something in the early '70s to make nelson rockefeller happy. rockefeller and the republicans controlled both houses of the legislature. they were promised a good district. they got down on their hands and knees with magic markers and a map to figure out the district today. your perfect district in three minutes. how many senior citizens you have. how many women, how many male -- how many people over 55, how many people under 53, whatever you want, you get it. that's how the districts are drawn. you live in a safe district. you don't worry about the primary election. the general rule is 15, 20% of the people come out of the primary. if 10% of your party, the base is extreme, they're going to come out. you almost lose before you start if you break with the party at all. that's what people are concerned about. they have to spend $2 million to win a primary when they can go along with the flow and be safely re-elected.

it's important for independent-minded people. people who love the country and people who want to see beyond a narrow base to try to take the politics back and try to elect people who want to get the job done. that's why you see so many senators and governors against the shutdown, because they have to run in a state with so many different political persuasions, ethnic groups, and they can't appeal to a narrow base. so even some of the most conservative governors saying it's a mistake to shut down the government. i'm saying it's time for leadership. i've gone public -- it's a lot easier. i can tell you -- i can't -- people come up to me including those publicly supporting the government being closed, keep it quiet. this is crazy. i said why don't you say something. oh, i can't do that, you know? mentioned the vote of 12 voted against the final bill which was a mistake. but even before that, they voted

on what's called the rule. that's brought up for a vote. that's where you can make a difference. that was on a monday night, last monday night. on saturday night, 20, 25 people said we're not voting for that rule. we can't allow this to happen. we can't let the government shut down. we had 20 or 25 shut down. we needed 19. we got two. it came time to pull the trigger, it was people had all sorts of reasons why they shouldn't do it. that's what's different. i admire in a perverse way the ted cruz faction in our conference because they don't care what people think of them. they tell john boehner, we're going bring the house down. you do what you want or we're going to vote against the rule, a technical term, that brings the house down. and they give into them. unless we start fighting fire with fire, we're going be on the losing end of these issues. the other issues out there which may or may not appeal to anyone in the audience. but for instance, homeland security. bob said this is an issue that's virtually ignored.

national cap pains in the last election that was hardly mentioned at all, other than president obama saying al qaeda was decimated and defeated. it was and it isn't. boston marathon bombing. that should never happen. same number of reasons why it shouldn't happen. political correctness prevented the investigation going forward beforehand that could have prevented us from happening. and being on the -- the only member of congress who's on the intelligence committee and the homeland security committee. so i see the threats from inside out and outside in. i can tell you at any given time the threats are against us. libya and in somalia, those are important. it raises issues, though, in libya we capture the person captured from the bombing. not taking any action against those carrying out the attacks in benghazi. we know where they are in libya.

brought back to the united states. interrogated for a long time on a ship that would be reported back to the united states for the southern district of new york. i strongly believe those people should be tried in guantanamo. i don't believe they're entitled to american due process. these are not ordinary criminals and should not be tried in the ordinary criminal system. and i remember being with president bush, my district, we lost 150 people. maybe some people moved out. some people had relative there is. 150 people on september 11. it's very real for those who live in new york. no one is immune from this. it's an issue that's too often overlooked and looked past it and the president is saying the war against al qaeda is over. al qaeda is decimated. al qaeda is more dangerous than

it was prior to september 11. al qaeda was hit, hit hard, bin laden was killed. this guy was picked up the other day. he was part of the al qaeda power structure. what al qaeda has done is adapted and morphed. they had any number of affiliates all over north africa and africa. they're working with al qaeda. i did hearings several years ago. the islamic radicalization here in the united states. i was attacked by virtually everyone. times, not one good word. the magnifying glass to make sure it's one good word. i'll end on this. if you can't get to the media, before and after the media, i was attacked.

smearing everyone or said nothing at all. two insults that are somehow contradictory. the main witness we had was a man from minneapolis was a man who raised his son. his son was 18 years old. he's going to be a medical student. he was getting in with a rough group, somali americans. they had come over -- large numbers were coming over as refugees. living in the minneapolis-st. paul area. and the young man was getting in trouble hanging around with a crowd. his father had to get involve in the local mosque. he had to get him involved in youth activities. kid was quiet. everything was going well. election night 2008, his nephew disappeared, he was gone. so he goes to the mosque, goes to the imam and says i can't find my nephew. he said, oh, he's -- we have no idea where he is. no clue where he is. you know, a few weeks go by, he

goes back to the mosque. he asks them again. he said, well, actually we found out he was involved in dealing drugs and he went off with a drug gang. i had a hard time believing. then he finds out his son was actually taken, facilitated over to somalia. he was being trained in el shebob. 40 young men in the minneapolis-st. paul area being trained. this is known the people in the mosque without telling the families. he gets a call from his nephew in early 2009 saying i'm over here at el shebob, i made a terrible mistake. i want to come home. he was murdered the next day. then you have the fbi coming in. they called all of the families together and warned them that they would be ostracized if they cooperated with the fbi and the police. these are the hearings that i said was smearing innocent people and proved nothing.

elshebob was attacked in kenya. el shebob was attacked in somalia the other day. just because the issue was not up front or the main stream media or the liberal media thinks it's not important, it is important. terrorism is a threat. we have to put aside political correctness. if i see someone like rand paul spend 13 hours speaking on the senate because he's worried that the cia is going to kill a guy drinking starbucks here. how out of whack have we gotten? instead of being worried about al qaeda or the boston bombing, instead of making sure we're protected, we have a candidate waste 13 hours of people's time. and people like ted cruz thinking our government is more interested in killing people in starbucks with drones. something has gone off of the rails in our country. it's important to stand up, speak out against the wings of the party. now the republicans are speaking

out the wings in our party, it's driving us in the wrong direction, focusing the debate on extraneous issues. not just issues, but issues that divert us. if we're worried about drones that attack us here in this country instead of el-shebob and al qaeda, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, all of them trying to kill us, then putting ourselves in the line of fire and we're failing in the main obligation which is to protect the american people. we need a return to stability and strong leadership and a time to put aside these factions and wings and put them in their place, literally. and have real people have adults take over and show real leadership. be proud to be americans. and not thinking that the government is the enemy, yes. as americans, the government is not the enemy. the government is the people. we have to realize that and we have to show that we're -- we'll do whatever we have to do to protect ourselves, our country,

and carry on an intelligent debate, respect our institution to not casually shut down the government. with that, i've gone on for a while. thank you for your hospitality. i'm in the firing lines. thank you very much. i'll try to answer any questions you have. [ applause ] >> one way to talk about the shutdown, the democrats are talking about the clean cr solution. if they bring it to the floor of the house, not only the democrats will go through it, you need to have republican support. but they think -- democrats

think there will be many members of the republican party that will vote for a clean c.r. bill than would be the end of it. do you agree there would be enough votes on the republican side to support a clean cr bill? >> there would have been enough votes. but, again, to bring it to the floor, the republicans have to vote to bring it to the floor. that's what the ted cruz people said they would bring the party down over if they do that. i think we have to do it anyway. i recommend just bring it up. let me acknowledge -- i said it before -- larry zabar who put up with my daughter in the last month in arranging this whole trip today. larry, all i can say is better you than me. you should have had her go somewhere else. >> i was excited that the congressman was coming to speak. all he's been talking about is this aaron -- i want you to

know, she's your biggest asset. questions for the congressman? >> bob dans, aarp here in new hampshire. thank you for being with us. you're a member of the intelligence and security. this question is concerning a great deal that our s.e.a.l.s. have done. but reading between the lines, they cut their mission off early. was there a possibility of a leak of information on this? >> i can't say this. we're going back to washington later today. if the reports are accurate, they were met with heavy fire in somalia. you have to wonder whether or not they heard something in

advance. how they knew what they knew? in libya, it worked flawlessly. the capture in somalia. they were hit with very heavy gun fire, again, according to the reports, and they did pull back -- it was at least one el shebab person killed. and navy s.e.a.l.s. and special forces operate under different restrictions too. they basically are not supposed to carry out an enduring battle if civilians could be killed. so if they can't get it done quickly without collateral damage, without civilians being killed, they are basically at withdraws. that's a key question as to how they knew, how there was that much heavy armaments at that location. unless they're there all the time. if that's the case, our intelligence should have told us that. we don't go in unless we have a good feel for what's going on on the ground. the main priority of the committee in the next week. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome.

>> thank you. thamgs for coming today. >> you're welcome. >> do you have any insights or predictions of what's going happen with immigration reform in the house? >> i think it will be difficult to get anything done this year. we're right now -- i think the best compromise we're talking about even on the debt ceiling and on the budget is like a six-week cooling off period. well that gets us to november and december. and it's hard to see how with everything else going on, you can bring up an immigration bill in the -- in the house for many of the same reasons on a continuing resolution. we would -- john boehner would not bring anything up unless they had the majority of house republicans supporting him. right now, you would not support the immigration bill that's on the table. i've been taking a tough line on immigration. i helped to pass the only -- i think in the last 30 years passed the house, the comprehensive immigration go back to 2005, it didn't go

anywhere in the senate. i think we do have to do something about the people who are here. and if we can really have strict security and enforce the security, that's to me how we should go forward. right now, i don't see any -- i don't see anything happening. same with cybersecurity. i don't see much happening on that between now and the end of the year and next year is the election year. this is part of the grid lock we're talking about. people complain about grid lock, you know, congress does reflect the american people. and the american people are sharply divided. people are so get the job done, reach out. your own party says you're selling out. that's true on both sides. they don't want you to reach out. not making that as an ex-cools. if the american people should get more engaged and should realize by the consequences of basically holding it against a member of congress if they do try to compromise and find common ground, even though it's a divided government. but as far as answering your

questions, i don't see it moving in the house here. you may see some piece mill parts of immigration legislation move, but nothing at all comprehensive. >> thank you, you're talking about the debt ceiling. if it's not raised, it would have disastrous global impact. so the chamber has sent a letter to congress and business leaders are putting the pressure on. is there a pressure to unblock the people holding down -- shutting down the government? >> i think what the republicans maybe be thinking is the longer this goes on with the continuing resolution and the government being shut down and the closer we get to november 17, the more likely they'll be to realize we have to do something. and so maybe it gets worse before it gets better? and that's going to make it easier to negotiate something for october 17.

in other words, it could get so bad on the government shutdown it will wake people up as how bad it would be if we don't address the debt ceiling. maybe we get an extension for six to eight weeks if we don't resolve the whole thing. this is all unchartered territory. no one had any plan. if you watch carefully what happened in the last week, every day we have a new location to go to or a new justification of what we're doing and a new set of goals as to what we want. so -- but again, you mentioned the chamber. this is very, very strong. the shutdown against the debt ceiling. that would have, i think, terrible consequences. i know people say we can pay the interest and do this. once you start playing games with that and our credit rating, it's downgraded again or even questions about it. the impact that's going to have on the economy. we're trying to save dollars here and there. the money we can lose through this could be catastrophic apart from all of the human elements

involved. >> any questions for the congressman? >> i'm julia from mclain, graf, and middleton. i wonder if you can tell us what is the irs into target and concern for groups? >> in the house is being read by congressman isa. he's no intention of letting up. that's going go forward. and that's basically -- the administration is not cooperating on that. to me, clearly there was targeting of tea party and conservative organizations by the irs. and i think as people continue to take the tenth amendment, as investigations continue to go forward, it will remain an issue. i can assure you that the

congressman and his committee -- no one is getting up on this. they're going to keep going. >> other questions? >> thank you for coming today. i do have two quick questions. my friend says are you saying that cruz is essentially responsible for the government shutdown? and my second is how likely is the camp, in your opinion, that we might reach the debt ceiling? >> ted cruz is ultimately responsible but it's the house republicans that followed them. he was a false prophet. he had no plan. the government shutdown in 1995 and 1996. you can argue whether or not that was the right thing do. then you had two alternative plans. you had a republican budget, the clinton budget, gingrich and clinton, both fell strongly. it was an intelligent debate. the only issue is does that bring the government down. but i don't think anybody doubted there's serious issues and there's an end plan.

there was an end strategy on both sides. for the most part, bill clinton ended up winning that. no one said that serious issues weren't being raised. it was by medicare, how many years to reach a balanced budget. very detailed plan on both sides. this time around, not sure whether this happened before. defunding a piece of legislation that again has been improved all the way, that's confirmed by people in the next election and expecting the democratic senator and the democratic president who enacted it to go along with it. this never happened before. and yet we were willing to put the entire government at risk on this plan based on ted cruz convincing people and in some cases threatened people with primaries if they didn't vote to shut the government down. he would get it in the senate and take care of it. he got to the senate and like i said spoke for 23 hours.

and read dr. seuss. got himself very good mailing list. and then came back to the house and told us to keep fighting. that was it. you ask him what his strategy is, what the plan is, he doesn't have one either. but the ones he's affiliated with are raising money for republicans. don't hold the hostage while you're doing it. the debt ceiling? again, i think that it's almost unimaginable that we wouldn't address the debt ceiling issue. but it was almost unimaginable that we let the government shutdown every leader of the party said it's the wrong thing to do. it still happened. so i hope that we can -- some sanity will prevail by the 17th. another. >> tv 13 nashua, are you pulling for the rays or the sox?

>> i rooted for the red sox over the years because i don't like the yankees. i was a brooklyn dodger and met fan. so [ applause ] so it's -- i love the red sox. i put it this way. the enemy of my enemy is my friend. so that's why i root for the gones red sox. also my -- my grandson up here in fenway park. he walks around with the big puppy shirt on, red sox shirt. he was happy. he's a big red sox fan. and a mets fan too. i don't want to sell new york out. i did speak to -- i did -- the worst reception i ever got when i was speaking two years ago was the gloefr club in boston, a bunch of irish guys, a bunch of irish guy, no women in the big hotel on a saturday night. and it was the week before the super bowl. and so i just basically stood up

and weer with hoping about how the giants were going to beat the patriots. so much hatred coming from a crowd of people. the booing and the shouting and i think they were calling the police for an extra detail. you have to get ahold of commissioner davis to get out of there alive. i learned my lesson, rooting for the red sox, okay? is that it? thank you all. [ applause ] >> we won't ask the high ball questions on the congressman. one, is he going to run for a higher office. and, two, if he doesn't run for a higher office, and say someone like senator ted cruz is the republican nominee, and you have hillary rodham clinton as the democratic nominee, who would he support? we won't ask those kinds of questions. if you want to take them, you can. >> i want to say on the second

one, i would show ted cruz the same loyalty he's shown to other republicans. and would i run for president? see how the red sox do. >> i want to give you a mug. i want to thank the congressman for stopping by to the politics and we wish him much success in congress. we hope that many of his fellow colleagues will listen to his advice and counsel. the one thing i took away from what the congressman talked about was he doesn't think there's going be any meaningful legislation passed between now and the end of the year. next year is the election year. that is a very, very dismal outlook. because we all want to see a piece of legislation passed so we can have the economy grow and get people back to work. when he said that, i hope that he'll be able to have some influence with his colleagues

and convince them that there's a role for government and it's a meaningful role and we hope he has much success. we thank him for his public service. we wish him luck in the future plans. thanks frp coming by, congressman. applause plautz -- [ applause ] >> i hope to see a lot more of new hampshire. thank you very much.

>> thank you so much. >> i wanted to again extend that invitation at boston college. we spoke several months ago. if you're in the boston area, very happy to have -- our students or -- >> actually the office is

located -- yeah. >> this point -- yeah, i don't know if they have an office there. >> but -- i don't know if it's kept there as a -- as a momento. >> i'm new but -- great. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for coming today. >> constituents and my mother is from regal park. so i wanted to thank you and -- >> that's what we're doing. >> let me see if i can grab one from someone. >> awesome. >> thank you so much. >> here we go. >> a friend of yours. >> great. >> thank you for coming. take care. >> you're welcome. >> local company here in new hampshire. one of the things we do is supply lumber to some of the

boardwalks like long beach kindy island. >> seen long beach? >> we're making progress. >> looked like world war iii going down there. >> it's miles of devastation. one of the things that we keep hearing from some of the guys down there, some of the funds have not been released as much as they would like -- not just specifically long beach, but like coney island and -- >> actually -- the president avoided shawn donovan to be the czar of the recovery. i find him very responsible. totally bipartisan. but -- i'll call him directly. he's secretary of -- of hud. so let me -- did you call my office? all right. he spoke to me and i'll try to -- he's not partisan.

extremely bipartisan. >> something we hear from the guys -- >> a lot of times things get snuck the cracks. break it loose. >> great. thank you for coming. >> gone. gone. >> brazilian hard wood -- >> the cyclones game. >> the boardwalk there. hit so bad though. down there with jeanette napolitano. and walking along and walking along before we realized she wasn't walking on the beach, she was in the street in the other side of the board walk. they were homes on the beach. that's how bad it was. it was terrible. >> great, thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> good to see you. >> have a good day. >> i have a quick question first of all, i'm from new york originally. i'm originally brooklyn and long island. so my sister lives down in long beach. you talked to president obama about taking a more active role in not opening up the -- i was wondering, what would you have him do given the fact that cruz and the rest wanted to open up all of the things piece mill until something is -- >> no, i'm saying -- i'm not -- i i want him to negotiate. come in and lock the doors. somehow, you know, you have to get it done, that's all.

lyndon johnson, you know, find what's out there. find what republicans need. find how to hurt them. obama care. i don't see how they can in this stage. and he won't negotiate over that. that's being the hard line on that than the repibbs were. >> try it, if you can't do it, you can't. sit back and stalemate, that's all. the american people, no matter which they are, be responsible for president. but -- wouldn't need it if i were you. >> find a way to get people in the room. here's what i can give you, give them. that's advice you can give them directly. >> but i really admire that

standard very much. and i feel that maybe he needs to hear that kind of advice from you. and but i -- i really -- i admire your honesty and your directness and i agree with you on the issue of somalia and you have to be more -- you can't let political correctness to -- >> and -- >> i would love to see you communicate that to the president.

senate majority leader on monday again called for the house speaker john boehner to let the house to vote on a clean continuing resolution and end the government shutdown. mitch mcconnell responded the approach to taking and the target bills is showing progress. this is a little more than a half hour. >> mr. president, yesterday speaker of the house and representative john boehner on national tv claimed there are enough votes to pass the only bill to end the dangerous government shutdown. i believe he's mistaken. 200 members of the house of representatives were democrats said they would vote for the bill to reopen the government. and 22 republicans in the house said publicly that they would vote for the bill. and we've heard there's as many

as 100 who want to vote for it. now no matter how you do the math, it adds up to the majority of members of the house of representatives. now, if there were only a mechanism for polling all members of the house of representatives to find out whether they support the senate pass bill. one sure fire way to find out if the bill would pass would be to have a vote on it. that's the vote on the legislation that's been passed here in the senate. so there's a way. have a vote. that would settle the question for a long, long time, wouldn't it? i say to the speaker, allow a vote on the resolution that would end the shutdown, the legislation that you, john boehner, propose in the first place. the entire federal government could reopen for business by tomorrow morning. so i asked the speaker, why are

you afraid? are you afraid this measure will pass the government will reopen and americans will realize you took the country hostage for no apparent reason? why is the speaker opposed to these reasonable solutions? mr. president, across the nation, people are suffering. not only federal employees, because of his response -- irresponsible -- the irresponsible tea party driven action, but it's not, i say, only federal employees. u.s. air had the delivery last friday of $180 million aircraft. they could take delivery. why? because there weren't inspectors to do that for those aircraft. we know that lock heed has announced today that they're

laying off 3,000 people and more to come. and the defense industry is happening all through government. easy way out of it. same escape hatch has been going on long in the country. it's called a vote. for seven days the speaker refused to use the escape hatch. it's so important to buy a home that you can't buy an fha home today. and even though it's not fha, you can't get them done because to confirm the amount of money that somebody puts on their application, you have to irs person to check it. they're not available. the senate passed pill to reopen the government while work out the budget differences wasn't my idea, it was his idea. the speaker of the house of

representatives said you do this cr at this number and i will get it done. so we negotiate for a while. i agreed to his number, very hard to do for the democratic caucus. but it was his idea not my idea. all of the talk about not negotiating, that's what that was all about. he admits it's his intention all along. to pass a clean resolution. but then he ran into the tea party. minority with the majority that runs the majority over in the house of representatives. the bill before the house represents a compromise by us, compromise that was difficult, i repeat, to get my caucus to accept. now that we compromised, the speaker won't take yes for an answer. he moved the goal again, though.

last week, he wanted to go to conference to work out some differences. as we heard on tv yesterday, he's not only concerned about obama care, he's concerned about budget deficit. as we all are. but he keeps changing. he said he wanted to talk about that. fine, we're happy to data. he wants to talk about obama care or anything else, we'll do that. i'll naught in writing, had it hand delivered to him. we said we'd talk about agriculture, health care, domestic discretion spending, anything he wants to talk about. we asked to go conference about the budget for six months.

on national tv, the speaker said the chairman have been working to for a long time. as i indicated here, he said that in the meeting in the white house in the last few days. i said in front of everybody there, it's simply not factual. senator murray issued a statement yesterday after she heard him say this on national tv saying it's not true. they have a couple of meetings but not discussed anything substantive. i guess the speakers -- they talked about nothing. but her budget or his budget. so we're saying reopen the government. we have said we'll go to your budget, we said we don't like it. we said we'll go to conference, with anything you want. you can't take yes for an answer, mr. president. simply reopen the government.

we're not afraid to negotiate. once again, the football is moved like lucy and the peanut's cartoon. they entered the think progress publication. republicans have a strange definition of compromise. this is how he explained it. republicans asked, can i burn down your house? we say, no. republicans asked, how about burning down the second floor? we say no. republicans ask, how about just the garage? we say no. republicans say, let's talk about what i can burn down. we say, no. and they say we're not compromising. republicans said we must negotiate while it's closed. "the new york times" editorial reported on saturday, we know this.

800,000 furloughed, the economy is shut down. hardly time for talking. and then, mr. president, they come up with all of this. we'll do an nih bill, we'll open nih. the problem is, mr. president, it's really hard to pick and choose between that, the parks service, especially when you consider cut spending this year, this year. nih for $1.6 billion. the second year, $2 billion. this is all a charade. so here's what they wrote after a brief introduction. and i quote. this is the moment for immediate action to reopen the government authorities. not the beginning of the conversation. republicans confirmed that when they lacked the shutdown. republicans have refused to negotiate over the senate's budget.

they refused to negotiate over the president's budget. and they refused to negotiate to make the health law more efficient. the two sides will have to reach a reckoning on long term economic issues but the time to do so is not while dangling over an quest. democrats agree. we're willing to negotiate. we won't negotiate with a gun to our heads. we see our republican colleagues in this irresponsible government shutdown. stop the reckless threats of the default of the nation's only up gagss. then democrats will negotiate over anything that the republican colleagues want to negotiate.

>> mr. president? >> senator? >> we think obama care has proven without a shadow of a doubt how reasonable a delay is. if anybody had doubts about whether or not to delay this thing, the administration admitted the website wasn't working and took it off line for repairs. delay and basic fairness are what republicans are asking for at this point. not exactly the sun and the moon. republicans are saying we can't agree on a bill -- if we can't agree on a bill to fund the entire government, let's at least pass the most urgent pieces of it.

let's pass the parts we can all agree on. and that's exactly what the house has begun to do. over the past several days, the two parties in the house have responsibly come together and passed no fewer than eight bills to fund things like the coast guard, the guard and reserve, and programs for veterans. in other words, the house has quietly shown that the two parties aren't completely at odds in this debate. that there is, in fact, some common ground here. slowly but surely, the house has approved funding for folks that shouldn't get caught in the middle of a political impass like this. and they've done it on a bipartisan basis. over the weekend, the house passed a bill that said a government shutdown doesn't affect the free exercise of religion on a military basis. 184 democrats agreed. another bill said government workers shouldn't have to wonder how they're going to pay the bills during a shutdown.

189 democrats agreed with that. the bill to fund fema drew 23 democrats. the one to fund nih drew 25, national parks, 23. so let's be clear here, the problem isn't the house. there's actually a fair amount of agreement among republicans and democrats over there that lawmakers have a duty and a responsibility that rises above the politics of the moment to fund things like veterans, cancer trials, the national guard, and reservists in every state. the problem is the senate. the democrats don't like it but the american people have given us divided government, two elections in a row now. gave us a republican house and a democratic senate. that means negotiation isn't a luxury. it's a necessity. until senate democrats accept in reality, these crises will only be harder to resolve.

i would suggest they should think about how they play a constructive role in the crisis and in the challenges that lie ahead. there's a time for politics, there's a time for sitting down like adults and working things out. republicans are ready and willing to negotiate. we invite senate democrats to join us. mr. president, i yield the floor. >> the senate will be in morning business until 5:00 p.m. where senators are permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the senator from illinois. >> let me start off with acknowledging an article that appeared in today's "new york times," a tribute to the chaplain, dr. barry black who opened the session. it is entitled, give us this day our daily senate scolding.

dr. black has offered during the course of the last week in the government shutdown as they say in the article, the morning invocation has turned into a daily conscious check for the 100 men and women of the united states senate. he said at one point in the course of one of his prayers, dr. black said remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism. forgive them the blunders they have committed. i can't match his baritone voice and delivery when it comes to the prayers. but i asked unanimous consent to enter the article into the congressional record as a tribute to our senate chaplain who's been given awesome responsibility to prove the power of prayer in the midst of a government shutdown. >> without objection. >> mr. president, something interesting -- i picked up the newspaper for the newspaper from illinois this morning. two stories just jumped right off of the page. one was in the blooming ton

panograph. a great story i am to be from the midwest and represent people who by their nature are pretty darned extraordinary. it's a story that comes out of lexington, illinois, yesterday. 60 area farmers, truckers, families, gathered north of lexington on a sunday morning to go to work. to pay back a friend who had helped them out at one time or another in the 71-year lifetime. 16 combines harvested 300 acres of corn as they brought in thomas last harvest. thomas died of a heart attack on july 22nd. they decided to end family farm operations. he wrote how it broke the family's heart to give up the farm. these neighbors pitched in. they wanted to harvest david thomas' land and make sure that the last crop was brought in for his family. it's the kind of compassion and caring and family and community

which we see in many states. but i see over and over again in my home state of illinois. er it's not unique, it happens often. it's worthy of note. a special comment on the people of the great nation and their caring for the neighbors. the area farmers in shenoa not too far are planning a simple operation for another neighbor this morning. dave passed away last week. time and again, the farm families put aside their own physical comfort, schedules, and lives to help with one another. it's a comment on the the great nation that we call home and the area that i'm so proud to represent. the second article came out of kansas, wichita, kansas. he's a wheat farmer.

i'm not as familiar with wheat as i am with soybeans. he's talking about the problems he's running into. the problems are created by us. he doesn't have access to vital agriculture reports. they're casualties of the federal government shutdown. we stopped publishing the information. and farmers like tim peterson and others are forced to make important family decisions, some important financial decisions without the necessary information. the reports can alert them to short falls in overseas markets, a wide swing. they meet demands to hang on to the harvest a little longer to get the better price. here are the farmers across the midwest. they've worked hard to reach this point in the harvest where they can make enough money to live, to play another year. to sustain their families and communities around them. they've got a problem. the problem -- the politicians in washington who want to shut down the government.

farmers who rallied to show they would stand by through thick and thin and help them out, at least the family out through this adversity. then the article and story of kansas where the congressman and senator sent to washington to do their job and to provide the basic information for these farmers that failed. and in failing, make it much more difficult for these farmers. two articles in this morning's papers from the central part of the united states of america, which bring home to me the graphic human side of this shutdown. something else brought it home. when harry reid announced we weren't going to have votes on saturday or sunday, i took the opportunity to get out of town. i raced off to be with my grand kids. i've got two twin grandchildren, 22 months old. i love them to pieces. i thought getting away with them

is what i need to get out of this town and get my mind sfragt aft -- straight after a tough political week. we went to the park and reading "polar bear polar bear, what do you hear," a lot of things fun for a grandfather. they're 2 months old. there were a couple of moments where one would lose it for a while and start crying and screaming uncontrollably, saying the word no over and over again. unable to express themselves because they don't have the vocabulary and tell us what's on their mind. in those moments, i was back in washington again. the terrible 2 temper tantrums sounded like congress. people shouting no and screaming uncontrollably and unable to express why they're doing it. that's where we find ourselves today.

the morning talk shows, yesterday, sunday, a number of leaders came to speak. everybody was focused on speaker boehner, he's the captain of the ship when it comes to the government shutdown. it was interesting to me what guided the government shutdown last week, obama care, the health care reform bill, they're not talking about it so much anymore. it's been launched in 9 million people across america visited the website because they're interested in finding health insurance for the first time in their lives or health insurance they can afford. 9 million. because so many have come to this website, the republican leader is right. we've had troubles getting them moving forward. it will take a few days to adjust to this volume of people coming onboard, to find out whether the insurance exchange can help them, their family, their business. the good news is from senator mcconnell from kentucky, my colleague, his state has been a real success story. 8,000 people have already signed up in kentucky for health

insuranc insurance. on the insurance exchange of obama care. i hope senator rand paul takes pride in the fact that 8,000 kentuckians, at least 8,000 have health insurance they can afford and trust, some of them for the fist time in their lives. i listen to this and wonder how the senators from kentucky and some other states say we want to repeal this. we want to get rid of this. what are they going to tell the 8,000 people, those families, who finally have health insurance for the first time, big mistake, sorry. go back to the marketplace where you have no health insurance protection. that's hardly what people want to hear in illinois, kentucky, maine, or any other state. what we're trying to to is open an opportunity for 40 to 50 million americans to have an opportunity to thai can afford for the first time in their lives. we heard repeal it, defund it,

delay it, do anything you can to spot it, stop it. you know why they want to stop it? they understand that once people's appetites are whetted for health care insurance they can afford, insurance where they can protect their families, there's no turning back. we're here in a point in history much like in social security and medicare where we offer to families across america something we couldn't do by themselves and something they would value very, very much as part of the families and their future. that's what is driving this fear on the other side of the aisle. that's what's driving the government shutdown. mr. president, what's worse, october 17, the next deadline, it's not that far away. in another nine or tendai, we're going to face a debt ceiling expiration. the debt ceiling is basically america's mortgage. we have to extend the mortgage. we borrowed money to manage our government, to fight wars, to pay our military, to do the most

basic things. and when we borrow that money, we have the authorization from the government, that's the debt ceiling. many will not vote the payment bill. that's like getting the big deal from the restaurant and the waiter brings the check saying i ain't paying. how long will that last? that's what many are suggesting when they say they're not going to extend the debt ceiling. they've eaten the meal, they just don't want to pay the bill. it's the first time in history we would default on our national debt. the first time we would violate the full faith and credit of the united states of america. and it has its consequences. the last time the tea party did this, america's credit rating suffered. what happens when our credit rating suffers? the interest rates we pay go up, taxpayers are paying more to china and places that loan us money than they're paying to educate children or build roads or do medical research. here we go again.

>> coco we didn't do this together. -- i hope that we can do this together.