give the floor to my friend from rhode island, let me just say two things about that insistence from republicans that the problem here is not their demands that the health care law be repealed before we open the government, but that the democrats won't sit down and negotiate. well, i think the senator from louisiana said it best. it makes no sense to negotiate with a gun to our head. open the government and we'll sit down and talk about anything you want to talk about, but let's also discuss what the positions of the two parties are republicans want the most important achievement of president obama's first term repealed. we want the government to just continue to be operational. republicans want a law that will ensure 30 million more people with health care taken off the books. we want the government to just continue to pay its bills. what i'm trying to say here, mr. president, is that we don't