Pete Ricketts: “earlier today, we heard about an offer from the minority leader. It shows just how unserious he and the Democrats are.…”

“earlier today, we heard about an offer from the minority leader. It shows just how unserious he and the Democrats are. That offer is full of horse hockey. It has things in it that Republicans cannot accept, and he knows it. My colleague from Michigan, the Democrat from Michigan, was just talking about power because that is what it is about. He mentioned power. A number of other folks have talked about leverage. They need to have this shutdown for leverage. A number of Democrats have said this. But what I am here today to talk about are people; not leverage, not power--people--air traffic controllers. These are letters that I have received from air traffic controllers--handwritten letters--that are talking about what they are going through right now because of the minority leader's shutdown. Let me just read you some of these. My wife suffers from a chronic autoimmune disease that without her medication would cripple her. Our monthly copay for her specialty medication is $2,800 a month. We have less than 2 weeks before her next round of medication is due. Our situation is not sustainable even with pulling money from our savings. That was from one of our air traffic controllers in Nebraska. Here is another one: Each shutdown gets harder than the last. The mental stress of the unknown gets harder each time. With my growing family and medical bills for my family, it gets harder every time.…”