Elizabeth Furse: “I rise today against this closed rule. This is just another example of this 2-year experiment, which we have to call the…”

“I rise today against this closed rule. This is just another example of this 2-year experiment, which we have to call the Republican control of Congress. I think in order to evaluate this experiment, we need certain things. We need to look at issues and numbers. The first issue is priorities. This Republican Congress wants to cut $3 billion this year from education. Another number, 22. It has decided, this Republican Congress, to cut 22 percent of the environmental protection moneys. That is the protection for health for our children. Another issue, failures. Another number, 11. This Republican Congress has tried to shut down the Government, or actually failed to keep the Government going, 11 times. Now, in 208 years, that has never happened before. The U.S. Congress has never threatened to shut down the Government 11 times. Another failure is five, and another number, five. That is the number of appropriations bills from last year that have not yet been passed this year. Value, what about value? Well, there is the number 133,000. That is what Members of Congress get paid in order to run the Government, in order to do their job. Well, I would say that the Republican majority has not been able to do its job, so I would say that the American public really has not got their money's worth from this Republican control of Congress.”