On the recordSeptember 28, 2013
I have one basic question: What are we doing here? I mean just that. What are we really doing here? Each day we talk about problems, problems, the real problems that face our country that are fixable with compromise and clearheaded solutions. Each day, this Chamber does nothing to overcome those challenges in front of us. Each day, the American people think we can't sink any lower or be any more dysfunctional. Right now, there's talk about passing a 1-week budget to simply provide the time for elected officials--people charged with running the government of this great Nation of ours--to get along for enough time to pass yet another extension. Say it isn't so. One week. There are lemonade stands with better budgeting practices than what we have seen in this body in the past 2 years. This is unacceptable, this is absurd, and it certainly is not what the American people deserve from any layer of government, especially their Federal Government. Let's get this done. Let's pass a budget, a budget that cuts where we can, that invests where we must, that grows jobs, and ends the painful consequences of sequestration. The absolute misery here is that all of this dysfunction could have been avoided. We could have avoided the reach to yet another kicking of the can down the road if we would come together at the conference table and do a real budget. We could reach through a budget process; we could reach to regular order.…
