David Obey: “Mr. Speaker, today we will consider legislation that represents a retreat by the extremist wing of the Gingrich…”

“Mr. Speaker, today we will consider legislation that represents a retreat by the extremist wing of the Gingrich Republicans. Their agenda was to punish old people, punish children, punish veterans, and others by holding this Government hostage. Today, after relentless and rightful pounding public pressure, they are sounding retreat and some Federal workers will go back to work. This is a curious piece of legislation. The Republicans' strange strategy of shutting down the Government has been followed by an even stranger strategy of bringing employees back to work but not giving them the operating funds to do their jobs. They are going to pay Federal employees now to do nothing. Once again, the American people and the American taxpayers lose. My Republican colleagues' strategy to link the budget to shutting down the Government failed, and now, quite frankly, they are scrambling. It failed because the values of these extreme Republicans do not represent the values of the American people, neither on a shutdown of the Government nor on the issue of the balanced budget. The American people believe that we must balance the budget, but only if we protect Medicare and Medicaid, education and the environment, and not provide one of the biggest tax breaks in this Government's history to the wealthiest Americans.”