Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Louisiana. I am so appreciative of her because she is telling it like it is. She is sincere. She cares about her State. Let me reassure her, she and I do not agree in terms of the parameters of oil drilling and Keystone and other issues. That has nothing to do with our friendship. But the Senator is exactly right. She deserves to have the permits run through the process. It is ridiculous. Just as the roadbuilders are waiting to have the EPA finish the environmental studies so they can get these roads--this government shutdown is brutal. The reason I am rising--very briefly because I want to leave time for my friend from Oregon to say a few words--is because I wish to be so crystal clear to the people who might be watching us on this unusual Saturday session. We are in the midst of a Republican government shutdown. I am going to say that again. We are in the midst of a Republican shutdown of the government of the United States of America. The Senate passed a clean bill to reopen the government. It is sitting over there at Speaker Boehner's House, and he is blocking all ability to open this government. That is No. 1. Now we are getting frighteningly close to a default. We are getting very close to the point where America will not be able to pay its bills. The cost of that to our Nation, to our people, to our reputation, to our economy, to our taxpayers cannot be overstated: disaster. We have a chance now to pass a clean debt ceiling bill, which means we will not default. I hope my colleagues will vote for it. They are filibustering it. We need 60 votes. I hope somebody will come to their senses over there because the results of not doing it would be disastrous. I think Senator Warner has spoken very clearly about what this means from the perspective of both a former governor and a businessman. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a newspaper article entitled ``Business, labor and nonprofits demand that the shutdown end `immediately.' '' I am going to read a little bit from it and leave the remainder of time for my friend from Oregon: The most prominent names in business, labor and the nonprofit world on Friday demanded that Washington ``immediately'' end the government shutdown. In a joint letter sent to President Obama and lawmakers, leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and United Way Worldwide said the shutdown shouldn't continue another day. ``As leaders of business, labor, and the nonprofit sector, we are writing to urge you to end the federal government shutdown immediately,'' the letter says. ``While we may disagree on priorities for federal policies and we even have conflicting views about many issues, we are in complete agreement that the current shutdown is harmful and the risk of default is potentially catastrophic for our fragile economy.'' It goes on. I want to say to my Republican friends: Wake up. This isn't a letter from one Democratic group or a liberal group or even a centrist group. This is a letter from America, from the business leaders and the workers and the nonprofit leaders. You are so out of step it is frightening. Vote with us for a clean debt ceiling so we will not default and we do not send a terrible message to the markets. Open this government now. Take up the Senate bill over there, Speaker Boehner, put it up for a vote. Let's open this government and give it back to the American people because they deserve it. They do not deserve to be treated this way. They do not deserve to be hurt. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

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

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

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, as we know, this is the 11th day of a completely manufactured crisis, a self-inflicted wound that came about because our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are obsessed with repealing a law that is called the Affordable Care Act--a law that passed almost 4 years ago, and the benefits have taken root. I will go over those benefits for all Americans and a group of Americans who have had a very hard time getting insurance. We are only now being able to see them enroll for health insurance, and for some of them, this is the first time. Because our colleagues are so obsessed with repealing this law, which passed almost 4 years ago and was upheld by the Supreme Court as being totally constitutional and about which there was a Presidential election and a Senate election in which the people who wanted to keep this law and make it better won, of course--the Republicans can't accept it. As a result, they have shut down the government. We wouldn't know it if we listened to the speeches now because they have somewhat changed. Now they are saying they want cuts in Medicare and Social Security. That is what they want. But when we go back 11 days, before the government shutdown, Speaker Boehner was crystal clear. He said: The American people don't want a government shutdown, but they don't want ObamaCare either. The government shut down. They didn't listen to us. We explained to them that if the government shuts down, that won't stop the Affordable Care Act because those funds come from a different part of the government; they don't come from the appropriated moneys. At least 85 percent of the Affordable Care Act comes from another part of the government. We begged them and told them: If you shut down the government, health care is going to go forward anyway. Why on Earth would you shut down the government? They didn't listen. Now people in the country are saying: What are you guys doing? I am prayerfully hopeful they will turn around and let us reopen this government--the government of the greatest country on Earth--and that they will also allow us to pay our bills and stop the possibility of default. If default happens, it will be first time in our history. Yes, we are in the middle of a crisis, but it is manufactured and it is made up. If you think about deficits, look at what has happened since President Obama took office. Deficits have been cut in half. It can't be about deficits. The Affordable Care Act is not going to be stopped. What is this all about? A temper tantrum? A childish way to handle a situation about which they are not happy? So Republicans who are listening to me know, I have served five Presidents since I came to Washington, first as a House Member and then as a Senator representing the largest State in the Union, the most fantastic State in the Union--but that is only my personal view-- California. There have been five Presidents--three Republicans and two Democrats. Obviously, I didn't agree with these Presidents all the time. Sometimes I really disagreed with them, such as over the Iraq war and tax breaks for billionaires. Both of those added mightily to the deficit. I opposed those, but I accepted the fact that all I could do was work to change things in a democratic way, try to pass legislation on those issues to bring the troops home and to make sure everyone pays their fair share. I didn't win those issues. We all know that, yes, there are many times one votes against the debt ceiling as a show of displeasure, but we have never brought down the full faith and credit of the United States. The last time the Republicans tried this a couple of years ago, the Dow Jones average plunged and it cost us $19 billion. You would think they would have learned a lesson from that, but they didn't. You would think they would have learned a lesson from the Newt Gingrich shutdown that made their poll numbers plunge then. We need to behave like grownups. I am prayerful and hopeful that we can see the talks that are starting in the Senate continue across party lines to resolve this. Let's be clear. It is easy to solve this problem. This is the great news: It is easy to solve the problem. Allow our bill that passed here about 12 days ago to be voted on in the House--it will allow this government to reopen--and do not attach any riders to it, such as cutting Medicare, Social Security, or whatever your pet idea is. Then let's sit down and negotiate through the Appropriations Committee chairman, Barbara Mikulski, and through the Budget Committee chairman, Patty Murray. Then they can sit down with their counterparts and resolve our differences on spending, the deficit, and deficit reduction. It is very easy. What Senator Reid is saying is absolutely the right thing to say. Pay our bills, and don't allow us to default. Pay our bills, open the government, and then we can talk about anything and everything that has to do with the budget. Last week when we were in the middle of this, I went home to see how the Affordable Care Act was working in California. We are a State that has fully embraced the Affordable Care Act. We are 38 million strong, and we have millions of uninsured--millions of uninsured. I am getting daily reports from constituents. They are talking about the Affordable Care Act and what it means to them. These are constituents such as Janice Brown, a semiretired travel agent from Prather, CA. She called the help line and downloaded an application to buy a plan for $1,500 a month for herself and her husband. She said to the Associated Press that was $1,000 less than her current private plan. She said: I'm thrilled. The coverage is better. It's fantastic. Why do my friends want to shut down the government and stop Janice Brown, a semiretired travel agent from my State, from getting affordable health care? Why? Does it make them feel better to do that? I would hope not. Dr. Travis Sanchez runs a chiropractic clinic in Salinas. It is one of the small businesses buying coverage under Covered California. Under the Affordable Care Act, Sanchez plans to offer his full-time employees the health care coverage which they currently lack. Do you know what he says? The Affordable Care Act is going to be life-changing for many of the people whom I see as a clinician every day. Then Covered California told us about Paul Torrigino of Sacramento. He enrolled in a bronze plan. In California, you can get a gold plan, a silver plan and a bronze plan and the higher the plan--the gold plan-- the less of a copay. The bronze plan is less costly. So he said he enrolled in a bronze plan that was extremely affordable. He said: Oh my gosh, the insurance has been going up for the last few years like crazy. All our money was going to pay for medical insurance. Now he has this very affordable plan. Leslie Foster, a 28-year-old freelance filmmaker in Hollywood, told the Wall Street Journal he found a plan that will cost him $62 a month. Because Leslie earns $20,000 a year, Federal assistance will pick up three-quarters of the cost of his premium. Leslie says he hasn't had comprehensive health insurance since 2006. Why are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle trying to stop Leslie from getting comprehensive affordable health insurance? Because they didn't like the results of the election? Because they were mad the Supreme Court said the bill was constitutional? I am at a loss to understand it. Then I have San Franciscan Paul Cello. He told KQED that he selected a plan that would save him more than $300 a month. He said: It's like a whole 'nother world. The coverage is better . . . a lower premium, no pre-existing condition exclusions, I get mental health coverage, so there's way more coverage than I had and I'm going to be saving. These are real people with a heart and a pulse and a life and hopes and dreams and they are finally getting health insurance. Yet my friends on the other side of the aisle are stamping their feet and having a tantrum because they don't like it. I don't know why they don't like it. They ought to come to meet these people. I have Rachel Mansfield of La Quinta. Nothing could dissuade her. She sent in an application for Covered California on Tuesday. She has been waiting for the exchange to start so she and her husband could get health insurance. She got it. Her new premium will be around $400 for both of them, with higher quality coverage than she currently has. Melissa Harris, a communications student at Fresno State, stopped at a Covered California tent on campus Tuesday. She is paying $600 a month--with help from family members--for insurance through her former employer. She has diabetes, hypertension and other medical issues and lives on disability payments. Under the Affordable Care Act, which prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, Harris said she can afford health insurance on her own. ``It's a godsend for me--a blessing,'' Harris, 33, said. At the Fresno County Department of Social Services, people were signing up for Medicaid. ``I came in for food stamps,'' Kevin Burke, 51, told the Fresno Bee. An assembly worker, Burke said he has been out of work for two years. He had Medi-Cal previously, but was disenrolled when his daughter turned 18, he said. Under the Affordable Care Act, Americans under 133% of the federal poverty level are now eligible for Medicaid, regardless of how older their children are, or if they have children at all. At Vista Health Center, Rufina Arango, who is diabetic, filled out an application for coverage through a significant expansion of Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. Rufina and her family lost their health insurance several years ago, when her husband was laid off after 22 years working for a wood products manufacturer in Windsor. ``It's great, because it is going to help many of us. If not for Obamacare, many of us would not qualify for health insurance,'' Rufina told the Press Democrat. I have to point out an op-ed piece that appeared in the Washington Post this week about the experience of one of my constituents with the Affordable Care Act. This constituent of mine and her son were also on the Lawrence O'Donnell show last night. Anyone who watched that show-- anyone with heart and a soul--would understand how amazing it is for her that the Affordable Care Act passed. Let me tell you the story. Janine Reid is a writer from the San Francisco Bay area. This is the title of her opinion piece that ran in the Washington Post. ``ObamaCare saved my family from financial ruin.'' Let me repeat the title. ``ObamaCare saved my family from financial ruin.'' She relates her experience with her loving son, Mason. He had brain cancer and he had to undergo major surgeries and multiple surgeries. He would have hit his lifetime limit and the family would have been driven into, in her words, the ``financial abyss'' without the Affordable Care Act. Do you know what she says? 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 two years, Mason has again learned to walk, talk, eat and shoot a three-point basket.'' Why would anyone--anyone in the Senate, in the House, in the country--want to hurt a family like that? I am just saying, I don't get it. Because a law is a law is a law. We don't decide that one day we are going to undermine a law. You don't do that. You live by the law. If you want to change it, of course, you have a chance. They tried 43 times to repeal it. It didn't get repealed. They shut down the government over it and it didn't get repealed and it will not get repealed. My constituents are not going back. No one is going to take away their benefits. Most Americans may not even realize the benefits they are already getting under the Affordable Care Act. Wherever they live, whether in the State of the Presiding Officer or my State, 3 million young adults are now covered through their parents' plan. Three million young adults are now insured through their parents' plan, and 71 million Americans are getting preventive care, such as checkups, birth control, and immunizations. Let me say it again. Millions of Americans are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Seventy-one million Americans are getting free preventive care, such as checkups, birth control, and immunizations. Three million young adults are now insured through their parents' plans. Why do my colleagues want to take that away from Americans? Why do my colleagues want to shut down the government? Because they don't like it. What is it they don't like about this; that some young person doesn't have to fret or his parents don't have to be worried sick that their kid doesn't have health insurance. Now 17 million kids with preexisting conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, can no longer be denied coverage. Why do my friends want to take that away from the families in the United States of America? Why? Why did they shut down the government to take that away? What are they thinking? Insurers can no longer cancel your health insurance because you get sick. The Chair knows as do I that you could be going along 100 miles an hour and all of a sudden get an illness and be shocked and all of a sudden imagine getting a note from your insurer saying: Sorry you just got sick, Senator Boxer, but we are canceling your health insurance. That happened every day of the week, but it can't happen anymore. Why do my Republican friends want to cancel out that benefit? No lifetime limits on coverage. I just told the story about the woman who lives in the San Francisco Bay area whose son was born with a brain tumor and who needed constant operations. They hit up against the lifetime limit. But when ObamaCare went into effect, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act, guess what, no more lifetime limits and the child was saved and the family was saved from financial ruin. These are just some of the benefits that are going into effect and now are in effect. Then the Republicans said: Oh, the Affordable Care Act is going to make everything cost so much. No, health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in over 50 years, and insurance companies have to justify premium hikes, so we are getting back checks if they overcharge us. Listen, 8.5 million Americans have received rebate checks from their insurance companies because of the Affordable Care Act. Do my friends want to get that money back, take it away from the people? They shut down the government. They must think that is a very bad idea. I can't answer the question as to why they want to take away these benefits, but I can guess at their motivation. They are throwing a temper tantrum. They don't like the way the election turned out. They don't like what the Supreme Court did. A law is a law. I don't get it. Speaker Boehner said he is shutting down the government, punishing people, because of ObamaCare. We told him you can't stop it. He tried and failed 43 times to repeal it. He stamped his foot and he shut down the government. Now that we have proven to him he can't stop the Affordable Care Act, now that he sees how many people are benefiting from it, he should open the government. Eleven days the greatest country in the world has been shut down. I have to tell you, in my great State--and we could all talk about our States, I know the Chair did this--we have a magnificent national park called Yosemite. Honest to God, the first time I stepped on that valley floor I thought I was in Heaven. I had never seen anything like it. There are 3,500 Park Service employees who have been furloughed, with 600 of them at Yosemite. Here is the thing people don't seem to understand. It is not only the pain of the people who have saved to get to a place such as Yosemite and saved for their families and are looking forward to this opportunity, it is also the small businesses that surround the park. Douglas Shaw, co-owner of Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort, may have to lay off 30 percent of his staff. He said: We're a good example of a business that could die if this continues. This is all we've got, and I'm scared, honestly. I don't think a lot of people realize how important this issue is for a great many people whose livelihoods are at stake. Derek Arakelian and his wife Marielle Debree were laid off from their jobs at Yosemite. They held a yard sale to raise money. They held a yard sale to raise money. They said: We've got a new little boy and a lot of expenses. We need to make money to pay our bills. Why are they shutting down the government? The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. A law is a law is a law is a law. We all have our issues. Serving here for a long time, as I said, I have opposed wars, opposed tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, I have opposed rollbacks in environmental regulations that I thought were critical, and I saw us turn away from sensible ways to protect our people. I wasn't happy. I have a right not to be happy, and they have a right not to be happy. But I don't have a right to decide which laws I am going to say should be enforced. I have an obligation, if I don't like the law, to work my heart out in the next election and change things. That is what you do in a democracy. You don't pick and choose. Then they have their little bills coming over here. I call it governing by press release. Something gets hot, they hear a story I am going to tell, and they say: Oh, well, we will open that little segment. We don't run a country that way. We don't run a country by press release. We don't run a country in order to get political cover. We have an obligation to keep the doors open, to make sure things work better, to negotiate over budgets. You don't negotiate by taking hostages. This time the hostages are the American people--people such as Doug Shaw, co-owner of Yosemite Mountain Resort, and people who are laid off--firefighters at the Forest Service. They are working without pay. Lovely. We are getting our pay. One of these firefighters says: Most people here live paycheck to paycheck. It is a disgrace. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stop its seasonal flu tracking program, and furloughed 9,000 employees. My understanding is they have brought back some of their employees, but they are not getting paid, and they are standing sentry. David Johnson of San Francisco is the CEO of GigaGen, which does immune system research to help organ transplant succeed. The NIH awarded him a small business grant of over $1 million. He has already hired staff, but he can't get the funds until this shutdown ends. How many of us have read about people who get into trouble because their body rejects the organ? Here is a guy getting $1 million from the NIH, and he can't get the funds. It is shocking. Why do they shut down the government? They don't like the health care bill that is helping so many people. Now they don't even talk about it. Now they talk about cutting Social Security and Medicare. That is their new dream. That is what they want now. I don't know how that makes us a better country. They can explain it for themselves. Open the government, pay our bills, stop the default, and then we can negotiate. The President has been clear. There is nothing he won't talk about. Speaking as the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and as a member of the commerce committee, 93 percent of the EPA have been furloughed. The Environmental Protection Agency has the support of about 75 percent of the American people, if not more. They are under attack constantly. That is one reason we never saw a mini- bill to restore the Environmental Protection Agency. They don't care over there. But what do these employees do? They guard our landmark environmental laws. They ensure our drinking water is safe, our rivers are safe to swim in, and our air is safe to breathe. They make sure that Superfund sites are cleaned up. Five hundred Superfund sites, and they have stopped the cleanup. And look at what a Superfund site is: It is a toxic brew of toxins that can hurt you, such as arsenic, benzine-- you name it, the worst things. My Republican friends shut down the government because they want to stop the Affordable Care Act. They are also now stopping cleanup of Superfund sites in their own communities where they are a threat to children, to pregnant women, and to our families and our seniors. How does that make us a better country when we have no inspectors on the ground, not one in California, to make sure the air is safe and the water is safe? Then, if we care about farming--and I know most of us do--EPA is responsible for the inventory of pesticides imported from abroad. This means that millions of dollars of imported agricultural chemicals have been stuck at U.S. ports because EPA personnel are not on hand to approve them for entry. This could be devastating for our agricultural economy, and it could further raise food prices for consumers. Somebody explain to me how a government shutdown helps the farmers who are waiting for these pesticides to be cleared by the EPA. Somebody explain to me how a government shutdown helps when we have many road projects that are just getting ready to go forward, but we don't have any of the agencies ready to complete the studies to make sure they are safe enough to go forward. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake, and most of them, when it comes to the highway bill, are in the private sector. We just learned yesterday that 92 percent of the workers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have been furloughed. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission fulfills a critical mission. The NRC was created ``to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials.'' Anyone who has been alive the last year or so knows about Fukushima and what happened to the people there and understands when you are dealing with radioactive materials you are dealing with danger. The NRC had to furlough 92 percent of the workers because the Republicans don't like the Affordable Care Act, and they shut down the government. Open it up. Enough is enough. Give the people back the government they asked for in this last election. I understand. I didn't like it many times in my life, but I dealt with it. Grow up. Curling up in a corner and having a temper tantrum with a blanket and your teddy bear is not the right way to deal with it. Open the government, sit down with us, and tell us what you want to fix. We have already agreed to a low number in the continuing resolution, a number we don't like at all and think is too low. We think it is a hardship. We agreed to the lower number because we wanted to have a chance to negotiate. Senator Mikulski is ready. Senator Murray is ready. We tried 21 times to get to conference with them and negotiate a budget, and 21 times they objected. And then they have--I have to use the word now--the chutzpah to say we won't negotiate when we tried 21 times to go to conference. There are no inspectors on the job to make sure the air is clean, to make sure the water is safe, and to make sure the nuclear powerplants are safe. The Republicans talk about the parks, and I appreciate it. But they fail to mention that the Army Corps manages 12 million acres of public lands and waters nationwide, and the recreation areas host 370 million visits annually. These recreation areas support local businesses like resorts, marinas outfitters, grocery stores, gas stations, and hotels which provide goods and services to visitors as well as boost our Nation's economy. Because of this Republican shutdown the Corps closed Lake Mendocino located north of San Francisco. Lake Mendocino hosts half a million visitors annually, and in 2010 visitors spent $12.7 million at businesses within 30 miles of Lake Mendocino, supporting 106 jobs and $2.8 million in labor income. So we get a little mini-bill over there, open the parks. No, open the government. Open all our recreation areas. Don't do this government by piecemeal, government by press release, government by your favorite agency. It is ridiculous. No party, Republican or Democratic, has the right to say to a community: You will thrive, but you will die. No party has the right. I have a community near Los Angeles called University Park. The L.A. Times did a big story. The children there are suffering illness and everyone believes it is from an oil and gas site nearby. It is an environmental issue. The kids are suffering, and we don't know what is wrong with them. We called the EPA. They said: Senator we will be right on it. The government shut down. We don't have any inspectors in California. Those kids are sick. So we get a small bill. Let's help the kids with cancer. Of course we want to. What about these kids? We don't know what they have. No party, Republican or Democratic, should say this child lives, and we are not sure about this child. That is not America. This is one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It is not for the Republicans to decide what they want to fund. It is for all of us to decide. Open the government. You shut it down because of the Affordable Care Act; I appreciate it. Fight that. We were with the President for a couple of hours yesterday. Republican Senators were with him today. He said he would look at everything. But don't keep this government closed and don't bring us to the first default we have ever had. The National Transportation Safety Board furloughed 380 of its 400 employees. In my State we had an investigation going on into the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash. This crucial hearing was to include the testimony of foreign officials from Asia. Its postponement and the ongoing shutdown will delay the entire investigation. We need to know what went wrong, but this shutdown has shut down that investigation. Two weeks ago there was a small plane crash at the Santa Monica Airport that killed four people, and the NTSB is unable to investigate the crash. They had to take their materials, stick them in a file, and hopefully, some day they will come back to it. Open this government. Don't say this community will thrive and that one will die, this family will get help and this one won't, this Federal worker will get paid, but we are not sure about that Federal worker, while they take their checks. This is stunning. It is no wonder the American people are expressing their views, and I hope they will continue to put pressure on those who have this government shut down. There is no winner in a shutdown. It is devastating. And my friends keep saying they don't want it. So open the government. It is easy. We did it here. It is waiting over there for John Boehner to call it up. Don't add your pet peeves to it. I have a lot of pet peeves I would like to add to it, too. This shutdown is devastating for our workers, our businesses, our contractors, for our economy. Speaker Boehner, put that bill on the floor. Let's open this government. Let's not default for the first time. I was here in the House when Ronald Reagan was the President. Here is what he said about default: The full consequences of a default--or even the serious prospect of 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. We named an airport after him, a building after him. Let's pass this debt ceiling in his honor. He warned us. What has gone wrong with the party of Ronald Reagan? Where have they gone? What are they thinking-- shut down the government? The last time they did, it cost a fortune. The last time they played with the debt, it cost a fortune. We hear about people dumping American bonds. Is that what they want? Open up the government. Let the people have their government. It is a self-inflicted mess. It is as though you wake up in the morning, it is a pretty nice day, you feel pretty good and, all of a sudden, you decide you are going to hit yourself with a brick. Oh my God. These little mini bills--how ridiculous. That reminds me, one of my friends gave me this analogy, which I think is right on, which is you see a woman drowning and you grab her and you take her halfway to the shore and you leave her and she drowns anyway. That is what these mini ``press release'' bills are. You find someone bleeding to death but you only sew them up halfway. It is a self-inflicted mess. That is the bad news. The good news is, because it is self-inflicted, it is easy to get out of it. All you have to do there is take up the Senate bill and pass it. The Presiding Officer knows, she served there proudly. It has the Republican budget numbers in it, which we think are way too low, but we agreed to them as a compromise because we did not want to see the government shut down. Take up the bill and pass it. Then we can talk about all these issues. Don't allow the greatest Nation in the world to default. 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. I used to work on Wall Street--a very long time ago. We saw what happened when the markets thought we were not going to get together and resolve this default situation. The markets started to go down, 300 points, 200 points, and then at the mere hope that we could fix this problem, the markets shot up. The markets are watching. They know what is happening here. We are going to have a vote to lift the debt ceiling, to make sure we do not default on bills that were already incurred. Let me be clear on that. We are talking about paying the bills we already incurred. You have to do that when you are a homeowner. You pay your mortgage. You pay your bills. Then they started to say, what is a default? That was unbelievable. I looked it up in Black's Law Dictionary. If you don't pay your bills, that is a default. Don't tell me you pay the interest on the debt but you cannot pay the other bills--no, no, that is not the Black's Law Dictionary definition. Pay your bills. Don't make this Nation a deadbeat. If you want to treat your family that way, that is your choice, but this is the USA family. We do not default and we do not threaten default. Ronald Reagan warned us: Open up the Government, pay your bills. It is basic stuff. It is not complicated. Majority Leader Reid has been clear. He is a guy who can compromise, negotiate, talk--he has been around a long time. But he just said it: Open the government, pay our bills, and we will negotiate. We are going to hear a lot of words, but I want people to understand why the government is shut down. The government is shut down because the House, Republican House under the leadership of John Boehner or Eric Cantor or Paul Ryan--we are never sure. Every day it is someone new but it is supposed to be John Boehner--fine. I like him. That doesn't change where we are. They refuse to take up the bill that opens up the government--let's be clear--just until November. And it takes the numbers the Republicans like and we do not like and we say OK, we will give you that, let's keep the government open. We did it over here. I thank my Republican friends who voted to allow us to vote on that bill. That was a hard vote for them and I am very appreciative of that. All Boehner has to do is take up that bill and pass it. That is all. Then we are out of the shutdown mess and that self-inflicted wound is gone. We can negotiate over the budget as we should. Then all they have to do is join us and make sure we do not default for the first time in history and make this country a deadbeat nation. How horrible. How embarrassing. I will close with this. This self-inflicted wound mattered so much that President Obama had to cancel a trip to the Asian countries. That trip was important for our economy and for jobs and to get foreign investment. They did not care. We did our best, we sent the best face we could, Senator Kerry, Secretary of State. He did his best, but I know that was not a good thing to do because it gave China the upper hand. China made some cracks about the dysfunction here in the West. We are dysfunctional here, self-inflicted dysfunction, self-inflicted crisis. This is not Hurricane Sandy. This is not the horrible blizzard that happened in South Dakota. I want to send my best to our colleagues there who are suffering because of what happened from that blizzard. Someday we will talk a little bit about climate change--maybe we can move forward--and the extreme weather that is happening. But I am not going to talk about that now. I have enough problems. What we need to do today is the right thing for the country: Open up the government that belongs to the American people. It is easy. That is our job. Make sure we do not default. Then we sit down as friends, as colleagues across the aisle, and we negotiate all the important issues that Republicans care about and Democrats care about. I look forward to those negotiations. I hope as they are going on around now in little back rooms around us that we are finding a way out of this mess. But we cannot forget what brought us here and the reason I wanted to be here today is to make it known in this Congressional Record the harm that has been done. There is a reason why there has not been a shutdown since I think it was 1996. There is a reason--because the people who lived through it recognized it was devastating. I guess the memory faded. People say: Oh, there have been 19 shutdowns. Yes, but there has not been one in all those years, since 1996. It is a lot of years. The reason is, it was devastating. I want to put in the Record, first of all, how the Affordable Care Act is benefiting the people of this country already. Yes, it has had its major problems on getting on its webpage and the rest. We had that the first day in California, but we had millions of visits to the site, millions. We didn't expect it. It is going to be smoothed out. Yes, there will be ways to fix it. But I wanted to put in the Record the individual stories of my people and how they will benefit and how, it seems to me, so counterintuitive to stop a bill that was passed almost 4 years ago, upheld by the Supreme Court, and now finally is going into place. It is wrong to shut down the government because of such a law that is bringing peace of mind to so many--tens of thousands already in California signed up. I had to make that point. I also want to reiterate what Ronald Reagan said, President Reagan, about playing with the full faith and credit of the United States. I want the American people to think about why we are in this place and how they can stop this from ever happening again, because I think it is a disgrace and it is wrong. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 12, 2013, and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; and that the time until 12 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, at noon tomorrow there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 1569, the debt limit legislation.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I understand that H.J. Res. 79 has been received from the House and it is at the desk.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask for its second reading and object to my own request.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order, following the remarks of Senators Sessions and Blunt.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, would it be possible--because Senator Casey and I were each thinking we would get 10 minutes and we are willing to cut that to 15 minutes between the two of us--could we ask unanimous consent, if the Republicans don't mind, just slipping a little bit, because people took extra time.

Mrs. BOXER. Thank you. So we will each have about 7\1/2\ minutes.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, we are going to fix the injustice my colleague spoke about--the injustice to the families who lost their loved ones. Let me be clear about one of those five families who were denied the benefit and someone important to me a constituent of mine-- Army 1LT Jennifer Moreno from San Diego, who was killed this weekend in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb. Jennifer was 25 years old. Because of this shutdown brought to us by the Republicans, those families have to suffer even more than they are already suffering. Let's be clear. This never had to happen. This government has been shut down by the Republicans for one reason, and John Boehner was honest about it. He said: The American people don't want to shut down the government, but the American people don't want ObamaCare. They don't want the Affordable Care Act. Let me say that to close down the government because a person doesn't like a law that was passed almost 4 years ago, to shut down the government because a presidential election was lost and which was based, in large part, on this--to shut down the government, to keep our people--millions of them--from getting affordable care for the first time, it is a disgrace. It is. There is no other way to say it, except maybe it was said beautifully here. It was said beautifully here by the chaplain: ``Enough is enough.'' We are going to fix this problem; of course we are, this indignity our military families had to face. But let's be clear: It never would have happened if the government had been open. We have two things that are in our job description. I know the Presiding Officer knows that quite well. One is to keep the doors of government open officially. We do our best, but we don't always succeed. There are problems here and there. Keep the doors open. Just as a pilot has to fly a plane, just like a teacher has to teach a class, just like a nurse has to give a vaccination, we have a basic responsibility to keep this government open, and we know how to do it. They pass a budget over in the House, we pass it in the Senate, the conference is called, they hammer it out, and we have a budget plan, and none of this would be happening. Let's be clear. The Republicans have objected now 21 times--21 times--to Senator Murray, the chairman of our Budget Committee, so she can sit and confer with her counterpart, Paul Ryan, and hammer out the details of a long-term budget. But, no. The Republicans don't want to do that. They want to hold the country hostage. They want to put our backs up against the wall, or the backs of the American people. Why? They don't like the health care law. If a person doesn't like a law, that person tries to repeal it. They tried to repeal it 43 times. It went nowhere. If you don't like a law, try to replace the people who support the law. Oh, they tried. They tried and they failed. I served with five Presidents, three of them Republican. I didn't like everything they did; believe me. But after they won and they had an agenda, I did what I could, and so did my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to carry it out the best I could, to fix it where I could. Let me just say this: We are in a shutdown because they are throwing a temper tantrum about the health care law, the Affordable Care Act. I wish to share some news with them, because I went home to see how the health care law is working in my State. I want to say what I know. I know it is working. By now we have had more than a million distinct visitors to our site, coveredCA.com. We have tens of thousands of applications. We have completed more than 20,000. Small businesses by the hundreds are coming on to the site. In the time I have remaining, let me read to my colleagues about one woman the Republicans want to stop from getting health care by shutting down the government. According to the Associated Press, nothing could dissuade Rachel Mansfield of La Quinta, who sent in an application to Covered California last week. Rachel has been waiting for the exchange to start so she and her husband could get health insurance. Rachel is self-employed. Her parents currently pay a $530 monthly premium for her coverage. Her husband has been rejected for health coverage because he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rachel's new premium, instead of it being $530 for just her, will be $400 for both of them, with higher quality coverage than she currently has. That is why the Republicans are having a temper tantrum, to stop my constituent from, for the first time, having peace of mind and having good insurance? Come on. If you don't like the law, work with us. We can make it better. Then there is Melissa Harris. According to the Fresno Bee, Melissa stopped at a CoveredCA tent on campus. She is paying $600 a month with help from her family for insurance through her former employer. She has diabetes and hypertension and, under the Affordable Care Act--which prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions--she can now afford health insurance on her own. And the quote from her, from my constituent is, ``It's a Godsend for me--a blessing.'' It is a blessing. And that is why the Republicans are shutting down the government, to stop my constituent from getting a blessing of health insurance. There was another story of a man who waited on the phone for 40 minutes, and he finally got on. He signed up and he said: You know what, I have been waiting for years. Forty minutes was nothing. So I say to my friends, the law is the law. Open the government, pay our bills, and we will negotiate.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I yield the rest of the time to Senator Casey.

Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object.

Mrs. BOXER. I appreciate the motion of my colleague, as someone who comes from a State where tourism is the No. 3--and we have 38 million people--it is the No. 3 business in our State. We have national parks. But guess what. You fellows over there, you did not take care of all of my recreation land under the Army Corps. You did not take care of all of the BLM land. This whole notion of funding the government piecemeal is absurd. This is the greatest Nation on Earth. All you can do is come with these little, mini, piecemeal bills. Let's face it. We would not be going through any of this angst, and my friend would not have to have any of that emotion if the Republicans had not shut down the government. I wish to state the rest of my reservation. We certainly support the notion that our parks should open, but we also support the notion that this government should open. If the Senators don't like certain functions, let's duke it out and find out which ones we have the votes to do away with. I know a lot of you don't like the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act. Fine, let's fight that out. I see my colleague from Wyoming is here. He and I are constantly debating the issue of what should be a priority, but we don't do it this way. We need the entire Federal Government open. People need to get paid. The communities around the parks, around the BLM land, around the Corps recreational lands, around our NASA Ames facility, and I could go on and on--they need to be paid because the mom-and-pop shops are suffering. We don't do government by piecemeal, not in the greatest Nation on Earth. This reminds me of a woman who is drowning and someone goes to rescue her, but he only takes her halfway to the shore and leaves her to drown. This is what this is about. We don't say: I will save this child, but this one I don't have to save. I will save this community because I kind of like it, but this community, sorry. No one party has a right to do it, not the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party. We don't have the right to decide which kids live and which kids die, which families thrive and which sink, and which communities suffer and which communities don't. None should suffer, not in this Nation. Open the government, pay our bills, and let's negotiate. Let's negotiate on everything. I have a modification to suggest to the unanimous consent request, if I might. I ask unanimous consent that the consent be modified as follows: That an amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; that the joint resolution, as amended, then be read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. This amendment is the text that passed the Senate and is a clean continuing resolution for the entire government and is something that is already over in the House and reportedly has the support of a majority of the Members of the House of Representatives.

Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object to the original request. I feel I must respond. Senator Murray and I looked at each other and said: It feels as though it is ``Alice in Wonderland.'' Where were my colleagues 21 times when the chairman of the Budget Committee or her representatives asked to go to conference on the budget resolution, in which the conferees would negotiate how to fund the various parts of government, and that instruction would be sent to the appropriators? I do not understand what is happening here. All we hear on the other side is negotiate, negotiate. They won't remember--selective memory, perhaps--that they objected 21 times to going to negotiations on the budget. I have to say, this is the saddest display coming from the Republicans, who serve in the greatest legislative body in the world, to try to fund this government on a piecemeal basis, leaving some of our families winners and some of our families losers. It is pathetic, and they have caused this Republican shutdown. They can end it. Because I feel my friend's narrow, piecemeal approach to running this country is very wrong for this country, I object.

Mrs. BOXER. While the junior Senator from Kentucky is on the floor, I want to make sure the American people know the answer to the question my friend from Illinois asked him--who was President the last time there was not only a balanced budget but a surplus? The answer is Bill Clinton. And I was here when we had that vote. So, I think, was the Senator from Illinois. We did not get one Republican to join us in that budget that actually worked so well that we had a surplus until the Republicans put a huge tax cut for billionaires on the credit card, and two wars. Let's be clear here, what this is about. We have to open the government, we have to pay our bills, and then let the good Senator from Washington go negotiate with Congressman Ryan, the chairman of the Budget Committee, and yes, we can see our way to a balanced budget. But let's not play these games of government by piecemeal spending. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the period of morning business for debate only be extended to 7:30 p.m. and that all provisions of the previous order remain in effect.

Mrs. BOXER. I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized for such time as I might consume.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I think we are all in a state of shock that we are entering the fourth day of a government shutdown with no movement in sight. I wanted to go home to California to see how the Affordable Care Act is going in California since that is the reason the Republicans have shut down the government. I want to report that people there cannot understand why on Earth the Republicans want to stop the Affordable Care Act. They can't believe that just as Californians are on the brink of getting millions of our citizens insured and small businesses are getting affordable health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, Republicans not only have shut down the government, but they are threatening default. And they understand that default would lead to economic chaos. It has never happened before in American history. I tried to explain to my constituents exactly what has been going on here, and I did it in the best way I could, and I think I was fair. The first thing: In order to keep the government open for 6 weeks, they wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They tried 43 times. That never worked, so then they said they would defund it, which everybody understands that if you don't fund it, it is the same thing. But we told them they couldn't defund most of it because most of it is not appropriated funds. They didn't care. They put that forward. That went nowhere. Then they said: We won't repeal it or defund it. We will delay the Affordable Care Act. We all said: If you think we are going to delay further the chance for millions of Americans to get affordable insurance, we are not going to do it. This bill passed 3\1/2\ years ago and was upheld by the Supreme Court. It is not going to happen. Then they said: We will just take part of it and stop part of it. We won't allow women to get preventive services. That went over like a lead balloon, their war on women again. They were saying women won't be able to get tested for cervical cancer, for STDs, for pregnancy-related diabetes. They were just going to shut that part of the Affordable Care Act down. Women here in the Senate held a press conference, and they dropped that. Then they said: OK, we are going to repeal one of the revenue streams that is going to cost $30 billion, but we have no way to replace it. So then they actually sent us a provision that would have added $30 billion to the deficit--from the Republican Party. They say they are so fiscally conservative, and they actually sent us a provision that would cost $30 billion with no way to pay for it. So that didn't go down to well. This one is really beautiful. They say our staff and the staff of anyone working in the White House--all these people who believe so much in giving back to their great country will no longer get the employer contribution that all Americans get who work for large employers. That is their great ``thank you'' to their staff. That is their great show of appreciation--besides shutting down the government where their staff is working without pay. So I explained this to my constituents who are trying to sign up for health care. I went to a really good community health care center where people are lining up and getting information and they will be signing up for health care. They said: Well, why would they do this? I said: Well, there is more bad news. We thought they would extend the debt ceiling, which is the way you pay for the debts you have already incurred. It is already on the credit card. We need to pay for that, and now they are threatening not to pay the bills of the United States of America. They are threatening to take this country into default. Now they are saying: Well, maybe we won't do it if we can cut Medicare and Medicaid. So now they have put the Affordable Care Act on the line, they have put Medicare on the line, Medicaid on the line, Social Security is out there, and they may cause a default if we don't deal with these programs that are so critical to our people. I have been around here a long time, and I know we have differences. But the President is right when he says we the Congress have two things we have to do. One of them is that we have to keep the doors open because we have passed laws and they need to be carried out. Keep the government open. And the second thing we have to do is pay our bills that we incurred. Raise the debt ceiling. So far, the Republicans refuse. We sent a clean continuing resolution over there without all this cutting health care, Medicare, and Social Security that they are interested in. We said: Let's just keep the government open and going for 6 weeks, raise the debt ceiling, and then of course we will talk about all of this. That is what we do. We negotiate. We talk. And the President is more than willing. He offered the Republicans a $4 trillion deficit-reduction deal. They walked away. He is willing to talk about everything and anything. But you have to keep the government going and you have to pay your bills. That is the fundamental work we have to do. The irony, of course, is we get our checks. But our staff, they do not get their checks. The workers who come back because they are deemed essential, they are working without getting their pay. This is an outrage. Speaker Boehner, all you have to do is put the continuing resolution on the floor for an up-or-down vote. Every Democrat will vote for it and, at last count, the newspapers say at least 21 Republicans. Open up the government. We are knocking on the door. Open it up. Guess what you will find behind the door? People who want to work, people who need a paycheck. I have to tell you, they passed a bill that says they are going to pay Federal workers after the shutdown, and that is good. They should have done that. But right now we hear Republicans over here who say they don't really think that is a great idea. I have a better idea than even that: Open up the government and pay people for doing the jobs they were hired to do. I have a ranking member who has asked for a big hearing on climate change, and he wants all the administration officials to show up. We were planning on that. But most of them have absolutely no staff, and they are responding to emergencies. If there is a chemical explosion, the chemical safety board has to respond. If there is a horrible coal ash spill, the EPA will have to respond. If there is a disastrous cancer hot spot, the EPA will have to respond. Open up the government. Don't just say to people you will get paid so you don't have to bother coming to work. Open up the government. Let people work for the pay they are supposed to get. This is an outrage. I have to say when they passed over there ``pay the workers,'' we know why they did it. It was political. Because the heat in Virginia is so hot in this gubernatorial race, even the far right Republicans over there said to open up the government and fight about health care later. I have to say when I went home and I saw people waiting to sign up for coveredCA.com, I learned that on the first day coveredCA.com had 5 million hits and 500,000 distinct users. Some 17,000 people called Covered California service centers and over 6,000 Californians began to sign up on the first day. On the second day they had 200,000 distinct users. They are training thousands of enrollment counselors there. Many of them are already insurance agents. Many of them are going to work for big providers like Kaiser Permanente. Many of them are going to be in the community health care centers. Why do the Republicans want to shut down the government and threaten the default of this Nation when we are on the brink of getting millions of people the health insurance they need and deserve? The small business community is going to have an opportunity to get better rates and better tax breaks. I want to talk a little bit about this threat of default because the threat of default is real. Let's start off and go through a couple of charts. First of all, we have a new thing going on. The junior Senator from Oklahoma today said: Oh, you don't default if you don't pay people what they are owed, only if you default on interest payments. All of a sudden there is a new definition. But if you don't pay Social Security, he doesn't consider it a default. If you don't pay for Medicare, he doesn't consider it a default. If you don't pay contractors, he doesn't consider it a default. Why don't we go to Black's Law Dictionary: Default: The failure to make a payment when due. Let's be clear, there is not one bill that is coming due that Congress did not pass. Let's be clear. Congress makes the decisions on spending. We default when we fail to make a payment when due. They are playing, as Jack Lew, the Treasury Secretary, said, with fire--playing with fire. Let's see what has been said about default. Default means you fail to raise the debt ceiling in order to accommodate the bills you have already incurred. Ronald Reagan, the hero of the Republican Party: 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 said that in 1983. Why don't the Republicans listen to their hero? He said even the thought of a default was dangerous for this Nation. The last time they played these games it cost billions of dollars because we were downgraded. Let's look at Douglas Holtz-Eakin, CBO Director under George W. Bush, talking about default: It's a bad idea, little defaults, big defaults; defaults, a bad idea, period, and there should be no one who believes otherwise. If they don't listen to Ronald Reagan, why don't they listen to the CBO Director under George W. Bush? I tell you, these guys are in the fringes. They are in the fringe lane. They are in the far right, and they are going to go off the road, and if it were just them, it would be one thing, but they are taking America with them. We have to stand up and be counted around here and not let this go without comment. Mark Zandi, he was John McCain's economic adviser. Here is what said: The dark scenario is so dark I can't imagine it. He is talking about a default. Speaker Boehner is standing there saying: Well, despite the fact that you read that I didn't want a default, I can't contemplate approving this without figuring out how to cut entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. I have to tell you, they are playing with fire. I think they have lit the match. Anyone who knows anything about economics--I happened to have majored in it in college, and I was a stockbroker for a period of time and know that uncertainty is the worst thing. The last time the Republicans tried this--and eventually they decided to back up and back off--it cost us, as I was saying, almost $19 billion over 10 years in taxpayer costs. America's credit rating was downgraded. Standard & Poor downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in American history and the stock market sank. It dropped 2,000 points in July and August of 2011. That is a wonderful policy, Republicans. Just keep it up. Who do you think you are helping? People who have 401(k)s? Everyone in America who is counting on the certainty of a government opening up every day in the greatest nation of the world? What are they accomplishing? The President had to cancel a trip to Asia that was so anticipated, giving China the upper hand there. You have to be kidding. Who are you helping? Here is the deal. We have a health care program now called the Affordable Care Act. I will tell you the story of Leslie Foster, a 28- year-old freelance filmmaker in Hollywood. He told the Wall Street Journal--Leslie Foster--that he found a plan on Covered California that will cost him only $62 a month. Because Leslie earns $20,000 a year, federal assistance will pick up nearly three-quarters of the cost of his premium. Leslie says he hasn't had comprehensive health insurance since 2006. I went home to be with the real people, to see the good that we can do. Is the Affordable Care Act perfect? No. Can we fix it? Yes. Let's talk about it. But don't try to scuttle a law that is so important for the people of my State and for this country--48 million people who are uninsured in America today. They have a shot at getting insurance for the first time. Don't take it away. Don't threaten default, and don't shut down this government--which you already did. Open it up. The more I think about it, they pass a law to pay Federal employees who are sitting home. Tell me how that makes sense. They want to come to work and do their jobs. They are not happy sitting at home, whether they get a check or they don't. Open up the government. If you don't like certain functions, fight it out during the regular order. Patty Murray, the chair of our Budget Committee, she has asked--I think it is now 18 times, I could be wrong and I'll correct the record if I am wrong--she has asked them to go to conference and strike a deal. Let's sit down and talk. Senator Cruz objected every time, and when he was not here Senator Lee objected. The far right wing does not want to solve this problem because they like the chaos. I don't know why. They ought to say it to Andrew Stryker. He is 34 years old. He lives in Los Angeles. He does freelance work. He pays a monthly premium of around $600 to stay on the plan from the job he left 4 years ago. He has high blood pressure and says he has been denied coverage in the past due to a preexisting condition. Last Tuesday Andrew told the Washington Post he picked out a silver plan on the Covered California exchange. It took him a while to sign up for coverage due to traffic and high demand on day 1. He said, `` . . . it will save me over $6,000. For that I would have waited all day.'' I think the Republicans should call up Mr. Stryker and say: Too bad. Too bad. You don't mind if we delay this another few years, do you? And he would say: I sure would. I have a chance. Last week San Franciscan Paul Cello told KQED that he selected a plan on the California exchange that will save him more than $300 a month compared to what he pays now in the high risk pool. ``It's like a whole 'nother world,'' he said. ``The coverage is better, no preexisting condition exclusions, I will get mental health coverage, so there's way more coverage than I had and I am going to be saving.'' Why doesn't John Boehner, who is known to shed tears, call up Paul Cello and say: Gee, Mr. Cello, we are really sorry. We want to delay your insurance for a year or 2 or forever. Where is the emotion Speaker Boehner has shown in many other cases. Where is the emotion for workers here who cannot get a paycheck, who are just praying to God the Republicans will vote on that clean CR and open up this government? We know we have disagreements. That is fine. We are proud of the values that we bring. But it is not right to shut down the government and cause so much pain. It is not right to threaten default and havoc in the markets, and havoc all across the nation. It is not right. They are trying to shut down the government, and they might default because they don't like Medicare, ObamaCare, Social Security, and Medicaid, and they are stamping their feet and they are throwing a tantrum. Why are they inflicting so much suffering on our workers and on our families, but none on themselves? Note to the Republicans: You are protecting your pay. Give it up during the shutdown. Here in the Capitol last week we had a very frightening incident. It happened right outside my office. We are so thankful to the Capitol Police for rushing to save the day. A vehicle was being used as a weapon. They ran right to the trouble. A couple of them wound up in the hospital. They are not getting paid. What do you think that does to the ego of people, to their feeling of self-worth? And these Republicans can get all the protection they want, and so do we. This is the way we value people: Shut down the government and don't give them their pay? And by the way, they tried to take away their employer contribution to their health care which is equivalent to a huge pay cut. Talk about values, Speaker Boehner, why don't you get a little bit of a dose of Tip O'Neill? Tip O'Neill knew the magic of 218. He didn't care whether it was Republicans or Democrats who voted. He got things done. They have done nothing. Just because they control one-half of one-third of the government doesn't mean they get to decide everything. It doesn't work that way. We have to work together. They don't get to pick and choose what laws to enforce. If they don't like them, then repeal them. Try to repeal the Clean Air Act. Bring it on. Try to repeal the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Super Fund Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law, and the Consumer Protection Agency. Be honest. They don't even like Social Security, they don't like Medicare, and they don't like Medicaid. If they want to battle that out, bring it on. We will battle it out. But don't hold this whole country hostage and don't hurt millions of workers. They did pass these little mini bills. We stand on the floor and talk about the horror stories. Oh, they passed a mini bill. I guess eventually they will send enough bills over here to open the whole government. Why don't they just open the government? We cry for those people who can't get into NIH trials. They have a mini bill, but they didn't open the CDC and people are not working to catch the next epidemic. They didn't do anything to restart food inspections, and Lord knows we lose thousands of people a year from eating poisoned food. They will not open the EPA, and we have kids in Los Angeles, as we speak, who are very sick and ill with bloody noses. There is a picture in the paper I can show everyone. The red over here is the result of bloody noses from little children who are living near an oil and gas operation. The day I read about it, I called up the EPA. They said they would be on it in 5 minutes, and then the government shut down. They don't care over there. Even though 75 percent of the people strongly support the EPA, they want to get rid of it. Bring it on but don't hold this country hostage. There are 110 FAA safety inspectors in southern California who were furloughed, 830 Bureau of Land Management employees were sent home, and small businesses are not getting paid. We don't even know what our unemployment rate is in the greatest country in the world because the Labor Department had to send home the people who calculate that number. In Santa Monica a plane crashed on Sunday evening and four people were killed. The NTSB cannot investigate--that is the National Transportation Safety Board--because the investigators are off the job. They took what they learned, put it in a vault, and when the government reopens, they will take it out. In the meantime, who knows why it happened. Maybe it is a defect in the plane that we could fix for all planes. Maybe it is something on the runway. We don't know. Maybe it was pilot error. All of this needs to be discussed and looked at. What they are doing is disgraceful, and it is unprecedented. I have looked back, and there have been shutdowns, but most lasted 1 or 2 or 3 days, but none of them were about repealing a law, let alone a signature law of a President--Democratic or Republican. The Republicans have to wake up and smell reality. They had an election and a lot of it was about the Affordable Care Act. They lost. Amazingly, the Affordable Care Act--they dubbed it ObamaCare--is based on a Republican idea of individual responsibility. We actually got the idea from Republicans and from a Republican Governor named Mitt Romney. They ran away from it because they don't care for this President. Get over it. You lost. There are people in this Senate who ran on saying they would make the Affordable Care Act better, but they weren't going to repeal it. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission furloughed 600 employees. The government can't regulate the markets for contracts in oil, corn, and metals. Commissioner Bart Chilton said: Taking our cops off the beat for even a few days could have disastrous impacts on these markets that consumers depend upon. We talked about the CDC. They furloughed 9,000 workers who respond to outbreaks such as salmonella. This is happening at a time when an outbreak of hepatitis A has affected 79 people in California. We are dealing with a self-inflicted wound upon this Nation, a government shutdown that is unnecessary. We cannot allow this to continue. So I say to Speaker Boehner, who is the architect of this shutdown, stop playing games with the lives of Americans--our workers, our families, and our children. Do your job. Open the government. Let the House vote. It is pretty simple. We have sent a bill over there which funds the government. We have made a commitment to them that after they pass that and the debt ceiling, every single thing is on the table. I was thinking the other day that if you are a teacher and you get hired in a school and the school opens for work at 9 a.m. every morning, you have to be in the classroom at 9 a.m. in the morning in order to keep your job. If you weren't in your classroom at 9 a.m. in the morning and decided that you wanted to do something different such as come in at 11 a.m., you would be fired. Our job is to keep the government running and pay the bills we have incurred. We don't get to pick and choose or decide that all of a sudden in the middle of everything we are going to cancel out a law that passed 3\1/2\ years ago. This is so bad that the Republican candidate for Governor in Virginia has said: Stop it. Open the government and then debate health care. The good news is Speaker Boehner could change his mind, bring up our bill in a few minutes' time. I know how it works. I spent 10 years in the House. It is real easy. They take the bill, go to the rules committee, talk about how they are going to allow one or two amendments or none, and they could then actually take it up, pass it, and send it to the President. What would that do? It would reopen the government tomorrow. It would keep the government open for 6 weeks while we debate the bigger issues, and then we should raise the debt ceiling so we can pay the bills we have already incurred. It is so good to go home to your State and talk to people who are looking at us and thinking: Why would anyone want to close down this country because they don't like the fact that our families can get health insurance? They don't understand it. They are pondering it, and they are coming up with a tilt. So, Speaker Boehner, you are a man; obviously, you have deep emotions. Your policies and that of your party are hurting people, hurting children, hurting families, hurting the economy, hurting the country, and all you have to do is bring up a clean continuing resolution that we passed over here, thanks to Republicans who allowed us to bring it up and pass it, and pass it over there. Let's get through this. Let's restore some faith that this country can function once again. I thank the Presiding Officer. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that as if in executive session, the nomination of Arun Madhavan Kumar, of California, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, received in the Senate on October 7, 2013, be jointly referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I understand there are three measures at the desk due for a second reading.

Mrs. BOXER. I object to any further proceedings with respect to these measures en bloc.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, October 8, 2013; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business for debate only until 12:30 p.m. with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each; and that the Senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.