John Sarbanes: “we have witnessed over the last few weeks an unprecedented effort to use a coercive tactic in order to achieve a…”

“we have witnessed over the last few weeks an unprecedented effort to use a coercive tactic in order to achieve a particular substantive result--in my judgment, a totally irresponsible and outrageous tactic; and, this is, to hold Government hostage by closing it down and, therefore, not only depriving the Federal workers of the opportunity to render service but depriving the American people of the service which they render. And I am going to develop here in a moment the impact this is having in the private sector. There is a tendency to think primarily about the Federal workers who cannot come to work and cannot get paid. And that is true, and that is creating a tremendous hardship and tremendous crisis in many, many families all across the country. But a similar crisis is being created in the private sector which interrelates with the Government in terms of its economic activity. The Government ought to be allowed to go about its normal activities while this struggle and debate over a 7-year budget plan takes place. There are very important fundamental differences over that budget plan. Very deep cuts in Medicare are proposed by some. There is strong resistance to that. At the same time, those who want the deep cuts in Medicare want to give large tax breaks.…”