Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I thank the ranking member on the Budget Committee. I know he has a lot on his plate. He and I work well together, and I thank him. Mr. President, I want to put on the Record my strong support for Congressman Mel Watt to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. May I do that.

Mrs. BOXER. I hope we have a resounding vote for Mel Watt. He is a terrific person. He has the heart, intelligence, and the experience.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, as critical decisions are being made about the future of the housing finance system, it is time that we place permanent leadership at the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, FHFA. Congressman Mel Watt has both the experience and the expertise to help create a system that ensures access to safe and affordable credit and other housing options for all Americans. Congressman Watt brings with him over 40 years of experience in housing, real estate, and other financial services issues. From 1970 to 1992, he ran a law practice focusing on business, real estate, municipal bonds, and community development, learning the details of housing finance from the ground level. He was first elected to represent the 12th district of North Carolina in 1992 and has served over 20 years on the House Financial Services Committee. In addition, his work on the House Subcommittees on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, and on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit has given him the necessary policy expertise to run the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congressman Watt's experience and expertise made him one of the first policymakers to recognize how predatory underwriting practices were threatening the larger housing market and economy as a whole. Years before the foreclosure crisis began, Congressman Watt, along with Congressman Brad Miller, introduced the Prohibit Predatory Lending Act in 2004. They reintroduced it every Congress after that until it was adopted as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In March 2007, only 2 months after the Democrats became the majority party in Congress, Congressman Watt joined Chairman Barney Frank in introducing a bill to reform regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill passed both the House and the Senate with bipartisan support and now called the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, HERA, was signed into law by President Bush in July 2008. Congressman Watt also brings with him the experience and balance in vision to represent all stakeholders fairly, and has broad support from both industry and consumer groups. ``The National Association of Realtors has long appreciated Representative Watt's proven ability and willingness to engage the industry, stakeholders, and consumers throughout his service in the House of Representatives. Watt has always aimed to craft policy that is fair, garners wide consensus, and allows all parties to move forward, all of which are vital qualities for the Director of the FHFA.'' The Mortgage Bankers of America said, ``Congressman Watt would bring considerable experience to the post of Director [and] a strong base of understanding on a wide variety of public policy issues related to housing finance. . . . [W]e would urge the Senate to approve his nomination.'' The Center for Responsible Lending said, ``Watt brings to FHFA an ability to work with a variety of stakeholders, with many competing interests and perspectives. He has a track record of crafting practical solutions and alliances for a complex, dynamic marketplace. He is consistently thoughtful, fair, and respectful of all opinions, and his policies have been guided by a concern for all Americans.'' The National Association of Home Builders said, ``We applaud the nomination of Representative Watt to this important position. After four years in conservatorship, the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stands at a crossroad. Rep. Watt brings years of experience to this position at a pivotal moment as our nation's housing market recovers. NAHB looks forward to working closely with Rep. Watt to help address the many complex challenges facing the U.S. housing finance system upon his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.'' The Center for American Progress said, ``We believe that Mr. Watt has the vision, expertise, and experience necessary to provide strong leadership for FHFA. His personal background and professional experience have provided him with a deep commitment to affordable housing and sustainable credit, which not only support a robust housing market, but also provide shelter and opportunity for America's families and spur economic growth for the nation as a whole.'' The United States Conference of Mayors said, ``It is not surprising that Representative Watt has bipartisan support in the Senate. His record shows that he can work across the political aisle finding solutions to complex problems. Time and time again, mayors have been impressed with his thoughtful approach in developing solutions that are mindful of all stakeholders. As the nation's housing market climbs back as a major part of our economy, we need such a leader as Mel Watt at the head of FHFA.'' Mr. President, I ask to speak as in morning business for the rest of my time.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am so pleased to be on the floor with some very good news out of California and how ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act, is working in our great State. People are phoning. People are going online. People are talking with insurance agencies, with health insurance companies. They are getting health care coverage, some for the very first time, and for many for the first time it is affordable; all good policies--good policies that will be there when they are needed. We know a small percentage of people, as the President addressed yesterday, are being told their old policies are not going to be offered to them anymore, but all of those folks know they can get better policies. They can't be turned away. There will be competition for their business. Many of them will get subsidies. So at the end of the day, this health care story, although quite bumpy, as we know the prescription drug launch was years ago--we know it is bumpy, and we are angry on both sides of the aisle that it is bumpy--but at the end of the day, I think it is going to be good. I wish to read some of the comments made by people who have logged in to ``Covered California,'' which is coveredCA.com. Here is one who just got an affordable health care policy: Thank you so much, President Obama! And everyone who works there. This was soooo much easier than I thought it would be! I am soooo grateful to get medical insurance! Thank you! Another: Great phone support, thank you. No wait time, the assistant answered all my questions clearly. Another: GREAT JOB! EASY! WHAT'S All THE FUSS ABOUT? Another: Wow. This was easy and my monthly premiums are significantly less than my previous employer's health care coverage before the Affordable Care Act. One who I thought truly summed it up: Thank God Almighty I'm free at last! These are the real people. These are not people who have a political agenda. They are real people. They are Democrats. They are Republicans. They are Independent voters. They have had a hard time getting health insurance and, because of the Affordable Care Act, with all of its glitches on the national Web site--and we acknowledge them--it is working. It is working in our State, and eventually, once that national Web site is fixed, it will work for everybody. I wish to put some real numbers on this: 180,000 Californians have begun the process of signing up for coverage--180,000 families. Imagine the relief they have. Over 2 million unique visitors have been to coveredCA.com. There have been 200,000 calls to coveredCA.com's call centers. The average wait time is under 4 minutes and the average total call time is less than 16 minutes for Californians enrolling in coverage and asking questions. We have 4,000 insurance agents and clinic workers trained so far and certified. They have their badges so they can offer, in person, help to those who are looking to enroll. Very recently I went to a clinic in my home county and I can tell my colleagues the excitement there is palpable. The doctors, the nurses, the assistants, the people in the waiting room, everybody knowing they can get either insurance on the exchange or insurance through an expanded Medi-Cal Program. We have millions of people who will be able to sign up on the exchanges. We have about 1.4 million people who could sign up for the expanded Medi-Cal Program. Do I have any time remaining?

Mrs. BOXER. Five seconds. I hope we get these two wonderful nominees on the way to confirmation today. I hope we will be patient and that we will all work together to fix the problems with health care. I think, at the end of the day, it is going to be great. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I was unable to attend the rollcall vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Patricia Ann Millett, of Virginia, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, since the government shut down about 16 days ago, I have been coming to the floor of the Senate to express my chagrin at this manufactured crisis. Then, of course, the second manufactured crisis, the crisis of perhaps doing the unthinkable: a default, where we would become a nation that did not pay our bills for the first time in our history. I think history is going to analyze this period of time in our Nation's governance and will not look fondly upon what has happened here. Just this morning, I held a press conference, as I am chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, to talk about what is happening across the country in this shutdown--superfund sites, more than 500 not being cleaned up. We had businesspeople there, small businesspeople who have their businesses near wildlife refuges. This is the season where people go hunting and fishing and spend their dollars to help support the tourist industry in our great Nation. In many States tourism is No. 1, 2, or 3. In my State, California, it is the No. 3 industry. So when a park closes down or the Army Corps recreation land closes down or the refuges close down, this is not just sad because that is not the right thing to do for the environment, it is sad because many people rely on those beautiful areas being open to the public. We need to keep the doors of the government open to the people. This is a government of, by, and for the people. Our government should never be closed. That does not mean we are going to agree on every law or every regulation or every single thing that happens in government. We are always going to have disagreements. I have said here quite often, I have served with five Presidents-- three Republican Presidents, two Democratic Presidents. I am a Democrat, and there were many times I did not agree with my President, whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. But I knew there were ways to win the day. You have to stick to your principles and fight the battles and do everything you can to win the moment, to change the law, to change the way a law is enforced, to write a new law, to repeal an old law, but you do it within the framework of governance, not within the framework of chaos. There is never a reason--never a reason--to threaten to close the government. There is never a reason to threaten to default on our debt. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article that just hit now from Business Insider be printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. Here is what has happened because of this 16-day shutdown. Here is what has happened because that shutdown was paired with a flirtation with a default. The S&P has cut the annualized U.S. growth view closer to 2% from 3%. . . . That is a percentage point off growth. This is what Bloomberg is reporting. The ratings agency--which recognizes the Senate deal will be approved-- So this is after they recognize the deal will be approved. And thank God it looks as though it will be. says that the shutdown has taken-- Mr. President, hear this: $24 billion out of the economy and cut 0.6% off of yearly fourth quarter GDP growth. This is what is so important, and I hope everyone within the sound of my voice hears this: ``If people are afraid that the government policy brinksmanship will resurface again, and with it the risk of another shutdown or worse, they'll-- The people will-- remain afraid to open up their checkbooks. That points to another Humbug holiday season,'' S&P wrote in a release. They also said the impact of the debt ceiling is getting worse by the day for the U.S. economy. There is a full release, and I have put that in the Record. To speak in layman's terms, what the economists are saying is this shutdown and this flirtation with a default has taken a huge bite out of our economy--a huge bite. Why did we face it? Because some folks do not like the health care reform act. It is their total right not to like it. It is their total right not to love it. It is their total right to try and change it. That is all their total right. But you cannot shut down the government and stamp your feet and say: Because I don't like this and I don't like who is President, I am shutting down the government. Now here is the good news--and it is good news: Bipartisanship here in the Senate is leading America out of this painful, partisan, self- inflicted crisis. As someone from the largest State in the Union, I can tell you, relief does not even begin to describe how I feel. I am also grateful--grateful--to the two leaders who came together, the Democratic leader and the Republican leader of the Senate, both who have had many disagreements and will continue to in the future about the proper road ahead, but when history called them, they were there. They were able to set aside their differences and reach an agreement to open up this government, to pay our bills, and to set out a path to negotiation on all those differences that we know we have between the two parties--very legitimate differences. I think what we learned, as we read the S&P comments here, is that this has to end, this brinkmanship has to end. We have to say as Americans: You do not have to shut the government down. You do not have to threaten to default. That is not the way we should proceed. It is too painful for this Nation. It is too costly. Mr. President, $24 billion--that is what S&P puts on it. That is what is taken out of the economy. That does not even include what it costs us as a Federal Government to shut down, to reopen, to start again. But bipartisanship here in the Senate is leading the way forward. We always are told: If you do not know history, you are doomed to repeat it. That is the reason why I have tried--and many others have on, frankly, both sides--to come down here and talk about the mess we have been in. I would like to say if you are walking down the street and it is a pretty nice day, and you feel good, and the Sun is a little bit behind the clouds but looks as if it is going to come out, you have a few problems at work you have to work on, you have a couple of kids you are worried about, you are thinking about how you are going to go on that next vacation, but you feel pretty good and optimistic--you have problems but everything is manageable--why would you hit yourself in the head with a brick at that very moment? That is really what this self-inflicted wound on our Nation has been about. Yes, we have our problems. Yes, we are coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Yes, we have to deal with deficits, debts, with education, with the environment, with climate change. We can go on and on. Yes, America has its issues. Of course, we have. But we do not need self-inflicted wounds. We have enough issues that are critical, including world peace and Iran's nuclear ambitions and Syria's chemical weapons. I serve on the Foreign Relations Committee. Everything has taken a back seat to this situation. Now I am very happy. I learned that the House is planning--assuming this all goes well tonight and everybody votes to open up this government and pay our bills--that the House is going to take up the Water Resources Development Act next week. That is a bill that passed here by more than 80 votes. It is critical. It addresses flood control. It addresses dredging of our ports. It has a recreation piece. It has a lot of important policy in it to help move our Nation forward. Most important, 500,000 jobs depend on our passing WRDA. So from what I have read, that WRDA bill is going to come forward, and I am very pleased. Then we will take our bills to conference. That is the way we do things here. We resolve our differences in a conference. I feel Chairman Shuster and I can do that with our colleagues. We will have a vote on something that creates jobs and moves us forward. In the meantime, we have been mired for 2 weeks in a government shutdown and a frightening inching up to the default date. It has taken the wind out of our sails, the winds out of America's sails. It has taken our energy. All of us are very, shall I say, we are still even a little anxious until this is done. It has been a couple of weeks of anxiety, of great difficulty. Here we are. What about the people out there who have suffered, who have worked without a paycheck--worked without a paycheck--policemen, firemen, all of our workers still working without paychecks. We are on the verge of correcting that in moments. I can only say I am very thankful to our two leaders. I am very thankful to the bipartisan team. I do not want to start naming names because I am fearful I will forget some. But I know Senator McCain was part of it, Senator Collins, Senator Donnelly, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Heitkamp. I know I am leaving people out which I did not want to do. I think Senator Johanns was part of the team, Senator Flake, Senator Manchin, Senator Shaheen, Senator Kirk. I am ever so grateful. I just thought of Senators Ayotte and Murkowski. I think that may cover it--Senator King--doing this by memory. They got together when things looked grim. They said the Senate is going to lead. I am so grateful to them because even as things faltered, they were still at it, still working. Senator Pryor was part of that group. They did not give up. To me, that is so important. We need to talk to each other. We need to work together. How did we get 80-some votes for a WRDA bill? It was bipartisan. How did we get all of those votes we had last time for the highway bill? It was bipartisan. We worked hard. As chairman of that EPW Committee, the things we get done are all bipartisan. When we get into our corners it is not good. When we try to use as leverage the very government itself or the debt ceiling itself, it does not work. In closing, I am going to say again what this article says from S&P: If people are afraid that the government policy brinkmanship will resurface again, and with it the risk of another shut down or worse, they'll remain afraid to open up their checkbooks. That points to another Humbug holiday season. Meaning the Christmas season, which is so critical to our economy. We need to learn from this sad history of the last few weeks; that, yes, we will have our disagreements. That is the greatness of our Nation; that we do have the freedom of thought, we do have different political parties, we do have different ways of looking at issues. It is fine, but do not ever shut down the government, do not ever play games with the full faith and credit of America. Let's get to the negotiating table and we will be just fine. We will work out those differences. The last thought is elections have consequences. This is where we battle it out. In the next one we are going to battle this out. That is important. We never said it would be smooth sailing, but we have to keep the government open and we have to pay our bills. I hope that is what we learned. I am looking forward to the next hour and a half or so. Maybe we will be voting a little sooner. I thank the Presiding Officer for his leadership in all of this darkness of time. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to use as much time as I might consume.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, the Senator from South Dakota has pointed out how concerned he is about jobs and economic growth. He is concerned about our not doing enough appropriations bills. He is concerned that we have not resolved our differences in the conference. I want him to know, since he asked for bipartisanship, that as a Democrat, I am concerned about pay and jobs and economic growth. I am concerned that we have not had any appropriations bills. I am concerned that we have not gone to the budget. But I need to speak the truth, and the truth is in the record. Why don't we have appropriations bills? Because the Republicans filibustered our very first bill, and when we tried to get it done, they would not give us the votes, so it was taken off the floor. Senator Murray and Senator Collins--our moderate Republican colleague-- were very upset about that. The Republicans filibustered the very first appropriations bill we tried to get through, and it was clear they were going to continue to filibuster each one. So to come down here and lament the fact that we didn't take up appropriations bills flies in the face of recent history. My friend laments the fact that we have not had a chance to discuss what he now sees as a target for cuts in Medicare and Social Security. He calls them entitlement programs. That is their new thing now. They want to cut those programs. Well, you know what. We have said open the government, let's pay our bills, and we will negotiate, listen, and talk. Our friends on the Republican side stopped us from going to a budget conference 21 times, and now they have shut down the government. All you have to do is understand why. They were very clear. They don't like the Affordable Care Act. I have come to the floor, as I have before during this government shutdown that is in its 15th day, to raise the alarm about the harmful, terrible, hurtful impacts on America and its people as a result of 15 days of not having access to their government. Who are they punishing? The people of this Nation. This is their government. Open the door and let them in. Let them talk to us. Let them tell us about the legislation they want us to proceed to. Let them not suffer, as they are in my State and in many States because the government is shut down. In a moment, I will talk about some of the ways my people are hurting. They shut down the government because they didn't like the Affordable Care Act. I am so happy to say that Covered California-dot-com-- coveredCA.com, which is our Web site--has had more than 1.5 million unique visits to the site. The call volume to the service center is 104,000-plus. The average call wait time is now 1 minute 55 seconds. The average call-handling time from the time you get on until the time you get off and get your questions answered is less than 15 minutes. Our cumulative applications are approaching 100,000. Tens of thousands have already completed the signups. This is why they shut down the government. They don't want that to move forward. I will tell some stories about health care reform in my State. Rakesh Rikhi of San Jose is now paying $950 a month to insure himself, his wife, and his two children with Kaiser Permanente. According to the NBC station in the Bay area, Rakesh was stunned to learn that through Covered California he can get a similar Kaiser plan for his family for $400 less a month. So when my friend stands here and says premiums are going up, ask Rakesh. He is getting a plan for his family for $400 less a month. He quickly did the math, and when he hung up the phone and signed up, he found out he is saving $5,000 a year. Why do the Republicans want to shut down the government and stop somebody like that from getting a plan? I think they have to look into their hearts. Rakesh owns an auto repair shop. He has four employees. He is hoping that with the savings he will be able to offer his workers medical insurance. He cannot wait to sign up and complete the application. He looks forward to feeling relief from the financial pain of skyrocketing insurance costs. Then there is Laura Hunt of Modesto. She lost her husband's employer- based coverage when he was killed in a car crash in 2006. She is suffering from income loss and the painful loss of a spouse. She contacted Covered California and found out she could have an Anthem Blue Cross policy for a net cost of $23 a month. Why do my friends on the other side of the aisle want to stop Laura Hunt of Modesto, who lost her husband's employer-based coverage when he was killed in a car crash, stop her from getting affordable health care? Kevin Burke, an assembly worker, told the Fresno Bee he had been out of work for 2 years and now he qualifies for Medicaid and he is going to be OK, and he is not going to wait until he is rushed to an emergency room. Why do my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to stop Kevin Burke of Fresno from getting affordable health insurance? They need to look into their hearts. Then there is Rufina Arango, a diabetic. At Vista Family Health Center she filled out an application for coverage through a significant expansion of Medi-Cal. Rufina and her family lost their health insurance several years ago when her husband was laid off after working for 22 years. She said: It's so great. It's going to help so many of us. If not for ObamaCare, many of us would not qualify for health insurance. I could go on and on with these stories. I don't have the time to do it. But I am going to keep on adding these stories to the Congressional Record so some day, when people look back at this moment in history, they will realize that when we stood for the people and their right to have affordable health care, that we did it for a very good reason. Some day in the future people will say: You mean there was a time when we had 40 million people without insurance? Are you kidding? But that is the moment we are in now. We are either going to stand sentry, as my friend Barbara Mikulski always says, for a law that is going to help people, or just walk away. No law is perfect. Of course there are glitches and issues. We are very happy to talk about making it better-- very happy. The President is as well. He said as much. I want everyone to read an opinion piece that ran in the Washington Post recently, a couple of days ago, by one of my constituents. Her name is Janine. Janine Urbaniak Reid is a writer, and so she has a beautiful way of expressing herself. She talks about her loving son, Mason, who has brain cancer and who has had to undergo multiple surgeries. Listen to this: He would have hit his lifetime limit on the policy and the family would have been driven into-- her words-- the financial abyss if it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act. She writes that the family: Thanks God and whoever else would listen for our good fortune to have coverage. She ends her piece with this line: If I could get those who are trying to repeal this law on a conference call, I would explain this to them. I would tell them that while they were busy trying to derail the Affordable Care Act over the past 2 years, Mason has again learned to walk, talk, eat, and shoot a 3-point basket. Why would anyone want to hurt that family and reverse our law, the Affordable Care Act, which is everybody's law, that says no more lifetime limits and no more annual limits. We have to ask the Republicans why they want to do it. They come to the floor and they say: Health care costs are rising; these things are happening; the sky is falling. But then we look at the facts, and the facts are that tens of thousands of people are signing up. Young people are now able to stay on their parents' policies until they are 26. There is no more preexisting condition bar. If a person has a preexisting condition, they can still get insurance. There are so many good things. Women are no longer discriminated against. We used to pay twice as much as men. Being a woman was considered a preexisting condition. Can my colleagues imagine. Really? Because, yes, we can have babies and, yes, we had certain needs. Well, that is over now. We have equal rights in this Affordable Care Act. So the reason for the shutting down of the government was to stop the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is now signing up tens of thousands of people. It is saving a lot of our families. If the Republicans want to make improvements in it, that is fine. We are ready to do it. We will sit down with anyone and make this law better-- absolutely. But don't stop a law that passed almost 4 years ago and that was upheld by the Supreme Court; and, may I say, there was a big election about it. Remember what Mitt Romney said: The first thing I will do when I am your President is to repeal ObamaCare. That is my promise. And, boy, I believed him. It was a big issue. People decided that wasn't a good enough reason, and they reelected our President not in a small way but in a big way. So since there is no more reason to shut down the government because the Affordable Care Act can't be stopped--it is funded by a separate stream of funding, not appropriations--we begged the Republicans: Don't shut the government down over this. It is starting. It is happening. We are not going to repeal a law that took--I would say decades--to pass. So they didn't listen. Now they have stopped talking about the Affordable Care Act, pretty much. Now they have a whole different reason for shutting down the government and bringing us to the brink of default, and that reason is deficits--deficits. I want to speak a little bit about default because we are hours away from a default--the first time in this Nation's great history. If we don't take action, we will be unable to pay the bills that have been incurred in the past. It is important to note that we have gone through so many crises in our Nation--tough, tough, tough ones, including civil strife, world wars, the Great Depression. We always followed the Constitution that says, ``The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, shall not be questioned.'' This is in the Constitution. Yet from the people who say they are constitutionalists, they seem not to read that part, and they are flirting, for the first time, with allowing us to get to the point where we can't pay all of our bills. That is a default. Some of our colleagues come to the floor, and they say that it is not a default if we pay interest on the bonds. I am an old economics major, but I don't pretend to know everything about economics. But I can tell my colleagues this: The definition of a default in Black's Law Dictionary is ``the failure to make a payment when due.'' It doesn't say the failure to make an interest payment when due. It says, the failure to make a payment. That means to our contractors. That means to our workers. That means to our Social Security recipients. That means to our Medicare recipients. I have never seen such creative license taken when it comes to the default. A party that says it is fiscally conservative and then says it is not a default when we don't pay our bills as long as we pay China the interest we owe them? They have to be kidding. Take that to a town hall meeting, I say to my friend who represents so many wonderful seniors in the great State of Florida, Senator Nelson, who is on the floor. So we have never gotten to this point.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes, I am delighted to yield.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes. I can yield for as much time as my colleague wants.

Mrs. BOXER. I wish to thank my friend, and I hope we can continue to have these conversations. I thank the Presiding Officer for recognizing my friend so he could make his point. We are, as leader Pelosi said, playing with fire. We are playing with lives. One of our colleagues, Senator Casey from Pennsylvania, read the most amazing letter he got from a constituent and he said: She is so worried about her parents. They are in their 80s, and the fear--just the thought--of maybe not getting a check on time, that is making her parents physically ill. Why are we doing this? There is no reason to do this. This is a self- inflicted wound. The government shutdown is self-inflicted. Playing with the full faith and credit of the United States of America is a self-inflicted wound. Here is the thing: We know one of the heroes of the Republican Party and a hero to many Democrats is Ronald Reagan. Let's see what he said. I have it here. When it comes to the debt: The full consequences of a default, or even the serious prospect of a default, are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. That is Ronald Reagan. I was here during most of his presidency. I was over in the House. I think my friend from Florida was as well. Lord knows, we didn't agree with Ronald Reagan on everything. We agreed with him on some things, not all things, and we may have cast a vote or two to say that we object. But no one ever brought down the full faith and credit of the United States. He got 18 increases in the debt ceiling during his presidency--18 over 8 years. So there are two paths we can take. One path is a road that is a little bit bumpy and curvy and dusty, but at the end of the day it gets us where we want to go: Into a budget conference with our bills paid and our government open to the people. That is the bipartisan road. It is not easy. I am so proud of Senators Reid and McConnell for working on a plan that is something we can accept. No one on either side is thrilled about it, but we can accept it. It gets us out of this mess. That is the road we should take, the bipartisan road that gets us into the conference, that opens the doors of government, and pays our bills. The other road is the road the House Republicans are taking. That road is straight over the cliff. That is the partisan road, and we will dive down. We are not going to get there that way. We are going to bring a world of hurt on the people. What did the people do to deserve this? They did not vote the way my Republican friends in the House wanted them to. Sorry, that is what elections are about. I have been disappointed in election outcomes, believe me, more times than I care to admit. That is what elections are about. Well, once you get here, you have to work across party lines, and even though that road is bumpy and dusty and twisty and windy, and all the rest of it, that is the road that gets us where we have to go. That is the road Leaders Reid and McConnell had us on until a few hours ago when all of a sudden that road kind of shut down and the other road-- that partisan road--opened right up. I do not know why they are taking us down that road leading us off a cliff, with all the pain and suffering and job loss and economic chaos that awaits if we go down that road. But I honestly think we can get back on that bipartisan path. I do not know exactly how it will come about. How a bill becomes law is sometimes very complicated, but if the House sends us something, but we can work to make it bipartisan, we will be over this. We will be over this. We cannot have a strictly partisan political bill. I want to share with the Presiding Officer and with my colleagues the fact that Fitch, a credit rating service, has put our creditworthiness ``under review for a downgrade,'' according to the Associated Press. It means that America's AAA rating is in doubt. Let me say that again. Fitch, a credit rating service, put our creditworthiness ``under review for a downgrade,'' reports the Associated Press, putting America's AAA rating in doubt.

Mrs. BOXER. Just this afternoon, after the bipartisan plan was stalled here in the Senate and the House went forward with their partisan plan. What Fitch did is a warning sign. It is a warning sign for businesses in terms of their borrowing costs to expand. It is a warning sign to the job market if there is a lack of expansion by the business community. It is a warning sign that students could be paying higher interest rates to go to college. It is a warning sign for homeowners who could be paying higher rates for their mortgages. What is going on? We are just getting out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. The Presiding Officer is in the Senate because she fought so hard to get this economy on track, and people in her State said: That is what we need, and she came here. And now this self-inflicted wound just as we are coming out of it, just as we are starting to see progress? Why are we doing this? I want to talk a little bit about the bill the House is probably going to be voting on soon because it deals with a couple of things that are very problematic. I have already said it is a partisan bill. Speaker Boehner did not have a conversation with Leader Pelosi. He just wrote the bill with Republicans only, as opposed to Harry Reid, who wrote our compromise with the Republicans, taking us down that bipartisan road. My understanding is the House bill does something that is inexplicable to me and many others, both Republicans and Democrats. Listen to this. It says that no President--starting now with this President, and into the future--no President can take steps to avoid default. I do not get it. We all know a default is chaos. Everyone agrees it is terrible, it is bad. Republican and Democratic administrations for decades have taken measures when there is a little stall here or there and they need a few days to move around a bill or two. I cannot believe it--from a party that said: In case we default, we should prioritize who we pay--they will not allow future administrations to avoid a default and add a couple of days until we face that. Listen to what Tony Fratto said. He worked in the Bush administration as Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for Treasury. He said the following: Restricting Treasury's use of extraordinary measures is like restricting the fire department's use of hoses. So imagine if you said to a fire department: You can use every tool at your disposal, but you can't use a water hose to put out a fire. They are saying to the Treasury Department: You have to default even if there is an easy way to avoid it for a few days. What are they thinking? Do they want this administration and others to have an easier path to default? I thought we would all agree we certainly do not ever want to default but certainly give the ability of an administration--Democratic or Republican--to avert a default, if they can. Their language makes no sense. Then their other rider they have on there--it is my understanding; I could be wrong, but this is what I get from reading what their legislation, I think, is going to be--the other one involves treating congressional employees differently than any other employee in the country who works for a large employer by taking away the employer contribution that these workers have had for more than 50 years. I do not get it. Why do Republicans want to punish the people who work so hard for them and work so hard for our country? What are they thinking? Why do they want to treat people differently than all other workers who work for large employers? Honest to God, I do not get it. I do not get it. If they do not like the people who work for them, then get somebody else. But do not punish your staff, who work day and night. And I want to say, my staff and the Presiding Officer's who are working are working without a paycheck. Well, this is a lovely thing to say to these workers, some of whom earn very little: You are going to be the only people in the country now who cannot get an employer contribution. I do not get it. I really do not. So here we are: a government shutdown because the Republicans will not accept the fact that a law passed 4 years ago that they do not like, that the Supreme Court upheld--and they did not like that--there was an election over it--and they did not like that--so they stamped their feet and said: We are shutting down the government. And is there ever pain. I have communities in Los Angeles, one particular one where kids are getting nosebleeds. They are sick. They live near an industrial site, and the Environmental Protection Agency was about to find out what the problem was when they shut down. And those kids do not have an answer. I had a plane crash at a small airport in Santa Monica that killed four people. We do not know why it happened, but there is no investigation. It had to stop midstream. I do not have any inspectors on the ground inspecting clean air, clean water, safe drinking water. There are 505 superfund sites where cleanup has been suspended. I know the Presiding Officer has some in her State. These sites are toxic brews. They have arsenic. They have benzene. They have chlorine. They have everything in them that is bad for people to breathe. It is bad if it gets in the drinking water. No inspectors on the ground and no cleanup at 505 superfund sites. Remember Fukushima? I think everyone knows what Fukushima is. Well, now 92 percent of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have been furloughed. They have one mission, and I am quoting from their mission: ``to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials.'' The Army Corps manages 12 million acres of public lands. They host 370 million visitors annually. This is just the time of year when people still--just before we get to winter--can go out there and enjoy the recreation. No. They are closed. And just think about the mom-and-pop shops that exist around our parks, our Army Corps land, our wildlife refuges. Madam President, 561 refuges--they are all closed because of the shutdown. Hunting season is in full swing. I already talked about the fact that the National Transportation Safety Board furloughed 380 of its 400 employees, and they have suspended all their pending investigations. I talked about that. There is another crash they were investigating in San Francisco, the Asiana Airlines Flight 214. I will tell you, when you stop an investigation like that, it is hard to get right back to it. The problem is, it takes you longer to find the cause of the crash. A lot of times these crashes have clues in them that there may be a part in a certain type of plane that is defective, there may be a problem on the runway--something wrong. The Consumer Product Safety Commission--another watchdog. In San Diego last week, a 2-year-old child, Annette Estrada, was killed. She was crushed by a falling TV. So they cannot investigate this incident, and maybe some other kids are going to suffer that. It might have been a very defective design. What does the House do? They are governing by press release: Well, we will open this little sliver of an agency and that one. That is not how you run the greatest Nation on Earth. Open the government. You said you shut it down because of ObamaCare. ObamaCare is going forward. You want to fix some parts of it. We are ready to talk. There are no winners in this shutdown. It is devastating for our workers. Do you know there are more contract employees than there are Federal employees? There are. Even if you take away the military Federal contract employees--and we hope they are getting paid; we are not positive that all are, but let's say they are--there are more than 2 million contract employees who do not know when the next paycheck is coming. We sent a bill over to Speaker Boehner in the House. Open the government. Just open it. Then we will negotiate all the issues you want to talk about. He would not even allow a vote on that. We are in a bad place. I have to say, I have lived long enough to know that life does deal us some terrible blows. We know that, each of us. We have each had our tragedies, our challenges, whether they are health challenges or financial challenges or all kinds of challenges. We have enough of those without a self-inflicted wound--two: a government shutdown over here, and a pending default over here, totally unnecessary. It could end in 5 minutes, but still the angst continues, still the anxiety continues, still the uncertainty continues. I will close with a hopeful note. I laid out the two paths we have: the partisan path to a cliff or the windy, difficult bipartisan path, which the Senate was on until we were pulled off it. I hope and pray that we will get back on that bipartisan path, that we will reopen this government, that we will pay our bills, and this great Nation--this great Nation--can get back to doing what we do best: making sure this American dream is there for everybody, making sure we care about our people, making sure they have access to their government, and getting us out of this morass we are in for no good reason. We can do it. The path is there. Let's hope we take that path. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for such time as I may consume.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we now find ourselves, amazingly, in day 14 of a government shutdown--a shutdown that was brought to us by the Republicans in the House. They are sitting on a bill we sent them to open the government and they refuse to take it up. My colleague, the Senator from Connecticut, served over there and I served over there, and we always had an opportunity to use the rules in some way to get a vote on a bill that was passed by the Senate. But the House, not wanting to have such a vote, has made it pretty much impossible for our colleagues over there, Democrats and moderate Republicans, to actually vote to keep this government open. I listened very carefully to Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell, and I have hopes, as I expressed them yesterday, that we will be able to reach an agreement both on the shutdown and on the debt ceiling. But the fact we are struggling, the fact that people all over the world are looking at us as if we are some kind of dysfunctional country, the fact that we have about 1 million Federal employees not getting their checks, not knowing where the next meal is going to come from, the fact we have more than 2 million workers who work for private-sector contractors who don't know when or how they are going to get paid, is something we should all take note of, and we should listen to those who say this is ridiculous. This is self-inflicted. You know, it reminds me of getting up and walking out of your house on a beautiful day. You are walking down the street, and, yes, you have a few problems on your mind--life isn't perfect--but you are pretty optimistic; things are pretty good. Suddenly, you pick up a stone from the ground and bash yourself in the head. Honest to God, that is what they have done, these Republicans. They have bashed in the heads of the American public on a beautiful day as we are coming out of a recession, when we know we have our problems, but we also know we can solve them. It doesn't make sense. Then, as if that isn't enough, they have another stone in their hand called default. So maybe as you are beginning to see the light of day, you hit yourself again and say to the world: America could actually default on its debts, and the full faith and credit of the United States is in question. Robert C. Byrd, one of the great Senators and historians, always tells us to read the Constitution. In my desk I have a couple of copies, and every once in a while I will look at it. I am not quoting verbatim, but it says the debts of the United States shall not be questioned. Nobody has the right to play with that. Yet we are doing it again because the Republicans are angry. Why are they angry? I believe it is because they lost the Presidential election. I believe it is because they didn't take back the Senate. This is a direct quote from John Boehner. He said the American people don't want to shut down the government, but they also don't want ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act. That was his opinion. That is not the truth. The American people don't want to see us shut down the government and threaten default because of a bill that passed almost 4 years ago, a bill that was upheld by the Supreme Court and a law that was heavily debated in the Presidential election. The person who said this--Mitt Romney: On day one, I will repeal ObamaCare--lost the election. I have been around here a while. I have served with five Presidents, three of whom were Republicans. Lord knows I didn't agree with everything the Republican Presidents wanted, and I didn't even agree with everything the Democratic Presidents wanted. I fought hard and I got annoyed and I worked in elections. I never saw Republicans or Democrats, until today, to be willing to default. Newt Gingrich did lead us to a government shutdown in the 1990s, but we haven't had one since then because it was so painful and awful. I know the grownups are now trying to resolve this. I know our leaders are going to the White House, and hopefully, they will come to an agreement. But the fact that it would take us this long, 3 days before a default and the 14th day of a shutdown, is unbelievable. A teacher knows the rules when they get a job. They know school starts at 9 a.m., and they dismiss the kids at 3:00. If a teacher says, I don't like the start time and I am coming 2 hours later, they can't have this job because they know they have to show up. The equivalent of that is keeping the doors of government open to the people we represent, not slamming them shut in their face. That is what we have to do when we show up here; that is to keep the government going. Do we have disagreements across and even within parties? Of course we do. But we have a procedure to deal with that. It is called legislating. That is what we do when we have disagreements. It is something called debate--debate the issues, battle them out, have a vote, and pass a bill. The other Chamber does the same. Then the House and the Senate go to a conference committee and argue out the differences. You send that bill to the President--whoever he or she may be--and the President either signs the bill or vetoes it. And if they sign it, it is a law. If they veto it, we have an override. I have been involved in those. But once the bill becomes a law, it is the law, and you carry it out. You don't decide what laws you want to enforce and what laws you don't. That is not the right way. Our founders said: We are a government of laws, not men. Carry out the law. If you don't like the law, try to change it. Now, the Republicans didn't like the Affordable Care Act--which, by the way, is signing up thousands of people a day as we stand here. In my home State, it has signed up by now tens of thousands, and we have had about 750,000 at least unique visitors to our site. In Kentucky, they are signing up 1,000 a day. Unbelievable, never expected. This is the law that caused the government shutdown. The Republicans stamp their feet. They didn't like it. They didn't care that there was an election about it--none of that. They didn't like it, so they are going to shut down the government. Now we don't even hear them talking about it. Now they are talking about wanting to cut Medicaid and Social Security and Medicare. That is the new thing they want to do. Paul Ryan: Let's just forget this one. I guess we can't do anything about it. But let's now cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We have a process to get to conference with the House. On the Budget Committee we have a strong chairman, Patty Murray. She has asked now 21 times to take our budget to conference. Ted Cruz and his friends have objected, and then they have the nerve to say we won't negotiate. We want to negotiate in a conference committee. That is why there is a conference committee. They have stopped it. The House has decided now. It is too late. We can't do anything about the Affordable Care Act. Then why don't they open up the government? They shut it down. They now admit they can't do anything about it. It has a steady stream of funding, it is beginning to work, and people are going to think: Why do you want to take away the rights I have now, having a preexisting condition, to get health care? Why do you want to stop my child who can now stay on my health care until he is 26 and take away benefits like free trips to the doctor to get immunizations and birth control and health care? They tried to stop women's health care. They gave that up. They tried to stop us from getting cancer screenings, and we said forget it. So they are all over the place. I have lived long enough to know when I see people who are joyless, unhappy, and angry. That doesn't make for an optimistic country. They have the privilege of being here, even if they are only controlling one branch of the three, the House. It is the White House; the Senate, Democrats; the House, Republicans. They have a privilege, and they have a lot of leverage, but the way they are behaving is unacceptable. As I said, it is a self-inflicted wound. I never questioned the fact that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents love this country. I never question it. But I have to say, when you start acting like you are committing domestic abuse you have a problem. I love you, dear, but I am shutting down your entire government. I love you, dear, but I am going to default, and you are going to be weak. Something is dreadfully wrong. I see my colleague from Maryland here. I know Maryland is suffering mightily from this shutdown. He and I both have a lot of Federal employees, but the size of our States are different. As a percentage of the workforce, Maryland and Virginia are really suffering. In California we have tens of thousands of workers furloughed, not getting their pay, and a lot of contractors. I say to my friend from Maryland, I was trying to figure out how many contractor employees are also impacted. Even taking away military contractors, because some of them are getting paid and some of them aren't. If you take that all out of the equation, there are still more than 2 million workers in the private sector who are working for Federal contractors. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an article from the Baltimore Sun.

Mrs. BOXER. I so appreciate my friend, through the Chair, interjecting his thoughts. I have listened to him and to Senator Mikulski throughout this ordeal. The Senator is right. I have been on the floor quite a lot. The reason is clear. We need to make a record so that this never, ever happens again. There is a reason we had not had a shutdown since the last one when Newt Gingrich and Republicans brought it to us in the 1990s--because it was horrible. They got hurt by it. We begged them not to go down this road. They went down the road. Why? Because they didn't like the fact that there is an Affordable Care Act. They didn't like it, so they stamped their foot and said: We are shutting down the government because we don't like it. We begged them. We said: That is not going to help your cause. This Affordable Care Act--85 percent of the funds do not come from appropriated funds; they come from a separate stream of funding, and the bill and the law are going forward. They would not listen. Now they have changed their tune and decided it is about cutting Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. That is their new thing. My friend is right. It would be so easy to end this. Open the Government, pay our bills, get to the budget negotiations, where we will have Senator Murray, Senator Sessions, Paul Ryan, and his counterpart begin regular order. I want to continue about this contractor employee. What he said is so moving--actually, I think it is a she. She says: As a technical writer and communications specialist for a small company . . . my fate was sealed long before early media reports warned of many more impending furloughs. When you are sent home from work for over a week, you begin to notice certain things around you that could cause you to lose heart. In my own neighborhood-- I say to Senator Cardin, she is talking about your city of Baltimore. This contractor writes: in my own neighborhood, I have noticed several cars parked in their driveways--cars that never leave in the morning for work and never leave in the evening for a night on the town. The Metro parking garages are empty. The Senator alluded to that. People's morale is diminishing as cabin fever sets in on all sides. And as rumors of the shutdown continuing until the 17th spread like wildfire in a windstorm, my colleagues and I seem to have exhausted every resource. She says: Unfortunately, like everyone else, there are many of us who owe student loans and are expected to pay rent. We have to pay for utilities, credit card bills, dog food and other necessities like food and clothing. To make matters worse, my husband and I-- And this is interesting-- had set aside money . . . for a vacation. . . . That money is now going toward bills. . . . What does all this mean? An article in The Washington Post recently reported that the shutdown could amount to a loss of $200 million a day for local businesses throughout the city. Mr. President, $200 million a day for local businesses throughout your city of Baltimore. She says: Contractors, especially those contractors who work for small businesses, have been hit hard by this shutdown. She explains how they may never be made whole. Day 14 of a shutdown----

Mrs. BOXER. Yes, I am happy to yield.

Mrs. BOXER. Absolutely.

Mrs. BOXER. Through the Chair, I thank my friend. This contractor issue is a sleeper issue in a way, as this woman writes in the Baltimore Sun, because if you look at the numbers, you may see more contractor employees affected than Federal employees because even if you take--there are millions of them. Even if you take away, if you look at the statistics, the millions who work for the military and assume they are getting paid, there are still more than 2 million who are contractors to other arms of the government, such as homeland security or border patrol--you name it. It is a sleeper issue. This woman who is so articulate, Clarissa Olivarez--I hope she knows we are taking her words to heart and putting her words in the Record. She is explaining what it feels like to be scared. For what? For nothing. Because they did not like the Affordable Care Act--which they are not going to change. They tried to repeal it 43 times. Open the government. They are so afraid they will lose the vote, they are not even allowing a vote over there. They are coming back--my friends in the House--shortly. By the way, imagine, Speaker Boehner said go home over the weekend while all this is pending. They were not even in session. Outrageous. I am going to conclude in about 5 minutes by talking about some of the other impacts of the shutdown. Mr. President, 93 percent of the employees at the EPA have been furloughed. What do they do? They make sure the air we breathe is safe, the water we drink is safe, and the rivers we swim in are safe. They make sure Superfund sites are being cleaned up, those toxic brews in there, including things such as benzene and arsenic and every other bad thing you can imagine. In my State there is not one single EPA inspector on the ground. I have established that. That is the same in many others. Mr. President, 505 Superfund sites were being cleaned up. Cleanup is suspended. Many children live near those sites. There are many schools near those sites. There are many homes near those sites. They are toxic waste dumps. No cleanup. Now we find out that 92 percent of workers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have been furloughed. What is their job? It was created ``to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials.'' I say to every Senator who has a nuclear powerplant in their State, make a little prayer. If something bad happens, we will have to somehow nab all those workers and get them back on the job in time. Earth to my Republican friends: Have you ever heard the word ``Fukushima''? Do you know what I am talking about? Wake up. What are you doing to the American people? You don't like a bill, so you shut down the government. You take all of the watchdogs off the job so people could start dumping waste into the waterways, into the air? We even have a circumstance in California where pesticides are being imported from other countries. The EPA has to inspect those at the site and make sure they are safe. There are no inspectors. I just told you that. So they are sitting in a warehouse, and our farmers are starting to say: Where are these pesticides? We need them. This shutdown is mindless. The Army Corps of Engineers manages 12 million acres of public lands, recreation areas that host 370 million visits annually. These recreation areas support local businesses such as resorts, marinas, outfitters, grocery stores, gas stations, hotels-- shut down. Last week the Corps closed Lake Mendocino, which is located north of San Francisco. Lake Mendocino hosts half a million visitors annually and visitors spend $12 million at businesses within 30 miles of the lake, supporting 106 jobs and $2.8 million in income. Those small businesses cannot go on like this. They cannot go on like this. Mr. President, 561 national wildlife refuges are closed because of the shutdown. I say to my friend, Senator Cardin and I--we are very close friends because we work together daily on these issues. He is the chairman of the committee that oversees water quality, these wildlife refuges. In many parts of the country, hunting season is in full swing. I say to my friend from Oregon--I just found out, but he probably knows this--that on the California-Oregon border, hunters and tourists usually head to Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge for the opening of hunting season. But they have been denied access, which means local businesses are losing much needed revenues. The impact of this is felt with a direct hit to Federal employees, contractor employees, and local businesses. Everyone is suffering. That is why we had a letter that I put in the Record yesterday, or the day before, signed by the Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, and the nonprofit sector. It is so rare, I say to my friends, that we see those three groups coming together. They are demanding that we open the government. They are demanding a clean debt ceiling so we can pay our bills. They are demanding it, and they represent the broadest base sector of America. Who is benefiting from this other than people who have a very dark side? That is all I can say. You would have to have a really dark side. I will give a couple of examples of what is happening. The NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board--we had a horrible crash in July with Asiana Airlines, flight 214. We don't know exactly why it happened, and the NTSB has been forced to postpone their hearings. These investigations help us to find out how to avoid disasters in the future. Three weeks ago in Santa Monica, at a little airport, there was a crash that killed four people. Investigation materials were shoved into a vault, and we don't know why it happened. If we knew why it happened, we could save lives. I remember when I first came to Congress a very long time ago, and I served in the House, there was a terrible crash. They found out it was a very small bolt or a screw that was responsible for the problems, and they grounded every aircraft that had that faulty part and fixed it. That is why these investigations are critical. These investigations are critical so we are able to not only tell the loved ones what happened but to make improvements. It is all shut down. Another example has to do with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Last week in San Diego a 2-year-old Annette Estrada was killed when she was crushed by a falling TV. Normally the Consumer Product Safety Commission investigates this heartbreaking incident, find out the problem, and demand it be fixed. Who knows who the next child will be. That is why we have a government--a government of, by, and for the people--to make life better for the American people. The government is shut down. Open it. Let the people in. It is easy to do. Speaker Boehner has a bill. Let them vote over there. Open the government now. People are in danger. There are no winners in a shutdown. It is devastating for workers. It is devastating for small businesses. It is devastating for contractors. It is devastating to our economy, which is just coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. What are they thinking over there? Then they send these little mini-bills. Oh, open this little agency, and open that little agency. I call that government by press release. The heat is on them, so they pass a little mini-bill. Since when does one political party decide which of our communities survive, which ones thrive, which ones die, which people live, which people die, which child is healthy, and which child is not healthy? There is a community in California where kids are suffering nosebleeds, and they are sick. It turns out that they are very close to an industrial site. I called the EPA. They were going to rush over there and figure it out and stop the pain. They can't go. I don't see a bill over there to open the EPA. They will never send us that.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I thank the Chair for allowing this interlude. I do want to say to my friend, I think it has been very helpful that he and I have been in this conversation because we share the view that these two self-inflicted wounds are outrageous, and we want to make sure that the Congressional Record is very clear and shows the pain, the suffering, the concern, and the insecurities that this dual wound, the potential of a default and an actual government shutdown, are causing. I pray that we are never facing this again. I am very mindful of the words I use here on the floor so I am not going to say what I think about this exactly the way I would say it if I were talking to my family. There is no reason for it. It makes no sense to do this to a country they say they love. Why hurt the country they say they love? Why make the country they say they love look like a laughingstock? Why make a President who was going to go to Asia to pitch our economy and investments in our Nation--why make him cancel a trip and have China stand there and say: Well, you can see America just doesn't have it together. If they loved their country, they wouldn't do that. Some of the comments over there are unbelievable. One of the Republican House Members said: I have never seen us so happy. She is happy? She is happy that millions of people don't know where their next check is coming from? She is happy? She is happy that plane crashes can't be investigated? She is happy that Superfund sites can't be cleaned? She is happy that veterans are scared? She is happy that 65- year-olds and 62-year-olds who are new to Social Security can't get their checks on time? She is happy? She needs to look into her heart. That whole party has to look into its heart. Every once in a while you can see into someone's soul, and you know it when it has happened to you. I got into a conversation with one colleague, who shall remain nameless. I was so excited. I came home from California, and I saw tens of thousands of my people who were signing up for health insurance that never had it before. I could tell so many beautiful stories. There were people with preexisting conditions, people who had lifetime caps, people who were scared, and little kids whose parents finally were able to save their lives. There was one incredible woman who wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post about this. And you know what my colleague, who shall remain nameless, said? I told him I went to a signup place, and it was exciting. There were so many people who were signing up. We were at a Hispanic community, and everybody had a smile on their face. He said: I was happy to read in one of your papers that two people had their premiums doubled. I stopped and said: You were happy? That made you happy? Look into your soul. Why are people happy over there? How do they say they love their country, but they don't care if their country defaults on its obligations? I want to show my colleagues what President Ronald Reagan said about defaulting--not paying our bills--President Ronald Reagan, the beloved President of the Republicans, and many Democrats. He came from my State. He is one of the most popular Presidents in the history of our country. We have airports named after him. We have buildings named after him. Why don't we see what President Reagan said about default? And just know, when he was President, Republicans and Democrats raised the debt ceiling no less than 18 times, I say to my colleagues. Eighteen times we raised the debt ceiling because, yes, we had debt from prior bills and Ronald Reagan said, Send me a debt ceiling increase. Here is what he says: The full consequences of a default--or even the serious prospect of a default--by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar. Ronald Reagan, 1983. That is when our economy was much smaller than it is today. So how does the party of Ronald Reagan now get us to this place where in 3 days we are about to default? I didn't hear one word out of them when they decided to put two wars on the credit card and a huge tax break for billionaires on the credit card and a big medical prescription drug benefit on the credit card--not one word out of them. Oh, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. What happened? We had a surplus under Bill Clinton. We had a huge increase in the deficits under George W. Bush. And, by the way, President Obama got handed an enormous deficit which he has cut in half. So all of this talk about how the Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility bears scrutiny. There wasn't one Republican who voted for the budget, I say to my colleagues, that Bill Clinton wanted us to vote for. We did it all with Democratic votes. Then we got not only a balanced budget, but a surplus, and tens of millions of new jobs. George Bush came in, put two wars on the credit card, prescription drug benefit on the credit card, tax breaks to billionaires on the credit card, and the debt was off and running. But not one Republican said: Don't pass a debt ceiling. Not one Republican said: Don't default. What changed? Could it be they don't like this President? Do my colleagues think that has something to do with it? I will let people decide that. We now know what Ronald Reagan said. He said, in other words, we need to pay our bills. We need to avoid default. There isn't one respected economist who doesn't agree with what Ronald Reagan said in 1983. The cost to taxpayers of default is enormous--billions upon billions of dollars--even the thought of it. We are still paying off what it cost us the last time. Experts warn us against default. Warren Buffett: ``It ought to be banned as a weapon.'' It, meaning a default, ought to be banned as a weapon. ``It should be like nuclear bombs, basically too horrible to use.'' Warren Buffett knows a thing or two about this economy. Mark Zandi, who advised John McCain in his Presidential run: ``Breaching the limit would be an economic disaster.'' What would happen to average folks? Mortgage rates could go sky high. Small business, big business couldn't expand. We would go into a recession. And they are happy over there about the prospect. They need to look into their souls. The president of the World Bank, Jim Kim: ``Please consider politics beyond the Beltway, politics beyond your districts . . . This is not a theoretical impact. It's very real.'' Again, Mark Zandi: ``The dark scenario is so dark I can't imagine it.'' That is what he said. So we pray now, as our leadership goes to the White House--and they are probably there right now meeting with the President--that they come out of that meeting with a plan--a plan to pay our bills, a plan to reopen government, and a plan to negotiate on anything Republicans and Democrats want to negotiate on. I pray so that this works out. But until it does, I am going to be here every day making the record for future Senators and for the history books that shutting down the government and threatening default, those kinds of weapons should be banned. It is our job to pay the bills. It is our job to keep the government open, just as it is a pilot's job to fly the plane. He has to show up and fly it. We have to show up, pay the bills, keep the government open, and then negotiate our differences. Thank you so much, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, we are in the 13th day of a self- inflicted crisis brought to us by the Republicans. Why did this happen? Why are we in the 13th day of a shutdown, the 13th day of the American people not being able to count on their government, which is supposed to be of, by, and for the people? Why? Because Speaker Boehner over in the House said he does not believe the American people want the Affordable Care Act, and even though he believed they did not want a shutdown, unfortunately that is what he brought to the Nation. That is horrible news--horrible news. People are suffering. People are struggling. Hundreds of thousands of people are not getting their paychecks. Americans know a lot of us do count on that paycheck. It is not as if we have massive amounts of savings behind it. If you do not get that paycheck, you are in trouble. How do you pay the mortgage? How do you pay the rent? That is what is happening. We have police officers who talked to me yesterday, trying to use some gallows humor to explain away their fears. They are afraid. They cannot pay the bills. They have families. This is a disgrace--a self-inflicted disgrace--on our Nation. I have not even gotten to the issue that is staring us in the face: perhaps the first time in history that America would not pay its bills--a default--even though the Constitution is clear. It says, essentially, the debts of the United States shall not be questioned. That is in the Constitution. Well, they are being questioned. We have a situation where not only are these employees of the Federal Government being laid off and not getting paid and the communities in which they live are going to suffer because they really cannot go down to the corner store, but the contractors are not getting paid; the small businesses are not getting paid; road projects--and I know something about this as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee--many new projects are stopped in their tracks, not because people are not ready to go but because all the various signoffs that have to be made before you start a project cannot be made; investigations into chemical explosions that kill people every single year in America stopped in their tracks; investigations into airplane crashes stopped in their tracks; little kids kept out of Head Start. Why? Because the Republicans do not like the Affordable Care Act. What is it that they do not like about the Affordable Care Act, I ask rhetorically. Do they not like the fact that 3 million adults in America are now insured through their parents' plan--I am sure many in the Presiding Officer's State and I know in my State over 1 million. Are they that upset that they want to shut down the government because people are getting insurance? Madam President, 71 million people across the country--8 million in my State--getting free preventive services, including immunization. Are they that upset that they would shut down the government and make our people suffer and shut the doors? Seventeen million kids with preexisting conditions like asthma and diabetes can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. The Presiding Officer is a champion for children. I can imagine how she feels about this. They want to repeal a law that finally has protected 17 million kids with preexisting conditions like asthma and diabetes. There are no more lifetime limits on policies. There was a magnificent piece written in the Washington Post by one of my constituents--a mom, a freelance writer--who talks about her son who was born with a brain tumor, and over the years they have had to have operation after operation after operation. They came an inch away from reaching the lifetime limit on the policy--$500,000--and they learned the Affordable Care Act passed, and this child got his health care. Now, as she says, he is talking and he is walking and he is shooting baskets. I saw that mom and son on the Lawrence O'Donnell show the other night, and if you have not seen it on MSNBC, I think you ought to take a look at it. So you have to wonder, what is it they are trying to do? What is interesting is that if you listen to my colleagues now, they are off the Affordable Care Act. They kind of gave up on it because we said to them: This law passed 4 years ago. It has a steady stream of funding. It has its kinks and its problems. We are going to work with you on that. But you cannot stop it. It was upheld in the Supreme Court. You lost an election about it. Get a life. Figure it out. It is happening. OK. It is happening. So now they have a new thing--deficits. Madam President, you are considered a fiscal conservative. I want to remind you and everyone listening within the sound of my voice that not only did the Democrats lead the way on a balanced budget, we actually got surpluses at the time Bill Clinton was President. How did we do it? We worked together with our Republican friends, but we passed a budget without one Republican vote and we set the stage. Do you know what happened? Not only did we have a surplus--in other words, we had extra money beyond a balanced budget--we had created at that time 23 million new jobs. What a glorious time. We did not do it by threatening to shut down the government. We did not do it by threatening to default on the full faith and credit of the United States of America. We did it by sitting down, looking at each other, smiling, shaking hands, and working together. Let's open the government, let's pay our bills, and then let's sit down and really debate how we are going to get to a balanced budget. We have a lot of history to draw from. We do know when you put two wars on a credit card and the biggest tax break to millionaires in history on a credit card and a prescription drug benefit on a credit card it is a problem. That is why we saw, under George W. Bush, surpluses turn immediately into deficits. Now our colleagues suddenly are deficit hawks. Where were they when George W. was putting all this on the credit card? And now they do not want to pay the bills. It is unbelievable. This is not complicated. This is a self-inflicted crisis. You keep the government open, you pay the bills, and through regular order, with my friend the good Senator from Alabama and my friend the great Senator also from Washington State, sitting down, hammering it out, we bring in Paul Ryan, we bring in the House Democrats, and we sit down, and through them we get a path forward. Everything that is happening now is unnecessary. I want to repeat that. Everything that is happening now is unnecessary--13th day of a shutdown, pain and suffering throughout the country. I have a little community in Los Angeles. Little kids--their noses are bleeding. They are sick. They live near some industrial site. EPA said they were getting on it. EPA got the message: You are out. We cannot help you. We are closed down; 92 percent furloughed. You will notice in all those little mini-bills, Madam President, you did not see anything about that. No watchdogs anymore. The watchdogs are gone. We cannot have government by press release. We cannot have government by mini-bills. We are the greatest Nation on God's Earth, and we need to open the doors and let the people in. We have elections. Elections have consequences. Republicans control the House, it is true, but Democrats control the Senate and the White House. Therefore, we need to work together. We do not threaten to shut down. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 60 seconds.

Mrs. BOXER. So here is the good news. The good news is we have a bill over in the House. It is a clean continuing resolution. It would open the doors to government immediately. And it is a very short-term CR-- continuing resolution--and would still preserve everyone's right to sit down and negotiate through regular order. We have a strong budget chairman. We have a strong budget ranking member. America has gotten to know them well. And the same in the House. Therefore, I put my faith in those folks under regular order. So we could open this government in 5 minutes, we could pass a clean debt extension in 7 minutes, and then we sit down and negotiate. I did speak with Leader Reid this morning, and I feel he is optimistic that we are going to get there--I really do--and it lifts my spirits. Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid have been around here a long time. They have had their ups and downs and sideways and everything else like everybody in the relationships here. But I think they know the moment of history is calling them. I put my faith in that. I hope I am right. I yield the floor.