Patricia Schroeder: “I am just here to hope that this body tonight can listen to what the President says and we can come together and not…”

“I am just here to hope that this body tonight can listen to what the President says and we can come together and not have another shutdown of the Government or not declare a default on the debt, which would be the first time in the history of this great Republic. This House floor has all the ambience of downtown Sarajevo before the Dayton agreement. I do not know what we do, whether we load everybody off and send them to Dayton. Maybe there is something in the water that can get them to come together. But if we could find the parties in the former Yugoslavia that could come together and put a peace together, why can we not get an agreement to get this body going? Why are we talking about shutting down the Government because we cannot do the budget this year, and basically the reason is they say it is because they are arguing over numbers for 7 years from now, which in all honesty none of us can bind people to 7 years from now. We ought to be held accountable for this year.”