Elijah Lewis: “day 19--and the U.S. Government is still closed, held captive. Forty million dollars a day--down the drain…”

“day 19--and the U.S. Government is still closed, held captive. Forty million dollars a day--down the drain, wasted--almost $800 million. All this the Republicans say, in the name of fiscal conservatism. More than a quarter of a million Government employees at home, waiting to work and wanting to work. Still thousands of others on the job, not getting paid. The Ayatollahs of the right continue to hold the U.S. Government hostage to their radical demands. Do it our way they say--cut Medicare, gut Medicaid, slash education and student loans, attack our environment--or we will keep the Government shut. People unable to pay their mortgages, their car loans, their children's education bills, Government contractors unable to work, business people unable to get passports to conduct business abroad. None of this matters to the mullahs of the Republican right. They are not affected, they are constitutional officers, not Government employees. So I say here today, go down, Mr. President, way down to congressland, tell Newt Gingrich to let our Government go. The American people will not give in to Republican blackmail and hostage taking.”