Dick Durbin: “Wednesday night is the deadline. On Wednesday night, the authority of the government of the United States to do business…”

“Wednesday night is the deadline. On Wednesday night, the authority of the government of the United States to do business ends. The funding for our government ends. It is a scary time. We don't want that to happen--most of us--because we know it will be catastrophic. There will be people who will suffer if we fail to do our job. Now, this isn't the first time we have been up against a deadline. We have faced them before, and many times we have to buy a little extra time to negotiate the budget. That is understandable. In this circumstance, though, we actually have announced candidates for the Presidency of the United States who are calling for a government shutdown. What happens when our government shuts down? Well, it is pretty obvious. Agencies stop doing business as usual. What we find, though, is that the impact goes far beyond just that simple statement. I went back to Illinois this last weekend, and I went for a visit to Scott Air Force Base. It is the largest single employer in the State of Illinois and downstate. In 2013--the last time we had a government shutdown--the junior Senator from Texas, Senator Ted Cruz, wanted to shut down our government to protest ObamaCare. So he successfully closed down the government and found other Republicans who would join him in that effort, and it went on for a long period of time.…”