Nita Lowey: “Just briefly I would like to respond to my good friend from Georgia, because he asks a very key question: Should we not…”

“Just briefly I would like to respond to my good friend from Georgia, because he asks a very key question: Should we not be focused on the balanced budget rather than the shutdown. And I think that is what my colleagues and I are saying this evening. Let us open the Government. Let us make sure these people go back to work. Let us make sure that the Head Start centers and the Meals on Wheels and the nutrition sites and the parks and the businesses continue operating and let us focus together on the balanced budget. I think many of us would have differences of opinion if we took the Republican budget and talked about specific parts of it, I do not think that is what we are doing tonight, or talked about the President's budget, talked about his forecast for the next 7 years or the next 6 years, or 5 years. In fact, there was an outstanding article in the Wall Street Journal, I believe most of us have read it, talking about the Republican budget and how its predictions are questionable, and what happens after the 7th year, and does the deficit rise, and should a tax cut of that magnitude be put in place. There are some real questions that I think we could debate in a healthy, open way. So I would like to just say to my good friend from Georgia, let us just focus on the balanced budget. Let us have a healthy debate about Medicare, Medicaid. The President wants to preserve Medicare, Medicaid.”