Date: 2013-10-16
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. 17 days ago. I came to the House floor to talk about how disappointed I was that a topic of such importance. the medical device tax repeal or delay. was being reduced to the level of political squabbling over whether we are going to continue the function of the government. but here we go again. We are here again to vote on that same policy 17 days later. but we have further delved into the realm of pettiness because the Republican leadership continues to insist that our economys future should be tied to whether Members of Congress. Cabinet members. the President. and our staffs should have the same health care insurance that other Federal employees receive. I am surprised. Are we really going to keep the United States Government shut down and threaten the full faith and credit of our country based on whether Members of Congress. our staffs. and the President and Cabinet get the same health care that thousands of other Federal employees get? It is bordering on pettiness. It sounds so silly to be able to deal with this. I was fortunate enough. I worked 23 years at a company at which they not only subsidized my health insurance. but they paid for my familys. Governments all over the country do that. The State of Texas. where I am proud to be from. pays for health insurance for State employees. The City of Houston has a health insurance plan for their employees that they help pay for. Harris County does it. All governments do that. Frankly. I represent a lot of petrochemical refineries and plants. Exxon. Shell. the ones who are serving our area. all of them have "subsidies." as the Republicans call it. for the health care for their employees. and yet. on the floor of the House. we think it is a dirty word. Our goal with the Affordable Care Act was to have everyone in the country have access to quality health care. not just because you got to work for the government or work for an Exxon or a Shell. which are great companieseveryone. So that was the goal of it. If you look at the national exchanges. if we ever get the computers fixed. we will see that. People will have the option to be able to have the same options that we have as Members of Congress or as Federal employees or that I had in the private business that I helped manage. That is what we are talking about. But to put that in a continuing resolution to open up the government and to make it that you have to vote for this or we are not going to pay the TSA. who screens us when we go into the airportthey are working. but they are worried about getting their paychecks. so is the military. so are a lot of folks. But to make that the endall. the beallI cant believe our forefathers and our veterans sacrificed for our country to make sure we have this freedomto lower it to the level of we are not going to vote for this unless we can take away the Presidents health care or the Cabinet officials or the Members of Congress. Our constituents expect us to act more responsibly. We should be ashamed of what this House of Representatives has come to over the last number of months. because we need to talk about making sure our country continues to grow. What is so sad is that. last week. some of us were briefed that every week of the government shutdown costs 0.3 percent of our gross domestic product. We want jobs. but here we are. 2 weeks and going on 3 weeks into the shutdown. and we are adding to that unemployment because of what the Federal Government is doing. Again. we should be embarrassed at what the House of Representatives is doing. Let us pass a continuing resolution. Let us pay our debts that this House of Representatives has voted for. Every appropriations bill. every dime of that $17 trillion passed this House of Representatives. Why would we not want to pay those debts? That is like my saying in Texas. Oh. I dont want to pay my house note. Well. maybe they will not come after me the first month. but under Texas law. in 90 days. you are going to get your house sold from under you if you dont pay your debts. The Federal Government at various times has not paid its debts. one by technical glitch in 1979. but the last time we didnt pay our debts was when the British army burned the Treasury. I would hope this stance we have now is not compared to the British army burning our Treasury. We need to pass a continuing resolution. deal with our budget. and make sure we dont hurt the full faith and credit of our country.