David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, the Government did not shut down 2 years ago because of some unhappy accident of governance. The…”

“Mr. Chairman, the Government did not shut down 2 years ago because of some unhappy accident of governance. The Government was shut down because a number of willful Members indicated well ahead of time that it was their intention to do just that, to shut the Government down to make the President of the United States bend to their will. That is why the Government shut down. If we do not want the Government shut down, then we simply have to behave more responsibly than the behavior that we saw 2 years ago. I find it amazing that in 1960, about 60 percent of all Government programs were discretionary. That meant you could think about them. Today, the discretionary portion of the budget has declined to about 30 percent. And the practical effect of this amendment, if it is adopted, will be to produce a situation in which we have zero portion of the Federal budget which is discretionary. What this amendment says is that it rewards inaction by the Congress. It rewards lack of hard choices by the Congress. And it says that if we do not make choices and do not get an appropriation bill passed, that every program in that bill winds up being funded at last year's level.”