On the recordOctober 13, 2013
It is the same in Montana as it is in Oregon and Alaska. Particularly startup businesses and entrepreneurs who have a great idea are holding back because they don't want to get into a situation where they start investing money and interest rates go through the roof and they are not able to fulfill the dream they have which would also create jobs and grow more economy. We are getting very close to October 17. The longer we play with this, there will be a point in time where the damage that will be done will take a very long time to rebuild. I think now is the time--in fact, hopefully tomorrow--to get a commonsense agreement on the Senate floor to open the government and deal with the debt limit in a way that makes sense for this country and makes sense for the world because it will not only have an impact here, but it will have an impact around the world. We are seeing businesses in our States that are not investing right now. They are holding off at this point. They were starting to invest. So it is very unfortunate. We are playing with fire, and we should not be doing that. We should be working to build the economy, not to try to contract it.
