Relating to Consideration of Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, as we watch this train wreck in slow motion, this Republican shutdown of government, I ask myself, in trying to understand what the Republican majority is doing: Why--why are they seeking to close down government? Is it because some of them are against government and want to see it closed and--I think it's been quoted--this is exactly what they wanted?

That might be the case for a few of them, Mr. Speaker, but I don't think most Republicans want to abolish the United States of America Government. I think that's a position that very few Republicans hold.

So why are they closing the government? Now, I

understand that many of them don't like the health care reform, the Affordable Care Act, a law that was passed by the House and Senate, signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court; it's the law of the land. Some of them don't like that.

Do you know what? Some Americans are uncomfortable with that. They want to learn more about it: What does it mean to them? How does it help them afford health care? How does it help their families?

But the American people don't want to see our government close down over disagreeing with a particular law. That seems to be what my friends on the other side are arguing. They are arguing: Do you know what? We've been unable to repeal this law under the process set up by our Constitution. We've been unable to pass a bill in the House, pass a bill in the Senate, send it to the President, and have the President sign it. We've been unable to follow the Constitution to get what we want. So instead of doing that, we're just going to shut down government until we get what we want. By the way, we want a lot. We want to change a law that was passed by the House and the Senate and upheld by the Supreme Court that helps middle class Americans afford health care. We want to change the way that benefits are conducted. We want to change different tax systems.

These are all policy discussions to be had through our process. In fact, some of these things have actually been passed by the House of Representatives and either have been rejected by the Senate or are awaiting action in the Senate.

But that is the genius of the Founding Fathers in setting up our constitutional system in the separation of powers. It was to provide for a way to pass laws that had broad buy-in from the American people and had the checks and balances that have kept our democracy strong for over two centuries. Yet here today we are short-circuiting that. The Republicans are seeking to say: We are going to close down the entire Federal Government.

This is the most powerful, strongest country that the Earth has, the freest democratic Nation. We are going to shut down the government. We are going to shut down because we can't pass our laws the way we want them.

Do you know what? The country has had an election. The country has elected a President. This was discussed in the Presidential election. This was discussed in Senate elections over and over again.

In 5 minutes, the government will shut down. This bill does nothing to prevent that. Until the Republicans change their mind, we won't have an operating Federal Government.

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