Jared Huffman: “This is a critical moment for the 113th Congress of the United States. We have an opportunity to let this House work its…”

“This is a critical moment for the 113th Congress of the United States. We have an opportunity to let this House work its will, to end the government shutdown, to protect the full faith and credit of our country, to show the whole world that after a 3-week bout with insanity, the duly elected Representatives of the people in this Congress finally came to their senses. But I am concerned that that is not where we are heading here in the 11th hour of this crisis as we approach the precipice of the debt ceiling and the prospect of default. Instead of working together to develop a budget that would work for Americans, my colleagues across the aisle in the Republican Party continue to let reckless ideologues drive their agenda and drive all of us further into a national crisis. I have the honor of serving on the Budget Committee; and along with Ranking Member Van Hollen, the Democratic members of that committee have been calling since the spring for a conference committee so that we could actually work out a budget that could work for both parties and for the American people, but the GOP leadership in this House has refused to appoint conferees, has refused to go into that negotiation. Why did they do that? Because they preferred the strategy of taking us to this point, into this crisis with the government shutdown, up to the edge of the cliff with the possibility of default because they wanted to maximize their leverage. Why have they shut down the government?…”