Sheila Jackson Lee: “My good friend from Oklahoma--and he is a good friend. We have seen each other often in the Rules Committee-- protests…”

“My good friend from Oklahoma--and he is a good friend. We have seen each other often in the Rules Committee-- protests too much. This is not a bill, and the American people should know that it is not a bill. It is an affirmation of the inability of Republicans to govern. Republicans have the Presidency, the Senate, and the House. A few months ago, their President indicated that we need a good, beautiful government shutdown. Those are not my words. Those are the words of the President of the United States. This is not an appropriations bill. This is a stopgap emergency method in order to save ourselves from collapse. That is the Republican's responsibility. Democrats, so many months ago, passed a budget, as a member of the Budget Committee, a budget that respected the needs of all Americans, including the United States Department of Defense. It provided funding for ordinary men and women who put on the uniform, some of them on food stamps. It provided for veterans health. It provided for the children's health insurance. It provided for infrastructure, and it provided for ensuring that Americans could have good healthcare. That was the Democrat's budget. The Republican budget was a $2.4 trillion, and counting, cut to the needs of the American people. It threatened Medicaid and Medicare, quite contrary to Democrats.…”