Thomas Foley: “I, too, want to get this Government back working. You know, we have a lot of debate and a lot of rhetoric up here about…”

“I, too, want to get this Government back working. You know, we have a lot of debate and a lot of rhetoric up here about a balanced budget. Yes, that, indeed, is one of my most important goals as a Member of the 104th Congress, to get a balanced budget, but I do not take any pride in doing it when we are talking about workers who work for this Government, who come to work to serve our veterans, who come to work to serve every average American in this country, and some Members of Congress act as if their jobs do not matter, as if they should not be paid, and we will keep this thing shut down until we get the President to blink. Ladies and gentlemen, we know the President has had a chance to produce a budget for us that shows deficits from 1996 of $196 to $209 billion in the year 2005. That is Congressional Budget Office numbers that suggest we will never get to under the prior 10-year budget plan for deficit reduction during the Clinton presidency or anyone who follows. The bottom line is: Why are we holding employees hostage of Government? There are people that have mortgage payments to pay, there are people that have to feet their families. So I think it is appropriate that, as we are standing on this floor tonight, Members of the Republican Conference are coming up with a strategy hopefully to reopen and put those people back to work.”