On the recordOctober 15, 2013
It pains me to see the shutdown's impact on everyday lives. While ordering coffee the other day, I asked Diona, the hardworking woman behind the counter, how she was doing that day. She confided that she had been up all night taking care of her 3-year-old son, who was suffering from stomach pains. She was exhausted. She wanted to buy the Lactaid milk that settles her boy's stomach, but because of the shutdown, her WIC office was not open. Her WIC card was out of money, and she was a long way from payday. There are probably tens of thousands of Dionas out there--women working hard and worried about their kids and not sure how they will make ends meet. The media may be focusing on the rancor, the talking points of politics, but this shutdown is really about a little boy with stomach pains and a mother who cannot afford to give him relief. The Women, Infants, and Children program helps low-income women buy formula and other healthy foods, and it is one of our most successful nutrition programs. It is just one of the shutdown's many casualties. Let us end this shutdown right now. Let us vote on a clean bill to fund the whole government. Let us restore vital problems like WIC, and let us stop this lunacy and get back to work for the American people. ____________________
