For the first 15 to 18 days of debate, the market slowly slid about 800 points. Last week, when there was a sliver of opportunity and people thought maybe we would get the default off the table, that market shot up 300-plus points. The…

I come from the small business world. At the young age of 14 I started my first business. I don't hear the business community in my State asking me to crash the economy and keep the government shut down because it has no impact. When we…

It makes no sense that we would be here. Earlier this week Senator Tester and I were on the floor talking about this issue. When I went home, my 11-year-old son asked: How do you not pay your bills? We can have all the fancy economists we…

If it goes in the wrong direction, it will have a direct impact on the people who are working--meaning fewer people will be working. If there is less business, there is less need to hire people, which means higher unemployment and more…

To remind folks who are listening, the gross domestic product is basically the business of the country.

Is it fair to say that we have been moving this annual deficit down every year? It has been on the right glidepath--down. If we have a change in the T-bill rates, this effort to keep moving the deficit down will quickly reverse because we…

Mr. President, I wish to enter into a colloquy with several of my colleagues. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, it is Sunday afternoon. I am sure all of us as well as a lot of furloughed employees would rather be preparing for coming back to work. Even though Monday is a holiday, maybe they are thinking about Tuesday and getting…

If I can interrupt, car loans, credit cards, student loans, any type of credit you want to get to grow your business, expand your educational opportunities--maybe you are doing holiday shopping this year--all that is impacted in a negative…

Yes. Not only closed for business. As we know, the FAA also is shut down. There are elements of FAA still operational, but the fact is, in order for visitors to my State--and I am sure to the Senator's State, to Oregon, there is a lot of…

Mr. President, I appreciate the good working relationship with Senator Landrieu. We have been talking back and forth. We exchanged phone calls through the evening--never quite did connect--but we have been talking here today. It is our…

My fellow colleagues, this is an important piece of legislation. When you vote against this legislation, you are voting against the first Americans. Every one of you in this room is an immigrant. We made a trust relationship with American…

Mr. President, from what I heard from those who have just spoken prior to me, it sounds as if we ought to be able to get something done. We listened to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, with her commitment to advancing issues…

I thank my good friend for allowing me to take a few minutes and ask a couple of points. Mr. President, I am here to say that is what this debate is about, a simple question, allowing a vote on the House side. If they do not have the…

And they have passed their budget too. So we have two budgets ready to go to conference; is that fair?

I appreciate the comments, and I thank the Senator for answering these questions. I think it is important again to point out that budget was passed back in April-May. We did ours, and they did theirs. We have tried 18 times to bring the…

I guess I have one more. The Senator said something I thought was very interesting on the budget deficit. The Senator is older than I am. I came here 2 years after the Senator. When we came in, we dealt with the debt ceiling, which is…

I know the Senator came to Alaska a few months ago and had an opportunity to see some of the great ability of our energy companies and what we are trying to do. Today I got an important announcement from Exxon and ConocoPhillips about…