we expect the house to gavel in this evening, we'll have that c-span. you on we also expect to hear from harry reid and other democratic leaders from the senate right after this vote. let's hear from randolph in i am a lifetime republican. i have been a lifetime republican until recently. party and in the tea the republican party. it is like they are separating the party. i am the guy who is kind of ashamed to be a republican

because the republican party used to stand for the people. ask you to call into the line that best reflects your views. ohio, james, a democratic caller. -- our i am calling representatives we vote in, it is a shame that if this were to go over the cliff, our veterans will not get paid. they get paid in congress. this is just not right. right thatst not this should go over the cliff and are veterans of not get paid. host: this is the 16th day of the government shutdown, the measure introduced by majority leader harry reid, among other

things, what extended open the federal government through january 15th. tim on our line. tim.r: this is i just wanted to make a simple statement regarding all the branches of government. i may not know exactly how they work, but last i checked, we all pay taxes in america and how can the president and our government have such a low approval rating when the government is for the people, by the people. so, i just wanted to make that simple statement. thank you. from colorado, a republican caller. very pleased with a representative in western colorado for the standard that c took not voting for a clean r but holding to the requirement

that there be a modification in the obama care plan. shutdown of parts of government rests squarely on the shoulders of the president and the democratic party who refuse issues.iate over petty it is unfortunate that the media has chosen to level the blame for shutdown on the republicans when, in fact, the day is going to come, i am afraid, when we are going to really regret that program hase granted the modern state with the enforcement authority. the irs, the death panels, and

the destruction of our free enterprise health services in this nation. host: who is your representative? caller: scott pickton. host: appreciate your call this evening. more of your calls coming up. they list the 16 who voted to and the debate. this is a final passage, but the senators who voted against literature are, john cornyn, senatorcrapo's cruise, michael lee, rand paul, rubio, shelby, to me, and senator better. are democrats line. caller: i will first say thank you to our wonderful president and harry reid. i would like to thank those on

the house side who have done an excellent job standing their ground. i disagree with the last caller on modifying obamacare and shutting down the government. run forsee why people government to shut government down. all these teddy cruises, the rubio's, the people who voted against this bill, i do not understand why they are serving in government if they are against the government. i think we need to look at the laws that are in place that allow our government to be hijacked by a few who are not looking at the bigger picture. i just think we need to step back and take a look at the gerrymandering. the people don't trust us and we did it to ourselves. thank you. this is final passage on the senate floor. she talked a bit about the health care law. art of it when asked for income verification for those who are

getting health care subsidies. there is also another piece that would require the health and human services inspector general to report back to congress on a number of issues of the affordable care act of the health care law. this is robert. just to let you know, once this wraps up, we are expecting the house to gavel when at some point. we do not have a time. we will have it live for you on c-span when it starts. hello to robert. caller: good evening. i do not vote democratic or republican. people who vote straight ticket and stick by it. i was going listen to the people and vote for who i think is going to service test. in aody gets elected

certain district, they are supposed to represent everyone in that district. not just those people from that individual party. really strange the way they are going about things. this should be able to represent everybody. they should get things cleared up. host: how long have you been an independent? since i started voting when i was 18 years old. i have been voting independent. host: can you tell us how old you are now? caller: 55. i have been listening to all of this stuff and i have talked to a lot of people about the health care program and most of them find out that the program they are in no longer qualifies under the obama plan. they have to go with a new program. their rates are going up. their coverage is less and they

are getting fed up with it. appreciate you calling. from maryland on our republican line. i am an immigrant. i have lived here for over 40 years. my citizenship a few years ago and participated in the election. i voted for obama the first time because i registered as a democrat and i'm a republican. i became one after mr. obama became president because i realized then that he was taking us down the path to socialism which is where i came from. said thata lady who terrible --it was

have any, we do not representation in oregon. almost all except for one of our representatives and senators are .emocrats our state is run by democrats. therefore, we have no representation whatsoever. nothing we say matters. basically, we are living in a dictatorship. we have no jobs because we are overrun by environmentalists. people will say because our .tate has a union it has nothing to do with unions

. we have very small organization. the environmentalists are so out ofnt on keeping us lumber, a to harvest are trying to keep us from going are the forest because they keeping motorcycles and whites -- bikes. host: we appreciate you joining the conversation. other people want to get through. as you see, it just passed in the senate measure to open the federal government and extend the debt ceiling. here on c-span we are aiming to bring you live comments from harry reid and other democrats. we are anticipating taking your calls that just passed in the senate. we understand, that will

come to the house floor and be taken up under unanimous consent , meaning you just have to run it through the rules committee. what we are hearing will be an hour of debate. in madisonville, kentucky on our republican line. first of all, i want to say thank you to any veterans who may be listening. i'm going to put you on hold there and take you live. as reported is passed and, as amended. and under the previous order, the title amendment is agreed to. the president pro tempore: without objection, the motion is agreed to. under the previous order

host: you can see the measure passing. we take you live. beforeill be some time we see what we have done but the shutdown has hurt our economy to a significant degree. but we were able to work it out. we have been able to come together for a lot of different reasons. appreciate the work of a number of senators, but i think one of the most important things we have been able to do is get senator mcconnell and i together . . am very grateful alexander reached out to senator schumer and being a peacemaker years, -- he is, suggested they start doing what they could to engage senator mcconnell and i. as a result of that, i think we

were able to talk and hopefully .evelop a strong relationship senator mcconnell and i have worked for many years. the last few have surprisingly not been too good. so anyway, i appreciate it. i am grateful for that gang of senators. hope that in the future, be work that was done will able to get together to create some separation from all of these shrill voices we hear. this crisis is historic.

let's be honest. this is pain inflicted on our nation for no good reason. we cannot make the same mistake again. as we move into the next round of negotiations, i am depending working, always- thelable -- she is stereotype of what i believe a senator should be. i'm very grateful to her for being able to take the leadership and trying to work something out to make sure we do not have a one -- another one of -- manufactured crisis. she was called upon by the democratic caucus to be the chair of the committee and she worked so hard and we were so , speakert as you know

boehner, he was never able to take that step to a compost this. for theo express here --port of my three liters leaders. my caucus has been strong together. able to behave been a team, my team made the bigger team work. i am really grateful. no one will ever know the work that we do off the floor, behind-the-scenes. i'm not a one-man show. i depend on these three senators for virtually everything we are able to accomplish. there is a lot more to do. the president said yesterday and i said today, let's move on. what is the big issue out there? people complain about the deficit? how about immigration?

one dollars trillion. something is fair and reasonable. -- $1 dollar trillion trillion. something that is fair and reasonable. i hope they will come to the table with good faith and the desire to compromise. >> so many times throughout the history of united states it has taken united states senate to resolve national challenges and to resolve a national debate. it's happened again tonight on the floor of united states senate. more than 80 senators from both political parties stood up and ended this 15-day ordeal that has been suffered by the people of the united states of america, by federal workers and those that depend on their good servers. describe my feeling on the floor during the course of these votes.

let's pray that this is just the beginning and i think it is. we have seen it during the course of this year during the bill.hensive information it took the leadership of the senate to do it. we have to continue to show that leadership and we have to hope that the speaker of the house of representatives and other members as well will watch carefully as the american people react. watch carefully and their responsibility to work with us in a bipartisan fashion to solve their problems. one of the saddest parts of today was to pick up the paper and see republican house members say that they won this battle. honest to goodness, how can they say that? this is not a win when it comes

to the losses of federal employees and services across our country. we have to come up with real victories for the american people to help this economy move forward and create jobs. i want to thank harry reid and my colleagues. many of us take credit. the lines share of the credit goes to this man from searchlight, nevada. i cannot get over his determination and patience and energy throughout this. you will never know how much you put in to make this a success. i am happy for the senate tonight. i'm happy for the nation, but let us make sure that this is just the beginning. >> thank you. .oday is not a happy day it is a somber day. we finally achieved our goal, but frankly, we ended up where we started.

when we started, we said we would do three things. a fund of the government, pay our bills, and agree to negotiate. we started there, and that is where we ended up. that is exactly what the law does. no more, no less. the bottom line is that millions suffered. millions did not get paychecks. the economy was dragged down and confidence and faith in the and in thees credit united states itself around the world was shaken. so, this is not a happy day. it is a somber day. day,se at the end of the we never should have gone through what we went through. we started here, we ended here. second the point, there are three people who i think i would like to praise and i cannot do

it enough. the first, of course, is our leader, harry reid. he stood so farm from the beginning with his resolve that firmuld not doubt -- so from the beginning that we cannot bow to the tactics. he never buckled. he never flinched. he never doubted. he gave strength to the rest of us and the whole caucus was united behind him. second, i would like to praise .he president every time we dealt with him, from the beginning, realizing that the kind of tactics used by the other side and permitted to be used by the other side would be used again and again and again. finally, my hat goes off to senator mcconnell. is in a very difficult situation politically.

once he saw that speaker boehner in the house were tied in a total not, he knew he had the obligation to step up even if it might hurt him in his campaign. i respect that. i think everyone of my democratic colleagues respect that. if there is a silver line in this cloud, it is that the politics, the reckless politics has reached its peak. that is what we hope and that is what i believe. it was shown that brinksmanship doesn't work. that the other side will give in when a small faction says, i am going to hurt a whole lot of people unless you give in to me, the temptation of goodhearted, good minded people is to get in because innocent people are being hurt.

but unfortunately, if we gave in this time, we would be back doing the same thing next quarter and a quarter after that and the quarter after that and to the brinksmanship would get worse. a kind of politics where they put a gun to your head and say, unless you do what i want you to do, i'm going to hurt a lot of people. senate, tonight in the and hopefully in the house, a large group of the other party for the first time stood up. it is our hope, indeed, it is our prayer that the that has reached its peak and that we can go back to the normal way of legislating. where every side compromises and we produce a product that is good for the american people. thepe that can start in touch of negotiations which will start immediately.

if brinksmanship has heat, if the kind of politesse peaked, if the kind of politics we have received, at the politics of compromise starts rising, then maybe these awful three weeks would have been worth it. delighted to am whoy this leadership team worked so hard. my hats off to senator reid for .is tremendous work he never gave up. he stood up for our families and tonight we are with all of them, breathing a sigh of relief. it took far too long. far too many families were hurt. finally, here in the senate, democrats and republicans worked

together on a path out of this crisis. does not solve any profit -- .very problem today we take the threat of default off of the table and allow democrats and republicans to get in a room and negotiate without asking the american people to pay the price. i am very glad for smelly, after going out on the floor and asking to go to budget this,ence 21 times before we are finally in agreement to work on a bipartisan budget negotiation. the budget passed the house and senate six month ago are very different. nobody thinks it will be easy to get to a deal. hard for sot so long to get in a room with chairman ryan. i know that democrats are willing to compromise to get a

deal and i am hopeful republicans will as well. now the republicans have seen the consequences of a government shutdown. i do not think they will be anxious to repeat this again. now that it is clear the debt limit will be raised and cannot be used to extract political concessions, any future threats will ring hollow. as we now head into the next phase to have an actual mashed weotiation -- negotiation, will have a negotiation and not a hostage situation. i know there are changes that republicans want and there are changes that we want. i think it will -- i think we can work together for a deal that solves this problem on both sides. stop lurching from crisis to crisis. i am very proud of the senate tonight for working together to stand up and end of the pain of the american people and go to work on the bipartisan negotiations and we are finally going to do what we said all along -- we are going to open

the government, they are bills, and then we are going to sit down and negotiate. >> not too many questions tonight. i want to watch the ballgame. -- on a dam contiguous with illinois. can you explain why? >> on a matter of record, i did not ask for that. >> ok, everybody. i thought this might come. this is not an earmark. it saves the taxpayers lots of .oney if we had not done this, the corps of engineers would have to spend $80 million to stop the budget.

it is a replacement. there is no need to point fingers, other than we saved the taxpayers about $80 billion. it does nothing to run up the deficit. it is to save the government money. i answer and if question? [inaudible] meetasked chairman ryan to -- to meet with me tomorrow morning. >> are you going to have breakfast at the tortilla factory? [laughter] >> no. no, we are not.

>> good night, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] host: senate democratic leaders, live. president obama, next. >> tonight, republicans and are democrats have come together. voted toe has now approve this agreement and democrats and republicans in the house still have an important vote to take. i want to thank the leaders of both parties to -- for getting us to this point. once this agreement arrives on my desk, i will sign it immediately. we will begin reopening our government immediately and we can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the american people.

i will have more to say about this tomorrow and i have some thoughts about how we can move forward and stay focused on the job at hand because there is a lot of work ahead of us, including our need to earn back the trust of the american people that has been lost over the past few weeks. i said it before, i will say it again. withwilling to work anybody. i am eager to work with anybody. work on ideaso that will strengthen our middle class and get our the schoolhouse strengthened for the long-term. i never believed democrats have a monopoly on good ideas. despite our differences on the issue of shutting down the government, i am convinced that democrats and republicans can work together to make progress for america.

in fact, there there are things that we know that could strengthen our economy we can get done to you for this year is out. we need to pass a broken immigration system, a farm bill, and with the shutdown behind us and budget committees forming, we have an opportunity to focus on a sensible budget that is responsible, that is fair and that helps hard-working people. we could get all of these things ife, even this year, everyone comes together in the spirit of how are we going to move this country forward and put the last three weeks behind us? that is what i believe the people are looking for, not to focus on politics, not a focus on elections, but a focus on the concrete steps that can improve their lives. that will be my focus. i'm looking forward to congress during the same. once again, i want to thank the

leadership are coming together and getting this done. hopefully, next time, it will not be in the 11th hour. one of the things i said throughout this process is, we have got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis. and my hope and expectation is -- as everybody has learned is that there is no reason why we cannot work on the issues at cannot disagree between parties while still being agreeable and make sure we are not inflicting harm on the american people when we do have disagreements. hopefully, that is a lesson that will be internalized and just by me but also by democrats and republicans, not only the leaders but also the rank and file. thank you very much, everybody. >> mr. president, is this going to happen in the next few months? >> no. [laughter]

>> president obama at the white house, live coverage on c-span, commenting on the passage by the senate of the measure to reopen the government through january 15 and extend the debt ceiling to february 7. it passed a short while ago in the senate by a vote of 81-18, and is now headed to the floor in an expedited procedure we believe that will result in a vote sometime this evening. the president saying that once he receives it, the bill passes the house this evening, he will sign it immediately and reopen the government immediately. he said he will have more to say about that tomorrow. patty murray, the democratic chair of the budget committee, said that she will be meeting tomorrow, a breakfast meeting with her counterpart in the house, republican paul ryan. let's go back to your calls. we're waiting for the house right now.

we have not had word on when they will come in. we will continue to take your reaction and comments. we hear from wayne next on the others line. caller: hello. host: make sure that you mute your television. go ahead with your comment. i'm going to make a couple of comments. i do not agree with raising the debt limit. be?much is going to every time he raised the debt limit, we go further and further into debt. from 1958 uprat until this year, and i got fed up with the way they did. i did not go for the republican party.

74 years old. i've seen a lot of the stuff. host: let's here from nashville, tennessee. connie on the republican line. caller: good evening. i wanted to say that even if it looks like we're going to come up to another debt ceiling issue, the department of defense just past something july 31, it dealsed jp3-28 and specifically with economic conflicts or catastrophe, on 123, and it gives emergency authority to military intelligence corps. they do not need presidential authority or congressional authority. what they are allowed to do is immediately stabilize the situation. they have a series of audits they use.

you go on,e, before can you tell me again what law this was and where you are reading it from. caller: go into google and type complex catastrophe. in the actual document is called the support of civilian authorities. theage 27, it says "if federal government, state, local or governor or travel communities are unable or decline to protect or provide protection, this steps in." it is called hegemonic collapse. there is an expert at the university of georgia. it operates in three categories. all military intelligence corps does is they have a 30 day

audit -- there was a book on the disappeared children of argentina in 1984. host: i appreciate your sharing with us this evening. a lot of folks want to comment. we are waiting for the gavel in time of the u.s. house. it should not be too much longer on this wednesday evening, the 16th day of the government shutdown. a comment on twitter. debbie wasserman schultz -- for cominghe senate together in a spirit of bipartisanship and urge my colleagues in the house to follow their example. roll call -- 81-18 vote, passing the senate. the no votes from -- cruz, here is what he

had to say. >> this deal embodies everything about the washington establishment that frustrates the american people. this deal kicks the can down the road. it allows more debt, more deficits, more spending and it does absolutely nothing to provide relief for the millions of americans who are hurting because of obama care. to all the young people right now coming out of school who cannot find a job because of obama care, this deal does nothing for them. to all of the single moms who are struggling and being forced into part-time work, trying to feed their kids on 29 hours a

week, because of obama care, this deal does nothing for them. to all of the hard-working families who are right now getting massive premium increases from their health insurance companies and trying to figure out how we are going to make ends meet with health insurance going up 100%, because of obama care, this deal does nothing for them. and to all of the seniors, to all of the people with disabilities who are right now getting in the mail notification s that they are losing their health insurance because of obama care, this deal does nothing for them. mr. president, this fight was always about the american people who are hurting because of obama care. and unfortunately today, the united states senate is saying, in don't have a vociice washington. this is a terrible deal.

and i urge my colleagues to oppose it. now, none of us should be surprised that when the senate votes, this deal is going to pass and pass by a big margin. none of us should be surprised, but mr. president, the outcome could have been different. i would ask you, mr. president, to imagine a different world. we saw in the last two months millions of americans rise up, sign a national petition, light up the phones to the capitol and speak up against the enormous harms obama care is visiting upon them. we saw the house of representatives stand with courage and listen to the american people. mr. president, i ask you to imagine a world in which senate republicans united to support house republicans.

beinge that one piece different from what we saw, imagine after the house republicans stood together with the american people if all 46 senate republicans had stood together and said, "we are united against the train wreck that is obama care, we are united with the american people, that if president obama is going to give an exception for big business, for members of congress, that the american people deserve that very same exception." i want to imagine if senate republicans had stood together and simply supported house republicans and the american people. i want you to imagine what would have happened if all 46 senate republicans had united and gone together and said, "the house has passed a bill funding the v.a. we should fund the v.a." the senate, the majority leader

of the senate refused to allow the senate even to vote to fund the v.a. i want you to imagine, mr. president, all 46 senate republicans, if we had stood together and simply supported the house republicans in saying to reopenhas voted our national parks, to reopen the war memorials, and the majority leader of the senate refuses is to allow the seantnae even to vote. mr. president, i want you to imagine simply that senate republicans had stood together and said, "we support the house republicans in standing with the american people." if that happened, this result, i believe, would've been very, very different. is heartbreaking to the american people that senate republicans divided as they did directided to

their cannon fire at house republicans and that those standing with the american people. but yet at the same time, mr. president, to the millions of americans who rose up in the last couple of months, i want to encouragement, a word of encouragement about the path forward. a couple of months ago, the washington establishment scoffed at the notion that the american people might rise up. that was viewed as silly, could not happen. a couple of months ago, the washington establishment scoffed at the notion that the house of representatives would stand fundg saying, "we should every bit of the federal government, but we should not fund obama care." yet, what we have seen in the last two months has been extraordinaire. millions of americans speaking up in overwhelming numbers,

saying " obama care is not working." the unions are jumping ship. democratic members of the senate in the house went to the president and said, "we want to be exempt from obama care." this law is not working. and it is worth reflecting on how extraordinary it is to see the american people rise up in such incredible numbers and to see the house engage in what i consider to be a profile in courage, standing with the american people. now a path forward, the way we are going to stop obama care, the way we are going to stop the suffering, the harms that are being visited on millions of americans is the path we have seen the past couple of months, is the american people rising up. the answers are not going to come from washington. washington is broken. but the answers will come from

the american people. mr. president, i am today encouraged. i am encouraged by the millions of americans who want to get back to the free market and get back to the constitution and stop this train wreck of a law that is the biggest job killer in this country, and is hurting people all across the country. mr. president, it is sad that today the united states senate is telling people all across this country, who are struggling, who are trying to provide for their kids and who are getting notifications in the mail, "your health care has been dropped." maybe you have an elderly parent and that health care policy is providing for your family. gaybe you have children, facin debilitating diseases and yet you are getting enough attention in the mail, "your health insurance has been dropped because of obama care." it is sad, that the senate says

we will do nothing to answer your plight. we created your plight, but we will do nothing. it is sad that when you have of theoffa the president teamsters saying that obama care is destroying the health care of millions of working men and women in this country and the families who depend upon them, that the u.s. senate says we are closed for business. the washington establishment has exempted itself so the problems, the suffering of working america is not the concern of the washington establishment. that is sad, but at the same time, i am inspired by the millions of americans who have risen up. if the american people continue to rise up, i am confident that in time, the u.s. senate will follow the lead of the house of representatives and listen to the american people. that is our job. that is our responsibility.

this is a turbo deal today. -- terrible deal today. what is a terrible deal for the american people. if the american people continue to rise up, we are going to turn this around. we are going to restore jobs and restore economic road. we are going to restore the ability of people who are struggling to achieve the american dream, and we are going to stop the number one job killer in this country that is obama care. mr. president, i rise in opposition to this deal that does not serve the best interests of the men and women each of us are present. i yield the floor. cruz texas republican ted earlier this evening before the vote on the southern measured which would reopen the federal government, the boat with 81-18. the18 votes against

measure republican votes. that is a measure that will open the federal government through january 15. it will extend the debt ceiling limit through the early part of february, allow the treasury secretary to take measures to avoid default. in terms of the health care law, it would require that those who get health care subsidies verification.e in terms of the congressional procedure, it's it's a bicameral budget committee, the joint conference between the house and senate was a committees to work out remaining budget issues for fiscal year 2014. a look at the deal on c-span. we are waiting for the house to gavel in and take up the measure that was passed by the senate. in the meantime, we will continue with your calls and comments for republicans, use --

a couple tweets. "120 middle school is just filed into the house viewing gallery. wondering if the tea party might still give them a little fireworks display." we're hearing the measure that was passed will come into the house what is - -under unanimous consent. allowing them to take it up immediately without having to run it through the rules committee. that has not been verified, but that is the reporting. also on the political side, back to the senate, there is a special election going on this evening for the seat of the late frank lautenberg. here is how things stand. tweeting about the results so far. 42%.r lead lonegan 57% to so to your calls and

comments. the president saying he will sign the measure as soon as he receives it and open the government immediately. thomas in frederick burke, virginia, under democrats line. -- in fredericksburg, virginia. caller: hosthello? i'm 74. thank heavens it is over. we are the greatest nation on the face of the earth. we have apple, we have google, we have facebook. all established by american young man. and we have, i heard recently that russia, we have now surpassed russia in the exportation of oil. we will not have a deficit in a few years. we will always be the same people. these young members of congress, the senators, they remember -- they do not remember senator mccarthy. people lost their jobs. it was a reign of terror. the american tho

people. we are the greatest people of the world. look at us -- facebook, google, apple computer. we're not broke. we are far from broke. give the affordable care act, chance, there are 88,000 people in virginia that do not have health insurance. house died ofr mtyy cancer and her husband was left with bills. host: similar views reflected by one of our tweeters, saying "move on, congress. " remember when senator obama said raising the debt ceiling was a failure of leadership in the president?" so when the rest of the world starts loading the number - -the - the money to pay for th a.c.a., then answer me how to stop spending and borrowing? larry on the republican line from national. caller: thanks for taking my

call. i got to listen to the speeches and he gave me a whole lot more to talk about but i will try to marry down -- narrow it down. reid summed it up when he said his caucus in the present work so well together. they did a great job getting that message out there that it was all the republicans' fault. they offer traders as republicans as hostage takers, terrorists and holding guns to their heads. that was the message they kept delivering, and this president needs to realize that in doing so and the democrats, that they are alienating about 47% of the people that did not vote for this president. and i realize i'm in the minority, and they did to call the shots and run it, what if he is supposed to be the great unifier, he should be not tearing people down with his speech, but he should be trying to pull us together and solve this problem. this problem could've been

avoided and salt if they would have ever passed a budget. i believe the last budget passed was in 2009. and that is why we are climbing up to $17 trillion in debt. in what he said is that all we have done is kick the can down the road. host: do you think it is the responsibility of the president to show leadership on passing something that is essentially a congressional responsibility? caller: no, it is the congressional responsibility to pass the budget. congress hold super strings. purse th -- hold the strings. when bills were passed to fund various parts of the government, the senate would not take it up. part of it is that if there would have been a budget, all of this could've been avoided because it would've been approved before and. that washe rhetoric given to split the country instead of unifying us makes it harder to come together and to

resolve these. and with $17 trillion in debt, several of those that made speeches said the next thing that we are going to tackle his immigration. whatever happened to jobs or the economy or read using the debt reducing the debt? host: in addition to senator ted cruz, the other senator that was helpful was senator mike lee. he, too, spoke before tonight's vote. >> here we are again. another unnecessary crisis. a proposal that maintains the status quo. very little time to read and evaluating bill. in fact, we still do not have a final version of the text. no time to explain it to our constituents. this is washington at its worst. it's exactly the kind of thing

the american people are fed up with. and exactly why several colleagues and i began this effort to delay and defined -- defund obama care in july. it appears that this particular fight will end much the same way a last-re began - -i- in minute deal negotiated in back rooms and forced on congress and on the american people. the washington establishment cannot bring itself to believe that this is why congress's approval ratings are so low, because washington does not listen to the american people. it ignores them. and when the american people can no longer be ignored, the administration shuts down national parks, blocks veterans from going to their own memorials, uses the irs to target certain groups and holds

hostage critical funding for cancer research, low income women and children, veterans health benefits, border security, and our national guard. it's shameful how washington treats the american people, and the people are right to be upset about that. the media keeps asking, was it worth it? my answer is that it is always worth it to do the right thing. fighting against an abusive ofernment in defense protecting the individual rights of the american people is always the right thing. some say we should not have fought because it could not win. but this country was not built by fighting only when victory was absolutely certain. in fact, some of the most important victories in our history where the result of fighting battles against significant odds. and even if victory seems difficult or seemed impossible, that would not excuse me or anyone else from doing the right thing.

battles,difficult after all, is how we end up in this kind of mess. trillionent with $17 in debt that we added a rate of $1 trillion a year. out-of-control spending, a broken entitlement system, the tax code that no one understands, all because washington is willing to a ct only when there is guaranteed political gain. when the avoidance of risk becomes our dominant motivation, only the washington establishment wins and the american people lose. furthermore, in washington, victories are rarely immediate beingry few end up permanent. obama care was not enacted overnight, and it will not be repealed overnight. we must remind the american people of the harmful effects of this law at every opportunity if we are ever going to see it repealed. we've repeatedly warned that the

american people will be shocked when they realize the way the president has misled the american people about obama care. the embarrassing roll out of exchanges does not even begin to scratch the surface. every day brings a new story of a family whose deductible has doubled or a married couple that cannot keep the plan they have or a business that can no longer provide health insurance for its employees or workers who are seeing their hours cut or losing their jobs altogether. the realization that the administration has either been dishonest or incompetent or accommodation of both is just starting to dawn and the american people. even the president's friends in the media are watching this slow rolling train wreck and are demanding the president do something to stop it. "the chicago tribune," the president's own hometown

newspaper puts it this way -- "last spring, the president said there will be, you know, glitches in the rollout of the new system, but what we are seeing now is no glitch. there is a growing mountain of evidence that obama care has fundamental problems in design and implementation. one-yearage a delay in the law. we recognize that is not going to happen. obama care is here. it is time for the obama administration to level with americans about what's happening here. it is time to stop blaming republicans and start talking about what needs to change." so it's interesting to see that "the chicago tribune," the president hometown paper, is calling for exactly what i have been calling for since july --

out tone-yerar time protect the american people from the harmful effects of this law, a law the president has announced his not ready for prime time, a law that the president himself has indicated he is not willing to follow as was written. athis was again exactly what we were arguing for in july and now appears in the president hometown paper. almost everyone but the president seems to recognize that this law is going to be terrible for the american people. it is costing jobs, hurting families, making people's health care situation worse, and it will not solve the problems in our broken health care system. let me be clear -- there will be very real consequences for people in both parties as a result of the implantation of this law. today, washington has the upper

hand, but the american people will always have the last word. this is not over. we have an obligation to fight for the american people. and i do we have an obligation to fight for the american people. and i do not intend to let the american people down. thank you. question republican senator of mike leigh in utah. 18 to open the federal government and funded through january 15, among other things. that measure now moving over to the u.s. house. fox news talking about the possible timetable. the house is now waiting for to start the senate debate. told best case scenario to start is 9:30 p.m. eastern. about a half-hour tonight. a tweak --