Barbara Boxer: “I wish to thank my friend, and I hope we can continue to have these conversations. I thank the Presiding Officer for…”

“I wish to thank my friend, and I hope we can continue to have these conversations. I thank the Presiding Officer for recognizing my friend so he could make his point. We are, as leader Pelosi said, playing with fire. We are playing with lives. One of our colleagues, Senator Casey from Pennsylvania, read the most amazing letter he got from a constituent and he said: She is so worried about her parents. They are in their 80s, and the fear--just the thought--of maybe not getting a check on time, that is making her parents physically ill. Why are we doing this? There is no reason to do this. This is a self- inflicted wound. The government shutdown is self-inflicted. Playing with the full faith and credit of the United States of America is a self-inflicted wound. Here is the thing: We know one of the heroes of the Republican Party and a hero to many Democrats is Ronald Reagan. Let's see what he said. I have it here. When it comes to the debt: The full consequences of a default, or even the serious prospect of a default, are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. That is Ronald Reagan. I was here during most of his presidency. I was over in the House. I think my friend from Florida was as well.…”