Nick Rahall: “Nobody in this House has wanted the government to shut down, as it has today. Indeed, Speaker Boehner himself predicted…”

“Nobody in this House has wanted the government to shut down, as it has today. Indeed, Speaker Boehner himself predicted no government shutdown several months ago and was holding by that--until he became hijacked by a certain element of his party. In May of 2007, President George Bush was President, the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate, and 140 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to defund the Iraq war. In September of the same year, Congress voted to increase the debt limit. Now imagine if Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had threatened to breach the debt limit unless the Republicans agreed to defund the Iraq war. At that time, approval of the Iraq war was polled at 33 percent in favor and 64 percent against. So today is a sad day, in view of the fact that our government has shut down. It's a sad day for workers across this country--especially government workers. Those on the extreme right are happy about it. We read their quotes every day in the press. Michele Bachmann said: We're very excited. It's exactly what we want. We got it. Another Member on the majority side from Texas said: Let's roll. Let's go for it. It's a sad day. ____________________”