to my submitted note to him on his website, since he's my Representative.
Offered without comment, in its entirety.
Dear Erich:
Thank you for contacting me about the shutdown of the federal government that began on October 1 after the Democratic-controlled Senate four times rejected measures passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives that would keep the federal government running and provide fairness for all Americans under President Obama's controversial health care law. It is good to hear from you.
When the shutdown began, I promptly sent a letter to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the House of Representatives requesting that my salary be withheld for the duration of the shutdown. Many of my colleagues in the House have done the same.
My position for months has been unchanged: overwhelmingly, the American people have voiced that they do not want a government shutdown, and they do not want the president's health care law, which is driving up health care costs and making it harder for small businesses to hire workers. This has been clear to me for many months as I've traveled not only through our congressional district, but through congressional districts across the country.
During the month of August, with the implementation date for the health care law approaching, public outrage about the law took on a renewed urgency, with many citizens in our district and across the country urging that Congress move to defund the law through the appropriations process, which funds the federal government. The Democratic leaders of the Senate ignored those pleas. But after returning in September and discussing the matter, I and my colleagues in the House made the decision that we were going to listen to our constituents. We decided to take up legislation that would fund the entire federal government except ObamaCare, and press the president and his Senate for a much-needed conversation about ways to provide fairness for all Americans under the health care law.
On September 20, 2013, House Republicans approved H.J.Res. 59, a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through December 15, 2013 and remove funding for the president's health care law. Unfortunately, the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected the measure as passed by the House and sent it back to the House stripped of any provisions to address many Americans' concerns about the health care law.
My colleagues in the House and I then decided to try a modified approach, believing it might be easier for our Senate Democratic colleagues to accept. On September 28, 2013, working late on a Saturday night in an effort to keep the government running, the House passed a measure to keep the government funded, delay ObamaCare for one year, and permanently repeal the 2.3 percent medical device tax on items such as pacemakers and children's hearing aids that started January 1, 2013 as a result of the president's health care law. Unfortunately, this effort was dismissed by the Senate as well. In an act of breathtaking arrogance, Senate Democratic leaders sat on the House-passed measure for more than 24 hours, refusing to take it up until the afternoon of Monday, September 30, running down the clock until just hours before a government shutdown. On Monday afternoon, with a shutdown imminent, Senate Majority Leader Reid then stripped the bill of its health care amendments without debate, and again sent the bill back to the House shorn of any provisions to address Americans' concerns about the health care law.
My colleagues in the House and I then decided to try yet another approach, built on a position that in July had received bipartisan support in the House. On September 30, 2013, the House passed yet another measure to keep the government running, this time with two alternative ObamaCare-related amendments. One would require Members of Congress, congressional staff, and political appointees (including White House staff) to enroll in the ObamaCare insurance exchanges without an employer subsidy for coverage. The other, patterned on a measure that had passed the House in July 2013 with the support of 22 House Democrats, would delay ObamaCare's individual mandate in order to provide all Americans with the same relief the president has given big businesses.
Unfortunately, as with the previous attempts by the House to keep the government running while addressing many Americans' concerns about the health care law, Senator Reid again stripped out the health care amendments without debate and sent the bill back to the House without any provisions to address those concerns.
Finally, in the late hours of September 30, 2013, with the government facing a lapse of appropriations at midnight, the House sent a fourth volley over to Senator Reid and his colleagues in the Senate, this time with a request for a formal conversation (or "conference committee") with the Senate to keep the government running and resolve the differences between the two chambers. Senator Reid immediately rejected that measure as well, sending the federal government into shutdown.
While reasonable people can disagree with each other over whether the government funding measure was the ideal moment tactically for a battle over the health care law, the fact of the matter is that many Americans were and are demanding that their legislators take a stand. Since the massive health reform legislation was signed into law in March 2010, it has continued to hurt our economy by raising health care costs, jeopardizing coverage for millions of Americans, and making it harder for small businesses to hire new workers. The law ushers in an immense expansion of government with roughly 160 new boards, bureaus, and commissions. According to the House Committee on Ways & Means, it includes $1 trillion in new taxes and more than $2 trillion in new spending.
Congress has passed, and President Obama himself has signed into law, seven bills that dismantle unworkable provisions of his health care law to protect our economy and save taxpayers billions of dollars. With ObamaCare proving to be a "train wreck," the president's insistence on steamrolling ahead with this massive program is irresponsible. We must provide American families basic fairness and the same exemptions from the law that big businesses have already been granted.
The American people don't want their government shut down, and neither do I. It's time for the president and Senate Democrats to come to the negotiating table and drop their "my-way-or-the-highway" approach that gave us this shutdown. As outlined above, the House has passed four bills to keep the government open and bring fairness to everyone under ObamaCare. Even after the Senate's four rejections, the House has repeatedly asked to sit down with President Obama and Senate Democrats to begin a meaningful conversation. The answer continues to be a very clear "no." The Democrats who run Washington are on record admitting that it "doesn't really matter" to them how long the government is shut down because, in the White House's view, they are "winning." As I've said many times, this is not a game. Shutting the government down is a no-win situation that will not be fixed until both sides are able to sit down and work out their differences.
Because of the Democratic-controlled Senate's refusal to discuss these differences in order to keep the government running, House Republicans have sent bill after bill to the Senate to keep critical parts of the government running. Senate Democrats have rejected or refused to vote on all but one – a bill the House passed on September 29, 2013 that ensures our troops will be paid in the event of a government shutdown (H.R. 3210). I am pleased the Senate recognized the importance of that bill and passed it; however, the House has since passed thirteen additional measures to keep other vital parts of the government running and Senate Democrats have chosen to stonewall every single one of them, allowing their shutdown to continue hurting hardworking Americans. The thirteen House-passed bills are:
Pay Our Guard and Reserve Act (H.R. 3230);
Honoring Families of Fallen Soldiers (H.J.Res. 91);
Honoring Our Promise to America's Veterans Act (H.J.Res. 72);
Research for Lifesaving Cures Act (H.J.Res. 73);
Head Start for Low-Income Children Act (H.J.Res. 84);
Open Our Nation's Parks and Museums Act (H.J.Res. 70);
Flight Safety Act (H.J.Res. 90);
National Emergency and Disaster Recovery Act (H.J.Res. 85);
Nutrition Assistance for Low-Income Women and Children Act (H.J.Res. 75);
Food and Drug Safety Act (H.J.Res.77);
Provide Local Funding for the District of Columbia Act (H.J.Res.71);
Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act (H.R. 3223); and
Federal Worker Pay Fairness Act (H.J.Res. 89).
I urge you to visit http://www.speaker.gov/... to learn more about the legislation the House has passed to not only avoid a government shutdown, but also to provide essential funding during the shutdown.
On top of the government funding debate, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned congressional leaders that the Treasury will exhaust emergency borrowing measures no later than Oct. 17, 2013. The simple truth is - the federal government spends too much. For four straight years under President Obama, the federal government spent a trillion dollars more than it took in. We have a national debt that is more than $16 trillion and climbing every second, and our children and grandchildren will be stuck with the bill. That is more than $52,000 for every man, woman, and child. This year, the federal government will have more revenue than any year in the history of our country, and yet we're still going to have a nearly $700 billion budget deficit. It is time Washington gets serious about its spending problem.
Similar to conversations regarding the government shutdown, the president has said he will not negotiate on spending cuts in order to raise the debt limit. However, negotiating on spending and the debt limit is not a new occurrence. In the 1980s, President Reagan negotiated with Democrats who controlled Congress. In the 1990s, President Clinton was at the helm of three fights over the debt limit. Even President Obama himself went through a negotiation in 2011. Now, he's saying he will not negotiate this time around. In fact, senior White House staff has said the president would rather default on our debt than to sit down and negotiate. The nation's credit is at risk – simply because he refuses to engage in a discussion.
When our nation is in a time of crisis, the American people expect that their elected leaders will sit down to work out their differences. Despite the many times President Obama and Senate Democrats have said they will refuse to work with House Republicans, I assure you we will continue our efforts to urge them to come to the table to find viable solutions to the issues our nation is facing.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please don't hesitate to inform me of your concerns in the future. To sign up for email updates, I invite you to visit my website at http://johnboehner.house.gov.
Sincerely,
John A. Boehner
Member of Congress