On the recordOctober 4, 2013
It is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished doctor from Seattle, Washington (Mr. McDermott) of the Ways and Means Committee. (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, the Republican Caucus is standing out here naked, and they keep bringing fig leaves out to cover themselves. This is another fig leaf. It is not intended to do anything. At the end of the Second World War, it was determined that 43 percent of the people who were drafted were unfit for military service because of nutritional deficiencies. We have, as a public policy, from that point onward, fed people at every level. School lunches, Head Start, WIC program, SNAP--they have all been designed for making this a healthy country. One of my colleagues says, well, this has nothing to do with ObamaCare. It has everything to do with ObamaCare. If you don't feed kids the proper things, they get sick. Everybody knows that, apparently, except the Republican caucus, Madam Speaker. The fact is that what we need to do is bring out a clean resolution and reopen the government and feed all the people. This business about picking one group that's entitled to a little something and leaving some others out is absolutely cynical beyond belief, and it should not happen in this place. We have the ability to have the most healthy people in the world. We produce food, we ship it everywhere, and yet you hear from my colleague, Mr.…
