David Obey: “The fact is that before the government was shut down 2 years ago, on 14 separate occasions the leadership of the…”

“The fact is that before the government was shut down 2 years ago, on 14 separate occasions the leadership of the majority party was quoted as saying it intended to shut the government down if that was necessary in order to require the President to bend to their will on major matters affecting the future of this country. The public understands that. With all due respect to the gentleman, he has taken a bath on that issue, and I think the public understands what happened, and I do not see any reason to get into that any more. What we are trying to talk about is tomorrow, not yesterday. But I simply wanted to make that point because the rhetoric that is being used today is the same rhetoric that was being used against the President 2 years ago. It is not going to be believed by the American public today any more than it was 2 years ago. And I think the sooner we get away from that and get on with the business of government, the better off we will be.”