Willie Hefner: “I doubt very seriously if, during this campaign, if the people, who were campaigning as Republicans had said what we…”

“I doubt very seriously if, during this campaign, if the people, who were campaigning as Republicans had said what we plan to do is to cut inspection in the workplace where people work, on the safety, and we are going to cut some of that and we are going to cut back on the inspectors for our safe water, we are going to cut back on the EPA, we are going to cut back on the funding for the FDA and all the other institutions and agencies that protect the food and water and air that we breathe, that we are so dependent on, I doubt very seriously if there had been the outpouring of support for the Contract With America. But there are a couple of points that I would like to make, and as I said earlier, this is not just inconveniencing Government workers. One of the Presidential candidates made, I thought, a very crass remark when he said, 'Have you missed the Government since they have been furloughed?' I mean, you are talking families, people that have children, people that have maybe their aging parents that are living with them, maybe people that are trying to support a foster child or whatever. But there is one other area that is being very devastated to the American people, and you have thousands, thousands of people that would like to make applications for their Social Security, for Social Security disability, veterans' benefits, our VA hospitals.…”