Patricia Schroeder: “Well, let me finish, if you do not mind, because I do have a few things to say. I have asked others to yield and they do…”

“Well, let me finish, if you do not mind, because I do have a few things to say. I have asked others to yield and they do not. I remember the days when we used to yield, but I guess that seems to be over. I sit here and on one hand, I get depressed because people come to me and they say, why are you leaving? And I say to them, why are you staying? Why are you staying? This place has just fallen to its new, all-time low. Never in the history of this Republic, during several wars, during depressions, during anything, have people stood up here and refused to pay the bills and said, OK, we will just take the full faith and credit of this great Nation, this Nation that has the best credit rating on the planet and we will just shove it off the cliff because we want our way. Never has it done that. I am embarrassed to be here. The good news is, the reason some of my colleagues are staying is because today in Oregon we know that the people are waking up and the people are saying, this is outrageous. We just saw a race where one person who spent $1 million more than the other lost. That says the people are saying, we have to pay our bills and we want this Government to pay theirs, and we do not want people playing fast and loose with the credit rating of this country. I have a question and my question is, if we know that March 1 is a very serious date, why are we leaving and not having any votes until February 27?”