Huffman Votes to Reopen Government, End Debt Ceiling Crisis

October 17, 2013

WASHINGTON­—Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) issued the following statement on House passage of the bipartisan agreement to open the government and avert default:

“Tonight we finally voted on a bipartisan bill to reopen our government and avoid a default. As soon as President Obama signs the bill, this national crisis will be over. The instigators achieved nothing; instead they hurt millions of people, damaged our economic recovery, further strained the public's trust and confidence in government, and needlessly cost the taxpayers billions of dollars,” Congressman Huffman said. “House Republicans may have lost, but this is not a victory for anyone; it's just the end of a shameful episode that never should have happened.”

Huffman held a Telephone Town Hall on Tuesday, October 15, and discussed  the government shutdown, debt ceiling crisis and what he is doing to reopen our government and avert economic catastrophe. More than 10,000 constituents participated in the call.

Audio of the Telephone Town Hall can be streamed HERE.

On Tuesday, October 15, Huffman took to the House Floor to denounce the House Republican Leadership’s continued refusal to allow a clean bill to reopen the government to come to a vote.

Click HERE to view Congressman Huffman’s remarks.

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A transcript of Congressman Huffman’s remarks from Tuesday may be found below:

“Thank you 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 three week bout with insanity, the dually elected Representatives of the people in this Congress finally came to their senses. But I’m concern that that’s not where we are heading in the eleventh hour of this crisis, here 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.

Now 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 refused to appoint Conferees, 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 - and yet all of a sudden three weeks into this crisis the goal posts are moving. It’s not so much about Obamacare - sometimes it’s in, sometimes it’s out on their list of demands. What about the deficit and the debts? Sometimes that’s part of  the stated reason for this manufactured crisis.

Well, back to Obamacare, there’s no question about it. The CBO says that moving forward with the Affordable Care Act will actually improve our deficit, will actually help us manage better our long term debt, and we know that there are all sorts of things we can 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 even be what this Republican manufactured crisis is all about.

It calls to mind the farewell address that 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 dissention and how that itself would become a frightful form of despotism. Well 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 an 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 worked 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 us out of this crisis.

But unfortunately, we’ve heard from Senator Reid that there were deals reached weeks ago and when Speak 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. And 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.

Well 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 the damage you’ve caused, for the 160 million dollars a day that has undermined our economic recovery and economic losses from the 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 trying to purchase homes that have been held up. We don’t need you to apologize for halting life-saving research, for any of that. Just let us vote to end this crisis, and 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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