Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I think this is my first time in a long time of having a magic 1 minute, so I have some things to say. I was on the Appropriations Committee for 23 years. I came here in 1981. Between 1981 and 1995, we had 10 shutdowns. Those 10 shutdowns averaged 1.9 days a shutdown. The longest one was 3 days. They were because of differences, not because of a strategy. In 1995, Newt Gingrich adopted shutting down government as a strategy, as a taking hostage not only of Federal employees, but taking hostage of the American Government and taking hostage of everyone who is served on a daily basis by the Federal Government. The reason I know it is a strategy is because it has happened a number of times. The next one, long-term, was in 2013, when Ted Cruz, a United States Senator, came over here and talked to a number of Members and said: Unless the President will repeal the Affordable Care Act, we are not going to fund the government. In other words, unless the President didn't take healthcare away from Americans, the Republicans would take government services away from Americans and hold hostage the Government of the United States.…”