quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today on the day when we are ever hopeful that we'll be able to complete legislation tonight that will remove the threat of a default as well as to open up the government and to allow us to go forward now with negotiations on short-term budget issues for the next year and even beyond that. so we're -- i'm confident that that will happen, we'll be able to complete most or all of the work tonight. but i think in a larger sense why it's vitally important we get this agreement effectuated is because there are an awful lot of people throughout that have been hurting.

hurting for several reasons. we've had a recovering economy but job growth hasn't moved fast enough, we still have by way of example in pennsylvania over half a million people out of work at last count, 501,000 pennsylvanians out of work. the percentage number doesn't really tell you much, it's been hovering around 7.5% or a little higher for a long while yet but more than half a million people out of work is devastating. as the presiding officer knows, in his state of ohio we have a lot of similarities in terms of our work force. and when i go across pennsylvania we have sometimes the biggest urban areas like philadelphia still having high unemployment numbers and sometimes very small counties having an equally high percent of people out of work. my home area of northeastern pennsylvania still far too many

people utt of work. when you add a tough economy still for a lot of people plus the impact of the indiscriminate across-the-boarder cuts by way of sequestration which i believe is bad public policy, we'll talk more about that later and it will be the subject of greater debate than it's been, and then you add thirdly, the impact of a shutdown and then number four, you add the perilously close time that we're living through right now where we're close to a default. so for all those reasons it's been a difficult period for the country and a very difficult period for those who are trying to make ends meet every day. we have a chance in the next couple of hours to vote in a manner that will lift some of that anxiety, some of that worry. i was here this weekend on the floor talking about a letter i

had received from a woman in northeastern pennsylvania. she talked about her circumstance and her husband's circumstance as a result of the government shutdown. but then she talked about her parents. parents ages 85 and 83. and here's what she said in the letter. she said they, referring to her parents, they should not have this uncertainty, these should be their golden years. it breaks my heart to hear my mother saying she can't sleep and has a stomach ache from the worry about where our country is headed. middle- and low-income families cannot afford another economic downturn. we are just barely recovering from the last one, unquote. so that letter that came from northeastern pennsylvania i think spoke for people across our state and across our country. what people have been living through, driving to -- trying to recover from the recession of several years ago and then being

hit with a government shutdown and the coming to the brink of default. so for all those reasons what we hope is that the work that's done today, the compromise agreement that majority leader reid and republican leader mcconnell entered into becomes the consensus not only here in the senate but in the house as well. no legislation can remove all of the anxiety and the worry that people have, but certainly it will provide some measure of relief for families like that. we have another story that came across yesterday, a family in pennsylvania led by the mother of this family, kelly brown her name is, she has four children. children's ages are 17, 14, and she has two 9-year-old twins. the story was in the pottstown

mercury. as -- it actually was tuesday, october 15, the pottstown mercury. and kelly's story is emblematic of the impact of the shutdown, just the shutdown itself, what that did to her. she's in an apartment in southeastern pennsylvania with her four children. she was moving along the path to get a mortgage to move into a house, kind of one county over, not too far from where she was living but then as the story says in the first couple of graphs of the story, quote, then the government shutdown froze her mortgage and over the weekend, the home seller notified kelly brown that she couldn't wait any longer, unquote. that's what the story tells us. and i'll for the record, mr. president, i would ask that the story entitled "government shutdown could leave single mom, kids homeless" dated october 15 of this year. the presiding officer: without

objection, so ordered. mr. casey: i'll put that in the record. we're working with kelly now to see if we can't be helpful but the point is she should never have had to go through that anxiety and worry and maybe to the point where she won't be able to move into that house that she had a chance to move into. so that's what real life is. real life of trying to complete a mortgage application and moving along to go from an apartment to a home with your four children and being stopped because of a shutdown here. and in the case of the earlier letter that i referred to, a daughter talking about her parents, the worry that they have, literally sleepless nights, literally pain and anxiety because of what's happening or not happening here in washington. so what we hope and what we pray on days like this is that the actions taken will lift some of that anxiety, provide a measure

and maybe only will be a very small measure of confident or -- comfort or we hope in the larger sense for the economy some degree of stability. and i think once we get past this period and we literally get back to the work that the american people expect us to focus on, which if i could put it in a sound bite when i hear from people in pennsylvania, they say to me when they're tell telling me what they hope i would do as one of their representatives, they say work together to create jobs or work together to help the middle class, work together to move the economy forward. some variation of that. and that's what weep to get -- we hope to get to. as important as it is to begin the process of talking about and negotiating on a budget for the next year and on the longer-term fiscal questions, it's very important i believe for both parties to get back to the focus which we should bring to bear on building a stronger middle class

and building a stronger economy. you don't have to go very far or read the paper for many days to find evidence that the middle class has never been more under siege, never been more undermined and weakened over time than the middle class is today. on september 19 of this year in "the new york times" there was a graph, i won't put the graph in the record but i'll just summarize it very briefly. there is a graph of all kinds of data that indicated what's happened to the middle class over the last generation. and the headline over the description of the graphs was standing still with a big question mark. and the point that it makes is that the middle class is virtually where it was between years ago -- many years ago if not further behind. i'm quoting from some of that summary where it says -- quote -- "the cost of maintaining a

middle-class lifestyle -- the costs, i should say, plural -- have increased." then in the middle of the page there's a graph that talks about the middle 20% of the country. basically what most would describe as the middle class. in that 20% you can tell just from -- just from a little more than a generation, this graph goes from 1967 to 2012. the share of total income of that middle 20% of the country has gone from 17.1% to 14.8%. a substantial erosion of income for the middle class. so that's a problem and a challenge that we should work on in the days ahead in addition to working on our budget. i'll make one final point about what we should do on the other side of this important work that we're going to do today to complete this agreement and to

lift the -- the threat of default and to make sure that we open up the government and move to negotiations. there was a -- july 20 of this year there was a long piece in "the new york times" about -- about notust the middle class but also about other measures of how we're doing as a country. and two data points jumped out at me, and -- and, frankly, would outrage anyone reading them. when they listed the top 20 countries that are our peers -- and this category was the organization for economic cooperation and development, the so-called oecd countries. in other words, the 20 countries in the world that are most similar to the united states by way of economies and to a certain extent by population. so we're compared to our peers. that's the measurement. if you look at the top 20, under two categories, infant

mortality and child poverty, the united states of america ranks 17th in both out of 20. so -- and 17th being right near the bottom. so instead of being in the top three or top five or even the top ten, the united states on childhood poverty and on infant mortality is number 17 in the world out of 20. so as we move to a focus on the middle class and on job creation strategies and even a focus on budgets and whatever else people want to debate and negotiate about around here, i hope -- and i think we're all challenged by the -- by the admonition we cannot lose sight of what's happening to our children. this is the most powerful country in the world, our economy may not be demonstrating it right now but we are and we will be, but we can never say that we're doing the job we must

do if we're not focused on the needs and the challenges faced by our families and especially the most vulnerable member of any family, a child. infant mortality and child poverty are two indicators where this country is far, far behind, and we all need to do more on those issues. so, mr. president, we're happy that we're moving to a resolution of this long nightmare that the country has lived through and these families have lived through but even on the other side of this we have some major challenges that should be a summons to our conscience to do something about these issues. and i hope that we can -- that our actions and our work can be commensurate with the challenges faced by families and especially the challenge faced by our children. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oid rhode island is

recognized. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i join my wonderful colleague from pennsylvania in expressing relief and optimism that it finally looks like we are rid of the wasteful and useless government shutdown we have been put through for the past two weeks, that it looks like we are rid of the dangerous threat of american default that we have faced for the last few days, and let us hope together that we are also rid of the malicious spirit that led us down this evil path in the first place. a colleague the other day on the senate floor used the analogy of a fire in an airplane's cockpit, distracting the pilots from flying the aircraft where

it needed to go as they had to put out the fire. well, that's kind of what we've been through these past two weeks. let me hope that we will have no more of our own countrymen lighting fires in the cockpit just in order to try to get their way. we need as a nation to get our heads up, to fly the plane, and to ready ourselves for weather ahead. the last two weeks have been wasted in this useless, artificial crisis, and it has distracted us from real crises, real problems, undenial problems, things that the speaker of the house can't make go away by finally allowing a vote but that are really going to require us to work together

to solve them. none is more significant to our children than what our carbon pollution is doing to earth's atmosphere and oceans. it is not enough just to put out the fire in the cockpit, we have to wake up to the real problems ahead and around us. i recently saw -- i know the presiding officer from ohio is a keen enthusiast and student of history, and i recently saw a part of the dust bowl, which is ken burns' documentary series on that calamity. the dust bowl calamity was an economic disaster and a human disaster, but it was also described in this show as having been an economic disaster and a

human disaster because it was first and foremost an economic -- an environmental disaster. indeed, one of the two or three most devastating environmental disasters in the united states. the dust bowl happened, creating such disaster for so many good, hardworking families because simply put, we messed with mother nature to plant wheat, we tore up the deep rooted buffalo grass that had protected the prairies for generations. we ignored that there were cycles of drought that were the great plains' history, and the result was tragedy and destruction. there are obvious parallels from the dust bowl experience to where we are now on carbon pollution. most obviously, lesson one, you mess with mother nature at your peril.

and are we ever messing with mother nature. we just broke through 400 parts per million of co2 in the atmosphere. after at least 800,000 years -- which, by the way, longer than homosapiens has been a species -- at least 800,000 years in the range between 170 and 300. our whole species has come to the success that we have seen on this planet in a safe window of 170 to 300 parts per million of co2 in the atmosphere and we have now broken out of it. the entire history of our species from 170 to 300 and we have now broken out of it. and it's not just 400. it's 400 and climbing. move from our atmosphere to our

oceans. our oceans are asid fighting at the fast e -- acidifying at the fastest rate ever recorded. you have to go millions of years back into the geologic record to find anything comparable. and when you go there, what else do you find when you lack back to those points in the ancient geologic record? it isn't pretty. in fact, it's down right ominous. the second lesson is that the cause of such a calamity can be a perfectly normal activity, just at the wrong scale. look at the dust bowl. there's nothing wrong with plowing. plowing the earth is probably the single most valuable thing humankind has ever learned to do. plowing is essential to farming and yet it was that ordinary

activity, plowing, which brought on the dust bowl and the vast human tragedy that ensued, because it was at the wrong scale. similarly, there's nothing inherently wrong with burning fossil fuels. we do it driving to the market. we call it up when we flip the light switch on. and yet burning fossil fuels at too great a scale is leading us to the brink of a new disaster. what changes, what makes it no longer perfectly normal and okay is when you know what the consequences are of the scale of your activity. once you know the consequences that you're causing, that activity is no longer so benign and responsibility cannot be so easily shrugged off. if only the farmers with their plows had listened to the warnings of the cattlemen and the native americans and not put every corner of every farm to the plow.

there's a third parallel which is that there's a lot of lying done when there's money to be made. in the dust bowl, land dealers and speculators told farm families that plowing the prairies would make more rain fall. rain follows the plow, they were told. they had nothing to worry about. and the land speculators sold and they sold and they sold and they sold a pack of lies. the race to plow created more speculators and more huxsters and more lies. today we have the deniers, a sophisticated, well-honed apparatus of institutions and strategies designed to spread lies, designed to sew doubt, designed to delay action. today it's done at a scale that makes the dust bowl huxsters look like piddling amateurs.

it's funded by giant corporations like exxonmobil and coke industries. it uses the slickest madison avenue strategies. it maintains a stable of pedestrian scientists willing to be trotted out and recite from the polluters' playbook. it operates through a network of false front organizations designed to look more independent and credible than their funders are and designed to hide the money flow. when history looks back and this story is fully told, i believe this apparatus of lies will take its place beside great american scandals, like teapot dome and watergate. but for now, it churns merrily on its way, cranking out the propaganda. regrettably, this apparatus has captured large segments of the republican party and silenced others. the polluters have maneuvered the question of carbon pollution

right into the middle of the republican party's culture wars. the fossil fuel industry must be really chortling at having pulled off that feat. but it does not bode well for the republican party. lies are ultimately revealed. the choice to make bedfellows of the polluters will soon enough be very damaging to the republican party. for the polluters, well, they've played the republican party for suckers and they'll grin all the way to the bank. they won't care. the last parallel is the lesson that when you are messing big-time with mother nature, things can go precipitously wrong. mother nature can turn on you very suddenly. wheat farming on the plains was a bonanza with bumper crops year after year. families that had never owned land, that never before had a place to call their own saw

golden futures as far as the eye could see as the wheat ripened. and within just a few years, the devastation was complete and families' dreams were shattered. the dust bowl came on fast. there's a phrase -- a fool's paradise. it's called a fool's paradise because it looks like paradise for awhile if you don't look ahead and take the precautions that will protect that paradise and fend off calamity. not looking ahead is what gets you to the fool part. young people are looking ahead. voters under 35 by a ratio of 66-27, more than 2-1, say climate change is a problem we need to address. 66-27.

and, get this. when asked about climate denie deniers, 74% of independent young voters said that they would describe climate deniers as ignorant, out of touch, or crazy. ignorant, out of touch, or crazy. for republican young voters, voters under 35, it's 53%. 53% of self-identified republican voters under the age of 35 identify climate deniers as ignorant, out of touch, or crazy. mr. president, may i ask unanimous consent to conclude in one minute. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. whitehouse: so i ask my republican friends, how is climate denial a winning strategy when 53% of your own young voters think it's ignorant, out of touch, or

crazy? how is that looking ahead? we in congress get elected to look ahead. we don't get elected to put our heads in the sand. we certainly don't get elected to parrot the lies of the special interests. well, we're not looking ahead. we're sound asleep near congress. we're having a snooze while nature's alarms are ringing all around us. it is time for congress to wake up. we have a duty here. we need to wake up to our duty. i thank the presiding officer. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida is recognize. mr. rubio: mr. president, it now appears that at some point this evening we will reach the end of the latest washington manufactured crisis of the month. but unfortunately the real crisis facing our country remains and that real crisis is

the growing sense among our people that we are losing the american dream. why do people feel this way? because more than 4 million americans have been out of work for six months or more. because millions more find themselves stuck with jobs that do not pay enough for them to live the way they used to. and while their paychecks aren't growing, their bills are. ask the young couples and the single parents how much they're spending every month to provide child care for their children. ask the students, the young americans who are stuck with thousands of dollars in student loans that they're now struggling to pay. this is the real crisis facing america. that our status as a land of opportunity seems to be eroding and that so many of our political leaders seem oblivious to this. and now, as we emerge from this latest standoff, we have done nothing to address it. there were two issues at play in this showdown. the press coverage mixes them

together, but -- but they are two distinct and separate issues and they should be examined that way. it started with obamacare, a law that was sold to people as something that would help them gate fordable health insurance. but that is not what it's going to be. we've all heard the news of what a fiasco the roll-out of the exchanges have been. but as bad as the roll-out of the exchanges and the web site has been, we need to realize that that was supposed to be the easy part. the most difficult and disruptive parts of that law are yet to come. in the months to come, a thou insurance fee -- a new insurance fee, a new tax on hardworking americans will be added to insurance policies. people will be required to give up existing coverage that they are happy with if it doesn't meet the standards created by obamacare. and if they don't buy the insurance, they eventually will have to pay a tax that goes up to either $695 a year or 2.5% of your income. employers with more than 50 full-time employees will be

required to offer a certain type of coverage to their employees, so many of them are moving people part-time work. and full-time, by the way, is no longer defined as 40 hours. it's now 30 hours. so many employers are moving employees to under 30 hours a week. today, for many americans, obamacare is just a web site that doesn't work. but in the months to come, this law is going to hurt millions of people. it's going to cost them hours at work and maybe even their job. it's going to cost them the insurance that they have now and are happy with. it's going to cost them -- it's going to force them to leave their existing doctor and it's going to raise rates for people who buy insurance for themselv themselves. what do we tell these people that are being hurt by this law? to deal with it because it's the law of the land? is it not our job to fight for them? is it not our job to -- to be their voice, to protect them from the harmful effects of this law? and that's why i continue to believe that we should not waste

a single penny more of taxpayer money on this damaging law. one of the most important powers and responsibilities that we have as members of congress is the power of the purse. it's under our constitution. it gives the congress the power to decide what to spend money on and what not to spend money on from the taxpayer. now, i know of no one in my party who supported shutting down the government. on the contrary, we argued that we should fund the entire government, except for one thing -- obamacare. in fact, the house of representatives passed a thraw did just that -- a law that did just that. the democrats took the position that either we fund obamacare or we fund nothing at all. they took the position that funding obamacare was more important than funding the government. and they were willing to put our country through this government shutdown just to save their pet project. within days of the showdown, by the way, a second issue was added to it -- the federal debt

limit. now, the press portrays the debt limit as simply a law this ahow- allows us to pay our bills. they fall for the argument that failing to raise the debt limit equals a default on our debt. but the debt limit is more than just permission to pay our bills. every year our government is spending more money than it takes in, a lot more money than it takes in. as the years go by, that annual deficit adds up to what we call the national debt. anand it's growing at an alarmig rate. the debt limit is a law that limits the amount of money that the government can have as debt as any single time. we depend on borrowed known pay our bills. so if we don't raise it again, eventually we will not have enough money to pay our bills. that should scare us. reaching the debt limit is like when the bank calls on you to collect on the monthly mortgage payment. if you don't pay them, your home is going to be taken away, your credit is going to be ruined,

and your ability to borrow money in the future is going to be hurt. but what if because you don't make enough money the only way you can pay your mortgage is by using your credit card? you can't keep doing that forever. and so when the bank calls, you pay the bill, but you also figure out what other expenses to cut so you don't have to keep using your credit card to pay the mortgage. that's what real people in the real world would do. but that's not what we're being asked to do here. they're asking us to just pay the bill and keep using the credit card and let tomorrow worry about tomorrow. we can't keep doing that forever. because at some point, even the credit card is going to stop working. yet that's what's happened here again, and so the debt will keep growing and with each passing year, we will get closer to the day that we face a real debt crisis, a real debt crisis, not one caused because the congress can't pass a bill but one caused because no one will lend us

money anymore. that's how we arrived at the point we find ourselves at today. we have a president and a majority in this senate that would rather face a default before seriously dealing with the debt. we have a president and a majority in this senate that would rather shut down the government before they would shut down obamacare or even make any meaningful changes to it. so tonight the government will be reopened and the debt limit will be lifted but our real problems are still here, and in the months and years to come, they're only going to get bigger and harder to solve. and for those of us who realize this, who clearly understand that the direction we are headed threatens the american dream and all the things that make our country special, this is the time to reflect on the way forward, because if we do not figure out how to change course around here, if we do not figure out the way to change this course our nation is on, we will forever be known as the generation that ushered in

america's decline. and history is not going to distinguish between republicans and democrats. it will judge us all haras harsr our failure to act. we must once and for all begin to address the national debt, not with accounting gimmicks but with real and measurable steps. it doesn't have to be solved in one sweeping measure. but we must begin the work of moving toward a sustainable level of spending. this will take time because we're still saddled by too many leaders unwilling to address the issue in a meaningful way. so let's do what we can while they're still here and at the same time let's work to replace these irresponsible leaders on the left with leaders that will finally step you an up and saver nation from the crisis that awaits us. obamacare it, will too be hars harshly judged by history. that's why i am disappointed that we were not able to achieve any meaningful changes to it. but this fight is not over. it has really own just begun. for in the months to come

millions of americans will begin to confront the costs and the consequences of this law. it will be the reason why they're now working part-time, it will be the reason they lost the insurance they used to have, it will be the reason they can't see the doctor they've been seeing for all these years, it will be the reason why their insurance premiums are going through the roof. we've done everything we can to keep the harm from reaching our people. but now obamacare is going to start hurting people. there will be a mad scramble to fix it or get rid of it. this has happened before. in june of 1988 congress passed the medicare catastrophic coverage afnlg act. it promised a cap an hospital and doctor bills, provided prescription medicine. then the true cost of the program began to reach the american people, and as seniors began to learn the true cost of this new program, it fueled a revolt. now, at first the politicians minimized it.

they minimized the protests, they refused to make any changes to it. but before long the onslaught of calls and mail became impossible to ignore. before long, congress was in full retreat. by 1989 it was fully replaced. now over -- for obamacare that day of recognize congressing is also coming. -- of reckoning is also coming. i've been started by the number of people who have told me they're ready to give up. they're ready to give up on the idea that we can make a difference. they're ready to give up on the idea that things will ever get better. but we cannot give up on america and we cannot give up on the american dream. we cannot give up because where are we going to go? if this country declines, what's going to replace it? so no matter how many disappointments lie ahead, we must never give up. as for those around the world who look at all these vaintses

o-- allthese events and believer best days are behind us, our politics does not define our country. we are a unique people, a collection of men and women with different backgrounds and beliefs. we share a free society and everyone has a right to express their views, to argue and to battle and to debate. sometimes our differences bring us to points of great conflict. when the nation appears on the verge of being ripped apart at the seams. for over 200 years we have been held together, because while we're divided on many things, we're united by a powerful idea. before i describe that ierksd ie i describe that idea, i would like unanimous consent to conclude. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. rubio: for over 200 years we've been held together because we're united by a powerful and timeless idea, the idea that every single person has the god-given right to determine the

course of their own life. the god-given right to go as far as our talent and our work will take us. and so we argue about the best way to achieve that, and we have a tendency to put off difficult decisions until we absolutely have to make them. but we have faced greater tests before. we have not always rushed to meet the challenge, but in the end we have never failed to do so, and let there be no doubt, we will do so again. the day is coming when our people will realize that the time has arrived once again to confront the challenges before us. the day is coming when our people will do what must be done to keep the american dream alive. i know it is hard to see right now, but we are one day closer to the moment when americans will do what we have always done: we will confront and solve the challenges of our time and we will make any sacrifice and undertake any task to make sure that we leave for our children what the americans of yesterday left for us -- the single

greatest nation in the history of the world. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. cochran: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from mississippi is recognized. mr. cochran: mr. president, i'm optimistic that soon we will be able to enact legislation to reopen our government and affirm the world's long-standing confidence in our financial stability and system of democracy. the current situation is an unfortunate by-product of our sometimes discordant form of government, which at this time happens to be divided between our two parties. despite the challenges of recent weeks, i hope this experience demonstrates to the senate, to

the other body, and to the administration that the nation is best served when we work together. if we allow our current hardships to pass on only to immediately entrench and get ready for the next crisis, we will be wasting an opportunity to extract a positive outcome from these last difficult weeks. under the rules of the senate, individual senators are provided with significant power to shape the activity of this body. that's the way the senate was designed to operate. and it has served this body and the country well. recognizing that the rights entrusted to each of us can be powerful, we must be judicious in their application. we must always remember that each of us was elected by the

people. if we work in cooperation and even opposition with a sense of realism and respect for ourselves and our institution, i believe this body can function effectively. in getting past our current fiscal stalemates, i hope that we can next achieve a long-term agreement that we will reduce our debt through structural changes to government spending. as a part of that process, we must talk seriously about the president's health care law, its serious flaws, and its impact on families and businesses. i've consistently opposed this law, and one of my goals is seeing that it is repealed, delayed, or made voluntary. achieving that goal may take

longer than we would prefer because we are in the minority, but the law's declining popularity should give senators from both parties reason to reevaluate it. as part of a sustainable budget plan, i hope we can reach a long-term agreement on a farm bill to provide producers and consumers with certainty and to preserve the security americans enjoy by our ability to generate independently food and fiber for ourselves and for the world. the farm bill this body adopted earlier this year would help accomplish those goals and save $23 over the next five years. if we can achieve a responsible budget agreement for fiscal year 2014 and beyond, i'm confident

the appropriations committee can produce bipartisan bills to fund the government in a responsible manner. i hope all members have begun to recognize that our inability to act on individual appropriations bills has reduced each senator's opportunity to help shape federal programs and has eliminated a principle means of overseeing the executive branch. the appropriations committee has long been able to produce bills that reflect input from all members, reflecting their different needs and their different priorities. the committee has continued to do so since passage of the budget control act, which has had the effect of cutting, reducing spending by more than

$2 trillion from discretionary accounts over the past ten years. it is the only significant deficit-reduction legislation enacted in recent memory. i supported that act, as did a majority of senators on both sides of the aisle. now we've given ourselves another opportunity to make broader budget reforms. it will be a benefit to the legislative branch and the people who elected us if we can establish a budget framework that will enable us to deal in a more transparent manner with all legislation, including appropriations bills. -- and reform measures to simplify our tax code. mr. president, i'm pleased that we seem close to resolving the

current impasse, and i hope that over the coming weeks we can devote ourselves to thoughtful and productive deliberations on the budget. it is important that we act to restore the confidence of the american people in the united states senate. we must take real steps to strengthen our nation's fiscal foundation so that our economy can grow and american families and businesses can prosper. mr. president, i yield the floor. . president, i suggest absence of a quorum. qu call:

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader is recognized. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: mr. president, there's been a lot of debate on the floor of the senate about obamacare. it's the affordable care act. it passed about three and a half years. why did we do this?

why did we enact this law? it wasn't easy and it took months to achieve it. the goal was quite simple. we wanted to make sure that about 40 million to 50 million uninsured americans would have a chance to have health insurance, and i can tell you that's a worthy goal. because even uninsured people get sick. and if you don't have health insurance and you get sick and show up at the hospital, they will take care of you. but then when you can't pay the bill, they transfer that obligation to everyone else. it's estimated we spend about $1,000 a year in health insurance premiums to cover the care of uninsured people. so not only do these people without insurance live without the peace of mind of having protection when they get sick, the rest of us with health insurance pay for it. that's not right. and in a society like ours, we should accept responsibility to not only have health insurance,

but to make it available for everyone. and when we took a look at the health insurance market, here's what we found. there were parts of health insurance that were just plain wrong. imagine someone in your family has a preexisting condition. it's not uncommon. think of the possibilities. only a few that come to mind: asthma, diabetes, cancer survivor, women. it turned out that if you had things like that in your background, you could be discriminated against, and people wouldn't sell you health insurance. obamacare eliminated that discrimination based on preexisting conditions. when the republicans document floor and say they want to -- when the republicans come to the floor and say they want to repeal obamacare they are repealing protections for a family that have a child or members of the family with preexisting conditions.

obamacare also says if you have a limit on your policy of how much it will pay over any given year, that is stricken. why would we do that? because you never know. tomorrow morning a doctor's diagnosis or an accident could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills that you couldn't pay because there was a limit on your protection. that limitation was stricken by obamacare. those who want to eliminate obamacare would allow the insurance companies to put those restrictions in again. what about parents with children fresh out of college looking for a job? some of them are lucky. they'll get a job with health care benefits. some not so lucky. maybe a job without any benefits. maybe no job. so what we did in obamacare is say keep those kids -- your sons and daughters -- on your family health insurance plan up to age 26. those who want to eliminate obamacare, eliminate that

opportunity for american families to give their kids health care protection while they're looking for a job. we also basically said that senior citizens under medicare shouldn't pay out of pocket over $1,000 a year for their prescription drugs. the so-called doughnut hole, we close it. eventually they won't be paying out of pocket. we're reducing the financial obligation of seniors to reach into savings accounts for the medicine they need to stay strong, healthy and independent. those who want to abolish obamacare -- and we heard it starting with the junior senator from texas just a minute or two ago from the senator from florida, on the republican side of the aisle -- are basically saying to seniors pay more out of pocket for prescription drugs. i don't think that's right. excs america now in 50 states is the same opportunity for uninsured

people that members of congress have today. you see, members of congress are under the federal employees health benefit program. it covers eight million federal employees and their families. that means we have an open enrollment period every year, and we can choose -- my wife and i choose -- from nine different policies in the state of illinois. we take the one we want, and we've got good coverage. it's not the most expensive or the best but it's good coverage. and we get to shofplt it's hard -- we get to shop. it is hard for members of congress to believe most americans don't have that luxury. they can't shop for health insurance. some are denied any health insurance. some work for an employer that says take it or leave it or some can't afford to buy anything. the insurance coverage offers the opportunity for those uninsured to go shopping for the best policy for themselves and their families.

competition. shopping in a marketplace. that's what americans are looking for, and that's what the republicans want to close down. they want to close that down. so you say obviously. then there is a republican plan when it comes to health insurance. the republican plan for health insurance, this blank page of paper. they have no plan. they have no ideas. they're just opposed to obamacare. that's why they initially shut down this government. they wanted to defund obamacare. an interesting -- two interesting things happened after they made that announcement. the marketplaces came online and ran into serious problems. they're currently restructuring them because the overwhelming response to these insurance marketplaces, they weren't prepared for. i'm sorry they weren't. i don't know who's responsible for it, but we need to know. in the meantime, we're putting the insurance marketplaces up and running. the second thing happened after republicans announced they wanted to defund obamacare and,

therefore, they were going to shut down the government. as the marketplaces went online the popularity of obamacare increased. people across america said finally, this is a good idea. those of us who have access to the marketplace can finally go shopping for health insurance. so exactly the opposite of what the republicans thought would happen happened. the american people are open and receptive more to the idea of going to these marketplaces if they don't have health insurance, or they have health insurance they can't afford. the health insurance marketplace is open for business, and people across america, across the nation have started shopping for it. many people have waited for years, even decades. i came to the floor when the junior senator from texas was holding the floor for 21 hours and asked him to consider the case of a young, i call her young, lady that i met in illinois named judy. she is a housekeeper in a motel that i stay in in southern illinois. she's in her early 60's.

she's worked hard every day of her life and she's never had health insurance one day in her life. not one day. and she has diabetes now. and she's worried. we got some local doctors to see her and give her some recommendations and try to help her, but she's never had health insurance. and i asked senator cruz from texas, what are we going to do with judy? if she doesn't have this marketplace where she can go for health insurance for the first time in her life, what's going to happen to her? and he said to me, she needs to get a better job. a better job. well, it's easy for us to say that. but this poor woman has worked hard all her life. she is -- there isn't a lazy bone in her body. she's doing the very best she can. and senators ought to realize that some people even working as hard as they can, can't get health insurance unless obamacare goes through. 16 states and the district of columbia have created their own

exchanges. those state operated exchanges have opened fairly smoothly. california had 7,700 applications for health insurance the first day. now kentucky is a great success story. more than 5,000 people or families had enrolled for health care and 10,000 completed applications on the first day. kentucky is a great success story for obamacare. i understand that number is closer to 10,000 now who have enrolled for health care. think about that. 10,000 families in the state of kentucky now have a chance for health care. those who want to defund it and close it down are closing down their opportunity to have protection for their families. new mexico is partnering with the federal government for individual and family coverage, but it's operating the shop exchange which allows small businesses to find group coverage for their employees. in the first couple days, 428 different employers in new

mexico signed up for coverage. they got a better deal in the competitive marketplace than they could find in the private sector beforehand. and the republicans want to shut down that opportunity for these businesses. it doesn't make sense. the federal government is managing the marketplace in 34 states, including my home state of illinois. and friday, by friday, the first week, last week there have been 8.6 million unique visitors to the federal exchange web sites. what we're finding kraots america is -- finding across america is people have been waiting for this chance. i had a lawyer who contacted the insurance exchanges and found out for his business, a small business, it cut the premiums that they're going to pay annually by one-third. six out of every ten people who sign up for health insurance under the obamacare insurance exchanges will pay less than $100 a month in premium. less than many of them are paying for cable tv.

they will have health insurance coverage they can afford. so when the other side starts talking about closing down obamacare and can't come up with any replacement whatsoever, i think we ought to stop and ask whether or not that's in the best interest of a better america. if you've ever lived in your life with a serious illness in your family and no health insurance, you'll never ever forget it. i've been there. you'll never ever forget it. we ought to offer every american family a chance for affordable quality health insurance for the first time in their lives. the second issue which relates to this, and i find hard to believe, is after defunding obamacare to close down the government was ended, they started on a new approach, and that was senator vitter of louisiana's amendment which would restrict, at least in terms of cost, the availability of health insurance for some

federal employees who work here on capitol hill and members of congress. that i think's totally unfair. and it troubles me that the republicans have gone from defunding obamacare tpo defunding the -- to defunding the health insurance of their own staff and employees. these are hardworking people in my office, and i'll bet they are in every senate and house office. they stay late. they answer the phones and try to help people who are struggling with red tape. they are there when a family is facing difficulties and can't afford a lawyer. our people try to help them out with government agencies as best they can. they answer the mail. they answer the phones. they answer the e-mail. and now the notion that we are somehow going to limit or restrict their health insurance is just absolutely unacceptable and unfair. these people deserve good health insurance as every american does. and when senator vitter comes to the floor with his amendment which would dramatically increase the cost of their health insurance, it's just

fundamentally unfair. it is mean. it is small. it is beneath our dignity. we ought to stand behind our employees who we hire to represent us across the united states of america. if we do, we'll defeat this vitter amendment if it ever comes back for consideration. so, mr. president, i think that obamacare started, although there have been some bumps in the road, that's for sure, but now that we have these marketplaces open, people are going to see what the opportunities are, and as most people know, members of congress and many of their staff members are going to be covered by the same insurance as everyone's buying in the insurance marketplace. not all congressional staff members are involved, but many will be. members of congress will all be directed to the insurance exchange if that's what they choose to buy for their families. i'm prepared to do that. i think it will be quality health insurance, which is what every american deserves.

mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank senator durbin for his speech, the assistant majority leader. after one of the -- one of the privileges of this job, as the senator from connecticut knows, the senior senator from connecticut, is the privilege and the -- the learning experience, if you will, of sitting in the presiding officer's chair and listening to senators speak, and we hear a whole range of talks and a whole range of discussions and a whole range of talents in this body. sometimes you hear senators with

great charisma delivering very impressive political speeches and appealing to patriotism, and other times you hear senators who just focus on the substance and the importance in bringing us down to earth about what really matters here. senator durbin's speech was exactly that about what this health care law means. it means that we can talk about repeal of obamacare and that sounds good to crowds back home, to some crowds back home, but when you think of the tens of millions of americans that will have health insurance in connecticut and ohio and illinois and all over this state, through medicaid, through joining the exchanges, many of them, so many of them have full-time jobs and have never had insurance. i spoke to a woman in youngstown one day who told me -- she was speaking actually at a town hall. she said i'm 63 years old, i work two jobs, i have never had insurance. this was before we passed

obamacare. she said i just want to stay alive for the next year and a half so i can be on medicare and have insurance. imagine that your goal in life is to stay alive so you can have health insurance. and this new law that is beginning to take effect where people can sign up october 1, three weeks ago, means tens of millions of people like her will have insurance. it may be medicaid, it may be the exchanges, it will mean some financial assistance. it will mean that that $1,000 tax that senator durbin talked about, the $1,000 that all of us with insurance pay as a result of those who go to this hospital and can't afford to pay, get treatment, get care and somebody's got to pay for it, it's spread around to those with insurance. it means in my state about 100,000 people that are in their late teens and 20's that have signed up for their parents' health insurance are able to sign onto their parents' health plan. it means close to a million seniors in ohio have already

gotten preventative care, osteoporosis testing, diabetes, whatever preventative treatment at no costs, no co-pays, no deductibles. it means all of that. it means more of your premium dollar will go to health care, not to executive salaries, not to marketing, not to insurance company profits. all of that is good news. while they may not sound as exciting, speaking to a lincoln day dinner or to a political rally with people holding confederate flags, we do know what it's going to mean to millions of americans that may not be going to those rallies but that have worked hard all their lives and are rewarded for it. mr. president, just a couple of comments today. how important the news is today. we can finally reopen the government. america's going to honor its debts, pay its bills as we have every day, every week, every month, every year for more than two centuries. we're finally going to do the right thing. what that means for people from

chilicothe to toledo to all over my state, it's good news. it means that after this is done, after this vote tonight in the senate and i hope tonight in the house of representatives, the president signs this law to pay our bills and reopen the government. it means we need to focus on what matters in this country, and what matters in this country is jobs, and that means investigates in infrastructure, whether that infrastructure is sinclair community college in dayton or owens community college in toledo, whether that infrastructure is a water and sewer system in florida pole i don't know or bowling green -- in florida pole i don't know or bowling green, whether that infrastructure is in zanesville or a whole host of things matter long term to the future of this country. i was speaking to senator coons from delaware earlier today about the importance of manufacturing. we were working with a number of our colleagues on bipartisan legislation, on focusing on

infrastructure, when focusing on manufacturing. 20 years ago, 30 years ago this country, something like 25% of -- these numbers aren't quite precise, estimated about 25% of our g.d.p. was -- manufacturing was about 25% of our g.d.p. financial services was less than 15% of our g.d.p. that's reversed in this country. now, we know what it means to cities like springfield and mansfield and lima in my state where manufacturing jobs have gone -- have shut down far too often, those jobs have gone overseas. we still give tax breaks in this country, believe it or not, to companies that outsource -- that shut down and move overseas, so a company that shuts down in ravenna or shuts down in ports smith and moves to china, they get tax incentives to do that. that's good to stop. that's one of the things we ought to be working on. we could have bipartisan support and a whole host of legislation of bills that i have been working on with senator blunt and senator collins and senator

graham and senator sessions and senator burr to deal with the issue of the chinese gaming the currency system. that that will mean literally hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country that can return or would not be lost because they are gaming the currency system. on job training, the so-called sectors act that will give -- that will match up skills locally determined by work force investment boards and community colleges and local businesses and local labor unions with the needs of those businesses, to match up the job skills with the needs of those businesses. and last with senator blunt, i am working on a national network manufacturing proposal that will help companies and universities and technology come together in a way that can spur industries regionally in this country. we know that, for instance, glass in toledo, the fact that toledo has been largely -- for decades has been a major glass

manufacturing center, not just provided a lot of jobs in a variety of different kinds of glass, everything from plate glass to windshields to drinking glasses, but it also evolved into solar -- a job-creating industry of solar panels. and so we know how that can work, and this would be a partnership that senator blunt and i are working on and others with the administration on how, in fact, we can help with manufacturing and continue to lead the world the way that we have for the presiding officer and my entire lifetime. so we know what we have got to do today to pay our bills and reopen the government. we know what we need to do in the weeks and months ahead. i look forward to working on those issues with my colleagues. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: mr. president, since the government shutdown about 16 days ago, i this manufactured crisis, and then, of course, the second manufactured crisis, the crisis of perhaps doing the fondly upos happened here. just this morning i held a press

conference, as i'm chairman of the environment and public works committee to talk about what's happening across the country in this shutdown. superfund sites, more than 500 not being cleaned up. we had business people there, small business people who had their businesses near wildlife refuges. this is the season people go hunting and fishing and spend their dollars to help support the tourist industry in our great nation. in many states, tourism is number one, two, or three. in my state of california it's the number three industry. so when a park closes down or the army corps recreation land closes down or the refuges close down, this isn't just sad because that's 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. now, that doesn't mean that we're going to agree on every law or every regulation or every single thing that happens in a government. we're always going to have disagreements. i've said here quite often, i've served with five presidents, three republican presidents, two democratic presidents, i'm a democrat and there were many times i didn't 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 i place in the record an article that just hit now from businesses insider. may i do that. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: here's what has happened because of this 16-day shutdown. here's 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's 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 recognized the deal will be approved and thank god it looks like it will be -- says that the shutdown has taken -- mr. president, hear this -- $24 billion out of the economy, and has cut off 0.6% from the yearly fourth quarter g.d.p. growth. and this is what's 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, the people, will remain afraid to open up their checkbooks and that points to anr humbug holiday season, s&p wrote in the release. and they also said the impact of the debt ceiling is getting worse by the day for the u.s. economy. and there's a full release and we're putting it in the record. so just to speak in layman's terms about this, what the economists are saying is this shutdown and this flirtation with the default has taken a huge bite out of our economy, a huge bite. and why did we face it? because some folks didn't like the health care reform act. now, it's their total right not to like it. it's their total right not to love it. it's their total right to try

and change it. that's all their total right. but you can't shut down the government and stamp your feet and say because i don't like this and i don't like who's president, i'm shutting down the government. now, here's the good news, and it is good news. bipartisanship here in the senate is leading america out of this painful partisan, self-inflicted crisis. and as someone from the largest state in the union, i can tell you relief doesn't even begin to describe how i feel. and i am also grateful, grateful to the two leaders who came together, the democratic leader, 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 learn as we read the s&p comments here is that this has to end. this brinksmanship has to end. we have to say as americans you don't have to shut the government down. you don't have to threaten to default. that's not the way we should proceed. it's too painful for this

nation. it's too costly. $24 billion. that's what s&p puts on it. that's what's taken out of the economy. that doesn't even include what it cost us as a federal government to shut down, to reopen, to start again. but bipartisanship here in the senate is leading the way forward. you know, we always are told if you don't know history, you're doomed to repeat it. and 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 that we have been in.

you know, i like to say that if you're walking down the street, it's a pretty nice day and you feel good and the sun is a little bit behind the clouds but looks like it's going to come out, you got a few problems at work you have to work on, you've got a couple of kids you're worried about, you're thinking about how are you going to go on that next vacation but you feel pretty good and optimistic. you got a few problems but everything is manageable. why would you hit yourself in the head with a brick at that very moment? and that's really what this self-inflicted wound on our nation has been about. yes, we have our problems. yes, we're coming out of the worst recession since the great depression, yes, we have to deal with deficits, debts with, education, with climate change, we can go on, yes,

america has its issues, of course, we have. but we don't need self-inflicted wounds. we have enough issues that are critical, including world peace and, you know, iran's nuclear ambitions, and syria's chemical weapons and i serve on the foreign relations committee, everything has taken a back seat to this. now, i'm 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. and, mr. president, it's 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 and most

important, 500,000 jobs depend on our passing wrda. so from what i've read, that wrda bill is going to come forward, and i'm very pleased. and then we'll take our bills to conference, that's the way we do things here, we resolve our differences in the conference and i feel chairman shuster and i can do that our colleagues and we'll have a vote on something that creates jobs and moves us forward. in the meantime, we've been mired for two weeks in a government shutdown and a frightening, frightening, inching up to the default date. that has taken the wind out of our sails, the wind out of america's sails. it has taken our energy. all of us are very, shall we s say,, we're still even a little anxious as we speak until this is done.

it's been a couple of weeks of anxiety, of great difficulty, and here we are. what about the people out there who have suffered, who have worked without a paycheck? worked without a paycheck. policemen, sphie firemen, all or workers still working without paychecks, and we are on the verge of correcting that in moments. and i can only say that i am very thankful to our two leade leaders. i am very thankful to the bipartisan team. i don't want to start naming names because i'm fearful i will forget some, but i know that senator mccain was part of it, senator collins was part of it, senator donnelly, senator klobuchar, and senator heitkamp, and i know i'm leaving people out, which i didn't want to do, i think senator johanns was part of the team and senator flake.

so if i left anybody out, i'll correct it in the record. but i am ever so grateful. i just thought, senators ey ayoe and murkowski. i think that may cover it. senator king. just doing this by memory here. they got together when things looked grim and they said, the senate's going to lead. and i'm so grateful to them. because even as things faltered, they were still at it, still working. senator pryor. part of that group. they just didn't give up. and 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 those votes we had last time for the highway

bill? it was bipartisan, we worked together, as chairman of that e.p.w. committee, really the chingthings we get done are all bipartisan. and when we get into our corners, it's not good. and when we try to use as leverage the very government itself or the debt ceiling itself, it's -- it doesn't work. so, in closing, i'm going to say again what this article says. "s&p." "if people are afraid that the government policy brinkmanship will resurface again and with it the risk of another shutdown or worse, they will remain afraid to open up their checkbooks, and that points to another humbug holiday season," meaning the christmas season, which is so critical to our economy. so we need to learn from this sad history of the last few weeks that, yes, we will have

our disagreements, yes, we will always -- that's the greatness of our -- the greatness of our nation is that we do have freedom of thought and we do have different political parties and we do have different ways of looking at things. it's fine. but don't ever shut down the government, don't ever play games with the full faith and credit of america. let's just get to the negotiating table and we'll be just fine, we'll work those differences out. and the last thing is, elections. elections have consequences. this is where you battle it out. in the next one, we're going to battle this out. that's important. and, you know, we -- we -- we never it said would be smooth sailing, but we have to keep the government open and we have to pay our bills. and i hope that's what we learned. so i'm looking forward to the next hour and a half or so and i expect we'll be voting maybe a

little sooner, and i thank you very much, mr. president, for your leadership in all this darkness of times, and i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president, i ask that weigh dispense with the

quorum call. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: one number that we throw around, mr. president, as you know, in connecticut is the number $50 billion. that is the amount of mo enthat we need over the next -- the amount of money that we need over the next 20 years to make the necessary improvements along our rail line in order to just keep it up to a state of good repair, never mind do the expansions that we know badly need to get our economy back up and running in connecticut, just to do basically all the repair woo, that we need to keep -- repair work that we need to keep trains running. that's $50 billion that we need to get that dofnlt i give that you number because what we've learned today is that s&p estimates that the cost of this two-week shutdown to the united states government is $24 billion. half of what the northeastern states need to maintain a state of good repair on the most important rail line to the nation for the next decade.

in two weeks -- in two weeks we lost $24 billion to this economy. that's the same amount of money that it took to do the big dig in boston and half the money we need to do important improvements along the longest, biggest, most important stretch of rail line in this country. for nothing, for absolutely nothing. we are hope hopefull hopefully t consent in a few moments that will allow us to vote on a bill that offers the same offer as we had over the last two weefntle extend the debt ceiling until february of next year. of course, mr. president, the cost is not just in the short-term. it is not just about all of that money that we lost, $2 billion of it was money lost to the treasury of the united states. it's also what we lose every single day that we to inmove

forward on this theory that it's somehow best to run this country by manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. as the chairman of the europe subcommittee on the foreign relations committee, i have gotten the chance to hear on a daily and weekly basis impressions of this country from the outside, from europe. and they look at this nation with envy because they see the demographic trends which allow this country to stay relatively young compared to the rest of the world. they see relative economic growth here compared to countries throughout the industrialized world and they see us on a pathway to energy independence, whereby we're not going to be reliant on energy in the middle east. we'll be able to produce, whether it be gas or renewables, here at home. and they look at this place with wonder because they see all of these trend lines running in favor of the united states essentially leapfrogging, catapulting the rest of the world with respect to the global

recovery and the only thing stopping us from that inevitability, that global economic rebirth for the united states is government by crisis. mark zandi came to the joint economic committee. he's pretty bipartisan economist, he's advised senator mccain, criticized both parties, he says that -- he says the same thing. he says that the only thing stopping a robust recovery in this nation is the fact that we essentially write budgets and extend debt ceilings two, three, four months at a tievment i gues--at a tievment i come downe floor because my only hope and vision of a paper-thin silver line lining to this fiasco is that the american public have just said definitively that they don't want this -- they don't want this to be the way that government runs any longer. understand that if there's one message to this handful of

conservatives -- mostly in the house of representatives but a few here in the senate -- that has caused this shutdown, the message is pretty simple: they are not going to be able to advance their ideological aims -- in this case trying to end or repeal and delay the health care bill -- by shutting down the government and thrntsin threateg default on american debt. president obama and our majority leader had to draw a line here. they had to draw a line because that's what the american public was demanding, that we put an end to this governance by crisis. if there is a silver lining, it is hopefully that even though we are only extending the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling for a matter of months, that we won't go through this catastrophe again because the american public has just said, enough is enough. and they know what we should know here in the senate. there is enormous room for compromise moving forward. today a group of senators held a

meeting on delivery system reform, and we had 18 senators come to this meeting today to hear a presentation by the bipartisan policy center on a bipartisan proposal to save over $500 billion to the u.s. treasury simply by reordering the rules of how we run medicare, not by trimming benefits, not by requiring more in taxes, simply by reordering the way that we pay for health care. it was a proposal backed by everyone from bill frist to tom daschle. and it suggests that there is so much room for agreement between republicans and democrats if we just decide to set policy for years rather than for months. so i know we walk away from this with a sense of both outrage and hopefulness that we can maybe figure out a way to come together. but, mr. president, although this is my first year in the senate, i've been in this place

for six years between the house and this body, and th-fls like ground -- and this feels like