Madam President, I thank the Senator for his input and his questions. I think the Senator has highlighted the kind of situation that begs credulity. People around this country must wonder, Have we taken all leave of our senses here? People say we should sit down and negotiate. We are always willing to negotiate. We are always willing to talk about issues. But when the tea party Republicans in the House say, No, we won't even keep the government open unless we defund ObamaCare, which is the law of the land, that is trying to nullify a law by holding a gun at our heads and saying we are going to shut down the government unless we get rid of a law--not a bill, not a proposal before us, but the law of the land upheld by the Supreme Court, this is not the way to govern. It is the way to take hostages, maybe. It is the way to commit blackmail, but it is not the way to run a government. So I hope the moderate Republicans--and believe me, there are a lot of good moderate Republicans. On my own committee, I deal with good people who work together to get bills passed and to get them out of our committee. We just need them to say to the tea party: You are wrong. This is not good for us, it is not good for the country, and it is not good for the Republican Party, either. I will have more to say about this later as well as tomorrow when I will bring some more figures to the floor on how many more people are excited about the Affordable Care Act and are going to healthcare.gov.…
Share & report
More from Tom Harkin
I thank the Senator for those kind remarks. Let me say again what a pleasure it has been to work with the Senator from Tennessee for the last few years. In the last couple of years, we brought a lot of meaningful legislation through our…
Most of all, I thank my wife, Ruth, the love of my life, my wife of 46 years. You have been my constant companion, my soul mate, my strongest supporter, and my most honest critic. You have been my joy in happy times and my solace when…
I thank my friend. I remember Dr. Andrew Weil, who is very well known in this country and a good friend of mine, once made the statement sometime ago in a hearing that the default state of the human body is to be healthy. The body wants to…
Mr. President, in 1997, Beth Stein, a talented young woman armed with a razor-sharp mind and relentless attention to detail, arrived on Capitol Hill as counsel to a true American hero, U.S. Senator John Glenn. As his investigative counsel…





