Good afternoon, everybody. Of all the responsibilities the Constitution endows to Congress,two should be fairly simple: pass a budget, and pay America’s bills.
But if the United States Congress does not fulfill its
responsibility to pass a budget today, much of the United States
government will be forced to shut down tomorrow. And I want to be very
clear about what that shutdown would mean -- what will remain open and
what will not.
With regard to operations that will continue: If you’re
on Social Security, you will keep receiving your checks. If you’re on
Medicare, your doctor will still see you. Everyone’s mail will still be
delivered. And government operations related to national security or
public safety will go on. Our troops will continue to serve with skill,
honor, and courage. Air traffic controllers, prison guards, those who
are with border control -- our Border Patrol will remain on their posts,
but their paychecks will be delayed until the government reopens. NASA
will shut down almost entirely, but Mission Control will remain open to
support the astronauts serving on the Space Station.
I also want to be very clear about what would change.
Office buildings would close. Paychecks would be delayed. Vital
services that seniors and veterans, women and children, businesses and
our economy depend on would be hamstrung. Business owners would see
delays in raising capital, seeking infrastructure permits, or rebuilding
after Hurricane Sandy. Veterans who’ve sacrificed for their country
will find their support centers unstaffed. Tourists will find every one
of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the
Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, immediately closed. And of
course, the communities and small businesses that rely on these national
treasures for their livelihoods will be out of customers and out of
luck.
And in keeping with the broad ramifications of a shutdown,
I think it’s important that everybody understand the federal government
is America’s largest employer. More than 2 million civilian workers
and 1.4 million active-duty military serve in all 50 states and all
around the world. In the event of a government shutdown, hundreds of
thousands of these dedicated public servants who stay on the job will do
so without pay -- and several hundred thousand more will be immediately
and indefinitely furloughed without pay.
What, of course, will not be furloughed are the bills that
they have to pay -- their mortgages, their tuition payments, their car
notes. These Americans are our neighbors. Their kids go to our
schools. They worship where we do. They serve their country with
pride. They are the customers of every business in this country. And
they would be hurt greatly, and as a consequence, all of us will be hurt
greatly, should Congress choose to shut the people’s government down.
So a shutdown will have a very real economic impact on
real people, right away. Past shutdowns have disrupted the economy
significantly. This one would, too. It would throw a wrench into the
gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some
traction.
Five years ago right now, our economy was in meltdown.
Today, our businesses have created 7.5 million new jobs over the past
three and a half years. The housing market is healing and our deficits
are falling fast. The idea of putting the American people’s hard-earned
progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility.
And it doesn’t have to happen. Let me repeat this: It
does not have to happen. All of this is entirely preventable if the
House chooses to do what the Senate has already done -- and that’s the
simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and
controversial demands in the process, the same way other Congresses have
for more than 200 years.
Unfortunately, right now House Republicans continue to tie
funding of the government to ideological demands like limiting a
woman’s access to contraception, or delaying the Affordable Care Act,
all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme
right wing of their party.
So let me be clear about this. An important part of the
Affordable Care Act takes effect tomorrow no matter what Congress
decides to do today. The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That
funding is already in place. You can’t shut it down. This is a law
that passed both houses of Congress; a law that bears my signature; a
law that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional; a law that voters
chose not to repeal last November; a law that is already providing
benefits to millions of Americans in the form of young people staying on
their parents’ plan until they’re 26, seniors getting cheaper
prescription drugs, making sure that insurance companies aren't imposing
lifetime limits when you already have health insurance, providing
rebates for consumers when insurance companies are spending too much
money on overhead instead of health care. Those things are already
happening.
Starting tomorrow, tens of millions of Americans will be
able to visit HealthCare.gov to shop for affordable health care
coverage. So Americans who’ve lived for years in some cases with the
fear that one illness could send them into bankruptcy, Americans who’ve
been priced out of the market just because they’ve been sick once,
they’ll finally be able to afford coverage -- quality coverage -- many
of them for the first time in their lives.
Some of them may be sick as we speak. And this is their
best opportunity to get some security and some relief. Tens of
thousands of Americans die every single year because they don’t have
access to affordable health care. Despite this, Republicans have said
that if we lock these Americans out of affordable health care for one
more year -- if we sacrifice the health care of millions of Americans --
then they’ll fund the government for a couple more months. Does
anybody truly believe that we won’t have this fight again in a couple
more months? Even at Christmas?
So here’s the bottom line: I’m always willing to work
with anyone of either party to make sure the Affordable Care Act works
better, to make sure our government works better. I’m always willing to
work with anyone to grow our economy faster, or to create new jobs
faster, to get our fiscal house in order for the long run. I’ve
demonstrated this time and time again, oftentimes to the consternation
of my own party.
But one faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in
one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government
just to refight the results of an election.
Keeping the people’s government open is not a concession
to me. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of
Americans on the job is not something you “give” to the other side.
It’s our basic responsibility. It’s something that we’re doing for our
military, and our businesses, and our economy, and all the hardworking
people out there -- the person working for the Agricultural Department
out in some rural community who’s out there helping some farmers make
sure that they’re making some modest profit for all the hard work
they’re putting in. They’re the person working for HUD who’s helping
somebody buy a house for the first time. They’re somebody in a VA
office who’s counseling one of our vets who’s got PTSD.
That’s who we’re here to serve. That’s why we’re supposed
to be carrying out these responsibilities. It’s why we should be
avoiding these kinds of constant brinksmanship. It’s something that we
do in the ordinary process of this extraordinary system of government
that we have. You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job; for
doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway; or just because there’s a
law there that you don’t like.
The American people sent us here to govern. They sent us
here to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make their lives
a little bit better -- to create new jobs, to restore economic
security, to rebuild the prospects of upward mobility. That’s what they
expect.
And they understand that there are differences between the
parties and we’re going to be having some tough fights around those
differences. And I respect the fact that the other party is not
supposed to agree with me 100 percent of the time, just like I don’t
agree with them. But they do also expect that we don’t bring the entire
government to a halt or the entire economy to a halt just because of
those differences.
That’s what they deserve. They’ve worked too hard, for
too long to recover from previous crises just to have folks here in
Washington manufacture yet another one that they have to dig themselves
out of.
So Congress needs to keep our government open, needs to
pay our bills on time, and never, ever threaten the full faith and
credit of the United States of America.
And time is running out. My hope and expectation is that
in the eleventh hour, once again, that Congress will choose to do the
right thing and that the House of Representatives, in particular, will
choose the right thing.
Thank you very much.
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