Political Quotes

“Mr. President, well, we are less than 6 hours away from a potential government shutdown. I take this time to sort of bring people up to date in Maryland as to where we are. I say that because in Maryland we have about 150,000 civilian active Federal employees. Obviously, they are directly affected if we have a government shutdown. They will not get a paycheck. Whether they work or not, they will not be getting their paychecks. I just want everyone to think about what that means. If you have a car payment that is due and you do not have a paycheck or a full paycheck, you still have to make that car payment. You might not have the money to do it. If you have certain responsibilities on a student loan, you may not be able to come up with the money to deal with it. So it is going to cause real problems for those Federal workers who had nothing at all to do with the problems we are confronting in passing a budget. They are not at fault. But yet they will be the first ones who will be suffering as a result of a government shutdown. But it does not end with the Federal workforce because the Federal workforce, with their salaries, buys goods and services. Literally thousands of small businesses in Maryland are going to be adversely affected, and many around the country, because of the impact of the Federal workforce being on furlough, not getting their checks, the impact that is going to have on our businesses and on our economy. But it does not end there.…”