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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama slams Republicans: "I won't pay a ransom in exchange for reopening the government"
Transcript:
But today, I want to let the Americans dealing with those real-world consequences have their say. And these are just a few of the many heartbreaking letters Ive gotten from them in the past couple weeks including more than 30,000 over the past few days.
Kelly Mumper lives in rural Alabama. She works in early education, and has three children of her own in the Marines. Heres what she wrote to me on Wednesday.
Our Head Start agency was forced to stop providing services on October 1st for over 770 children, and 175 staff were furloughed. I am extremely concerned for the welfare of these children. There are parents who work and who attend school. Where are they leaving their children is it a safe environment are [they] getting the food that they receive at their Head Start program?
On the day Julia Prudens application to buy a home for her and her special needs children was approved by the USDAs rural development direct loan program, she wrote me from Minot, North Dakota.
We put in an offer to purchase a home this weekend, and it was accepted if funding does not go through, our chances of the American Dream (are) down the drain We have worked really hard to get our credit to be acceptable to purchase a home if it werent for the direct lending program provided by the USDA, we would not qualify to buy the home we found.
These are just two of the many letters Ive received from people who work hard; try to make ends meet; try to do right by their families. Theyre military or military spouses whove seen commissaries closed on their bases. Theyre veterans worried the services theyve earned wont be there. Theyre business owners whove seen their contracts with the government put on hold, worried theyll have to let people go. I want them to know, I read the stories you share with me.
These are our fellow Americans. These are the people who sent us here to serve. And I know that Republicans in the House of Representatives are hearing the same kinds of stories, too.
As I made clear to them this week, theres only one way out of this reckless and damaging shutdown: pass a budget that funds our government, with no partisan strings attached. The Senate has already done this. And there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House of Representatives willing to do the same, and end this shutdown immediately. But the far right of the Republican Party wont let Speaker John Boehner give that bill a yes-or-no vote.
Take that vote. Stop this farce. End this shutdown now.
The American people dont get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their job. Neither does Congress. They dont get to hold our democracy or our economy hostage over a settled law. They dont get to kick a child out of Head Start if I dont agree to take her parents health insurance away. Thats not how our democracy is supposed to work.
That's why I won't pay a ransom in exchange for reopening the government. And I certainly won't pay a ransom in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. For as reckless as a government shutdown is, an economic shutdown that comes with default would be dramatically worse.
I'll always work with anyone of either party on ways to grow this economy, create new jobs, and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul. But not under the shadow of these threats to our economy.
Pass a budget. End this government shutdown.
Pay our bills. Prevent an economic shutdown.
These Americans and millions of others are counting on Congress to do the right thing. And I will do everything I can to make sure they do.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address
The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)"This war was got up drunk, but will have to be settled sober."
malaise
(269,188 posts)by Pres O!!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Their actions, including the debt ceiling threa, prove that they don't work for the American people, but are doing the bidding of their Koch masters. If the Koch brothers was a country, it'd be treason.
JustAnotherGen
(31,911 posts)hue
(4,949 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)This has been going on since the Reagan era. The wealth of some of them far exceed that of many nation states, and that is why they flaunt all the laws. No one country can tame them.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
~ Thomas Jefferson
We'd better get back to the basics to understand what we are confronted with. It requires reasoning ability and a cool head, unmarred by fear or egotism.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023794990
dinger130
(199 posts)But who wouldn't be after constantly dealing with assholes.
hue
(4,949 posts)Left Coast2020
(2,397 posts)Damn I'm glad he's standing up to these freaks.
Would be highly depressed if he caved. But I'm sure he's reading the same poll/surveys that we see: Dems have better hand. It'll be even better when next November rolls around.
Augiedog
(2,548 posts)President Obama took an oath to protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, he is doing that. To allow a hostage situation to usurp presidential authority is to accede to a virtual, if not in fact, coup. The tea party (not capitalized intentionally) congressional delegation does not have carte Blanche in how it operates, it is subject to laws regarding insurrection and treason just as any citizen is.
If president Obama fails to defend the constitution against this threat, we may expect more sophisticated attacks financed by agents who wish us real, permanent harm. This shutdown is a direct threat to the institutional security of America, the tea party ransom demands show that they are declaring themselves enemies of the State. No government, democratically elected, can successfully function if insurrectionists are allowed to project their will upon the majority. Barack Obama is the duly elected President of the United States whether the tea party, and it's financial terrorists backing it, like it or not.
RC
(25,592 posts)30 or so of those Congress critters are now acting counter to the oath of office they took. Where is the Ethics Committee on this?
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)JUST KIDDING!!!!!
He didn't really say that.
He probably only just thought it.
Probably.
MineralMan
(146,333 posts)to Chained CPI. Truly, it does not.
Unrec.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)and never mention it again...it will all just Go Away. Maybe.
MineralMan
(146,333 posts)This speech was not in any way about any of that. Please leave it alone. There is no Chained CPI in place, nor will there be.
If the topic of the thread has nothing to do with that, then you're just grousing about the President. Right now, that's neither desirable nor useful in any way.
Please don't do that.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)demand for ransom, and Obama's rebuttal address, perhaps we should remain united on that front and give credit where credit is due, if for no other reason to help stiffen publicly stated resolve.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)this is just a lead-up to the budget battles that will be used as the vehicle to deliver Chained CPI for Social Security, and raising the eligibility age for Medicare. We're all being played.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)we should fight that battle after the House actually passes a clean spending bill and starts deliberations with the Senate.
For every thing there is a season, and today the season is getting the Republican House to pass a clean spending bill.
If the President is talking tough about not giving in to ransom it only makes sense to me in keeping his back.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)GOBAMA!!
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)way regardless of the popular vote and a Supreme Court ruling? I'd be interested to hear what precedents the tea partiers can cite since the secession of the Confederate states, settled by a bloody, treasonous war.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)rickford66
(5,528 posts)he didn't say "God bless the United States of America" at the end. Why not?