law -- professor of constitutional law at the university of chicago made a promise to a democrat congressman from michigan who presumably controlled 12 votes of the unnamed stupak dozen who , oddly, it's hard to control votes if you don't know who they are, but in any case, the president making a promise that he'd nullify some of the language that's in the law. . a promise was made that the president thought he could amend law immediately after -- actually after he signed it into law. now, what constitutional professor would take a position like that? i dig this up for a little bit, mr. speaker, because i want people to understand this piece of obamacare legislation is not

the will of the people. it never was the will of the people. it's a product of hook and crook and legislative shenanigan, it's done against the will of the people. furthermore, thomas jefferson, whom both parties revere, once said large initiatives should not be advanced on slender majorities. large initiatives need to be bipartisan initiatives not completely 100% partisan initiatives which obamacare is. and the slender majority that thomas jefferson was talking about was the slender majority that he previewed or presumed to be a bipartisan majority. if jefferson had been talking about a partisan majority, it would have been clear in my opinion what he would have said. he would have said large initiatives should never be advanced on partisan majorities. that's what happened with

obamacare. the largest initiative that has been jammed down the throats of the american people in its entire history is obamacare, advanced on a purely partisan majority by utilization of legislative shenanigan and hook and crook. that's what got us to this pount. people wonder why -- point. people wonder why don't you throw up your hands, accept reality that obamacare is the law of the land, let it be, fund it, because the people have spoken. the people had spoken. they spoke when they elected scott brown. and in the aftermath of the passage of obamacare in march, 2010, rch 20 or 21, of the people spoke again that following november. i remember when obamacare passed in the night and i had been battling this thing for days and i went home about 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, maybe later than that, but it was when the

business wound down here in the house, mr. speaker, and i went home and i thought, i'm going to lay down and going to sleep the sleep of the exhausted. and i'm going to get completely rested up and i'm going to wake up in the morning and then i'm going to put a plan together on what we do now. because i knew that the bill was a message to the white house, and i knew the president was salivating to sign it. he did that within about 48 hours. i woke up, though, in about 2 1/2 hours because the wheels were turning. and i couldn't take it any longer and i drafted the language to repeal obamacare and had that formal request to get that bill handed back to me by the draft people we have here when the door opened at 9:00 that morning. we have been doing battle with obamacare ever since. not only me. a gentlelady from minnesota that was down here and led an hour special order earlier today has been standing there and ran on

for president on the issue, michelle backman -- bachmann. she would repeal obamacare. louie gohmert has been putting hour after hour here on the floor and around this country doing battle with obamacare. the list of people that deserve credit for stepping up to this fight is long. it isn't exclusive here in the house, mr. speaker. it certainly includes a group of stalwarts in the senate. led in this latest episode by senator ted cruz of texas who stood on the floor for more than 21 hours and delivered a whole series of arguments against obamacare. but i'll say here's the argument. the argument that is at the center of obamacare, mr. speaker. and it is this. obamacare is by my opinion an unconstitutional takings of god-given american liberty. it takes away our right to manage our health. the most sovereign thing that we have is the american people is our soul.

and our soul, the eternal nature of our soul, is controlled by god and our will. this federal government hasn't figured out how to nationalize our soul. but the second most sovereign thing we have is our bodies, our health, our skin, and everything inside it. the second most sovereign thing that we have. and the federal government under obamacare has figured out how to nationalize our skin and everything inside it. a federal government takeover of the management of our health. where under obamacare, if you walk into a clinic, if you walk into an emergency room, if you apply for government approved insurance under whatever means t might emerge when no one can really tell us at this point, the government decides whether you get the insurance, the government decides whether you get a subsidy for the premium, the government decides what kind of research gets done, what kind

of treatment one gets. the government decides if you're worth the hip replacement or knee replacement or whether you get just painkillers for as long as you can live with a broken hip. the government decides that. not us any longer. now, we understand that, those of us that have a little bit of gray hair or maybe lost some. we understand that, but do the children in our grade schools and nurseries today understand that? mr. speaker, we know that answer's no. they don't understand that. when these children grow up and get out of school and step into adulthood and they have already been brought up in a system of obamacare that makes these decisions for them, what happens to their dreams? what happens to their aspirations? what happens to their ability to think big? what happens to their ability to manage their life? the institutional memory of the culture and civilization that will disappear that remembers the glorious time when we could choose our doctor.

when the market demand created the insures policies that suit us, the consumers. when we could shop from doctor to doctor, from clinic to clinic. when we could say, you know, i want this care for my mother this badly that i think even though that she is 85 she needs a hip replacement because i don't want to see her die in a wheelchair. that's a different world than we have today. and i would be happy to yield to the speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the snafment the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has agreed an amendment to h.r. -- h.j.res. 59, making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes. in which the concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from iowa may proceed. mr. king: thank you, mr.

speaker. could i ask the speaker the number of that h.j.res. that's just been messaged? i missed that. the speaker pro tempore: h.j.res. 59, continuing resolution. mr. king: i thank you for that response. now that tells me, mr. speaker, that we have just gotten message to us that a c.r., continuing resolution, from the united states senate, that the vote had concluded over on the other side, down the other end, through the rotunda. and the senate has now acted to peel out the ban on funding for obamacare and send us back what they would call a clean c.r. with their changes and provisions which would include continuing resolution up until november 15. so it is a shorter term c.r. than we offered to them, but what it says is, we as senators are not going to, we are not

going to -- we are not going to let you prohibit the funding of obamacare, and -- again we are back to the center and crux of this. another dramatic event is taking place here in the united states capitol. and the drama of this now is in the lap of the house of representatives where our speaker has just received the message of h.j.res. 59, the c.r. now we have a decision to make. and my message, mr. speaker, is this, if 218 house members hold our ground, if we say we will not fund obamacare and we will not fund an appropriation that fails to cut off the funding to obamacare, if we hold our ground, we will win. this contest now that's going on is a contest of wills. and there's a relatively narrow majority in the senate. there's a little bit broader majority in the house, i believe. and the strength of will is being measured. this is like holding a gun on

each other now, standing in a burning building, and deciding who is going to blink. but we can't just let down the hammer and stand there because the building is burning. somebody has to walk away from this confrontation and say i'll give you your way. my message to this, mr. speaker, is that we hear this message over and over again. if there is a government shutdown, house republicans will always lose in a confrontation with the president. i don't know that that's true. and i don't know it even was true in 1995 and 1996 when there was a government shutdown that lasted for 21 days. what i do know is this house sent the funding to keep our government opened over to the senate. with it was language that said, no funding to implement or enforce obamacare. it happens in language i wrote and presented to this congress in 2011. we have said we want this government to stay open. we want to avoid a shutdown.

avoid a shutdown. avoid a shutdown. if we repeat that enough times it might be sending a message to the senators we don't mean it when we say we are not going to fund obamacare. i want to send the message, mr. speaker, that we do mean it. i want to send the message that we are going to hold our ground. and i'd like to remind, mr. speaker, that there have been a whole series of shutdowns throughout history. and as i look through some of those and i have a list of them printed here, there were at least five government shutdowns when jimmy carter was president. five of them. five incidents, one was over a nuclear battleship of some kind. the longest shutdown he had was 18 days. does anybody remember those shutdowns from the 1980's? kind of. didn't change my life that i remember. but that was democrats in majority in the house and senate. and democrat president. and their infighting caused government shutdowns for a total of 57 days.

57 days between 1977 and 1981, and sometimes jimmy carter won. sometimes the democrats in the house and senate prevailed over the president of the united states. all the same party. so if we don't remember the price paid for a government shutdown, if the inconvenience of it doesn't linger in anybody's memory, i take you to the era of ronald reagan when there were a number of shutdowns under ronald reagan, fewer and shorter period of time, one of them was over $1 is billion in social spending. and of that $1 billion the government was shut down for three days. in that period of time -- by wait there was a republican majority in the united states senate. we had a principled republican president, democrats in the majority here in the house. the democrats refused to agree with the president and the senate that resulted in a government shutdown, and in that shutdown that lasted in the end $1 billion in spending that

democrats here wanted was negotiated down to $900 million. they gave up 10% of what they asked for, and the government was opened back up again. so a determined majority in the house of representatives prevailed to the level of 90% of their asked against a republican majority in the senate that opposed them and a president who has clearly held his ground in case after case. it is clear who prevails in an issue like this. but i'll say this. the american people will judge our resolve and our determination. and the determination on who wins and who loses if that actually matters will be written by history. but i say this, mr. speaker, if we hold our ground, i believe there will not be a political price for house republicans to pay. when house republicans held their ground and eventually caved in 1995 and 1996, some say

house republicans lost that. they lost eight seats in the following election. they did not lose the majority. six of those eight seats were marginal seats. they were likely to lose anyway. so perhaps they lost two congressional seats. now, if we don't want to put at risk two congressional seats out of the house republican majority to stand on the principle that cuts off all funding to implement and enforce obamacare, is our fear for our political jobs greater than our love of principle and the people we represent? i would argue instead there will not be political consequences for standing on principle and refusing to fund obamacare. if there are political consequences, they will be recovered from over time. but we, mr. speaker, can never recover from obamacare if it's implemented and enforced. that is the bottom line. no political consequences will be delivered to the people who stand up for the american people . that's the house republican stands. hat's the

that's the senate conservative stance that came down a short while ago on the other side of the capitol. as we stand as principled people and look back at that time, scott brown came to the united states senate because the blue state massachusetts rejected obamacare, there was a wave election in 2010 that elected 87 new house republicans. every one of them ran on repeal of obamacare. every republican in the house and senate has voted multiple times to undo repeal, defund obamacare, all of them standing together, it was bipartisan the last time. we had two democrats that also agreed with us on this c.r. we must stand on principle. if there is a political price to be paid for standing on principle, i say it's worth it. we can recover from any political price even though i don't believe there will be but a political reward, but we can never recover if we allow obamacare to be implemented or

enforced. that's my stand, mr. speaker. that's the stand that i ask my colleagues to take, today, tomorrow, the next day and every day if we hold together and we holdn the end the beneficiaries will be the american people and god-given liberty. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from iowa seek recognize snigs mr. king: mr. speaker, i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a

continuing resolution by a vote .f 54-44 it now returns to the house. that senate version had the health care d funding language stripped out of it. -- it had the health care defunding language stripped out of it. this afternoon we plan to bring as much as we can in terms of briefings about the cr and the debate this weekend. senate emma kratz just wrapped up their briefing -- senate democrats just wrapped up their briefing. up next, from earlier today, u.s. representative rick crawford, republican, introduced a resolution that calls the health care law and entitlement program and asks whether the federal government should spend aer $1 trillion on it during debt crisis. they held a briefing this morning just outside the house

of representatives. >> ready? thank you all for coming out today. we just came out to provide a little bit of perspective here. some of the things that are being talked about with regards to the cr and obamacare being at the center of this debate, number one, we know america's up to our eyeballs in debt. we do not think it is time to rush forward with trillions in new entitlement spending. i am introducing a resolution that would simply ask that question. members can say yes or no me area -- yes or no. does it make sense to move ahead with $1.3 trillion in new entitlement spending when we are in the middle of a debt crisis? we are going to put the question

to all the members. our answer is no pure we hope our colleagues across the aisle and across the capital will see that as an opportunity and also say that it does not make sense. in that light, we can take appropriate action. that is our resolution, basically calling on members to explain why they think it is a good idea to rush forward with $1.3 trillion in new entitlement spending when we are in the middle of a debt crisis. i want to thank the members that have come out today. we appreciate it. we know they are all busy and have things to be doing. i appreciate them being here today. if there are any questions, i would be happy to answer them. flemingng to let dr. speak. he obviously is a medical doctor and can comment with some detail on this. >> thank y'all for coming out. i am congressman john fleming from louisiana, physician, small business owner. yesterday, the president was giving a speech in maryland, and he quoted a congressman saying

that the congressman said that obamacare is the worst piece of legislation ever. well, ladies and gentlemen, that congressman was me. and i fully stand behind that statement. as you just heard congressman crawford say, for heaven sakes, during a time when we have an entitlement programs that ill-afford, we are now launching even a new entitlement program that will be a mass transfer of income from one class of able to another. destroying our income, destroying jobs, and really perversely actually removing people from the health care roles they are already on. why in the world would we want to do that? in the final analysis, what obamacare represents for the losscan people is not only of insurance that they already

have, but a steep rise in the cost of their health care and their insurance and a loss of their jobs or a reduction of that job down to part-time. because we know that since the beginning of the year, 77% of ,ll new jobs are part-time jobs and that is because companies all across america are rapidly moving their employees from full-time to part-time jobs. so they are losing not only their health care in some cases, but they're also losing their jobs, their income, and certainly their standard of living. i certainly stand behind this measure. i think we should remind those who voted for obama care, all of them democrats -- not a single republican never voted for this yield -- we should remind them and have them remind their constituents time and time again of the fact that this is a whole new entitlement program that is destructive for america. thank you. >> thank you.

i got an e-mail from a constituent this morning he works at one of the largest hospitals in my district. they had a meeting and administration gave the news that their health care costs were going up. as a result, their retirement benefits were going down. these are just some of the symptoms we're seeing already manifesting them selves with the importation of this law, ill- conceived. we want senator reed to answer the question, does it make sense to go forward with $1.3 trillion in new entitlement spending in the middle of a debt crisis? if anybody else wants to way i end, -- and anybody else want to weigh yen, i will give them the opportunity. if not, i will answer questions. >> the alternative is sort of a ndingack position if defu is not achieved? >> we do not know what we will get from the senate. we do not know what they will do. so this is not anything other than the fact that we need to make sure that our folks back home know where their senator

stands, where their member of congress stands, and we want to get them on record. it has been three years since the law was signed. people just need to get a little reaffirmation of whether or not their member of congress or their senator think it is a good idea to continue to spend recklessly. we think it is not. >> in the president's beach yesterday,- speech when talking about your comments, he brought up the fugitive slave act. >> that was in reference to a state rep from some other state who made a reference to that. i did not specify any particular legislation in the past. but the point is that, remember, obama care takes over, put under the government rule 1/6 of the entire economy, probably the most important part of our economy. what can be more intimate for each individual american van their health care?

not only do americans now have to be accountable for their finances to the irs, now they have to be accountable to the irs for their health care. if you add that to the loss of health cares of insurance, i think it is .ncomparable >> are using modern history -- the democrats have come back with stuff from the 1850's and stuff. can you clarify? >> what i said is very clear. thank you. >> i am going to yield to my colleague from kentucky. >> thank you, rick. i appreciate you putting this together. i am from kentucky's sixth congressional district. that obamacareut

threatens to further undermine the solvency of important health care programs that were currently in existence. in my district, we have a number lacingiors am p now that the hospital insurance trust fund is set to go bankrupt in the year 2026. a new entitlement program, the cbo projected it will cost more next$2 trillion over the 10 years and will put further pressure on medicare. obamacare waves medicare to the tune of $716 billion. rural hospitals all over kentucky are seeing their aimbursements slashed as result of obama care. the independent payment advisory board, a financing mechanism for obamacare, is threatened to ration health care services for our seniors. this resolution makes a point, and that is that obamacare threatens an already fiscally

insolvent safety net in our country. we need to focus on saving medicare. we need to focus on forcing the government to keep the promises it has already made. obamacare makes thati want to ai heard from one of the seniors in my district recently. just simply put the question to me -- am i going to have to choose between medi-cal -- between medicare social security and obamacare? i cannot answer that question. i do not know that anybody can today, that they can say with certainty that, no, you will not have to choose in all three will be there. as it has been indicated, this presents a major challenge to the solvency of those programs that we promised to our seniors and that we intend to deliver. again, i would just ask that eid answer the

simple question, doesn't make sense to speed ahead with one $.3 trillion in the middle of a debt crisis -- does that make sense? in my district, the answer is no. for me, the answer is no, does not make sense. we need to slow down a little bit and give the american people a new perspective. interesting fact, and this seems backwards, but in 2008, the national debt was $10 trillion. four years later, up to $16 trillion. while that debt has increased by 60%, the animal interest spent on it has actually decreased. going from $451 billion in 2008 to $360 billion in 2012. why do i make that point? because interest rates are being artificially suppressed, and when they normalize -- i say when, because they will normalize -- that will put even further pressure on our budget. that means that probably the interest on our debt against the single biggest line item in the federal budget. as we see obamacare to 10 doing

to put further pressure on , theams like medicare people are asking what we can do to fix this problem -- i know with the wrong answer is. that is speeding forward with one .3 trillion dollars in additional entitlement spending in the middle of a debt crisis. having said that, any further uestions? wasow congressman king planning on being here. i do not seen him. if there are no further questions -- >> sorry, i got here late. one of your republican colleagues said there is a political risk for republicans of a shutdown. all of you may represent safe districts, but this member said anyone who does not think there is a high risk is not laying with a full deck. >> first of all, the point of

this message has nothing to do with the government shut down. i cannot speak to the political dynamics of other members' districts. i can tell you i am the first republican since 1873 number so i would hardly consider my district to be a safe republican district. i am not a proponent of shutting down the government. this is a measure that would force members of congress and senators to say, yes, it makes sense or, no, it does not to spend $1.3 trillion in additional entitlements in the middle of a debt crisis. it has nothing to do with shutting down the government. it is a clarification so that folks back home know where their member of congress stands, where there senator stands with regard to our spending problem in this town. i think we need to reassess that, reaffirm that, and give senators an opportunity to speak to their folks back home through voting yes or no on this resolution. >> how can you call yourself

christian if you want to deny health care to 30 million people in america? how can you call yourself children of god? >> i do not think this is a good time to comment. >> why, because you call yourself questions? these are killers. --y are worse than the god the guy that had the navy yard incident. these people are humans. we are here today to call upon the pope to exorcise them. pray for them. they need god's power to be relieved from these demons that are possessing them. you see they broke up the press conference when we talked about god. they do not represent children of god. they are not children of god. they are not. souls.praying for their we are praying for their souls, but we need to do something about it.

we need to vote a i asked him a question. he refused to answer because he is a demon. these are it demons. like it was said, these are demons. these aren't demons. christlike on this standing. you are not christlike. >> i am doing christ's work. part of the prayer movement. we are here today. we're going to have an exorcism here in front of the capitol steps. we are going to pray for these demons that are destroying our nation. we need to pray for them. i have a young man here who is homeless. he needs health care and he cannot get health care. they want to hold up the budget, shut down the federal government

just because they do not want 30 million people to have health care. spirit, and weic are going to pray and pray to god will deliver these demons from capitol hill. -- maxine waters said this in california and i believe it. we have been fighting them. than the guy that did the shooting at the navy yard. their policies are killing millions of americans. my name is rocky twyman. >> reaction after a news conference on capitol hill, republicans talking about the health care law and the continuing resolution. lots of reaction online, too. we're also watching some of the tweets of members of congress. patty murray, democratic

senator, tweeting -- very least, we should be able to deliver to our constituents is not actively sabotaging the economic recovery. republican of south -- disappointed democrats stood with party bosses and not american majority to defund obamacare. twitter.com/cspan. that vote in the senate a short while ago was 54-44, the senate passing the continuing resolution and sending it back to the u.s. house. the house will be in tomorrow to take up that legislation, coming in at 10:00 for morning our speeches and then noon for legislative work in the house. before the passage in the senate this afternoon and before the house wrapped up today amid democratic leader nancy pelosi talked about what is ahead this weekend in the u.s. house.

good morning. inches four days, the american people will see the affordable care act come into effect. on october 1, the health insurance marketplaces will open , offeringment american families more competition, more choices, and most importantly, affordable quality health care. a new study this week shows that 95% of uninsured americans will see insurance premiums that cost much less than expected. the average american consumer will be able to choose from 53 different plans offered by insurance companies who they know and hopefully can trust. premiums are event lower for workers and families who qualify

for the tax credit. and openly competitive marketplace is just one way millions of americans are seeing lower costs and higher coverage thanks to the affordable care act. nearly 13 million americans receive $1.1 billion in rebates from insurance companies last summer. that is because in our bill we had it show that the insurance companies must spend their money onuring people and not advertising and the rest. 6.3 million seniors have already million on.1 prescription drug medication. that is because of closing the doughnut hole. americans have received lifesaving preventative health care services for free. as you all know, being adults yourself, for those who need to be on their parents a policy --

beyond their parents' policy, they can do that until age 26. that is in effect. children are not subjected to discrimination already because of pre-existing medical conditions. so much is already in effect, but so much more will happen january 1, and people can begin enrolling on october 1. it is transformational. toealthier life, liberty pursue your happiness, whether you want to be a photographer, a writer, start your business and be self-employed, change jobs, you're not job-locked. you can follow your passion, not policy. it is entrepreneurial, as the president said yesterday in his great speech on the subject. it is entrepreneurial and freeze people up to start their own businesses and not stay where they are because of health insurance. it is very exciting.

i mean, can you imagine being there when social security first came into effect or medicare when it became the law of the land? and people began to enjoy the benefit of the legislation. ideas -- compromises made, translated into legislation that become public policy that will improve the lives of american people. very exciting. on the other hand, in a matter of days, four days until the enrollment of the affordable care act, and just three days that we will see the question as to whether our government will be shut down. the same question -- why are we at the brink again? that is the question people ask us as i travel throughout the country. just to put it in context chronologically -- you know i love temp oral markers. where we are today and how we got here.

on march 1, you will recall the president called the four leaders to the oval office to talk about how we would proceed with the legislative agenda that included the project. the republican leadership, mr. boehner -- speaker boehner and leader mcconnell said that they wanted to proceed under the regular order. that was their mantra. does outside of the beltway, regular order means you pass a bill in the house, you pass a bill in the senate, and then you send it to conference to negotiate, to reconcile your differences. of course, we have always done regular order, so we welcomed that. we welcomed back the order of conference committees. i think that transparency goes to the process of the american people. so the regular order is going to be. house passed the bill.

senate passed the bill. and that was the end of the call to regular order. after the house passed its bill, you remember -- you remember, right? the republicans were saying no budget, no pay. as far as the senate was concerned. when are they going to pass the bill? well, only a matter of weeks. nonetheless, both houses passed the legislation. then we said, ok, regular order. we now go to negotiate at a conference table. for around six months, nearly six months, republicans have refused to negotiate. they have refused to negotiate. is they say it president. the president was following the path of the regular order that they suggested. , by turningthat their backs on what they said they wanted, and we certainly do, too, regular order, the republican sewed the seeds of this dangerous partisan path we

find ourselves in today. it is impossible for democrats to negotiate with house republicans because they cannot even negotiate with themselves. instead of legislating responsibly, they want to live dangerously, and that is not good for the american people. and now, with only three days left, republicans are threatening a shutdown that will hurt our economy, threaten jobs and job creation and believe our families with less security, and leave our country with less security and our economy with less stability. this is the most irresponsible way to negotiate a budget. it is not negotiating. especially when democrats have been reading -- ready and willing to work with republicans to pass a responsible bipartisan bill. our ranking member on budget committee, chris van hollen, has proposed ending a budget -- presenting a budget that would end the devastating across-the-board sequester cuts.

use the deficit in a responsible way, keep the government open and working for the american people. we have asked over and over and over again for a vote on that budget. and republicans do not good -- do not bring it to the floor because it makes so much sense. if the american people saw the alternative, i think the clarity and distinction would be made. and what mr. van hollen is suggesting is in keeping with what the chairman of the republican appropriations -- hetee, chairman rogers said the house, senate, and white house must come together as soon as possible on a comprehensive compromise that repeals sequestration, takes the nation off this lurching path from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, reduces our deficits and debt, and provides a realistic path line, discretionary spending level to form the government in a responsible and

attainable way. rogers, chairman of the republican appropriations committee. the committee has always been a bipartisan committee, but even their chairman is proposing a path that we fully subscribed to. the number is too low for government to function in a responsible way for the american people. that the not anything republican majority in the house seemed inclined to follow. if that were not enough, that were not enough, the house republicans are astonishing disregard for the stability of our economy goes well beyond others threats to shut down other basic services for the american people. they are holding the entire economy hostage, and their tea party ran some demands significant costs for economic security. you can expect, higher interest rates for your

mortgage, car payment, credit cards, and student loans. higher interest rates on your business loans that you used to pay employees and expand your businesses. to grow a business. and significant blows to your 401(k). , and thehrough this stock market reacts. house democrats agree with the president. this is nonnegotiable. you can have any conversation you want, but threats and willingness to default, the discussion of a lowered our credit rating two years ago. the ideology of the republicans is a luxury the american people cannot afford, especially when it comes to putting in doubt the full faith and credit of the united states of america. that is why house democrats and the leadership of deputy whip peter welsh are calling for a clean increase in our that

limit. 186 democrats have signed on to prevent another gop-manufactured crisis. regular order -- oh, nevermind. uncertainty within their own caucus, we do not know what they will vote for from one minute to the next. i do not think they know. and the threat of the full faith and credit of the united states of america. it is beneath the dignity of the first branch of government, the legislative branch. we have a responsibility to come here to represent our districts, to advocate our points of view, and to come to terms with what compromise will work for the american people. any questions? yes, ma'am? >> do you have any comments to speaker boehner? >> i will see the speaker and speak with them about this. i have a great deal of respect

for him and the office he holds. he is my friend. i have not received any -- i am trying to think, i do not know, i speak to him if i see him or we speak iphone. -- by phone. in other words, we have had a number of conversations. i just say do not expect this to be helpful when it comes to the debt ceiling, because we do not think that is negotiable. but let's see what we can do, working together for the cr. though the path that they are on is one that gets farther and farther away from any compromise -- you know what, let's see what they send. , again, irness, and respect the speaker and his role and the confidentiality of our conversation, only to say we stand ready to help on one but not to take down the full faith and credit of the united states of america. i do not know that they even know what they are doing, so it is impossible to say how we

might react to something that they do not even know yet what they are going to suggest. >> democrats have done a very good job of holding fast and being disciplined on such things as the farm bill and other things, not helping them out, i guess. is this a different scenario? >> [indiscernible] >> is this a different moment in the cr fight? you going to help them out? our members allowed to come andw democratic members to sort of bail them out of this? >> members will vote the way members will vote. nobody can say what will happen until we see what they are going to propose. we had hoped that the republicans in the senate, that the tail would not be wagging the dog to the point that they cannot bring up the bill last night. but the tail did wag the dog.

it will not come to the floor for another couple hours. after that we will see how republicans will react to that pure people make judgments. nobody can tell you how the vote will go unless they know what it is they are voting on. but i do think -- i do not think there will be any support. 186 members signed the letter. many who do not sign letters are there on the debt limit. that is nonnegotiable. now thans more likely a few days ago, a shutdown? >> i hope not. i am always optimistic. everyday is a new day. this leadership on the republican side has brought bills to the floor but does not have the majority there. fewer than 40 of them voted for sandy aid, for example.

fewer than 40. but on one amendment, at powerful amendment that really mattered. aid, fewer than 50. that is like 20% of the caucus that voted for sandy aid him in not anywhere near 51%. a majority of them and a strong way voted against the violence against women act. yet, they had to bring it to the floor. authorityfter the expired and 90 days after sandy. very late and overdue. nonetheless, they are largely voted against both of those measures. you know, the fiscal cliff vote, another budget bill and what happened there. in any case, it appears that there is a solution. it is bipartisan, and everybody has made their point.

again, beyond that, they are a luxury the country cannot afford. >> how important is it for house democrats to have even just a short term crv above sequestration levels? and if it comes to it, do you think a shutdown would make a debt ceiling fight less likely? >> i just cannot buy into a government shutdown. again, i would not be able to sustain the energy level, the intellectual challenges all the time if i thought we were on the path that it looks like we are on, but how do we get off it? that's hope that sanity will eign. everyone has made their point, progresswe can make for the american people. we would love to split the difference on what we all agreed to in the budget control act in

a bipartisan way, the 1.57 figure versus the 988. see that would like to happen, as would i, and he would like to see that a lemonade our sequestration altogether -- he would like to see that eliminate our superstation altogether. >> do you think it is important, even for one month or two months, to hold out on that? about that,e debate even in the short term. >> we will see what the senate since back to us. we're talking about a matter of hours. what we would love to see is the senate send a bill back. they have made their point, and they feel confident about fighting the fight and reaching putting your

medical decisions in the hands of insurance companies, back into the hands of insurance companies, so that is what this is all about. now let's go forward. i mean, something happens, you make your attempt, it does not work. how long do you just bang your head against the wall at the expense of our country? so let's just see what they send . as i said to yesterday and the day before, it is really hard to talk about and speculate on where members will be and how we will work together and build that consensus when we do not know what the republicans will send us. functional effect in terms of getting an eventual agreement if what transpires over this weekend is a much shorter-term cr that brings the process closer to the debt limit and no strings become a little say,congealed, i will closer together?

what is the functional effect of that? fact, they were closer together. they were on the same path. they were in tandem, and another republicans realized that they could not get the debt ceiling raised no matter how much baggage they attached to that the full faith and credit of the united states of america is not something that should be tied to government. the closer it gets, the more unreasonable he gets, the more you're responsible it gets. i would hope that the scenario described is not one that we come to, because it is two different subjects. yes, they are all about budget, but one is the full faith and credit of the united states of america and the other is a priority debate on spending and saving and growth.

growth.hould be about everything the republicans are noting about, whether it is lifting the debt ceiling or making the cuts they want to make without making the investments that we should be making, it is about slowing growth and we are losing a million jobs as it is. we will lose a million jobs. some say 1.6 million. i will be may usual conservative self and say one million on that subject, most defensible subject. this is silly. they did not get some orientation on how serious the work is that we do here. clearly, they are a manifestation of what president washington cautioned against when he left office, which were political parties at war with their own government. and that is what we have,

wagging the dog -- the tail dog of the republican party now. >> he have been in some of these legislative cul-de-sacs. the other point made a moment ago, are you surprised that we are this late in the game and there is not back-and-forth that the white house? meetings at the white house, back channel talks between the chief of staff and the chief of staff on boehner's side. none of that is happening. that seems very strange. >> on march 1 in the oval office , the republican leaders said they wanted regular order. house passes as bill, senate passes a bill, and we go to the table. seeing what happened there, we were very pleased. because regular order is what we

come here to do. it is a term that is fraught with meaning. so you abandon it and it becomes confusing to people. >> [inaudible] >> because it will not go to conference. they will not go to conference. they will not negotiate. and typical of them, they say we will not go to conference to negotiate to reconcile the difference between the house and senate bills, which are quite different. president willhe not negotiate. the president is always negotiating. bravo to him for declaring that the full faith of the united states is not negotiable. but everything else is a normal discussion that you have. i think you see what is happening here. they cannot even come forward -- with a say in the morning does not exist in the evening. they cannot even negotiate with themselves much less anyone

outside because there's not a talking point. really, let's clear the air with this. we have a responsibility to pay our bills. deficit thatof the is being subjected to the debt limit increase was amassed during the bush years. find me, please, one statement that any of these people made about the deficit and its rapid growth under the bush and the change from when president clinton was five of hisour or last budgets were in balance or in surplus. president bush comes in with his failed economic policies, grows the deficit, two unpaid for wars, a prescription drug bill

that gives away the pharmaceutical industry, and tax breaks to the wealthiest people in our country that do not create jobs. we support middle-income tax cuts, we all do. nd, it does e nothing. did you hear these endangered species budget talks saying boo hoo or anything else that they said at that time? they simply did not. then president obama comes in and the deficit is coming down at a very rapid rate, it will be in half by the end of this year of what it was when he became president. he said it would be cut in half in four years. it happens and five. he has the job creation initiatives. nonetheless, that is the path we are on. the debt is coming down because the slowing down of the rapid increase of medical costs to our economy. people are working on this. people care about the debt.

becameesident bush president, in just a few years he had the biggest this golf swing in the history of our country. a path of $5.6 trillion of surplus to $5.6 trillion deficit. $11 trillion cost change. we all care about the deficit, and how we reduce it is by growth. more revenue coming in he does more people are working and better jobs, more opportunity. how we reduce it is to take a look at our tax code and see where we can have savings. giving $38 billion in tax breaks to big oil as an incentive to drill and make $1 trillion in profit, and then say we want to cut education. that is part of their policy. -- but have to make everything to the scrutiny of --

does this work? does the money, investments they are making, let's reevaluate our ,riorities, their effectiveness and cut cost where we can. that is what you go to the budget table to do. that is where they refuse to go. why do they refuse to go? of the they are afraid contrast, that the transparency of a conference committee will reveal. between ourtiation statement of values about how to grow our economy, reduce our deficit, and make our future better, invest in the future versus the republican budget with a litany of bad things that it does. confusion is their friend. they like to confusion rather than the clarity of going to

conference. they took that step after saying that is the path they wanted to go down. as soon as those steps were taken, they made an about- is harmful to growth and has serious consequences for our economy. i hope it does not happen. he will see. note, he a happier said last question, right? chance i resist another team u.s.a. for their victory in san francisco. , the catamaran. 19 races over 15 days, the

longest number of days on record , the most race days. the first winner take all final race that it came down to the last race in 30 years. usar trailing 1-8, our team surged ahead to win an unprecedented eight straight races to hold the america top high above their head. it is a beautiful site. we were there cheering them, but not on days when it made a difference. a huge crowd amassed there as the races brought us to victory. that was what was exciting about it. i have to thank mary allison -- larry allison for his vision to democratize the race. it was always -- at sea, you went on your yacht

or sale but to see it. anyone who could see san francisco bay could see the race . it went from whitecaps to blue collar. it was pretty exciting. gathered people who worked locally to make it a success. we are proud of all of them. something pretty exciting going -8, don't you think? a pretty big comeback in sports history. you are dying not to come back miraculously? >> we have in every other year program. [laughter] the five.e of >> [indiscernible] >> thank god.

quite a time getting here. just go to abc, but not here, or cbs, but it was not on here. in any event, more on sports later. thank you all very much. >> thank you. pelosi from late this morning. that was before the senate final passage of the continuing solution, the vote 54-44, a stripped out the health care defunding language from the house. they sent the cr back to the house. at 3:30 eastern we will hear from president obama. the house will be gaveling in tomorrow at 10:00 eastern and then for legislative work at noon. isational review" online

writing about cruz. on thursday, a conference call, a group of house conservatives consulted with senator ted cruz of texas about how to respond to fiscaldership's strategy. this is the latest example of righteading the house's flank. senator cruz and senator mike lee of utah spoke to reporters. >> we now move on to the next stage of this battle. inate democrats stood united refusing to listen to the american people. obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country. are hurtingericans

-- millions of americans are hurting. they are seeing their health care threatened, and yet sadly today senate democrats stood together and refused to listen to the american people. now we move to the house. the house last week showed remarkable courage, standing up and fighting to defund obamacare. the house listened to the i amcan people, and hopeful, confident that the house will continue to stand its ground, continue to listen to the american people, and step up to respond and to stop this train wreck, nightmare that is obamacare. when that happens, the bill will come back here, and it will be an opportunity for senate republicans to come together, or senate public and succumb home. i very much hope when the house bill comes back up all 46 republicans stand together,

stand united come and i hope that some of the democrats who today decided not to listen to their constituents hear the voices of the millions of americans who are hurting and do the right thing and stand up and stop this train wreck, the nightmare of a law. nightmare ared not my terms, they are the term by the lead democratic offer of obamacare and one of the leading union leaders in the country. it is the truth that millions of americans are suffering because the law is not working. >> thank you. thank you for being here today and thank you for the work you have put into this effort. democrats ine the washington are obsessed to shutting down the government. i do not know of anyone who wants to shut down the government. the only thing we want to shut down obamacare is because of the harm it is doing to the middle class, to hard-working people

who are working hard just to get ahead. thisives we have been told is a country where if you work hard and you sacrificed you can achieve a better life. those of us in elected office should be against anything that is an impediment to that dream. obamacare stands in the wake of that. that is why we are so passionate. today we had the opportunity to do that. states wheree from people who do not support obamacare, decided it was a more important to the a hard-working men and women of our country. this only gets worse from here for the middle class and for people trying to get ahead. i hope we will have an opportunity to do it again. we will take advantage of every opportunity we have to fight on behalf of the men and women of this country who want a

chance to achieve a better life for themselves for them and their families. thank you. know government will be funded. the question is whether it is funded with or without obamacare. week,use republicans last listening to the voice of the american people, often for the latter, to keep government funded while protecting people from the harmful effects of obamacare. took the senate step of bringing up that legislation, not as is, never presenting the senate with the opportunity to vote on the measure as it exists. they chose to use a device that allows the majority leader to bring up one amendment, an -mendment that gutted the house

past continuing resolution and prohibit everyone else from introducing amendments. this is unfortunate. the american people continue to law, a lawwhy this that has never enjoyed the hasrity of -- a law that never had the support of the majority of the american people and a law that becomes less popular as time goes on and with good reason. i asked the same question -- how many more americans will have to lose their jobs, have to be told that their hours are being cut or their wages are being diminished or they are losing their health care plans? 20,000 home depot employees were resultd last week as a of this job. our job is to protect the american people any way we can from the harmful effects of this law and we continue to explore every opportunity to do that. >> [indiscernible] to be someems

disarray within the republican party. there was an open split on the senate floor yesterday. is that this unity among republicans -- does that argue against your fight? >> it is unfortunate senate republicans were not united this time around, but i am encouraged that house republicans have been united, that last week when they voted a stood together to defund obamacare. i hope and believe that when the house takes the this up again, house republicans will continue to stand together on the side of the american people, and i am also hopeful when the house sends the bill back it will be senatertunity for every republican tuesday for the principles we all share, to stand with the american people. an orthodoxy you expect out of republicans i leading to debate on the floor,

as in senator corker yesterday? beenery republican has outspoken in eloquence against obamacare. when the house stands up and does the right thing, i think it will present the opportunity for every senate republican to stand arm in arm with the house republicans. and then it will present an opportunity for senate democrats. senate democrats did not listen to the american people, to all the young people coming out of school who are not able to find a job. they did not listen to all the single moms waiting tables were finding themselves working 29 hours a week. they did not listen to all the union workers who are seeing their health insurance coverage trend to be taken away. as james hoffa said, millions of americans are seeing their health care destroyed, and

destroyed was the language he used, and today senate immigrants do not listen to those millions of americans, but this is a process that will go back and forth between the house and the senate. the house was always in the position where it was going to ,ead, and from my perspective we look forward to helping and supporting the house standing up and doing the right thing and fighting for the american people. >> will there be another real filibuster -- [indiscernible] >> [indiscernible] , the government will be funded. the question is whether we fund it with obamacare or without. house passed a continuing relays is -- resolution. the senate has chosen to strip thishat language from

measure which is now in the process of being passed by the senate. that was unfortunate. -- this is amount not about calling for a shut down. >> what do you want to do the house to do in the next steps? i want the house do stand with the american people against obamacare in favor of keeping government funded while defunding obamacare. >> how will that happen? >> a variation of this. what form that takes will be up to the members of the house, and to their leadership to him and i am confident they will do the right thing. >> there are some numbers of the house who have said what they could pass act might be something that could pass for delayarties here, maybe a in obamacare for a shorter time or even a repeal of the medical device act. would you guys hold that up with

a filibuster or would you let them take a vote on that? >> it does not make sense to speculate on possible bills the house my past. you should see what the house passes. in my view what is critical is a measureouse passes that protects the american people from the harms that obamacare is causing them the jobs that are being lost, from being forced into part-time work, from skywriting -- skyrocketing premiums, from losing your health insurance. that is what i am confident the house will do. >> [indiscernible] have you --[indiscernible] >> we have had numerous conversations with members of the house, but at the end of the day, all 435 members are elected by the people in the districts,

and each member of the house has responsibility to listen to their constituents. i'm confident if the house the since the people as it did last week it will continue to step forward and respond to the suffering that is coming from obamacare. it was writing, sad to see senate democrats together turn a blind year to all of the people to all the ear people suffering under obamacare, during the extended filibuster that weaver says abated in. people whoters from are losing their health care. a few weeks ago ups sent a letter to employees saying they were going to lose their health care. people are hurting, and if the house continues to listen to the wall, they will act decisively to prevent the harms that are

flowing. >> [indiscernible] >> i have said for a long time i do not intend to vote for any continuing resolution that funds obamacare. i think obamacare is a train wreck, a disaster, a nightmare to use the words of mr. hoffa. we see more leaders in washington listening to the american people and helping stop this nightmare. >> [indiscernible] putting dents in obamacare -- >> i am not going to speculate on any possible continuing resolution that will come. amendment, one of the things that frustrates the people so much is the hypoxia in washington. obama has granted exemptions for big is this, for members of congress, hard-working american families are told there will be

no exemption for you. to haveo not happen high paid lobbyists, if you do not walk the car doors of power, then the senate is apparently not listening to you and not interested in treating you as well as members of congress and big bigness. that is fundamentally wrong. washington should operate under principles that are good for the but not for me is why people are so frustrated with washington. the ruling class is treated differently from hard-working american families. the people hurting the most are young people, single moms, hispanics, african heidi and americans, -- african-americans, people who are being forced into part-time work, facing skyrocketing premiums and who are losing their health insurance. i hope both houses of congress step forward, listen to the

obamacare, thep biggest job killer in this country. thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] mikenators ted cruz and lee talking about the passage this afternoon of the continuing resolution in the senate. live now looking at the white house briefing room, waiting to hear from president obama, set to speak in 10 minutes at 3:30 eastern. we will have that live on c-span and follow that with your comments as well. politico) ahead. politico says if the house ll, a shut senate's bi down will be avoided. if the lower chamber changes it, the senate will not have time to respond, given the slow churn of the chamber.

comments live at 3:30. we will stay here live on c- span.

president obama will speak in 10 minutes, addressing the passage of that continuing resolution. democratic leaders spoke to reporters and we will show you as much of their comments until we hear from the president. >> the government is going to , 10 down in three days hours, five minutes, nine seconds. the senate has acted. we have done it with bipartisan cooperation. the past the only goal that will avert a government shutdown monday night. i said this on the floor, i say it again -- this is it.

time is gone. our roles are different than the house. house,l would pass the the bill that we just passed, would pass the house overwhelmingly if the speaker had the courage to bring it to the floor and let 400 35 members of the house of representatives vote. 435 embers of the house of representatives vote. i think they should think very carefully about their next step. a governmentce shutdown. they need to accept what we just passed. to be absolutely clear, we are going to accept nothing that relates to obamacare. there is a time and place for everything, and this is not that time or place. we are willing to debate or willing to do that, on any issue, but we need to do it in a call, rational atmosphere which

we do not have now and we have , non-eated that non-calm rational atmosphere. if people want to help us improve obamacare, we have done that before, we are happy to work with them, but not in some slam-bank force us to do it measure. we are not going to be extorted. the country is not going to be extorted. we are not going to have a gun to our heads. not going to allow republicans to say give us what we want or the economy is going to close. think about that. this is no way to govern, and it has to end. the time for games is over. the american people, not surprisingly, expect their elected officials to act like adults, reasonable adults, not

adolescence, desperate for any attention they can find. group,ne t how the tea party, think how they look to the american people, sitting around a kitchen table, worrying about a job. tremendous impact. i read on the senate floor today headlines from one newspaper newspaper, 12 different headlines about how bad things are if the government shuts down. these were not editorials. a word news story had lines. news story headlines. they are the ones who are going theay the price if

republicans force a government shutdown. middle-class families, all over america, do their very best every day to make ends meet and provide for their families. but when they turn on the news, they see elected officials wasting time with silly games, and that is what they are, trying to score cheap lyrical points to satisfy a very small number of people in america. as i said earlier today, they do not represent republicans around the country, those tea party anarchists. they do not represent the republicans in the senate. the ability toad basically stop us from doing anything. feel? you think they here is a president who less than a year ago one and election by 5 million votes, 5 million votes.

obamacare has been the law for four years. why don't they get that? why don't they cut about something else? -- why don't they talk about something else? , so i sayerve better to my republican colleagues, you better put an end to this hostagetaking, because to go further you should accept our bill or let the whole house vote on it, and i say that to the speaker. time is winding down. three days, 10 hours, 15 seconds. deserves better than what they have tried to do to our country. chairman mikulski? >> the senate has acted responsibly.

it has sent to the house and of representatives a continuing resolution to keep the government open until continues4 that i funding levels at fiscal 2013, and enables us to lay the groundwork for longer-term solutions for the funding for fiscal 2014 and cancel sequester by reducing public debt. the house, the senate reacted and acted very responsibly. we got over 75 votes. for final passage, we got a majority. it was now the time -- now the time is for the house to act. thatouse has to understand [indiscernible]

it does not get to the bottom line. we ask them to accept what we have sent over so we could get issues of what is fiscal 2014 going to look like, how can we reduce public debt by $100 billion a year, do it in a balanced way, and be able to keep our economy going to our government functioning, and american people really at work? leadre to pass the cr will to a shutdown. a shutdown is not an idle exercise. it will mean that only very minimal, essential services of this government will be run. it is not just turning out the lights on the washington monument, it means programs like applying for your social security benefits means that

those offices will either be close or have reduced hours. it means the disability backlog will only get longer and longer beingt means the grants processed to buy their home or to get a student loan will be delayed. the whole apparatus of the government squeaks to a halt. people are literally [indiscernible] in the line of fire. our military in afghanistan, whether our fbi agents at their now, aching sure there is not another -- making sure there is not another terrorist attack, food safety inspectors -- they will be on the job, but while they are on the job they are going to have to take iou's from their own room. they should not get in iou in their checkbook.

what we owe them is making sure we actors on stability -- make sure we act responsibly. house to is ask the accept the commonsense solution that the senate has sent so the president can sign it and we can get on to solving the real problems of the united states in a way that is effective, affordable, and mean something to the people we represent. >> consider what we witnessed this week. the effort that had been underway, a 21-our speech on the floor of the senate, the efforts of the most conservative tea party groups in america putting pressure on the united states efforts to sorts of persuade, cajole, and threaten the republicans in the senate on

the votes that we have just witnessed. what happened? 44 republican senators were 25 of the 44 senators voted not to shut the government down, to move forward. i hope the speaker looks at this honestly. his approach, the tea party approach, was rejected by the republicans in the senate today am a 25-19, and after all that effort, after all the threats, after the ads being run against republican senators right now, they voted with us not to shut the government down, 25 out of 44. for those that have given up on bipartisanship, look at what happened on the floor of the senate today. it happened was in my mind a repudiation of tea party politics, a repudiation of the scenario, one scene after another.

we should take that message across the rotunda to the speaker's caucus, let them look at the cold hard facts of numbers that happened on the floor of the senate. the democrats stood as one on all the important issues. when it came to this critical procedural issue, two that could have derailed this ever, we had the bipartisan support of republican senators, and the vast majority of those on the original cloture vote and then the support on a critical vote, a budget vote on point of order. that to me says there is still hope. please reward those who stood with us today and make sure that those who did not, both sides of the rotunda, i understand they are playing with a lot of problems for america, problems for the government, services we provide, and for our economy. thank you, and i want to

thank my colleagues. here in the sense we have just rtken action to ave another self-inflicted wound to our country. senator lee'sand ttempts to defund obamacare -- there were many heartening votes. we thought we would really -- it would be a nailbiter on the act,n to waive the budget but 14 republicans, including editors mcconnell and corne yn, voted to waive that, because they realized that it is bad for the republican party, bad for the country. senator mcconnell stepped aside, he let the process play out, and mainstream republicans helped the grants pass the cr to avoid a shutdown. so now the ball is in speaker

boehner's court. everyone was saying this will never happen. we are now three days, nine hours away. ifkeeps getting lower, you have not noticed, and we are getting closer every second. this could well happen. the unthinkable a week ago is very possible today. and why? housese the republicans' caucus is tied in a knot. they say many different things, but they are saying right now that they will not take up our bill to avoid a government shutdown cap and instead they reach into their hats and pull out a new idea every day or some republican postal to attach to. all are tying themselves in kinds of knots, but the solution is staring them right in the face -- pass the senate a bytisan bill -- the senate

partisan bill, plain and simple. we're saying to the speaker, like that quotation from "field of dreams," listen to the voices telling you to pass this bill, ease your pain. put this bill on the floor, it will pass, and then you can move onto the next issue. make no a stake about it, if speaker boehner tries to attach anything to the cr and send it back, then the republicans will be shutting down the government among because we will be at the risk of one person, senator cruz, no matter what else, anything he puts in that bill, cruz delay it, the government shuts down. we are making a plea to the rational and mainstream republicans, do not shut the government down, because if you you are hurting

people. what are republicans and a house want to do is hold hostage the millions of, innocent federal workers who will not get their paychecks, hundreds of thousands of veterans who will not be able to process their disabilities, tens of thousands of construction workers who are working on federal highway projects -- all of these are innocent people, and yet the republican caucus says unless they get their way, their whole way, every bit of their way, they will hold these people hostage and hurt them even though they had nothing to do with the crisis. put ourker boehner, bill on the floor, stand aside, let members vote their conscience, and the government will stay open tuesday morning because we are confident there are more than enough votes to pass the senate bill. the tactic of waiting until the

last minute come to deals has been used a lot in recent years. and in the past, it has worked out at the very last minute. ,et's hope that happens again but if speaker boehner attaches anything about the likelihood of that happening becomes smaller and smaller. the senate has passed a clean short-term funding bill and the only thing that can cause a completely unnecessary anothernt shutdown is tea party tantrum in that house. house republicans have got to stop playing political games with our families and our economy and past the senate shutdown prevention bill without any new gimmicks or tea party panders. and then we need to join together at the table and work toward a long term balanced and bipartisan budget deal that the american people expect and

deserve. families across the country are sick and tired of the constant crises, and of all the challenges we have as a nation, this one should be easy to solve. the absolute bare minimum, we should be able to do in congress, is to keep our government open. the very least we should be able to do is deliver to our and not actively sabotage our economic recovery. senate has done responsible thing today. now it is up to boehner to decide if he represents the tea party or if he is going to do the right thing for the american people. >> are there any active negotiations, any avenues with speaker boehner now? >>n no. it is clear, the four or five of

us, we have made it very clear that the only way to solve this problem is to accept what we have done, just accept it. are interested in shutting down the government and we know there are some of these people, part of the weird caucus over there, who want to shut the government down -- they have said so publicly -- i heard something on the radio today where one person said the debt ceiling does not matter. this is the weird caucus. >> [indiscernible] >> i am not going to speculate on what they are going to do. let them send us whatever they are going to send us and we will send it right back to them, stripped of all the craziness that they have. we have made it clear, the only way to keep the government open is to do the right thing. the american people are areering out there, there

435 members of congress, why can't they vote? that is what they were elected to do. why won't the speaker let them vote? it would pass overwhelmingly. yes. >> you know better than anybody that legislating is [indiscernible] to play the devil's advocate, why wouldn't house republicans on thisthing else spending bill and send it back to you and try to blame you for the government shutdown? >> because it is obvious that that which i downed the government. we cannot move -- >> why would it not be your responsibility? caucus'e using their math. caucus votedyour to vote for your amendment for this -- >> handful? they all did.

>> it may be politically unpopular for the next year. what do you say to them because they will be accused of sending members? --to those >> we had that debate. obama. romney- they spent tens of millions of dollars. the american people said, robbery, you're wrong, we do not accept your ridiculous charges, and the american people do not accept these ridiculous charges now. this is hard for me to continue to say this, i get tired of hearing myself. this is a law four years old, declared constitutional. let them find something else to be weird about. [laughter] democraticevery incumbent was attacked for being for obamacare. you know how many lost? none. >> does that [indiscernible]

yes. thanks, everybody. >> senate democratic leadership after the passage of the continuing resolution this afternoon. -44.vote was 54 - we are waiting in the white house briefing room for president obama. we are live on c-span. >> good afternoon, everybody. for i discussed the situation in congress, let me say something about opportunities in our foreign policy. just now i spoke on the phone with president rouhani of iran. the two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over iran's nuclear program. i reiterated that i said in new york.

surely bee will important obstacles to moving forward and success is not guaranteed, i believe we can reach a conference of solution. after acted secretary kerry to pursue this effort with the iranian government. constructed discussions yesterday with our partners, the european union, united kingdom, france, germany, russia, china, together with the iranian foreign minister, and going forward the president and i will direct our teams to working expeditiously in corporation with the p5 plus one to pursue an agreement. throughout this process we will stay in close touch with our friends and allies in the region, including israel. we are mindful of all the challenges ahead. the very fact that this was the first medications between an american and iranian president since 1979 underscores the deep -- the deep distrust

between our countries, but indicates the process of moving beyond that difficult history. i believe there is a basis for a resolution. has issuedeme leader a fatwa against the moment of nuclear weapons. i have made clear that we respect the right of the iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy in the context of iran meeting its obligations. the test will be meaningful, transparent, and are friable actions, which can also bring relief from the conference of international sanctions that are currently in place. resolving this issue would also serve as a major step forward in a new relationship tween united states and the islamic republic of iran. on mutualsed interests and respect. it will facilitate a better relationship between iran and the international community as well as others in the region, one that would help the iranian

people fulfill their short very potential for but also help us address other concerns that could bring greater peace and stability to the middle east. a path to a meaningful agreement thisbe difficult and at point both sides have significant concerns that will have to be overcome. i believe we have a responsibility to pursue this policy and we have a unique opportunity to make progress with the new leadership in tehran. i communicated to the president might give respect for the iranian people. this comes on a same day as we can possibly come to a diplomatic resolution on syria, when they security council votes . willbinding resolution ensure that the assad regime must keep its commitments or face consequences. we will have to be vigilant about following through, but

this could be a civilian victory for the international community and demonstrate how strong diplomacy can allow us to secure our country and pursue a better world. now, america's security and leadership do not just depend on our military strength or diplomacy. first and foremost, america's strength depends on its strong economy, where the middle class is growing and everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead. let me speak about the situation that has developed over the past few weeks on capitol hill. here at home the united states congress has two pressing responsibilities -- pass a budget on time and pay our bills on time. if congress chooses not to pass a budget on monday, the end of the fiscal year, they will shut down the government along with many vital services that the american people depend on. the pastnews is within

couple hours, the united states senate acted responsibly by voting to keep our government open and delivering the services the american people expect. to house up republicans to do the same. i say that because obviously democrats have a great interest in making sure that these vital to help thetinue american people. so far, republicans in the house have refused to move forward. there is a thing. unlike the last time they threatened this course of action, this debate is not really about deficits. our deficits are falling at the fastest pace that they have in 60 years. by the end of this year we will have cut our deficit by more than half since i took office. that is not what this is about. if you have been following the

discussion, the republicans in the house do not make a pretense that that is what this is about. instead, house republicans are so concerned with appeasing the tea party that they have threatened a government shutdown or worse unless i got or repeal the affordable care act. i said this yesterday, let me repeat it. that is not going to happen. more than 100 million americans currently already have new benefits and protections under the law. on tuesday, about 40 million able toricans will be finally buy quality affordable health care, just like anybody else. those marketplaces will be open for business on tuesday, no matter what, even if there is a government shutdown. that is a done deal. as i said before, if republicans have specific ideas on how to genuinely improve the law, rather than cut it, rather than delay it, rather than repeal it,

i am happy to work with them on that, through the normal democratic processes. but that will not happen under the threat of a shutdown. so over the next three days, house republicans will have to decide whether to join the senate and keep the government , becausehut it down they cannot get their way. on an issue that has nothing to do with the deficit. i realize a lot of what is taking place now is political grandstanding, but this grandstanding has real effects on real people. onthe government shuts down tuesday, military personnel, including those risking their lives overseas for us right now, not get paid on time. veteran loans for rural communities and small business owners, families buying a home, will be frozen. i'm starting to get letters from people worried about that this will have an impact on them

directly. critical research into life- saving discoveries will be immediately halted. federal government has a large and across the country touches the lives of millions of people, and those people will be harmed. even the threat of a shutdown already is probably having a dampening effect on our economy. we saw that the last time these kinds of shenanigans were happening up on capitol hill. any republican in congress who is currently watching, i incurred you to think about who you are hurting. there are probably young people in your office right now looking to work for you without much pay because they believed that public service was notable. you are preparing to send them home without a paycheck. you have families with kids back in your district who serve their country in the federal government, and now they might have to plan how they will get by if you shut the government down.

disruptedowns have the economy, and the shutdown would as well. it would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction. that is why many republicans senators and many republican governors have urged republicans to knock it off, pass a budget, and move on. let's get this done. congress's me to second responsibility. keep the vote to government open, they have to vote within the next couple of weeks to allow the treasury to for the money that congress has already spent. i want to repeat -- raising the debt ceiling is simply authorizing the treasury to pay for what congress has already authorized. failure to meet this responsibility would be far more

dangerous than a government shutdown. it would effectively be an economic shutdown am a would impact -- with impacts not just here, but around the world. we do not fully understand what happen,n -- what might the dangers involved, because no congress has ever actually threatened default. but we know it would have a profound destabilizing effect on the entire economy, on the world economy, because america is the bedrock of world investment. the dollar is the reserve currency. the debt that is issued by the treasury is the foundation for our capital markets. that is why you do not full with it. -- fool with it.

summer coggins has suggested unless i agree to an even longer -- republicans, have suggested unless i agreed to an even longer list of demands, rolling back pet ect they would like to see, he would push the button, turn america into the fall for the first time in history, and risk throwing us back into a recession. i am willing to work with anybody who wants to have a serious conversation about our fiscal future. i have demonstrated that but putting forward serious reforms that would bring down our long- term deficits. i have said in the past and i will consider say i'm willing to make a whole bunch of tough decisions about ones that may not the entirely welcomed by my but we are not going to this under the threat of

lowing up the entire economy. i will not negotiate over congress'responsibility to pay the bills that have already been racked up. voting for the treasury to pay america's bills is not a concession to me. that is not doing me a favor. that is simply carrying out the solemn responsibilities that come with holding office up there. i do not know how i can be more clear about this. nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the united states just to extract political concessions. no one gets to hurt our economy when millions of innocent people, just because there are a couple of laws you do not like. it has not been done in the past. we are not going to start doing it now. i am not going to start setting a precedent, not just for me,

but for future presidents, where one chamber in congress can therelly say each time needs to be a vote to make sure its the treasury pays bills, we will not sign it unless our particular hobbyhorse gets advanced. had ae if you republican speaker and a democratic speaker, and the speaker said we will not pass a debt ceiling unless we raise corporate taxes by 40%. or unless we pass background checks on guns, or whatever other list of agenda items democrats were interested in. does anybody actually think that we would be hearing from republicans that that was acceptable behavior? that is not how our constitutional system is design. we are not going to do it.

the american people have worked too hard to recover from a bunch of crises, several of them now over the last couple of years infected by the same folks in congress we are talking about extremists in congress cause another crisis. keep in mind this whole thing has to do with keeping government open for a few months. resolution, the bill that is designed to avert a government shutdown, basically just funds the government for a couple of months so we could be doing this all over again. i'm sure the american people are thrilled about that. that is why we have to break this cycle. my message to congress is this -- do not shut down the government, do not shut down the economy, pass a budget on time, they our

bills on time. refocus on the everyday concerns of the american people. there will be differences between democrats and republicans. we can have all kinds of conversations about how to resolve those efforts is. there will be areas where we can work together and where we can disagree. burn thet threaten to house down simply because you have not gotten 100% of your way. that is not hardwired democracy is supposed to work. every day that this goes on is another day that we are not focused on doing what we need to be focused on, which is rebuilding this great country as our so our middle class is growing and everybody has opportunity if they are willing to work hard. that is what i am focused on. that is what congress should be focused on as well. thank you very much, everybody. >> [indiscernible]

>> president obama speaking to reporters in the white house following the passage this afternoon of the continuing thelution, passed in senate. the president congratulating the senate on that. in another area, the president talking about iran. he said he spoke by phone to ni,h iranian president rouha the first conversation between american and iranian presidents in more than 30 years. largely the comments were focused on the passage of the cr in the senate and the work ahead this weekend in the house. the president accusing the republicans of political grandstanding. he also said the debt ceiling breach, the other issue coming up, is far worse than a government shutdown, saying it would effectively shut or the economy. president obama speaking at the white house this afternoon. were coverage coming up on the debate of the cr, and the senate continues in session.

54-44.ssed the cr i want to remind you that houses coming into session tomorrow, 10:00, four speeches, -- for speecches. we will have live coverage tomorrow. that will go for the senate too. next up, head of the comments and the passage day of the continuing resolution, a group of house republicans led by rick crawford of arkansas spoke with reporters. >> ready? ok, great. >> thank you for coming out today. we just came out to provide a little bit of perspective here. some of the things that are not being talked about with regard to the cr and obamacare being at the center of this debate, and is up to ourca eyeballs in debt, and we do not think it is time to rush forward

with troy ends in new entitlement spending. i'm introducing a resolution ,hat would ask that question and never scans a yes or no. my question is, does it make sense to move ahead with $1.3 trillion in new entitlement spending when we are in the middle of a debt crisis? we will put that question to the members. our answer is no. we hope our colleagues across the aisle and the capitol would see that as an opportunity , and maybe we can take then appropriate action. that we went to ask if it's smart to move forward with $1.3 trillion in the middle of a debt crisis. that said, i want to thank the members who have come out today. we appreciate them coming out and coming here today. if there are any questions, i would be happy to answer them.

will let dr. fleming speak. he can comment on some detail on that. >> on congressman john fleming from louisiana. yesterday, the president was giving a speech in maryland and he quoted a congressman saying that the congressman said that obamacare is the worst piece of legislation ever. and gentlemen congressman was me. i fully stand behind that statement. as you just heard congressman crawford say, for heaven sakes, and a time when we have entitlement programs that america can ill afford we are now launching a new entitlement program that will be a massive transfer of income from one class of people to another.

destroying income, destroying jobs and perversely, removing theye from the healthcare are already on. why would we want to do that? in the final analysis, what obamacare represents for the american people is not only loss of insurance that they already have, but a steep rise in the cost of their health care and their insurance and a loss of their jobs or a reduction of that job down to part-time. because we know that since the beginning of the year, 77% of all new jobs are part-time jobs, and that is because companies all across america are rapidly moving their employees from full-time to part-time jobs. so they are losing not only their health care in some cases, but they're also losing their jobs, their income, and certainly their standard of living. i certainly stand behind this

measure. i think we should remind those who voted for obamacare, all of them democrats -- not a single republican ever voted for this bill -- we should remind them and have them remind their constituents time and time again of the fact that this is a whole new entitlement program that is destructive for america. thank you. >> thank you. i got an e-mail from a constituent this morning he works at one of the largest hospitals in my district. they had a meeting and administration gave the news that their health care costs were going up. as a result, their retirement benefits were going down. these are just some of the symptoms we're seeing already manifesting themselves with the importation of this law, ill- conceived. we want senator reid to answer the question, does it make sense to go forward with $1.3 trillion in new entitlement spending in

the middle of a debt crisis? if anybody else wants to weigh in, i will give them the opportunity. if not, i will answer questions. >> the alternative is sort of a fallback position if defunding is not achieved? >> we do not know what we will get from the senate. we do not know what they will do. so this is not anything other than the fact that we need to make sure that our folks back home know where their senator stands, where their member of congress stands, and we want to get them on record. it has been three years since the law was signed. people just need to get a little reaffirmation of whether or not their member of congress or their senator think it is a good idea to continue to spend recklessly. we think it is not.

>> in the president's speech yesterday, when talking about your comments, he brought up the fugitive slave act. >> that was in reference to a state rep from some other state who made a reference to that. i did not specify any particular legislation in the past. but the point is that, remember, obamacare takes over, put under the government rule 1/6 of the entire economy, probably the most important part of our economy. what can be more intimate for each individual american van their health care? not only do americans now have to be accountable for their finances to the irs, now they have to be accountable to the irs for their health care. if you add that to the loss of jobs and loss of health care insurance, i think it is incomparable. >> the democrats have come back with stuff from the 1850's and stuff. can you clarify? >> what i said is very clear.

thank you. >> i am going to yield to my colleague from kentucky. >> thank you, rick. i appreciate you putting this together. i am from kentucky's sixth congressional district. it is pointed out that obamacare threatens to further undermine the solvency of important health care programs that were currently in existence. in my district, we have a number of seniors, obviously, just like every other district, dependent on medicare. you are seeing the fiscal pressures obamacare is placing on medicare. the medicare trustees are saying now that the hospital insurance trust fund is set to go bankrupt in the year 2026. a new entitlement program, the cbo projected it will cost more than $2 trillion over the next

10 years and will put further pressure on medicare. obamacare waves medicare to the tune of $716 billion. rural hospitals all over kentucky are seeing their reimbursements slashed as a result of obamacare. the independent payment advisory board, a financing mechanism for obamacare, is threatened to ration health care services for our seniors. this resolution makes a point, and that is that obamacare threatens an already fiscally insolvent safety net in our country. we need to focus on saving medicare. we need to focus on forcing the government to keep the promises it has already made. obamacare makes that impossible, and that is another important dimension to this discussion. >> thank you, andy. i want to add another thing i

heard from one of the seniors in my district recently. just simply put the question to me -- am i going to have to choose between medicare, social security, and obamacare? i cannot answer that question. i do not know that anybody can today, that they can say with certainty that, no, you will not have to choose in all three will be there. as it has been indicated, this presents a major challenge to the solvency of those programs that we promised to our seniors and that we intend to deliver. again, i would just ask that senator reid answer the simple question, doesn't make sense to speed ahead with $1.3 trillion in the middle of a debt crisis does that make sense? in my district, the answer is no. for me, the answer is no, does not make sense.

we need to slow down a little bit and give the american people a new perspective. interesting fact, and this seems backwards, but in 2008, the national debt was $10 trillion. four years later, up to $16 trillion. while that debt has increased by 60%, the animal interest spent on it has actually decreased. going from $451 billion in 2008 to $360 billion in 2012. why do i make that point? because interest rates are being artificially suppressed, and when they normalize -- i say when, because they will normalize -- that will put even further pressure on our budget. that means that probably the interest on our debt against the single biggest line item in the federal budget.

as we see obamacare to be doing is to put further pressure on programs like medicare, the people are asking what we can do to fix this problem -- i know what the wrong answer is. that is speeding forward with $1.3 trillion in additional entitlement spending in the middle of a debt crisis. having said that, any further questions? i know congressman king was planning on being here. i do not see him. if there are no further questions -- >> sorry, i got here late. one of your republican colleagues said there is a political risk for republicans of a shutdown. all of you may represent safe districts, but this member said anyone who does not think there is a high risk is not playing with a full deck. >> first of all, the point of this message has nothing to do with the government shut down. i cannot speak to the political dynamics of other members' districts. i can tell you i am the first

republican since 1873 number so i would hardly consider my district to be a safe republican district. i am not a proponent of shutting down the government. this is a measure that would force members of congress and senators to say, yes, it makes sense or, no, it does not to spend $1.3 trillion in additional entitlements in the middle of a debt crisis. it has nothing to do with shutting down the government. it is a clarification so that folks back home know where their member of congress stands, where there senator stands with regard to our spending problem in this town. i think we need to reassess that, reaffirm that, and give senators an opportunity to speak to their folks back home through voting yes or no on this resolution. >> how can you call yourself christian if you want to deny health care to 30 million people in america? how can you call yourself children of god? >> i do not think this is a good time to comment. >> why, because you call yourself christians?

these are killers. they are worse than the guy that had the navy yard incident. these people are humans. we are here today to call upon the pope to exorcise them. pray for them. they need god's power to be relieved from these demons that are possessing them. you see they broke up the press conference when we talked about god. they do not represent children of god. they are not children of god. they are not. we are praying for their souls. we are praying for their souls, but we need to do something about it. we need to vote them out of office. they are destroying our conference. i just asked him a question, that is all. what, i asked him a question. this is a free country. i asked him a question. he refused to answer because he is a demon. these are it demons. like it was said, these are demons. these are demons. >> you are not christlike on

this standing. you are not christlike. >> i am doing christ's work. i am part of the prayer movement. we are here today. we're going to have an exorcism here in front of the capitol steps. we are going to pray for these demons that are destroying our nation. we need to pray for them. i have a young man here who is homeless. he needs health care and he cannot get health care. they want to hold up the budget, shut down the federal government just because they do not want 30 million people to have health care. that is a demonic spirit, and we

are going to pray and pray to god will deliver these demons from capitol hill. these are demons. i repeat, maxine waters said this in california and i believe it. we have been fighting them. they are worse than the guy that did the shooting at the navy yard. their policies are killing millions of americans. we name is rocky twyman. invite you to join us as we pray away the demons. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] comments after ray republican briefing this morning.

now to the democratic caucus talking about the work ahead this weekend. they ghazal in tomorrow at noon for legislative work. -- they gavel in. >> look forward to seeing you this weekend. tell me when you are ready. are you ready? chairman of the democratic we have a pretty extensive caucus even though we have completed voting for the week. once again, we do not have a in place. we are watching this brinksmanship and it has resurfaced again. it was a bad movie when we thought the last time and

doesn't look any good as a rerun. the democrats believe we should be focusing right now as elective representatives of the people. helping our economy grow more jobs. if we don't have a strong middle we may as well turn off the lights. we will not create those jobs. we will not continue to be a leader in the world if we do not focus like a laser beam on the middle class so they can send their kids to college. anyone understands how shutting down the government and stopping services to the to that soldier's family, that veteran who has come home, the senior who relies , this ison wheels

supposed to be helping the middle class. urge our republican colleagues to put country before , to stop with this .iscussion not the rules provided by our statute or our constitution but a political rule, a so-called rule. rule -- hastert don't you dare let anything that goes on the floor unless it has the support of a majority of republicans. americans but of a majority of republicans. if you're going to put party before country we would end up these folks shut down

government but we urge our colleagues in the house republican party to please think of putting country before party. the american people have witnessed enough. no small business in america would run the way the house of representatives is being run today and if no small business on main street would run this way and expect to survive, then certainly the largest economy in the world should not be run this way. we think it's time to get to the middlerengthen class. we have a lot pending. we still have to deal with making sure that we don't lead our country for the first time in its history default on its past obligations to make it clear that we believe in the full faith and credit of the united states of america. a still have to finish fixing

broken immigration system. the senate already active than structure showing the and and obstruction that makes it clear that we are not thinking of helping the middle class. there are any number of things that we need to do but the last asng we need to do is watch a very dedicated group of tea party members tells america that they are ready to shut down the government. we hopeeady to work and our republican colleagues are ready to join us. that meal to the vice chairman of the democratic caucus, the gentleman from new york, joe crowley. again on ae we are fiscal cliff. to american people want again put on edge artificially. , bothis enough calamity man-made and naturally occurring out there on the world today. we have seen it with the

flooding in mexico, the floods in colorado. we have unrest in the middle east and syria. we have 13 individuals last week killed a less than one mile from .ere governments will go on. they do not want an artificial crisis. they want the republican congress to get its act together. is the full responsibility of the speaker, to get his caucus together and come up with solutions. the american people want solutions to the problems they more man-made no crises. we are here prepared to work through the weekend to ensure that the government does not

shut down. our question is are the republican colleagues committed to ensuring the government does not shut down? that's a question for the speaker and his conference. we democrats stand ready make sure the government continues to operate. the gentleman from the great state of maryland, chris van hollen. >> thank you, joe, have a year. it's great to have all of you here today. -- joe and javier. is that all do know signs point to the fact that they are hell-bent on trying to shut down the government in order to implement the tea party extreme agenda. we don't yet know what the other thanends to do what appears to be a plan to put

another amendment on the continuing resolution on related to keeping the government operating and focused on trying derail thee or affordable care act. if that is what they do, that that they'ree sign focused on shutting down the government rather than doing the business of government than trying to do what we can to support the middle class. it is also troubling to hear that they will double down on the strategy in the coming weeks with respect to the so-called debt ceiling which, as you know, simply means that the government should be paying its bills on time. they're going to prevent the government from paying its bills on time and they will jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states government if they cannot enact their extreme agenda. so far, we have seen reports that they are essentially taking

every tea party idea and throwing it into a package and telling the country that if we don't enact the extreme agenda, they will not allow the country to pay the bills on time. as i think everyone in the country realizes, if the government doesn't pay its bills on time, the middle class gets hurt first, as the chairman of our caucus has indicated. that is your responsible, reckless, and we stand ready to work with them to try to resolve it and that's the last point i want to make. i think everybody needs to understand that we've been trying to bring our republican colleagues to the negotiating table on the budget for months and months and months. the statute says you should have completed a conference committee on the budget by april 15. the house passed a budget. the senate passed a budget. the speaker of the house refused

to appoint negotiators and in the senate, republican senators blocked terry read from anyone.ng senator john mccain said that was insane. we've been trying to negotiate these issues in the normal course but with a clearly intended was to create this artificial crisis because they somehow thought if you threaten to shut down the government or threatened that we will no longer pay our bills on time that under those pressing circumstances they will get their extreme agenda put into place. it just does not work that way. it's not going to happen. we will take some questions. >> they are asking that they include a defunding or delaying of obamacare. if speaker boehner were to break from that and data something related to obamacare, could they support that and send it act ?

>> we are interested in keeping our government operating and the services out there for people who pay for the services. we expect if we need to go collect their social security check that it will be good. if we paid for our government to be able to issue a passport so that we could go visit an ailing or dying parent, we want to be able to do that. efforts inocus our this budget discussion on issues that relate to the budget. our colleagues on the republican side insist on including things that have nothing to do with a budget and all to do with the theing member said, republican extreme social agenda. would we vote for things that have nothing to do with a budget ? simply so they can be satisfied that if they extort the american people we will have a budget?

i don't think so. the president made it very clear. andant a clean budget vote all of the extraneous matters from the far right social agenda .ssues are off the table members of congress will continue to come to work but if the republicans shut down the government then there are a whole lot of americans who will not get to go to work and a whole lot of other americans who will not get to receive the services they paid for. a clean vote. that's all democrats are saying. a vote on the budget and only on the budget. you want to debate or social agenda? we can vote that up or down but don't hold hostage the american economy and the american people see you can get your social agenda. to the middletant class and to important during this time of economic recovery to weaken the pillars is so that

the middle class gets back on its feet. i don't think democrats are ready to engage in any of the shenanigans that has nothing to do with budget and all to do with the extreme, hard right, social agenda. on in spanish] [answering in spanish]

>> the question was a bit open- ended. if you are saying the republicans will come back with a bill that takes up the language of the affordable care act, that is something else, that's what you said. >> bring up a cr and any provision having to do with the defunding. you've seen the list of different provisions they have thought about adding. >> again, without specifying what they would add to it, there are other attempts to amend other aspect of the affordable care act there floating individually. about amending and

fixing. i do not think we should use this as a legislative fix for the issues that concern. we have other ways of doing that through the regular order, bringing a bill up and voting on the floor. that's not happening right now. there is no consensus building going on. either they get their way or they shut down government and that's not how it works. in the house of representatives. we would like to be in the majority, but right now the ball is in their court. coming, threes days away. the ball is in their court to move something here to keep the government open that is not continuing to promote their ideological agenda. repealing the affordable care act is not going to happen. 43, 40 4, 45 times and on, it's not going to be repealed not

this way and, quite frankly, i don't think it will ever be appealed. if they had the ability to put a majority in both houses, this bill will not be repealed. the american people want stand for it. >> you said last week he would support that unless it is clean? >> i support a clean budget bill. what i do not support as my colleagues on the republican side trying to inject their social agenda into a budget bill when we are on the brink of shutting the doors to our government when services are essential. we are waiting to see her colleagues provide us with a clean vote on a clean budget bill so we can keep the doors of government open and we have yet to see that. i think the republican colleagues have made it very clear that it is their intention

to put in their social agenda regardless of what the american people are saying. what we are seeing is a fight among republicans. they cannot decide among themselves what they want to do and while they are out there brawling, the american people are watching. pretty soon, we are going to be impacted in major ways if they let the government close its doors unnecessarily. we wish it would stop the internal fighting and decide what a would want to do. hope lay what they decide to do is give the american people a chance to let the representatives vote up or down on a clean bill to fund the government so we can provide the surfaces that americans paid for with taxpayer dollars. hollen, whatn van is going to happen if the senate only gets a country to november? do you have any idea that a budget conference will happen in the interim or anything that at

the end of the 45 days that there would be anything different than what's happening right now? >> i'm glad you asked that. we can only hope. hope has not gotten us there over the last three or four months. as i indicated earlier, we have been trying to get to a negotiation on the budget for months now. requires that we complete the conference by april 15 but as you know, we are well over that and you cannot have a conference if they refuse to even appoint their negotiators. between now that and november 15 our republican colleagues would be willing to come to the table and truly negotiate. i should point out that we have tried eight times now in the house of representatives to simply get a vote on our plan

that would replace the sequester. eating away ats important investments. it is eating away at important at transportation and infrastructure, scientific research, and the congressional budget office just told us yesterday in a hearing before the budget committee that if we do not replace the sequester, we will have 800,000 fewer jobs in this country at this time next year. it could be as high as 1.2 million fewer jobs in this country this time next year. inflictedother self- wound which is why we are going betweenrking very hard now and november 15 to eliminate that drag on the economy which would effectively wipe out the last three months of job growth. that's outrageous. that's a self-inflicted wound we cannot afford in this country.

i can only hope in the next couple of months that our republican colleagues will do what they refused to do the previous four months which is to try and negotiate. again, this is a very calculated strategy. they did not negotiate for four months in the normal course because they thought by threatening to shut down the government and threatening that we would not pay our bills that it would somehow forced the country and force the president to accept their extreme ideological agenda. we hope that sanity will finally come to the house republican party in the coming months. how much frustration is thereat having a vote even if it comes to that, a short-term

measure that would provide sequester levels that many people oppose? >> i'll start. three days away from watching republicans shut down the government and as of this moment, we don't know what the house republicans will put on the floor of the house for a vote. the greatest democracy in the world is being governed here in congress by people who have yet decide what they want to do to fund the government in an annual budget bill with less than three days to go before the government shuts down. what do democrats want to do? -- democrats would like to have a clean bill. they are ready to make tough

choices and hard decisions on how we continue to reduce the size of the deficit and how we get americans back to work and how we strengthen the middle class. when right now, friday afternoon, three short days before the government shutdown, the republican colleagues still have not told us what they're going to do in terms of a budget to make sure we don't shut the doors on government. it's crazy. 75% of republicans in this country say it's not appropriate to play with the american economy and our government services in this budget fight. i think there are some people here in congress who are not listening to their own constituents if they do percent of the american people are saying stop the game playing. democrats have said from the draft a clean, bill and you have votes even if there are tough choices we have thiske, but not once in

process, and ranking member mr. van hollen can attest, but not once have they reached out to and say, in the house let's put together a budget bill so we can all vote on it. this has been a totally republican process and it should surprise no one that democrats are prepared to go against any republican bill which tries to inject extraneous matters of have to do with the social agenda which has to do with what peer lead is a budget bill three days before republican shut down the government. >> what frustrates our caucus is that it is not focused on finding solutions.

three days before the deadline is not the time to do that. hypothetical would be one month ago, two months ago, five months ago. those of the time for hypotheticals. now it is crunch time. what steps will they take now to ensure that our government does it certainly? frustrates the caucus. we don't know what their plan is to keep the government operating and open right now. it's all hypothetical. in the end, i know there are hundreds of thousands of federal employees. this is real for them. it's not hypothetical. they don't know if they're going to work october 1. we don't know the impact although we can assume it will be negative. the job loss will not be recovered because of that. we understand that and it is

incredibly frustrating that once again we are here at the 11th hour as opposed to doing this in an orderly way and in a fashion that does not create man-made brinksmanship. this is all man made. this is all done by the republican caucus because they to so bent on their ideology repeal the affordable care act that they are blinded by everything else and they are blinded to the consequence of what they are playing with. i think the american people are beginning to understand this all too well. >> as i indicated, we have been frustrated that we have been denied a times a vote on our plan to replace the sequester. again, the sequester, all of you know, but these are the very cuts having ae

negative impact on lots of important investments around the country and, overall, the nonpartisan independent congressional budget office says it will result in up to 1.2 million fewer jobs next year and the best estimate is 800,000 fewer american jobs this time next year. are we frustrated we have not had an opportunity to even have a vote on our plan to save 800,000 jobs? absolutely. we will keep fighting for an opportunity to replace that sequester because it's not good for the country and we can achieve the same amount of deficit reduction and even more deficit reduction without the job loss on the plan that we have proposed that the democratic caucus here in the house. house, we think that the american people deserve a vote on that. tothe speaker wants to vote have 800,000 fewer jobs in the country this time next year, that's his prerogative.

house,k in the people's the american people are entitled to have a vote on the proposal put forward. >> we will just close by saying we are hoping you will hear some news soon that our republican colleagues have decided to drop this of session -- of session with the party platform and jamming that into a budget will three days before they moved to close the government. we are ready to move forward with them on a clean vote how much a budget bill. hollen has said, it would be very helpful if they show they want to extend a hand to representatives of the american people. this time the american people saw us doing some stuff together. if 80% of the american people are saying stop jamming the process on the budget to get your social agenda, we agree with them and we are ready to work with our colleagues because

there is common ground out there and we should start looking for it before we shut the doors of government. thank you all for being here and we will be in touch. >> the house will take up the senate passed continuing resolution tomorrow coming in at noon eastern for that work. russell berman tweeting officially from bennett spokesperson michael steele, we are reviewing our options and we will discuss them with members tomorrow. the senate did pass the continuing resolution before they stripped out the health care defunding language, 54-44. senator ted cruz spoke to the press shortly after that vote on the senate floor and he was also joined by senators rubio and mike lee from utah.

>> we now move onto the next stage of this battle. senate democrats stood united in refusing to listen to the american people. obama care is the biggest job killer in this country. millions of americans are hurting. they're struggling to find a job, being forced into part-time work seeing health insurance premiums skyrocket and are health care threatened and sadly, democrats stood together and refused to listen to the american people. the house ofo representatives and last week they showed remarkable courage standing up and fighting to defund obamacare. the house listened to the american people, and i am hopeful, confident that the house will continue to stand its ground, continue to listen to the american people, and step up to respond and to stop this

train wreck, nightmare that is obamacare. when that happens, the bill will come back here, and it will be an opportunity for senate republicans to come together, or senate public and succumb home. i very much hope when the house bill comes back up all 46 republicans stand together, stand united come and i hope that some of the democrats who today decided not to listen to their constituents hear the voices of the millions of americans who are hurting and do the right thing and stand up and stop this train wreck, the nightmare of a law. train wreck and nightmare are not my terms, they are the term by the lead democratic offer of obamacare and one of the leading union leaders in the country. it is the truth that millions of americans are suffering because

the law is not working. >> thank you. thank you for being here today and thank you for the work you have put into this effort. it sounds like the democrats in washington are obsessed to shutting down the government. i do not know of anyone who wants to shut down the government. the only thing we want to shut down obamacare is because of the harm it is doing to the middle class, to hard-working people who are working hard just to get ahead. our lives we have been told this is a country where if you work hard and you sacrificed you can achieve a better life. those of us in elected office should be against anything that is an impediment to that dream. obamacare stands in the wake of that. that is why we are so passionate. today we had the opportunity to do that. democrats come from states where

people who do not support obamacare, decided it was a more important to the a hard-working men and women of our country. this only gets worse from here for the middle class and for people trying to get ahead. i hope we will have an opportunity to do it again. we will take advantage of every opportunity we have to fight on behalf of the men and women of this country who want a chance to achieve a better life for themselves for them and their families. thank you. >> we all know government will be funded. the question is whether it is funded with or without obamacare. the house republicans last week, listening to the voice of the american people, often for the latter, to keep government

funded while protecting people from the harmful effects of obamacare. today the senate took the step of bringing up that legislation, not as is, never presenting the senate with the opportunity to vote on the measure as it exists. they chose to use a device that allows the majority leader to bring up one amendment, an amendment that gutted the house- past continuing resolution and prohibit everyone else from introducing amendments. this is unfortunate. the american people continue to be alarmed why this law, a law that has never enjoyed the majority of -- a law that has never had the support of the majority of the american people and a law that becomes less popular as time goes on and with good reason. i asked the same question -- how many more americans will have to lose their jobs, have to be told

that their hours are being cut or their wages are being diminished or they are losing their health care plans? 20,000 home depot employees were informed last week as a result of this job. our job is to protect the american people any way we can from the harmful effects of this law and we continue to explore every opportunity to do that. >> [indiscernible] >> there seems to be some disarray within the republican party. there was an open split on the senate floor yesterday. is that this unity among republicans -- does that argue against your fight? >> it is unfortunate senate republicans were not united this time around, but i am encouraged that house republicans have been united, that last week when they voted a stood together to defund obamacare.

i hope and believe that when the house takes the this up again, house republicans will continue to stand together on the side of the american people, and i am also hopeful when the house sends the bill back it will be an opportunity for every senate republican tuesday for the principles we all share, to stand with the american people. >> is there an orthodoxy you expect out of republicans leading to debate on the floor, as with senator corker yesterday? >> every republican has been outspoken in eloquence against obamacare. when the house stands up and does the right thing, i think it will present the opportunity for every senate republican to stand arm in arm with the house republicans. and then it will present an opportunity for senate democrats. senate democrats did not listen

to the american people, to all the young people coming out of school who are not able to find a job. they did not listen to all the single moms waiting tables were finding themselves working 29 hours a week. they did not listen to all the union workers who are seeing their health insurance coverage trend to be taken away. as james hoffa said, millions of americans are seeing their health care destroyed, and "destroyed" was the language he used, and today senate immigrants do not listen to those millions of americans, but this is a process that will go back and forth between the house and the senate.

>> again, the government will be funded. the question is whether we fund it with obamacare or without. the house passed a continuing resolution. the senate has chosen to strip out that language from this measure which is now in the process of being passed by the senate. that was unfortunate. this is not about calling for a shutdown. >> what do you want to do the house to do in the next steps? >> i want the house do stand with the american people against obamacare, in favor of keeping

government funded while defunding obamacare. >> how will that happen? >> a variation of this. what form that takes will be up to the members of the house, and to their leadership, i am confident they will do the right thing. >> there are some members of the house who have said what they could pass might be something that could pass for both parties here, maybe a delay in obamacare for a shorter time or even a repeal of the medical device act. would you guys hold that up with a filibuster or would you let them take a vote on that? >> it does not make sense to speculate on possible bills the house might pass. you should see what the house passes. in my view what is critical is that the house passes a measure that protects the american people from the harms that obamacare is causing them the jobs that are being lost, from being forced into part-time work, from skyrocketing

premiums, from losing your health insurance. that is what i am confident the house will do. >> we have had numerous conversations with members of the house, but at the end of the day, all 435 members are elected by the people in the districts, and each member of the house has responsibility to listen to their constituents. i'm confident if the house the since the people as it did last week it will continue to step forward and respond to the suffering that is coming from obamacare. it was sad to see senate democrats together turn a blind ear to all the people suffering under obamacare during the extended filibuster that we debated in. we read letters from people who

are losing their health care. a few weeks ago ups sent a letter to employees saying they were going to lose their health care. people are hurting, and if the house continues to listen, they will act decisively to prevent the harms that are flowing. >> i have said for a long time i do not intend to vote for any continuing resolution that funds obamacare. i think obamacare is a train wreck, a disaster, a nightmare, to use the words of mr. hoffa. it is time we see more leaders in washington listening to the

american people and helping stop this nightmare. >> [indiscernible] putting dents in obamacare-- >> i am not going to speculate on any possible continuing resolution that will come. obama has granted exemptions for big business, for members of congress, but hard-working american families are told there will be no exemption for you. if you do not happen to have high-paid lobbyists, if you do not walk the corridors of power, then the senate is apparently not listening to you and not interested in treating you as well as members of congress and big bigness. that is fundamentally wrong. the idea that washington should operate under principles that are good for them but not for me

is why people are so frustrated with washington. the ruling class is treated differently from hard-working american families. the people hurting the most are young people, single moms, hispanics, african-americans, people who are being forced into part-time work, facing skyrocketing premiums, and who are losing their health insurance. i hope both houses of congress step forward, listen to the people, and stop obamacare, the biggest job killer in this country. thank you very much. senate republicans talking about the vote right after the vote.-- the budget al gore speaking to mark the opening of the brookings institution. obama -- he says that the demands are "political

terrorism." to talk about the potential for a shutdown in just a moment. i think the only phrase to describe it is low -- political terrorism. nice global economy. it would be shame if we would have to destroy it. we have a list of demands. if you don't meet them all, we blow up the global economy. really? where are the american people in this? why does partisanship have anything to do with such a despicable, dishonorable threat to the integrity of the united states of america? allowed but it can

only be stopped if people in both parties and independents as agree withmight not everything that is in the affordable care act but it did pass. it was upheld by the supreme court. it is the law of the land. thedidn't succeed in constitutional process by which this was considered and now you want to threaten to not only shut down our government but to blow up the world economy unless undo what we did according to the process of our democracy? how dare you? how dare you? it doesn't matter what i feel. doesn't matter what many of you feel unless the american people not only feel it but .xpress it

>> you can see all of former vice president al gore's remarks at the brookings institution on our website, c-span.org. he spoke earlier today ahead of the passage of the continuing resolution in the u.s. senate by 44.ote of 54- after that, senate majority leader harry reid called on john boehner to bring up their version of the bill for a vote. they said they will not accept the house funding resolution that delays or defund the federal health care law. >> the government is going to shut down in three days, 10 hours, five minutes, nine seconds. the senate has acted and we have done it with bipartisan cooperation. we passed the only bill that can avert a government shutdown monday night. i say this on the floor and i say it again -- this is it.

time is gone. the bill that passed the house, , if the we just passed speaker have the courage to let members of the house of representatives vote, they should think very carefully about the next step. continuing to play political games will force a government shutdown. they need to accept what we just passed. we are going to set nothing that relates to obamacare. there is a time and place for everything but this is not the time or place. we are willing to debate on any issue, but we need to do it in a calm rational atmosphere which

.e don't have now if people want to work with us to improve obamacare, we have done that before and we are happy to work with them. but not in this kind of manner. ,e are not going to be extorted the country will not be extorted. we're not going to do this without gun to our head. the time for this is over. the american people not surprisingly expect their elected officials to act like reasonable adults.

not adolescence desperate for any attention they can find. , the tea this group party anarchists. think how they look to the american people, sitting around the kitchen table worrying about a job. i read on the senate floor today i'm at the headline from one newspaper today, one newspaper, 12 different headlines about how bad things are if the government shuts down. these were not editorials, they were news stories. the middle-class, working men and women in this country were the ones that we were elected to serve. that is to we should be thinking about. they are the ones that will pay if these republicans forced the shutdown. middle-class families all over

america do their very best every day to make ends meet. , youhen turn on the news see elected officials wasting .ime they are trying to score cheap local points to satisfy a very small number people in america. thatsaid earlier today they don't represent republicans around the country. they have the ability to basically stop us from doing things. how do you think they feel. here is a president that won an election by 5 million votes. . million votes

obamacare has been the law for four years. why don't they get that -- why don't they get a life and talk about something else? , so i sayerve better to my republican colleagues, you had better put in and to this hostagetaking. to go further you should accept our bill or let the whole house o vote on that and i say that to the speaker. three days, 10 hours, 15 seconds. americans deserve better than what they have tried to do to our country. chairman mikulski. >> the senate has acted , that is the house

of representatives. we want to keep the government open until november 15. fundingnot continuing levels. would enable us to lay the groundwork for longer-term solutions or funding for a fiscal group. how the senate acted very responsibly. we got over 75 votes. with final passage, we got a majority. now the time is for the house to act. they are playing ping-pong

politics. we asked them to what they have said over. do it in a balanced way and be able to keep our economy going, our government functioning. to pass this will lead to a shutdown. a shutdown is not an idle exercise. that only very minimal essential services of this government will be going. it means programs like applying

for your social security benefits, those are those offices. the disability backlog. there is this program to get a and student loans. , the wholerds operettas rise to a halt -- the whole apparatus grinds to a halt. people are finding themselves in the line of fire. our military in afghanistan, whether it is our fbi agents out there now making sure that there is not another terrorist attack or going after sexual predators, whether it is dea agents, our food safety inspectors, they will be on the job. they will have to take ious from their own government. they should not get an iou in the checkbook.

we need to act responsibly. i call upon the house of representatives to do with the senate did, except this common that the senate has sent so that the president can sign it and we can get on solving the real problems of the ,.s. in a way that is effective affordable, and means something to the people that we represent. >> consider what we witnessed this week. onre was a 21 hours beach the floor of the u.s. senate. the efforts of the most conservative tea party groups in america putting pressure on the united states senate, all serves to others to persuade, cajole, and threaten the republicans in the senate on

the votes that we just witnessed. 40 forward there today. 25 of the 44 senators voted not to shut the government down and to move forward. i hope that the speaker looks at this honestly. the tea party approach was rejected by the republicans in the senate today. when he 5-19. after all of the effort, after all of the threats him after all of the ads that are being run against republican senators right now, they still have not voted with us not to shut the government down. for those that have given up on congress and bipartisanship, kemp take a look at what happened on the floor of the senate. look at whata happened on the floor of the senate. today was a repudiation of this doomsday scenario, one scene after another. messaged take that

across the rotunda to speaker boehner's caucus. let them look at the numbers of what happened today. the democrats stood as one on all of the important issues. when it came to this critical issue, two of them, we had the bipartisan support of the republican senators. on vast majority of those the original cloture vote and then a support on a budget vote on the point of order. that to me says there is still hope. for the american people, please, read board those that stood up with us to keep government open, acknowledge them, and make sure that those did not understand that they are playing with a lot of problems for america. problems for our government, the services we provide, and for our economy. >> i want to thank my colleagues here in the senate

who have just taken action to avert a government shutdown and another self-inflicted wound to our country. the senate has rebuffed senator attempt senator lee's to hold the government and the american people hostage in order to defund obamacare. there were many heartening votes. we thought it would be a nailbiter on the motion to waive the budget act. 14 republicans including senators mcconnell and corn and voted to do that because they all realize that a government shutdown is bad for them, bad for the republican party, bad for the country. senator mcconnell stepped aside and let the process play out. mainstream republicans help the democrats pass a continuing resolution to avoid shutdown. so now, but paul is in speaker

boehner's court. i have to say this, everyone was saying this would never happen, we are now three days, nine hours away. it keeps getting lower if you haven't noticed. we are getting closer every second. this could well happen. the unthinkable a week ago is very possible today. why? because the republicans house caucus is tied in a knot. they say many different things, but they're saying that they will not take up our bill to avoid a government shutdown and instead they reach into their hats and pull out a new idea every day from some republican proposal to attach to it. they are tying themselves in all kinds of knots, but solution is staring them right in the face. pass the senate bipartisan bill.

plain and simple. we are saying to the speaker, listen to the voices telling you to pass this bill, ease your pain. but this bill on the floor, it will pass. then we can move onto the next issue. make no mistake about it, is speaker boehner tries to attach anything and send it back, he and the republicans will be shutting down the government. we will be at the risk of one manyn, senator cruz matter a matter what else, anything he does not bill, he will delay things long enough so that we are past monday night and into tuesday and the government shuts down. a plea to the rational and mainstream republicans, don't shut the government down. you'reshut it down,

hurting people. what our public and colleagues in the house want to do is hold hostage the middle class, millions of innocent federal workers who will not get their paychecks him hundreds of thousands of veterans who won't be able to process their disability. tens of thousands of construction workers who are working on federal highway projects, all of these are innocent people and yet the republican caucus says unless they get their way, but whole way, every bit of their way, they will hold these people hostage and hurt them to me even though they to do with the crisis. so, speaker boehner, put our bill on the floor, stand aside and let members vote their conscience and the government will stay open tuesday morning because we are confident that there are more than enough votes to pass the senate bill. thetact of waiting until

last minute to come to deals has been used a lot in recent years and in the past, it has worked out at the very last minute. .et's hope that happens again if speaker boehner attaches anything, the likelihood of that happening becomes smaller and smaller. >> the senate has passed a clean short-term funding bill and the only thing that can cause a completely unnecessary government shutdown is another tea party tantrum in the house. got toepublicans have stop playing political games with our families and economy and pass the senate's bill without any new gimmicks or tea party panders. then, we need to join together at the table and work towards a long term balance and bipartisan budget deal that the american people expect and

deserve. families across our country are sick and tired of these constant crises. of all the challenges we have as a nation, this one should be easy. the absolute bare minimum we should be able to do here is to keep our government open. the very least we should be able to do is deliver to our constituents. sabotagednot actively our covering. it is up to speaker boehner to decide if he represents the tea party or it he will do the right thing for the american people. >> are there any active negotiations. >> we have made it very clear

that the only way to solve this problem is to do what we have done. we know that there are some of these people, part of the we are caucus. publicly.said so they are not only talking about the cr not mattering, he said that -- doesn't matter. this is a weird caucus. i am not going to speculate on what they will do. let them send us whatever they are going to send us and we will send it right back to them she ripped of all of the craziness that they have. we have made it clear, the only way to keep the government open is to do the right thing. ,he marketable are wondering

there are 435 members of congress, why can't they vote? why won't the speaker let them vote? anybodynow that at that negotiate when you have leverage. why wouldn't they put something else on the spending bill and send it back to you and try to blame you for the government shutdown? what's it is obvious that that was shutdown the government. >> why wouldn't it be your fault? >> you are using a weird caucus map. >> a hand fall of your -- a handful of your caucus voted to your amendment for this. >> a handful? they all did.

>> it might be politically unpopular for them next year. what do you say to them because they will be accused of defending obamacare. .> we had that debate romney and obama spent tens of millions of dollars, they had debate after debate. the american people said, romney, you are wrong. we don't accept your ridiculous charges. the american people do not accept these ridiculous charges now. continueard for me to to say this because i get tired of hearing myself. , four years old, declared constitutional. find something else to be weird about. >> in 2012, every democratic incumbent was attacked for defending obamacare. you know how many lost? none.

the entire sweep of policy letters? >> yes. thanks, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> the latest antics of congress is not solving anything.

the defense department's chief financial officer outlined the military's contingency plan in case of a government shutdown saying that the pentagon would suspend military activity not vital to national security. he said in some cases death benefits could be delayed. his news conference was about half an hour. >> are you ready to go? i think you know who i am. i will say good afternoon as part of the high point of this discussion. turn to your questions. the administration firmly believes that a shutdown due to a lapse of appropriation should not occur. the administration is working with congress to try to prevent a lapse. unfortunately, we might not know the outcome of those efforts until next monday, conceivably even monday night. we have to be prudent and plan

for a lapse in appropriations. as answer this question and everything i say today, i will focus on the department of defense, solely on the dod. other agencies are definitely affected. is important to recognize that if the appropriations lapse, we can only conduct limited activity specifically authorized by law. a lapse could lead to civilian furloughs. it will come in fact. these furloughs are very different than the sequester furloughs that occurred this summer. the sequester furloughs sought to reduce cost. we had the authority to design them to reduce cost and to reflect policies like minimizing effects on readiness. in the case of a lack of appropriations, law governs, not policy. specifically, in the event of a loss of perper appropriations, dod can only conduct operations

designed to protect life, property, and carry out a few other activities. this is interpreted to mean -- thed kansas board dod can support operations such as afghanistan. we can maintain emergency services, police, fire, emergency, medical. aslabel the activities excepted activities and you will hear me use that word repeatedly in the next couple of minutes. what would happen under a lapse of appropriations? first, government employees would be significantly affected. all of our military personnel would be directed to remain on normal duty status. this means they cannot be placed in a non-pay status, so we would erect them to continue in a normal duty status. civilian workers who support they would bees, directed to continue to work.

the civilian workers who do not permit was support excepted activities would be placed in a non-duty, non-pay status on emergency no notice basis. we would expect roughly half of our civilian personnel to go into this status. pay of government employees could be seriously effective, especially if the lapse continues. civilian and military personnel cannot be paid even if they been directed to work. they would be paid let retroactively. those on emergency furloughs, they would be paid retroactively only if a law is enacted, providing the authority to pay them. training and travel of the

military and civilian employees would be disrupted. unless connected with excepted activities, training and travel would have to be stopped. it would have to be stopped before it started or if it is going on at time the lapse folks associated with non-excepted travel would have to pack up and come home. we would be required to do some other bad things. be unable to pay death gratuities. we would have to close the stateside commentaries. a number of other actions would have to be stopped. the dod vendors would be affected, especially at the lapse continues for a substantial time. the vendors working on contracts with funds obligated prior to the lapse in physical 13 could continue to work.

assuming government personnel are available to provide any needed supervision. they can be paid for that work. signg the lapse, we cannot new contracts or extend old ones unless they are directly in support of excepted activities. already confused you, let me try to sum up by saying how all of these confusing actions affect the mission. we can and will continue to support military operations. the law would force us to disrupt many of our support activities. we would not be able to do most training, we cannot inter-into contracts, routine maintenance would have to stop, we cannot improve contracting and financial management including our auto improvement efforts. a lapse of appropriation causes civilian furloughs and it is one more blow to the morale of our civilian workforce. more out is low and i think it would get lower.

even if the lapse never occurs, the planning itself is disrupted. people are worrying about whether there paychecks will get delayed. while i cannot quantify the time spent, it has or will consume a lot of management attention. for all of these reasons, i very much hope that congress acts to avert a lapse of appropriations. i hope you understand when i say that i hope we are all wasting our time planning for this lapse. i will get george here. since everyone went through the furloughs recently, can you explain a little bit the difference between those that were furloughed under that and the fact that there are a

fewer number being furloughed right now. that thehelp so people would understand how that difference is. i just have a second question. i know contractors are a hard thing to get your arms around. is there anything that can talk about the contractors and people that could be affected by this? >> the ones we did in the summer were called in ministry to furloughs. they were designed to save money. therefore, as i mentioned, we have the authority to design them based on criteria, readiness, cost savings. these are specified by law. any civilian not primarily working on an excepted activity has to be placed on furloughs. most of our working capital

fund employees are going to not be furloughed immediately because the working capital funds have a cash balance that is based on funds obligated before the lapse. so, we have the funds and they don't have to be furloughed right away. there would have to be gradual with some of them if we run out of cash. most of our employees were furloughed in the summer. as far as the contractors. all of the ones working on contracts, as i said, but obligated with money before the lapse would be able to continue. i think in the early stages, that would be the majority of our contractors because most of them will be working on contracts almost by definition that were funded before if the lapse continued, that number would fall. if i'm not mistaken, there are about 650,000 that were affected.

400,000.s about the difference seems to be a lot. >> yes, the numbers are roughly right. i don't know how many. there will be about 150,000 that will keep this time. they are totally different animals. one is driven by law, the other was driven by policy to save money. >> >> they were not contractors, correct? >> most of them will probably be able to continue working. most of them will be funded by contracts already. >> some were looking for that october 15 paycheck. can you give me a sense of how

long this shutdown might be able paycheck is their definitely delayed? >> the earliest we would start having trouble would be october 7. that's not a hard date. we will push it as far as we can. at some point we have to run the payroll. i'm in triage mode right now, trying to get the department ready to shut down if we have to. i haven't focused on the problems that will occur if a lapse occurs. we will put it off as long as we can. if the lapse extends to october 15 there won't be a question. there may be some time prior to that when we would be faced with either having to take a chance and run the payroll and be ready or delay it. we've got a while. >> can you talk about what happens to ships at sea, particularly those in the mediterranean, and whether

connecticut operations could be launched such as special operations forces or a hypotheticals trike in syria? >> it would depend if it was a military operation. in the case you mention, it surely would be. if the president were to authorize some action against syria, it would be a military operation approved by the secretary. it would be an accepted activity. -- the issue is, are they in support of direct activities. >> they will be, and they will be accepted. the great majority of people on there are military and they will remain at work. these are the sort of gray area decisions that are managers and commanders are making right now the acceptedify and non-excepted. most of the ships at sea which stay there -- if there are some

that stay strictly in training and were not accepted, they would be able to stand down. we will have to make some judgment on what that means. you obviously cannot bring a ship back immediately. seeargeting emission on usually requires -- a mission on sea usually requires ammunition and training. >> it would depend if it is an accepted activity. if they are in the med, it would be true. it would be harder if they are training off of nor folks, for example. then the question is, are there civilians involved or can we go ahead and do it with the military. these are things that get delegated. our commanders and managers are considering those issues right now. >> the memo talks about limiting movement from accepted areas.

i'm wondering how it could affect afghanistan. >> afghanistan is excepted. the pcs -- we can move into from an accepted area if the commander judges there would be problems created if the move is not carried out. general judgment dunford and his staff will have to make. i'm not sure where they are on .hat i'm sounding like a stuck record, but i don't have all these details. [inaudible] that could be delayed. >> it is an accepted activity. we should be able to go ahead with that. i don't know if you are comptroller in 95 and 1996 --

9095 and 1996 -- 1995 and 1996. >> no. >> in one of those shutdowns, congress passed appropriation for dod. can you compare the two scenarios and what that would mean? in 1995 forown about a week in dod, it was longer in the nondefense agencies. -- i can't a cr remember if it was a full appropriations bill earlier for defense. there was a lot of similarity. through all of these imaginations that we were engaged in right now, deciding what to do at that time and then executed that plan. one thing i distinguish remember is that it was a horrendous blow to the civilians. there was months after that that i was hearing from them. we use the phrase that we have stopped using because it was wrong, essential and nonessential. it's not right.

it's not whether you are essential. it's whether the loss -- there are lots of essential items to keep this military going that don't deal directly with accepted activities. i'm very concerned about the effect this will have on our civilian workforce. are there differences in operations now that make those shutdown plans not a complete blueprint -- >> not many differences. kind ofa few exceptions based on recent events, for example because of potential flaws to our security system. they were pretty minor, i'd say,

the vast majority of the guidance is the same. >> lake troop a, those benefits would be delayed? policy.the law, not if the death occurred after the lapse took place, the money would be obligated after the lapse took place and we would have no authority to pay based on that money until the lapse ended. in that case, it could be delayed. if the death occurred prior to the lapse, and i'm assuming we had enough people to process the payment, i don't think it would be delayed. government does not shut down, you're still going to be stuck with a cr come next tuesday. if communicated to congress the provisions you would like to see in the cr -- you have communicated to congress the provisions you would like to see in the cr. do, through the office of management and budget. there are very few of them in

the cr passed. it is fairly short. the senate one will go through november 15. we can probably hold our breath for a while. itwould certainly appreciate and we would've liked more flexibility for new starts, for example, rate increases and a variety of other activities we won't be able to carry out under the cr. we did ask. we always ask. >> hopefully if you do get funding -- you will be facing sequestration again. if you look at how that will affect -- >> potentially. the cr will last through november 15. if it were extended through the whole year in that form, it would generate a sequestration in january around 4%. we could be facing it.

said we're not going to sequester ourselves. we really thought this would be resolved. startime we will operating at a lower level than the president's request. the cr itself cuts the dod .udget the sequester would take out another 20 or so. we will start at a level below the president's budget to conserve sources till we get a better sense of where we are headed. quick question. october 1, all patients will go on october 1? >> correct. there's a payday for the civilians that is not affected, and one on october 1 for the military which is not affected. any lapse before would occur. the reserves are tricky because they are paid at various times. we are already struggling with some of that. i hope we can minimize or avoid any disruptions there too.

>> one of the things listed as its activities necessary to continue recruiting. airshows andg things like that? no, probably recruiting offices, military examination centers.centers -- >> why is it that if there is money is available and there -- doeseed to extend not money available somewhere to pay people? is there a good reason? >> it's the difference between obligations and our ability to disperse. in a lapse of appropriations, we can obligate money.

we can legally commit the government to obligate money for items related to safety, preservation of property. but we can't disperse anything, send a check until we get an appropriation. we can go ahead with the operation. we would be committing the government. .he not going to get paid the personal police will not get paid until we get an appropriations. will not get paid until we get an appropriation. does that make sense? >> [inaudible] >> my guess is, i don't know. knows. nobody this, we're going to have to go one level of indentured down. somebody knows. roughly 400,000 duty

employees -- >> we don't have the numbers yet. we are still gathering them for this year. it was around 50% of our civilians excepted to in a half years ago. i would expect to be in that area again. employees are accepted if they are paid by foreign governments. we take them off the top. probably less than 400. >> it should be around 800,000 of which 400,000 potentially -- most of those are outside washington, d.c. areas. all civilians are outside of washington. the majority of them will be. >> in terms of risk notices or risk package, since you're not planning for furloughs and 2014 -- in 2014? >> we have some of them

accommodating the cut we took in prior budgets. over the next few months, some of those would be announced. the once associated with these cuts, it takes a while to formulate these. it will probably be a period of time. you're going to see some reductions in force, actions over the coming months. some involuntary separations of military as we begin this. >> it was like 5200 back in early august. any rough numbers of potential risk? >> i don't want to give you a number. were not far enough along to be specific. i would prefer not to. >> how will arlington burials be affected? is paid through the army and i believe it will stay open. accept -- ided to

except funerals and dignified transfers. the people supporting those will be accepted and will continue. >> the civilians who are expected to work, but no unlessee of pay -- something is passing -- flavors.an come in two the ones here associated with excepted activity will be directed to work and paid retroactively as soon as we get an appropriation. that will be automatic. the ones who are part on follow -- but on furlough, that would require an act of congress to pay the retroactively. >> are there any very significant differences between ms. guidance and guidance from 2011? ofi give you the one example the navy yard investigation. there may be a couple others. they are very modest.

in addition to have to worry about 2014, you have to develop a fy 2015 budget. is all the time and attention you have to deal with in preparing for a shutdown taking away from that? >> absolutely. it's taking away from everything we do. it is slowing it down. we have to press forward. it's a particularly demanding task this year because we really feel we have to plan for a range of outcomes. we just don't know where we're going to end up. decision we will ultimately make in december is to the size of the budget. we are planning for a pretty wide range of spending. >> of the services given you everything you need for that? >> they have submitted briefings on program objectives, memoranda, and are submitting detailed data right now. you mention finding new

contracts in the event of an government shutdown. i wonder if for some of your programs, how would you legally be able to find [indiscernible] >> we can extend contracts or find new ones if they are in direct exception. it's extremely important, another difference between excepted and non-excepted, we need these weapons. it would probably be hard to relate them to current military operation. the good news coming at the beginning of the year, you don't tend to have a lot of those decisions facing you early on. those that you have, you could delay. if a lapse occurs -- i would hope it doesn't -- the severity

of the effects would grow out to be it turns long. if it's short, it will be damaging. if it's long, it will be increasingly so. can you talk some more about the extent to which you would expect military personnel to be performing the duties of furlough civilians as opposed to their normal day jobs? i have the same question for any contractors. they the military side, would have their normal jobs and continue that. .here could be circumstances for example, if there was a contract funded with money before the lapse and supervision was needed and the civilian was , the person had the capability to do that, i could see them doing that. for the most part, they will be doing their same jobs. the same thing with the contractors. contractors would never be

allowed to do inherently governmental work. there could be some were a civilian was furloughed. for the most part, they're going to go in and do the jobs they .ere assigned to >> the fiscal year ends on monday. congress has until tuesday to pass a budget to avoid a government shutdown. the senate passed a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through november 15 and strip out the house language, defunding obamacare. that vote was 54 to 44. the houses is in tomorrow at noon eastern to take up a

specific version. president obama spoke about the passage in the house and what is ahead this week in the senate. he said on another issue that he spoke today with the rainy and preisden -- iranian president rouhani. under 15nts are minutes. >> good afternoon, everybody.

before i discuss the situation in congress, let me say a few things about important opportunities in our foreign policy. i spoke on the phone with president rouhani of iran. the two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach agreement over iran's nuclear program. i reiterated what i said in new york. while there will be important obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, i believe we can reach a comprehensive solution. i've directed secretary kerry to continue pursuing this diplomatic effort with the iranian government. we have constructed discussions yesterday in new york with our the european union, united kingdom, france, germany, russia, and china together with the iranian foreign minister. have directedani our teams to continue working

expeditiously in cooperation with the p51. p5+1. we are mindful of all the challenges. the very fact that this was the first communication between an american and iranian president the deep9 underscores mistrust between our countries, but indicates a prospect of moving beyond that difficult history curren. 's supreme leader issued a statement against the development of nuclear weapons. resident rouhani has indicated that iran will never develop nuclear weapons. we respect the right of the pursue people to peaceful nuclear energy.

resolving this issue could also serve as a major step forward in a new relationship between the united states and the islamic republic of iran, based on mutual interests and respect. it will also help to forge a better relationship between iran and the international community. that would help us address other concerns that could bring greater peace and stability in the middle east. a path to a meaningful agreement will be difficult, and at this point both sides have significant concerns about have to be overcome great i believe we have a responsibility -- that have to be overcome. i believe we have a responsibility. i communicated to president rouhani my deep respect for the iranian people. this comes on the same day that

we accomplished a major diplomatic breakthrough on syria. the un security council will vote on the resolution that would require the assad regime to put its chemical weapons under international control so they can ultimately be destroyed. this binding resolution will ensure that the assad regime must keep its commitments or face consequences. we will have to be vigilant about following through. this could be a significant victory for the international community and demonstrate how strong diplomacy can allow us to secure our country and pursue a better world. america's security and leadership don't just depend on our military strength. first and foremost, america's strength depends on a strong economy. our middle class is growing, and everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead. theme say a few words about situation that has developed over the past few weeks on capitol hill.

here at home, the united states congress has two pressing responsibilities. pass a budget on time, and pay our bills on time. if congress chooses not to pass a budget by monday, they will shut down the government along with many vital services the american people depend on. pastood news is within the couple of hours, the u.s. senate, democrats and republicans, acted responsibly by voting to keep our government open and littering the service -- delivering the services the americans -- american people expect. i specked house of representatives to do the same. the house ofexpect representatives to do the same. democrats have a vital interest in continuing to help the american people. far, republicans in the house of representatives have refused to move forward.

unlike the last time they threatened this course of action, this debate is really about deficits. our deficits are falling at the fastest pace that they have in 60 years. by the end of this year, we will have cut our deficits by more than half since i took office. that's not what this is about. have been following the discussion, the republicans in the house don't even make a pretense that this is what this is about. house republicans are so concerned with appeasing the tea party that they have threatened the government shutdown or worse unless i got or repeal the affordable -- gut or repeal the affordable care act. that's not going to happen. americans100 million currently already have new benefits and protections under the law. on tuesday, about 40 million more americans will be able to

finally buy quality affordable health care just like anybody else. those marketplaces will be open for business on tuesday, no matter what, even if there is a government shutdown. that's a done deal. if republicans have specific ideas on how to genuinely improve the lot rather than get it, rather than delay it -- law rather than gut it, rather than delay or repeal it, i'm happy to work with them on that. that will not happen under the threat of a shutdown. the next three days, house republicans will have to decide whether to join the senate and keep the government open or shut it down because they can't get their way. doissue that has nothing to with the deficit. i realize that a lot of what is taking place right now is

political grandstanding. this grandstanding has real effects on real people. onthe government shuts down tuesday, military personnel, including those risking their lives overseas for us right now will not get paid on time. federal loans for rural communities, small business owners, families buying a home will be frozen. i'm starting to get letters from people worried this will have an impact on them directly. critical research will be immediately halted. the federal government has a large role in touches the lives of millions of people. those people will be harmed. even the threat of a shutdown is probably having a dampening effect on our economy. we saw that the last time these shenanigans were happening on capitol hill. any republican in congress who is currently watching, i

encourage you to think about who you are hurting. there are probably young people in your office right now who came to work for you without much pay because they believe that public service was noble. you are preparing to send them home without a paycheck. if that families with kids in your district to serve their families- you have got with kids in her district to serve their country -- your district who serve their country. past shutdowns have disrupted the economy. this shutdown would as well. it would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction. that is why many republican senators and many republican governors have urged republicans to knock it off, pass a budget, and move on. let's get this done. this brings me to congress's second responsibility. once they vote to keep the government open, they also have

to vote to allow the treasury to for the money that congress has already spent. raising the debt ceiling is simply authorizing the treasury to pay for what congress has already authorized. failure to meet this responsibility would be far more dangerous than a government shutdown. it would be an economic shutdown with impacts not just here, but around the world. we don't fully understand what might happen, the dangers involved, because no congress has ever actually threaten default.- threatened it would have a profound destabilizing effect on the entire economy, the world economy, because america is the

bedrock of world investment. the dollar is the reserve currency. the debt issued by the treasury is the foundation for our capital markets. that is why you don't fool with it. some republicans have suggested that unless i agreed to an even justr list of demands, not getting the health care law, but cutting taxes for millionaires or rolling back rules on big banks or other pet projects they would like to see and they have been trying to get passed over the last couple of years, they would push the button, throw america into default for the first time in history, and risk throwing us back into a recession. i'm willing to work with anybody

who wants to have a serious conversation about our fiscal future. i've demonstrated that by putting forward serious reforms to entitlement programs that would bring down our long-term deficits. i have said in the past and i will continue to say that i'm willing to make a whole bunch of tough decisions, ones that may not be entirely welcome by my own party. but we're not going to do this under the threat of blowing up the entire economy. will not negotiate over congress's responsibility to pay the bills that have already been racked up. voting for the treasury to pay america's bills is not a .oncession to me that's not doing me a favor. that's simply carrying out the solemn responsibilities that come with holding office up

there. i don't know how i can be more clear about this. nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the united states just to extract political concessions. no one gets to hurt our economy and millions of innocent people just because there are a couple of laws you do not like. it is not been done in the past. for not going to start doing it now. on not going to start setting a precedent for future presidents, where one chamber in congress can basically say each time there needs to be a vote to make sure treasury pays its bills, we're not going to sign it unless a particular hobbyhorse gets advanced. if we had a republican president and a democratic speaker, and the speaker said, we're not going to pass the debt ceiling unless we raise , ororate taxes by 40%

unless we pass background checks on guns, or whatever other agenda items democrats were interested in. thatanybody actually think we would be hearing from republicans if that was acceptable behavior? but not how our constitutional system is designed. the american people have worked to recover from a bunch of crises, several of them over the last couple of years inflicted by some of the same folks in congress that we are to see about now extremists in congress cause another crisis. in mind, this whole thing has to do with keeping the government open for a few months . , theontinuing resolution

bill designed to avert government shutdown basically just funds the government for a few months. we could be doing this all over again. i'm sure the american people are thrilled about that. that's why we've got to break this cycle. the message to congress is this, do not shut down the government. do not shut down the economy. pass a budget on time. pay our bills on time. refocus on the everyday concerns of the american people. there will be differences between democrats and republicans. we can have all kinds of conversations about how to resolve those differences. there will be areas where we can work together and areas where we disagree. threaten to burn the because youimply have not gotten 100% of your way. that's not how a democracy is supposed to work.

every day that this goes on is another day that we are not focused on doing what we need to focused on, which is rebuilding this great country of ours for middle class is growing and everybody has opportunity. that's what i'm focused on and that is what congress should be focused on as well. thank you very much, everybody. >> republican members of congress responding to president obama's statement today. radd when struck -- b wenstrup -- justin amashblican --

you will find more at twitter.com/cspan. congressman justin amash referenced president obama's phone call today with hassan rouhani after the president's news conference this afternoon. "usa today" reports the iranian president confirmed the phone conversation in a series of twitter messages, saying in one, quote, i express my gratitude for your hospitality and your phone call. have a good day, mr. president. back on capitol hill this afternoon after the vote in the said -- senate. spoke toator ted cruz reporters. he was joined by senator marco rubio of florida and senator mike lee of utah.

>> we now move on to the next stage of this battle. senate democrats stood united in refusing to listen to the american people. obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country. millions of americans are hurting. they are seeing their health care threatened, and yet sadly today senate democrats stood together and refused to listen to the american people. now we move to the house. the house last week showed remarkable courage, standing up and fighting to defund obamacare. the house listened to the american people, and i am hopeful, confident that the house will continue to stand its ground, continue to listen to

the american people, and step up to respond and to stop this train wreck, this nightmare that is obamacare. when that happens, the bill will come back here, and it will be an opportunity for senate republicans to come together, for senate republicans to come home. i very much hope when the house bill comes back up all 46 republicans stand together, stand united, and i hope that some of the democrats who today decided not to listen to their constituents hear the voices of the millions of americans who are hurting and do the right thing and stand up and stop this train wreck, the nightmare of a law. "train wreck" and "nightmare" are not my terms, they are the terms by the lead democratic author of obamacare and one of the leading union leaders in the country. it is the truth that millions of

americans are suffering because the law is not working. >> thank you. thank you for being here today and thank you for the work you have put into this effort. it sounds like the democrats in washington are obsessed to shutting down the government. i do not know of anyone who wants to shut down the government. the only thing we want to shut down is obamacare is because of the harm it is doing to the middle class, to hard-working people who are working hard just to get ahead. our lives we have been told this is a country where if you work hard and you sacrificed you can achieve a better life. those of us in elected office should be against anything that is an impediment to that dream. obamacare stands in the wake of of that.way that is why we are so passionate. today we had the opportunity to do that. democrats who come from states where people who do not support obamacare, decided it was more

important to the hard-working men and women of our country. this only gets worse from here for the middle class and for people trying to get ahead. i hope we will have an opportunity to do it again. we will take advantage of every opportunity we have to fight on behalf of the men and women of this country who want a chance to achieve a better life for themselves for them and their families. thank you. >> we all know government will be funded. the question is whether it is funded with or without obamacare. the house republicans last week, listening to the voice of the american people, often for the-- opted for the latter, to keep government funded while protecting people from the harmful effects of obamacare. today the senate took the step of bringing up that legislation, not as is, never presenting the senate with the opportunity to

vote on the measure as it exists. they chose to use a device that allows the majority leader to bring up one amendment, an amendment that gutted the house- passed continuing resolution, and prohibit everyone else from introducing amendments. this is unfortunate. the american people continue to be alarmed by this law, a law that has never enjoyed the majority of -- a law that has never had the support of the majority of the american people and a law that becomes less popular as time goes on and with good reason. i ask the same question -- how many more americans will have to lose their jobs, have to be told that their hours are being cut or their wages are being

diminished or they are losing their health care plans? 20,000 home depot employees were informed last week as a result of this job. our job is to protect the american people any way we can from the harmful effects of this law and we continue to explore every opportunity to do that. >> [indiscernible] >> there seems to be some disarray within the republican party. there was an open split on the senate floor yesterday. is the disunity among republicans -- does that argue against your fight? >> it is unfortunate senate republicans were not united this time around, but i am encouraged that house republicans have been united, that last week when they voted they stood together to defund obamacare. i hope and believe that when the house takes the this up again, house republicans will continue to stand together on the side of the american people, and i am also hopeful when the house

sends the bill back it will be an opportunity for every senate republican to stand for the principles we all share, to stand with the american people. >> is there an orthodoxy you expect out of republicans as alluded to, the debate on the floor, as with senator corker yesterday? >> every republican has been outspoken in eloquence against obamacare. when the house stands up and does the right thing, i think it will present the opportunity for every senate republican to stand arm in arm with the house republicans. and then it will present an opportunity for senate democrats. senate democrats did not listen to the american people, to all the young people coming out of school who are not able to find a job. they did not listen to all the

single moms waiting tables were finding themselves working 29 hours a week. they did not listen to all the union workers who are seeing their health insurance coverage threatened to be taken away. as james hoffa said, millions of americans are seeing their health care destroyed, and "destroyed" was the language he used, and today senate democrats did not listen to those millions of americans, but this is a process that will go back and forth between the house and the senate. the house was always in the position where it was going to lead, and from my perspective, we look forward to helping and supporting the house standing up and doing the right thing and fighting for the american people. >> will there be another real filibuster -- [indiscernible] >> [indiscernible]

>> again, the government will be funded. the question is whether we fund it with obamacare or without. the house passed a continuing resolution. the senate has chosen to strip out that language from this measure which is now in the process of being passed by the senate. that was unfortunate. this is not about calling for a shutdown. >> what do you want to the house to do in the next steps? >> i want the house do stand with the american people against obamacare, in favor of keeping government funded while defunding obamacare. >> how will that happen?

>> a variation of this. what form that takes will be up to the members of the house, and to their leadership, i am confident they will do the right thing. >> there are some members of the house who have said what they could pass might be something that could pass for both parties here, maybe a delay in obamacare for a shorter time or even a repeal of the medical device act. would you guys hold that up with a filibuster or would you let them take a vote on that? >> it does not make sense to speculate on possible bills the house might pass. you should see what the house passes. in my view what is critical is that the house passes a measure that protects the american people from the harms that obamacare is causing them the-- from the jobs that are being lost, from being forced into part-time work, from skyrocketing premiums, from losing your health insurance. that is what i am confident the house will do.

>> [indiscernible] have you -- [indiscernible] >> we have had numerous conversations with members of the house, but at the end of the day, all 435 members are elected by the people in the districts, and each member of the house has responsibility to listen to their constituents. i'm confident if the house listens to the people as it did last week it will continue to step forward and respond to the suffering that is coming from obamacare. it was sad to see senate democrats together turn a blind ear to all the people suffering under obamacare during the extended filibuster that we debated in. we read letters from people who are losing their health care.

a few weeks ago ups sent a letter to employees saying they were going to lose their health care. people are hurting, and if the house continues to listen, they will act decisively to prevent the harms that are flowing. >> [indiscernible] >> i have said for a long time i do not intend to vote for any continuing resolution that funds obamacare. i think obamacare is a train wreck, a disaster, a nightmare, to use the words of mr. hoffa. it is time we see more leaders in washington listening to the american people and helping stop this nightmare. >> [indiscernible] putting dents in obamacare--

>> i am not going to speculate on any possible continuing resolution that will come. on the vitter amendment, one of the things that frustrates the people so much is the hypocrisy in washington. obama has granted exemptions for big business, for members of congress, but hard-working american families are told there will be no exemption for you. if you do not happen to have high-paid lobbyists, if you do not walk the corridors of power, then the senate is apparently not listening to you and not interested in treating you as well as members of congress and big bigness. that is fundamentally wrong. the idea that washington should operate under principles that are good for them but not for me is why people are so frustrated with washington. the ruling class is treated differently from hard-working american families. the people hurting the most are

young people, single moms, hispanics, african-americans, people who are being forced into part-time work, facing skyrocketing premiums, and who are losing their health insurance. i hope both houses of congress step forward, listen to the people, and stop obamacare, the biggest job killer in this country. thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]>> centers cruise and lee -- cruz and lee. the house gavels in for legislative work at noon. the vice chair joe crowley and budget committee ranking member chris van hollen called upon house republicans to vote on a clean continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. they spoke with reporters

following today's democratic caucus meeting. and look forward to seeing you this weekend. when you are ready. we held a pretty extensive caucus this friday afternoon, even though republicans have completed voting for the week. placenot have a budget in for our government. we are ready to work. we wish we weren't wasp -- watching this brinksmanship and fiscal cliff resurface again. it doesn't look any better. democrats believe we should be focusing as elected representatives of the people on strengthening the middle class.

helping our economy grow more jobs. if we don't have a strong middle class, we may as well turn off the lights. were not going to create those jobs. we're not going to continue to be a leader in the world if we don't focus like a laser beam on creating middle-class jobs and helping grow the middle class so that they can buy that home, they can send their kids to college. life of me, i don't think any of us understand how shutting down our government and stopping services to the middle ,lass to that soldier's family to that veteran who has come home, to that senior who relies on that meals on wheels lunch, houck -- how shutting the doors of government will help in any way strengthen the middle class. this is where we see ourselves. we would urge our republican colleagues to put country before

this, to stop with discussion that what governs in the house of representatives are party rules, not the rules of the house of representatives, not the rules provided to us by our statute or constitution, but a political role, a so-called rule that is a republican party rule that says, don't you dare let anything go on the floor of the house unless it has the support of a majority of republicans. a majority of republicans. if you're going to put party upore country, we will end seeing these folks shut down government. we urge our colleagues in the house republican party to please think of putting country before party.

the american people have witnessed enough. no small business in america would run the way the house of representatives is being run today. if no small business on main street would run this way and expect to survive, certainly largest economy in the world should not be run this way. we think it's time to get to work, to strengthen the middle class. we have a lot pending. we still have to deal with making sure that we don't let our country for the first time in its history default on its past obligations, to make it clear that we believe in the full faith and credit of the united states of america. we still have to finish fixing a aridn immigration system the house is showing the obstruction and dysfunction that makes it clear -- system.

the house is showing the obstruction and dysfunction that makes it clear that they are not helping the middle class. the last thing we need to do is as a very dedicated group of tea party members tell america they are ready to shut down government. we hopeeady to work and our republican colleagues are willing to join us. let me yield to the vice chairman of the democratic caucus, the gentleman from new york, mr. joe crowley. >> thank you. here we are again on the fiscal cliff. the american people once again put on edge artificially. , boths enough calamity man-made and naturally occurring out there in the world today. we have seen it with the flooding in mexico, the floods in colorado. we have unrest in the middle east and syria. weekve 13 individuals last

killed less than a mile from here. the response of the republican congress is not to find a solution and let americans know everything is ok with their government, the government will go on. instead, it's to create an artificial crisis. the american people do want more crises and they certainly don't want artificial crises. want the republican congress to get its act together. that is now the full responsibility of the speaker, to get his caucus together and come up with solutions. the american people want solutions to the problems they are facing. no more man-made crises. we are here, prepared to work throughout the weekend to ensure that government does not shut down. are ourtion is, republican colleagues committed to ensuring the government does not shut down. that is a question for the

speaker and his conference. to ensure the government will continue to operate. with that, i will give you our lead man on the budget, the gentleman from the great state of maryland, chris van hollen. >> thank you, joe and javier. it's great to have all of you here today. we don't know how much longer we will be here as the republicans try to figure out what they will do next. signs point to the fact that they are hell-bent on trying to shut down the government in order to implement the tea party extreme agenda. we don't yet know what the speaker intends to do, other than what appears to be the plan, to put another amendment on the continuing resolution unrelated to keeping the government operating and focused on trying to dismantle or derail the affordable care act.

if that's what they do, that will be a sure sign that they are focused on shutting down the government rather than doing the business of government and trying to do what we can to support the middle class. it's also troubling to hear they're going to double down on the strategy in the coming weeks with respect to the so-called debt ceiling, which simply means the government should be paying its bills on time. their position once again is there going to prevent the u.s. paying its bills on time, jeopardize the full faith and credit of the u.s. government if they cannot enact their extreme agenda. we have seen reports they are essentially taking every tea party idea and throwing that into a package and telling the country that if we don't enact that extreme agenda, they're not

going to allow the country to pay its bills on time. countrybody in the realizes, if the government doesn't pay its bills on time, the middle class gets hurt first , as the chairman as indicated. it is irresponsible and reckless, and we stand ready to work with them to try to resolve it and that's the last point i want to make. i think everybody needs to understand that we've been trying to bring our republican colleagues to the negotiating table on the budget for months and months and months. the statute says you should have completed a conference committee on the budget by april 15. the house passed a budget. the senate passed a budget. the speaker of the house refused to appoint negotiators, and in the senate, republican senators blocked harry reid from

appointing negotiators. senator john mccain said that was insane. we've been trying to negotiate these issues in the normal course but with a clearly intended was to create this artificial crisis because they somehow thought if you threaten to shut down the government or threatened that we will no longer pay our bills on time that under those pressing circumstances they will get their extreme agenda put into place. it just does not work that way. it's not going to happen. >> we will take some questions. >> they are asking that they include a defunding or delaying of obamacare. if speaker boehner were to break from that and adding something related to obamacare, could democrats support that and send

it back? >> we are interested in keeping our government operating and the services out there for people who pay for the services. we expect if we need to go collect their social security check that it will be good. if we paid for our government to be able to issue a passport so that we could go visit an ailing or dying parent, we want to be able to do that. we should focus our efforts in this budget discussion on issues that relate to the budget. our colleagues on the republican side insist on including things that have nothing to do with a budget and all to do with what the ranking member said, the republican extreme social agenda. would we vote for things that have nothing to do with a budget simply so they can be satisfied that if they extort the american people we will have a budget? i don't think so. the president made it very clear. we want a clean budget vote and all of the extraneous matters

from the far-right social agenda issues are off the table. members of congress will continue to come to work, but if the republicans shut down the government, then there are a whole lot of americans who will not get to go to work and a whole lot of other americans who will not get to receive the services they paid for. a clean vote. that's all democrats are saying. a vote on the budget and only on the budget. you want to debate or social agenda? we can vote that up or down, but don't hold hostage the american economy and the american people see you can get your social agenda. it's too important to the middle class and to important during this time of economic recovery to weaken the pillars so that the middle class gets back on its feet. i don't think democrats are ready to engage in any of the shenanigans that has nothing to do with budget and all to do

with the extreme, hard right social agenda. >> [speaking in spanish] >> [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish]

>> the question was a bit open- ended. if you are saying the republicans will come back with a bill that takes up the language of the affordable care act, but adds something else, that's what you said. >> bring up a cr and leave off any provision having to do with the defunding. you've seen the list of different provisions they have thought about adding. >> again, without specifying what they would add to it, there are other attempts to amend other aspects of the affordable care act there floating individually. we are about amending and fixing. i do not think we should use this process as a legislative fix for the issues that concern. we have other ways of doing that through the regular order, bringing a bill up and voting on

the floor. that's not happening right now. there is no consensus building going on. either they get their way or they shut down government and that's not how it works. it's up to them in the house of representatives. we would like to be in the majority, but right now the ball is in their court. the deadline is coming, three days away. the ball is in their court to move something here to keep the government open that is not continuing to promote their ideological agenda. repealing the affordable care act is not going to happen. 43, 44, 45 times and on, it's not going to be repealed not this way and, quite frankly, i don't think it will ever be repealed. if they had the ability to put a majority in both houses, this bill will not be repealed.

the american people won't stand for it. >> you said last week you would not support that unless it is clean? >> i support a clean budget bill. what i will not support as my colleagues on the republican side trying to inject their social agenda into a budget bill when we are on the brink of shutting the doors to our government when services are essential. we are waiting to see our colleagues provide us with a clean vote on a clean budget bill so we can keep the doors of government open, and we have yet to see that. i think the republican colleagues have made it very clear that it is their intention to put in their social agenda regardless of what the american people are saying. what we are seeing is a fight among republicans. they cannot decide among

themselves what they want to do, and while they are out there brawling, the american people are watching. and pretty soon, we are going to be impacted in major ways if they let the government close its doors unnecessarily. we wish it would stop the internal fighting and decide what they want to do. hopefully what they decide to do is give the american people a chance to let the representatives vote up or down on a clean bill to fund the government so we can provide the surfaces that americans paid for with taxpayer dollars. >> congressman van hollen, what is going to happen if the senate only gets the country to november. do you have any idea that a budget conference will happen in the interim or anything that at the end of the 45 days that there would be anything different than what's happening right now? >> i'm glad you asked that. we can only hope.

hope has not gotten us there over the last three or four months. as i indicated earlier, we have been trying to get to a negotiation on the budget for months now. the law requires that we complete the conference by april 15, but as you know, we are well over that, and you cannot have a conference if they refuse to even appoint their negotiators. i would hope that between now and november 15 our republican colleagues would be willing to come to the table and truly negotiate. i should point out that we have tried eight times now in the house of representatives to simply get a vote on our plan that would replace the sequester. the sequester is eating away at important investments. it is eating away at important investments at transportation

and infrastructure, scientific research, and the congressional budget office just told us yesterday in a hearing before the budget committee that if we do not replace the sequester we will have 800,000 fewer jobs in this country at this time next year. it could be as high as 1.2 million fewer jobs in this country this time next year. that's another self-inflicted wound which is why we are going to be working very hard between now and november 15 to eliminate that drag on the economy which would effectively wipe out the last three months of job growth. that's outrageous. that's a self-inflicted wound we cannot afford in this country. i can only hope in the next couple of months that our republican colleagues will do what they refused to do the previous four months which is to try and negotiate.

again, this is a very calculated strategy. they did not negotiate for four months in the normal course because they thought by threatening to shut down the government and threatening that we would not pay our bills that they would somehow forced the country and force the president to accept their extreme ideological agenda. we hope that sanity will finally come to the house republican party in the coming months. >> how much frustration is thereat having a vote even if it comes to that, a short-term measure that would provide sequester levels that many people oppose?

>> i'll start. we're three days away from watching republicans shut down the government and as of this moment, we don't know what the house republicans will put on the floor of the house for a vote. the greatest democracy in the world is being governed here in congress by people who have yet decide what they want to do to fund the government in an annual budget bill with less than three days to go before the government shuts down. what do democrats want to do? cap -- democrats would like to have a clean bill. they are ready to make tough choices and hard decisions on how we continue to reduce the size of the deficit and how we get americans back to work and

how we strengthen the middle class. it is tough when right now, friday afternoon, three short days before the government shutdown, the republican colleagues still have not told us what they're going to do in terms of a budget to make sure we don't shut the doors on government. it's crazy. 75% of republicans in this country say it's not appropriate to play with the american economy and our government services in this budget fight. i think there are some people here in congress who are not listening to their own constituents if they do percent of the american people are saying stop the game playing. democrats have said from the

very beginning, draft a clean bill and you have votes even if there are tough choices we have to make, but not once in this process, and ranking member mr. van hollen can attest, but not once have they reached out to democrats in the house and say, let's put together a budget bill so we can all vote on it. this has been a totally republican process and it should surprise no one that democrats are prepared to go against any republican bill which tries to inject extraneous matters of have to do with the social agenda which has to do with what peer lead is a budget bill three days before republican shut down the government. >> what frustrates our caucus is the fact that it is not focused on finding solutions. throwing out hypotheticals three days before the deadline is not the time to do that. hypotheticals would be one month

ago, two months ago, five months ago. those are the times for hypotheticals. now it is crunch time. what steps will they take now to ensure that our government does not step down? it certainly frustrates the caucus. we don't know what their plan is to keep the government operating and open right now. it's all hypothetical. in the end, i know there are hundreds of thousands of federal employees. this is real for them. it's not hypothetical. they don't know if they're going to work october 1. we don't know the impact although we can assume it will be negative. the job loss will not be recovered because of that. we understand that and it is incredibly frustrating that once again we are here at the 11th hour as opposed to doing this in an orderly way and in a fashion that does not create man-made brinksmanship.

this is all man made. this is all done by the republican caucus because they are so bent on their ideology to repeal the affordable care act that they are blinded by everything else and they are blinded to the consequences of what they are playing with. i think the american people are beginning to understand this all too well. >> as i indicated, we have been frustrated that we have been denied 8 times a vote on our plan to replace the sequester. again, the sequester, all of you know, but these are the very deep, immediate cuts having a negative impact on lots of important investments around the country and, overall, the nonpartisan independent congressional budget office says it will result in up to 1.2

million fewer jobs next year and their best estimate is 800,000 fewer american jobs this time next year. are we frustrated we have not had an opportunity to even have a vote on our plan to save 800,000 jobs? absolutely. we will keep fighting for an opportunity to replace that sequester because it's not good for the country and we can achieve the same amount of deficit reduction and even more deficit reduction without the job loss under the plan that we have proposed that the democratic caucus here in the house. in the people's house, we think that the american people deserve a vote on that. if the speaker wants to vote to have 800,000 fewer jobs in the country this time next year, to vote no, that's his prerogative. we think in the people's house, the american people are entitled to have a vote on the proposal put forward. >> we will just close by saying we are hoping you will hear some

news soon that our republican colleagues have decided to drop this obsession with the party platform and jamming that into a budget bill three days before \they move to close the government. we are ready to move forward with them on a clean vote on a budget bill. as mr. van hollen has said, it would be very helpful if they show they want to extend a hand to 201 representatives of the american people. it's time the american people saw us doing some stuff together. if 80% of the american people are saying stop jamming the process on the budget to get your social agenda, we agree with them and we are ready to work with our colleagues because there is common ground out there and we should start looking for it before we shut the doors of government. thank you all for being here and we will be in touch.

>> the house gavels in tomorrow. anding hours speeches legislation which may include the senate and the continuing resolution. gorer vice president al said the republican demand to defund obamacare or shut down the government is "political terrorism." he spoke at the institution marking its new opening. >> good morning, everybody and

welcome to brookings. and to our c-span audience and webcast audience. please note the #cepm. i am the senior fellow here and brookings. i am pleased to be announcing the opening of brookings new center, the center for effective public management. allow me for a moment to talk about our vision for this center. i do not need to tell you that things are not going so well in washington, d.c. we open to the center on the eve of a government shutdown. how fitting. in fact, if you are out and about in the streets of washington today you may have noticed that people seem a little depressed or anxious. if i owned a bar am a i would call in extra help. that is because yesterday, agencies issued their shutdown instructions to the staff.

some one million people were told they were nonessential employees. isyou can imagine, that quite a blow to one's ego. a pretty tough message to get. what itell you briefly hope we can come push at this center. , it worksngton works because politicians and their appointees bring new energy and new ideas to town. the it works, it is because members of government, the civil servants know a thing or two about how to meet the place work. the result is a dynamic tension between change and stability. as has been the hallmark of our government and in fact it is the hallmark of all a successful modern democracies. these are troubled times for american leaders, political as well as civil suffers will stop

washington does not work, the politicians cannot manage and put their country above their interest and ideologies. as everything gets politicized, the civil servants move into a defensive crouch. outid to stick their heads unless they get shot off. as we have seen, progress stops on all fronts. like the need for immigration reform or need to do with climate change to the need for amendments to the affordable care act. it would have been passed without notice but in these polarized times, it cannot even be introduced to the congress. at this center, we will deal with both politics and government. making it a little different from undertakings in the past with similar names. we'll focus on political reform that can help create more effective leadership by getting

to the roots of our elliptical dysfunction will stop will look at the federalism in the united states and asked if the state should not come back with their rightful place as laboratories of democracy. which i to understand what happened -- we will try to understand what happens with regulation. the change is so rapid and technological. try to foster a spirit of innovation and government through our new blog. we'll look at the current system of capitalism and asked if perhaps it could be structured in a more sustainable way through our corporate purpose project. all of this is geared toward making both parts of the government among the political and the career more able to engage in what my friend and former colleague has called anticipatory governance. onlyday's government, the

thing we can anticipate is gridlock on stop certainly, the most prosperous nation in the world can do better. i would like to introduce an old friend, david rubenstein. he is cofounder and chief executive of the carlyle group. prior to forming the firm in 1987 my he practiced law in washington, d.c. i got to know him when from 1981.-- 19 87- he served as chief counsel to the u.s. senate judiciary subcommittee on constitutional amendment. inore that, he practiced law new york city. david is a magna cum laude graduate of duke university. he attended the university of chicago law school. endeavors, he is

the chairman of the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts, the regent of the smithsonian institution, resident of economic club of washington and of the board of trustees for duke university and vice-chairman here at the brookings institution. also vice chair on foreign relations. in fact, every time i turn ofund i find another example david's generosity. one of our buildings at the kennedy school at harvard where i came from is the david rubenstein building. birthday, we had a party for my grandson at the zoo. it turns out the panda pavilion exist courtesy of you got it, david rubenstein. [laughter] children, i of your would be concerned about the tendency of yours to give money away. [laughter] back in the carter administration, david put in long hours at the white house

and eight dinner from the vending machines at the white house. the dubious distinction of writing the 1980 democratic party platform. some years ago, i spend long hours at the white house with david and alice. i known how much money you would give away am i would've cooked u-haul made lasagna and brought it to the white house. giveaway, i would have cooked home made lasagna and brought it to the white house. audience and our audience in the room. also there are note cards on each seat for your questions for vice president gore as he is speaking our staff members will be coming around to collect them so we can take some q and a at the end of the vice president presentation. thank you very much for being with us. david?

[applause] >> thank you very much you lane. it was nearly -- thank you very much, elaine. morenment could be managed effectively than what it was. he put up money from a modest in those days by today's standards. he put together and symptoms that would study how government could be made were each active. these came together in 1916 as the brookings institution. it is fitting as we get closer to celebrating the 100th anniversary, we are returned to our rooms by creating this center. it will help us study how we can make our government work much better. -- our roots by creating the center. speech by alith a gore who among other things when he was vice resident -- vice

president, he led the reinventing of government projects. that really did many things to make our government more effective and efficient will stop i wish the government was effective and efficient and we will like it to be. many of the things al gore put into place and recommend it to president clinton came to be and are some the things we are fortunate to have. it was years ago that another group of people began to think about reinventing government. , that a numberk of individuals 55 of them came together in philadelphia and said let's reinvent the government we have. they took the articles of confederation and tore it up and came up with this incredible document called the u.s. constitution. it was not a perfect document and did not create a perfect government. it did more than any history to come together in a democratic form and a government which has

lasted for some 200 years. think about that. ago, people came together and spent about three months working on how a government should be structured and a system that is not perfect and we know today, we see the imperfections every day now on capitol hill. with exception of some commitments we have passed, that amendments well past him a well put together a government that is as efficient as any in the world. a government that has imperfections but can be improved upon and should be. had he been around about 260 years ago or so and been of age, i think our guest would have been a founding father. [applause] no doubt he would have been invited. he had the intelligence, the drive, the commitment to make the world a better place and the

ability to really work effectively with other people. regret he wasreat not a founding father. no doubt, he would have been present unknown had he been involved to recommend as part of the government direct election of the president. [laughter] had he beennough involved to recommend as part of the government direct election of the president will stop he was not around then so we have a different system and with the study whether direct election would make the government more effective. you never know. our country owes al gore to great favors. while he was born in much later, there are two things as why i think our country is in his debt. when of that famous election happened in the year 2000, it was a very complicated, difficult situation for our

country. it is not clear that other individuals or countries would've acted the same way. had i been in the situation that al gore placed myself am a i would not have held myself. he recognize that the most important is the rule of law. maybe the government that was invented did not work as well as we would've liked how much it was important that every recognized will of law prevails. think everywhat i great citizen should do and organize the rule of law is more important than anybody individuals ambitions or plans. he basically said, i think the system should work and it is not work as well as i think you should but we shall let it work. he let his successor do what he wanted to do and he basically did not disrupt that the government. i think that is important thing. while we may have had disagreements with that administration, there is no doubt by a leveling the rule of

law to prevail is important at a lesson for people. very important a thing that al gore did for our country. when he left washington and returned to tennessee, what did he do? he reinvented himself. he decided to pursue the highest calling of mankind -- private equity. [laughter] successfully than many people have left government, he basically returned to the private sector to show that after government service you can do very useful things in the private sector will stop he has done an incredible job of building a number of companies that have been successful. he did what puts all of us in his debt. morey be something significant than any of us have ever done or anybody in this city. he basically made it clear that people that level problem with the way our globe is working.

there is a problem with climate. said i'mreat odds, he a no, we have to recognize the world is warming up and there has to be something done. while we may not be able in our lifetime to have dramatic effects on climate change, we have to begin now. although he was criticized by many people and is still criticized for what he has done, the truth is the world has recognized in the form of a nobel prize for what he did was a great thing for humanity. when history is written, people will say a who change the world the most and there will be many people who will be given the potential honor. nobody is likely to receive the honor more than outdoor because outdoor really stepped up -- al gore because he really stepped up and said people have to do something about this global problem. every government has to reinvent itself so it is doing something

to conquer and challenge the change --f global global warming -- global climate change. i hope people recognize that when they hear al gore today they are seeing a man that not only did something great for our country and has done something great for the world which is to say we have to tackle this most important problem, global climate change. we are all very honored that he is here to kick off this center and he has done the things he has done in his life and has reinvented himself to reinvent our government. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, david. thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

this.eciate david, thank you for that over the top introduction. i cannot remember who deserves credit for first using this old i am sure you have heard it, but my father would have enjoyed it and my mother would have believed it. [laughter] i really appreciate it and your comments about the election. you win some, you lose some and there is that third category. [laughter] to it, i did actually studied the work of the founding fathers in some detail during those days. in my worries that actually in our system there isn't no intermediate -- there

is no inner -- intermediate between a supreme court decision and a violent revolution. given those options -- [laughter] what thely did only american people were credited for doing by winston churchill, generally do the right thing after exhausting every alternative. we are here today at a moment when we are exhausting and lots of alternatives, keeping the government running. david, thank you for your kindness and generosity and leadership in so many spheres. i want to also acknowledge their west -- darrell west, here at brookings. i am going to get to elaine in a moment and talk about this important new center.

oneso want to a knowledge of your -- what of the board members here at brookings. one of the board members here at brookings. you have heard me say is absolutely the best partner anybody can ever have. our partnership recently ended very successfully but the will be eternal. if have to pick one person to be in a foxhole with it would be joel. a lot of my colleagues are here. --n was mentioned byelaine by elaine. my former colleagues in the congress, let's see. congresswoman who i greeted on

the way in and some of my in the campaign years. my former campaign manager is here somewhere. an important leader in the campaign. my other colleague from the white house years in addition to elaine and leon. shapiro,kiki, rob paul weinstein and others. i want to a knowledge the u.s. pension benefit guaranty corporation. now to elaine. [laughter] for 20 yearselaine

, almost exactly 20 years. i want to a knowledge her was in aho also previous lifetime achievement is public service running the xm bank. their daughter in law who is sister. elaine's thene is by all odds one of most talented people that i have ever worked with. ofther in the sphere government or politics, she is truly outstanding. everybody was worked with her nose that. in who willons incur away from being a her awayn -- wooing

from being a professor at harvard. why i think this is unusually significant and important and it truly is. it is hard work. there is literally no one in the world who understands it better or more thoroughly than elaine. that is the truth. there are slightly more than 7 billion people in the world. [laughter] one, elaine. pretty special. [laughter] it is all true. in any case, i am really happy to be here. i am glad that you picked a slow news day to launch this new center. the most important news of the

actually not the pending potential shutdown of the government or pending potential default. i want to talk about that briefly. stockholmrelease and of the fifth assessment of the and you climate change may have seen it in the news and if you have not i urge you to look at it. it is not the topic that brings us here today but it is connected because we have a set of challenges that we must now differenthat are very difficulty the that we to any issues

have ever had to face. absolutelyes is of whatto the success we are undertaking. where the report from stockholm they used to be certain only to a degree somewhere between 90%-100%. they are certain to a degree of 95%-hundred percent. that'll make all the difference to those who are wondering how serious this is. aside, we are still putting 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours as if the atmosphere is an open sewer. cumulativee --

amount trapped there -- trapping as much heat every day as would a --leased by the regime hiroshima bombs going off every day. it is disrupting the water cycle it is essential to the life on earth. disrupting the stable pattern of climate and weather systems that have been in place since the first cities were built 9000 years ago. melting of the ice and raising sea level. surfaces ande land important regions including our own a southwest and soon midwest. america,frica, central the list goes on.

of the extra water vapor to evaporate from the oceans into warmer skies. creating a much larger downpours that trigger the kind of flooding we have seen in boulder, colorado over the last few weeks. in a nashville, about three in that year when 20 million people were displaced from their homes and destabilizing a virtual country. that the list goes on. creating more fires and we have seen it in the west in our own country. we saw it in russia. removal of all grain of the world markets. the highest food price spike in world history. at that moment, a food vendor set himself on fire. even though there were many

other factors that contributed to the individual tragedy and the events that soon thereafter riots haveood followed crop failures in recent defense related -- in recent --ense related to client climate disruption. challenging the ability of andrnments to remain stable in those developing regions were --r next is already on governance is already on an edge. we have to address this. we have to put a price on carbon in the economy. the price of the nigel and the political -- the nile -- denial and the political system. allow more to say on many other

occasions. because this report was released hours ago, i would not have felt right by not addressing it. i am going to talk about the potential for a shutdown in just a moment. i think the only phrase that describes it is political terrorism. a nice global economy you have their. it will be a shame if we had to destroy it. we have a list of demands, if you do not meet them all, we will blow up the global economy. really? where are the american people in this? why does partisanship have anything to do with such a despicable and this honorable threat to the integrity of the eight states of america?

cannot be allowed. -- it cannot be allowed. only if people in both parties and political's -- independence and will say a my night agreed with thet not agree affordable care act but it was passed and upheld by the supreme court and it is the law of the land. did not succeed in the process by which this was considered and are now you want to threaten to not only shut down the government that to blow up the world economy unless we go back and undo what we did according to the processes of our democracy? how dare you. how dare you. but it does not matter what i feelor what many of you

unless the american people billet but it -- feel it but expressive. -- express it. i disagree with him on most things. spirity appreciated the that he manifested there. in any case, one of the reasons why there has been too much tolerance of trifling with the shutdown of the government and the forcing of the default of thatnt that are owed is the hostility to the very idea of government which is in part, it goes way back to the days of king george. by too manyeen said instances of poor management,

problems that are allowed to linger, incompetence, bureaucracy that does not function well. the work of the center in bringing to bear the best minds , the best scholarship available under the leadership of the best leader of the center you can possibly have, this work is really important far beyond what many might end up when they see the name laid on the door or read the short description of what it does. this is really about the hard work and fresh ian king -- ian redeem thenking to promise of self-government.

we are still in lincoln phrase the last best hope. ,he u.s. constitution is still having been changed and made better over the last two centuries the finest document on government ever devised. as we implement that document and administer the programs of government, we have to do it well. when we go into a business or a store that clearly the it and has incorporated finest lessons of high quality management and serves its customers extremely well and

because -- and the costs are extremely low and everything we recognize such businesses and we patronize them. there are reasons why they operate so well. the same principles that have led to their success can be sector.to the public it was 20 years ago this month that i went out on the south lawn of the white house and presented president clinton with the first report of the national performance review also known as reinventing government in asular -- it was also known rego. we hold this event in front of 2 in norman's forklifts --

highous fork looks piled to show the bureaucracy and frustration that most americans associate with the government. we work at reinventing government in rego for the entire two terms that were privileged to be in office. aam very proud to say that great many of the ideas and practices that were new back -- ande standing standard operating procedures today. looking back, it started three revolutions and government. i am going to list them one by one. all three of these revolutions have not only survived in one form or another within the u.s. federal system, many of them have moved to state and local

governments and they have been emulated in countries around the world. and the wake of our reinventing government initiative, the united nations sponsored a series of global conferences to take these ideas and spreading them to other countries. these meetings continue to this day. public policy students now routinely study things that began 20 years ago with a team of change agents in the reinventing government movement. myself as ar to recovering politician. i am on about step nine. go without a relapse, the more confidence i

have that i will get back into it. i would like to think i have earned the right to do a little bragging not as a politician but as somebody who was very lucky to be able to hundreds of determined reformers, men and women many of whom still work with the federal government. they accomplished great things who answered the call and performed in an outstanding way. i am extremely proud of what they have done and continue to do. these three revolutions. the first revolution is the performance revolution required a cultural transformation for many agencies because it entails a new way of thinking and a new

way of doing business. atike prior attempts measuring government performance that were initiated and then soon after abandoned, this one has now lasted for over two decades. president george w. bush expanded on the idea by creating an innovation known as the program assessment rating told -- tool. president obama appointed the first chief performance officer and signed into law amendments to the government performance and accounting act that embedded some of the best innovations that involved that original law was enacted in the wake of our reinventing government law. this new idea to set the goals and measure government performance against those goals

can now be found in the federal government and in city and state governments. at theoud we were there beginning of the performance revolution. the second revolution was the customer revolution. the word customer creates some controversy when we used the phrase. in some quarters, people objected that the citizens of we were owners of the government. nevertheless, there was no other word other than customer that so accurately conveyed to our workforce how we wanted our citizens to be treated. we stuck with that word. to this day, federal agencies that deal with the public measure their performance in the quality they bring to serving their customers.

one quick example that dustup with me, we went out and studied the isolated example of governmental units that had actually pie and neared summit things andd some the we spent time with private corporations. 2will never forget spending days shadowing southwest airlines. what a kick that was. i learned a lot from herb and several of the others and other ceos that i met with. i remember an example for one the state departments of motor vehicles. it is now a symbol of everything that can go wrong. decided theyar dmv had to reform and they just

assumed that's what they needed to do was pull out all the stops and reduce the waiting and the length of the line. they went through their work and before they pulled the trigger and implemented the reforms, they decided maybe we should ask the people who were trying to help here what they think about it. they did that. they were shocked. that these complaint folks waiting in line wanted fix was not aligned. -- the line. it was the picture. they stood in the line once every two or three years and they look at that picture quite a few times a week. system toineered the

give them choices and so forth. it did not add that much extra time. people responded. they shortened the lines. there are many similar examples. is impossible to gain access to unless you engage in a dialogue with the people to home you are trying to deliver the services of government. the third revolution was the innovation revolution. 20 years ago when i entered the siteshouse, there were 50 on the world wide web. there were one or two other geek wannabes like me who used it. there was no such thing as a

government website. mightrd website was you as well been talking about something on the surface of mars. let alone was there any ability to conduct transactions online. after we launched the initiative am a we published a book america."access age whenwould -- in an most the public was not online, we release this for years later summarizedis report what was to come. the internet would be used to bring information to the public on its terms. it made it possible to begin the limitation of a nationwide electronic benefits transfer program to integrate information

in the criminal justice community and provide simplified employer tax filing and reporting. it began the integration of information or the creation of firstgov.org. launched inb portal 2000. it is called usa.gov. to offerse is the same one-stop access to government information. spread tos quickly state and local governments and governments and countries and regions and municipalities throughout the world. i am proud of what we did on that as i like to think we left the government in better shape than we founded and and i believe that is still true today --

stanley found it. sequesters, shutdowns, and criticism, the federal land our planes safely can ever crowded airports. down the safe food. they get the retirement checks out on time. the federal workers are not the problem. the political class is the problem. our reinventing government work by saying the federal workers were good people trapped in a bad system and what ,eeded to change was the system our political classes trapped in a bad system. many of them are very good people, very dedicated.

but the system has been degraded. stein were. present when you wrote, it's worse than you think. it is. it may even be worse than you thought. wonderfulyou for that book. i know you took a lot of heat for it. gentlemen, and american democracy has been hacked. that's a computer word, as you refers to somebody taking over the operating system of a computer and making it do

things that the owner of the computer does not want it to do. has been democracy hacked and its operating system has been taken over by special interests. big money, lobbyists, and taking advantage of a very that hastical culture grown worse very rapidly in the last couple of decades. fixed.s to be like many other citizens, i have been dismayed by what has been d.c.,on in washington, and in the political decision- making process. the level of partisanship and ,itriol has been growing. that

too, is connected to the influence of big money. anonymous contributors, corporations pretending to be people, pursuing business plans in the guise of politics and encouraging many politicians to say and do things that not would have and seen to be in the best interests of the public in years past. i grew up in a political family and my father was in the congress for 10 years before i was born. he did not leave the senate defeated because of his opposition to the vietnam war, support of the voting rights act, and so forth, until i was out of college. my life and then i went to the house of representatives. the varied experiences i've had

a my lifetime have given me view of the arc of american democracy over the last six decades. it has changed quite a bit. most of our elected officials to are forced by this system spend five hours a day on the telephone raising money or going to cocktail parties and events to raise money from special interests. routine that both sides understand vomit the oscars and the givers. askers andnd, the

the givers. quo's are made openly visible. that has grown as well. over time, those who are drawn culturecipate in such a have changed. wishmen and women who i were in politics are not involved anymore. why would they be? and some i certainly wish were not in politics are speaking for long stretches of time. [laughter] the point is, not to make it an , but them discourse focus on the changes in the system that have led to these problems and the influence of money is number one on the list. david, you were generous and

kind in your comments about the founding fathers. back in those days, at the birth of our country,, spain was able to walk out his front door in philadelphia and find a dozen low crossed -- low cost print shops and he printed "common sense." he came from england as a penniless immigrant but he had the gift of clear thinking and clear expression. he published it and it became the harry potter of the late 18th century and it helped to inspire the american revolution. in those days when the marketplace of ideas was by technology that was easily accessible by individuals could use ideas as a way to .ounterbalance power and money as the decades rolled by and we

entered the 20th century, by mid century, by the 1960's anyways, television eclipsed the printing and today it is completely dominant although the internet will soon be powerful enough to bring another dominant medium but today, thomas payne could walk out his front door in philadelphia with his newly created video called common sense and walked down to the say, this station and is really important, i need to get this before the public's mind. when do i go on the area go -- when do i go on the air? you know the answer. unless he has several million dollars to pay the gate keeper, he does not have access to the 's mind over the medium

that now dominates our democracy. ho does have access? the same special interests that hold these fundraisers here in washington and elsewhere. message is to prevail. the politicians have to beg them for enough money to put their 30 end up payingon the piper ever more so. it has gotten to the point now where vibrant, intelligent discourse -- including spirited disagreements which is how we come to the right decision -- just does not take place anymore . facts do not appear to matter.

preconceived ideas are repeated over and over with greater force and more loudness as if that makes them true. now, once again, power and wealth is pushing ideas and political discourse back out of the system. the internet is beginning to change this. individual bloggers can change the discourse now. television the still dominant because the average american watches of five hours per day and the number goes up even in the age of the internet but we are at a tipping point and that is why this initiative here at reckonings comes at an ideal time. the potential for a shutdown that is going to unfold before really reminds

me, how could it not, of the shutdown that we went through when elaine was working with me on reinventing government. morning,a story this leaving out some important blog?s on -- what is your fixgov? thatg the last shutdown had occurred not that long after the oklahoma city bombing and the destruction of the building in a fantastic, horrible tragedy , president clinton was about to make his state of the union and i went to elaine and i said, i want you to talk with our reinventing government team and i want you to find me somebody -- this was after the -- inment had shut down

want you to find me a man or a woman that qualifies according to three criteria. number one, this person must have an inside the murder of building when the bomb went off -- murrah building. have been amust hero in the aftermath of the tragedy. three, this person must have been relocated to another temporary government building theh was itself shutdown by congressionally mandated shutdown. she went to work on it and she got help from one of our team, susan. they came up with this incredible guy named richard dean, a vietnam veteran in the building. god bless him he went back into that burning building and saved three people by himself and

brought out the body of a deceased coworker. he went to a temporary building and the congress forced a shutdown and he was told to go home. i told president clinton that it would be great for the state of the union. we could put richard right next .o the first lady his speechwriters, who were great by the way, this was a temporary lapse in judgment, said it was a terrible idea. have three runners who carried the olympic torch and we are going to have the olympics. this will be very inspiring. we want them next to the first lady. i said -- please. please. you don't understand. this needs to be done. , presidentall left clinton and i had a good way of

in the day of the speech comes and i'm sitting up there and somebody could write a book just about that hangs that happened just on that bdias. [laughter] like the time earlier when president clinton -- i'm vice president and i don't know how many standing ovations, round but he goes to look at the teleprompter. he turned around and looks at me and hand he says, al, they have the wrong speech up there. [laughter] and ied off the podium went to george stephanopoulos and i told him he had the wrong speech on. i couldvantage point, see when they were frantically scrolling trying to find the right file in the teleprompter and completely, unflappable he, was theporized and it

best eight minutes of the speech. finally, the text stabilized and he seamlessly got into the rest of it. anyway, that's another book. [laughter] he goes through the presentation of richard and a genuinely inspired story, as i've noted. to my left is the speaker of the house, newt gingrich. all of the horrific things richard dean had done triggered a standing ovation and we are standing there clapping and they look over at him and i say, newt, wait for it. [laughter] we sat back down and the saiddent said a sickly, -- basically, that was not the only time he was forced out of his office. and he said on behalf of richard dean and all of these other heroic man, let us

vow we will never shut down the government again. i leapt to my feet and i said -- i told you to wait for it. [laughter] [applause] in situations like this, the president of our country has, as he or she should have, an inherent advantage in speaking for the whole country. , when theongress minority cannot even get its act together to pass its own substitute urgent of what ought to happen, it just further illustrates the fact that the president speaking for the , istry, leading the country

going to win this confrontation but it's not a game. is just something that a political contest but they don't understand that. don't put our economy through this. about case, i'm excited the future of these efforts to make government work so well that when the average citizen here is a threat of the continued operation of the government they will think about the high-quality service they've just been delivered. they will think about the individuals who were working hard to redeem the promise of american self-governance and they will say this is our to makent and we need it work well. with the challenge is coming up the we have got to take lessons that elaine and her team will be exploring and presenting

here and make sure that they are spread far and wide. . will close where i began i truly believe the launching of this center is far more than an new centerur routine announced by a preeminent institution like reckonings. brookings. this one is going to make an even larger difference than normal. this one is really a part of what we need to do to make the united states of america what our founders intended and what our people deserve. we found out when we were doing the work of reinventing government that it does not facts get headlines -- in it seldom got headlines except for when i went on david letterman to break and -- trey, things like that, but it does

not capture attention in the way it should because it's hard work . it requires rolling up your sleeves and really getting things done. it is absolutely central and i could not be happier that gs hasgs -- brookin recognized the individual who can do this better than any other rant has allocated the resources and the organizational work to launch this center. i congratulate brookings i congratulaten your colleagues and i predict great things. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> thank you, mr. vice president. we have a great deal of questions from the audience but we have time for a couple so why don't i just jump right in. we have a great question from tony smith who asked a pretty big question. in light of our persistent inability to get anything done in washington, is it time to think of abandoning the separation of powers in order to produce more responsive governments? [laughter] i told you it was a big one. >> no. [laughter] but let me add just a bit to that. i'm surprised of the question. i'm not surprised by the level

of frustration leading to the question but the essential genius of our founders is as relevant today as it was when they wrote the constitution, arguably even more so. nature, ain human power seeking impulse and many thinkers over the centuries have expressed in different ways the thought that, in lord act and's corruptssolute power and power corrupts absolutely. it was an understanding that this is a key aspect of human nature and is not tethered to ideology or set of political viewpoints. is -- who is put in a position of exercising too much power is vulnerable to

wanting more power. contain thatto threat to freedom is to create by balancing different centers of polymer -- power against one another and create a space in between where be relativelyn invulnerable to the abuse of power by anyone center because it will trigger a countervailing force from one of the other centers. but that is to say, an insight that we have to protect. >> another one from stephanie. can make to you, what

all americans acknowledge the global l change and address this issue? the contrast that europeans seem to be much more aware of this issue. what's the difference? >> well, part of it is what i in thecribing earlier description of television, big money, politics. there has been an extremely well-funded campaign of modeledon and it was very consciously on the campaign undertaken by the tobacco .ompanies some decades ago called, a terrific book merchants of doubt documents this in great detail. they hired some of the same people who put out lies in return for money for the tobacco

companies to do the same thing for large carbon polluters. you remember the tobacco companies hired actors and dress them up as doctors and put them in front of cameras with a script that had them saying they were doctors and the public did not need to worry about lung cancer or any other diseases that they might have heard were linked to cigarettes because, as doctors, they could reassure them there was no such thing to worry about. of millions of people died during the 40 years between the surgeon general's warning of the first meaningful steps to rein in the deceptive marketing and the killing of people. they are doing exactly the same 97% of all climate scientists agree with the consensus. if, god forbid, you have chest pains that dr.'s and you were

able to consult 100 bleeding heart doctors in the world than my god, youaid, oh need to have this procedure, change your diet, and exercise and three said, i'm not sure yet . we should do so more tests. [laughter] what would you do? the answer is pretty simple. here in the u.s., the news media has been intimidated, frightened . not only frightened, but they are vulnerable to distorted news judgments because the line separating news and entertainment has long since and the ratings

have a big influence on the selection of stories that are put on the news. the deniers of the climate areis, quite a few of them paid by the large fossil fuel and, really, it's like a family with an alcoholic father who flies into a rage if anyone mentions alcohol. the rest of the family decides by neverhe peace mentioning the elephant in the room. many in the news media are exactly in that position. they get swarmed by these deniers online, and letters, picketing, if they even mention the word climate. gethey very timidly

frightened. some of them are changing now, thank goodness. while the news media is not , the large,ere corporate driven advertising agenda has kept putting out these messages. why is so-called clean coal one of the three principal sponsors of every news program and every talking head show? why is that? is that because they have an idea that the consumers watching television are going to say, i'm going to go down to the store and buy us some cold? ome coal? no. [laughter] to condition is thinking and prevent the consideration of a price on carbon. it's just that simple.

both president clinton and i have said there's an old saying that you see a turtle on top of . fence post you see this anomalous outcome it does not happen by itself. >> what is next for you? how might those of us nearing retirement become active in your good works? >> what a lovely question. [laughter] >> i thought i would end with a softball. i spend a lot of time trying -- >> i spend a lot of time trying to move us beyond the political tipping point beyond the reality of what's going on.

in the late 19th century, there was a cholera epidemic in london . a famous doctor there made a map and put a dog every place there was a case of cholera. he overlaid it on the sewer system of london. he found that one malfunctioning pump was the cause and louis pasteur found it. they collected -- they connected the dots and cholera is no longer the mass killer it was. to collect the dots the pollution we spew into the atmosphere is trapped in the heat making worse and contributing to the extreme weather event related to

climate. extreme temperature events more activetimes than they were 30 years ago. when will we awaken to the point and do something about it? that is how i spend most of my time. the climate reality project will 24 hoursthird annual of reality and we had 18 million viewers last year and we are launching a number of new websites. saido work, as david earlier, in private equity. sustainable capitalism. although i did not have the occasion to talk about that, i know your corporate purpose initiative is really in the same and we would love to work

with you on that. anyone who wants to help on the climate issue, go to climatereality.org and we would love to have your help. elaine, thank you again for inviting me here today. >> if evne