the spirit of revenge and dissension and how that itself would become a frightful form of despotism.

Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that we are walking very close to that awful scenario that our first President dreaded. Now we are hearing a bit of good news from the other House that Senator Reid and Senator McConnell are close to a bipartisan agreement to help resolve this crisis. I have no doubt there would be enough votes in this House to pass that kind of agreement.

So to my Republican friends, let us vote on that deal or, even better, let us vote on the clean CR that has been pending in this House for weeks that could get us out of this crisis. It would temporarily fund the government at Republican funding levels while we work on a longer-term budget solution. Let us vote.

It seems to me that the GOP needs to simply take ``yes'' for an answer, allow this House to work its will and get out of this crisis. Unfortunately, we have heard from Senator Reid that there were deals reached weeks ago. When Speaker Boehner brought those deals back to this House, he found that the Tea Party faction in his caucus wouldn't support him, and, instead, they chose to shut this government down and take us into this crisis. They did something worse than that. They rigged the rules of this House with the so-called martial law that has prevented Democrats from offering any alternatives, any off-ramps for this crisis. They shut down the government, and they hardwired it to stay shut down, and now, like the dog that finally catches the car, my Republican friends don't know what to do with the situation they have created.

I have a suggestion. Instead of continuing to grope for overreaching concessions and fig leafs, cut your losses. Admit that this scorched-Earth politics of obstruction--this war against the very government that you were sent here to govern--is a bad idea. Let us vote on solutions to end this crisis.

We don't even need an apology for all of the damage you have caused--for the $160 million a day that has undermined our economic recovery and economic losses from this shutdown. We don't even need an apology for the thousands of Federal employees indefinitely furloughed, for the national parks and forests that have been shuttered, for the loans to farmers and families, who are trying to purchase homes, that have been held up. We don't need you to apologize for halting lifesaving research, for any of that.

Just let us vote to end this crisis. If you don't, don't bother apologizing, because the American people will never forgive the damage you have done to this country and to our standing in the world.

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