End This Government Shutdown
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/10/04/your-weekly-address-end-government-shutdown
In this week’s address, President Obama said that
Republicans in the House of Representatives chose to shut down the government
over a health care law they don’t like. He urged the Congress to pass a budget
that funds our government, with no partisan strings attached. The President made clear he will work with
anyone of either party on ways to grow this economy, create new jobs, and get
our fiscal house in order for the long haul – but not under the shadow of these
threats to our economy.
Weekly Address
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/10/04/weekly-address-end-government-shutdown
Good morning. Earlier
this week, the Republican House of Representatives chose to shut down a
government they don’t like over a health care law they don’t like. And I’ve talked a lot about the real-world
consequences of this shutdown in recent days – the services disrupted; the
benefits delayed; the public servants kicked off the job without pay.
But today, I want to
let the Americans dealing with those real-world consequences have their
say. And these are just a few of the
many heartbreaking letters I’ve gotten from them in the past couple weeks –
including more than 30,000 over the past few days.
Kelly Mumper lives in
rural Alabama. She works in early education, and has three
children of her own in the Marines.
Here’s what she wrote to me on Wednesday.
“Our Head Start
agency…was forced to stop providing services on October 1st for over 770
children, and 175 staff were furloughed.
I am extremely concerned for the welfare of these children. There are parents who work and who attend
school. Where are they leaving their
children…is it a safe environment…are [they] getting the food that they receive
at their Head Start program?”
On the day Julia
Pruden’s application to buy a home for her and her special needs children was
approved by the USDA’s rural development direct loan program, she wrote me from
Minot, North Dakota.
“We put in an offer
to purchase a home this weekend, and it was accepted…if funding does not go
through, our chances of the American Dream [are] down the drain…We have worked
really hard to get our credit to be acceptable to purchase a home…if it weren’t
for the direct lending program provided by the USDA, we would not qualify to
buy the home we found.”
These are just two of
the many letters I’ve received from people who work hard; try to make ends
meet; try to do right by their families.
They’re military or military spouses who’ve seen commissaries closed on
their bases. They’re veterans worried
the services they’ve earned won’t be there.
They’re business owners who’ve seen their contracts with the government
put on hold, worried they’ll have to let people go. I want them to know, I read the stories you
share with me.
These are our fellow
Americans. These are the people who sent
us here to serve. And I know that
Republicans in the House of Representatives are hearing the same kinds of
stories, too.
As I made clear to
them this week, there’s only one way out of this reckless and damaging
shutdown: pass a budget that funds our government, with no partisan strings
attached. The Senate has already done
this. And there are enough Republican
and Democratic votes in the House of Representatives willing to do the same,
and end this shutdown immediately. But
the far right of the Republican Party won’t let Speaker John Boehner give that
bill a yes-or-no vote.
Take that vote. Stop this farce. End this shutdown now.
The American people
don’t get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their job. Neither does
Congress. They don’t get to hold our democracy or our economy hostage over a
settled law. They don’t get to kick a child out of Head Start if I don’t agree
to take her parents’ health insurance away. That’s not how our democracy is
supposed to work.
That's why I won't
pay a ransom in exchange for reopening the government. And I certainly won't
pay a ransom in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. For as reckless as a
government shutdown is, an economic shutdown that comes with default would be
dramatically worse.
I'll always work with
anyone of either party on ways to grow this economy, create new jobs, and get
our fiscal house in order for the long haul. But not under the shadow of these
threats to our economy.
Pass a budget. End
this government shutdown.
Pay our bills.
Prevent an economic shutdown.
These Americans and
millions of others are counting on Congress to do the right thing. And I will
do everything I can to make sure they do.
Thank you.