Thomas Daschle: “while I agree that it is right to deal with the problems facing the District of Columbia, there should be no…”

“while I agree that it is right to deal with the problems facing the District of Columbia, there should be no misunderstanding about the current situation. There are hundreds and hundreds of problems that are being created almost on a daily basis that have not been dealt with. Veterans are again in the same position they were prior to Christmas. If something is not done prior to the end of this month, veterans will not receive their disability checks. If something is not done before the end of this month, AFDC recipients will not have their checks. If something is not done before the end of this month, 260,000 Federal workers will have been out of work for an entire month. And the taxpayers are paying $40 million a day for this to occur. How ironic can it be? The irony certainly must be apparent to every one of the people involved. How ironic that at the very time we are dealing with the budget, trying to find some resolution to the deficit, we are creating through this irresponsible Government shutdown a $40 million deficit unnecessarily each and every day. It is just outrageous. The Senate has, through leadership of the majority leader and colleagues on both sides of the aisle, come to terms with this. We passed the continuing resolution. That issue is over and done with.”