the length hour. i m pleased to announce the washington monument as well as the entire federal government will be open for business. after one summit after another. we re not going to rollover. not on other watch, no way, no how. we just say no. in the end, two seemingly uncompromising parties found the middle ground and sealed the deal. senator reid and i and the white house have been able to come to an agreement that will in fact cut spending and keep our government open. we didn t do it at the late hour for drama. we did it because it was very hard to arrive at this point. the shutdown had already begun. tourists at museum were already ushered out. vacationers would have been out of luck at national park. yellowstone would have gone black and the lady with the torch in new york, she would not have been welcoming anyone for a while. for government workers it meant no paycheck, for front line troops and families that would mean fight now and get paid late
hour for drama but we did it because it was very hard to arrive at this point. it went down to wire with republicans to get more spending cuts and strip spending for planned parenthood. in the end they gave up on planned parenthood but forced the democrats to cut more billions. it s a level of spending cuts democrats have previously called draconian and extreme. some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful. programs will be cut back. earlier in the day, a war of words raged and all sides prepared for a shutdown. it is ridiculous. we re not going to rollover. not on our watch, no way. we just say no. the sniping went late into the evening before a breakthrough. we have agreed to the cuts. the house approved a stopgap measure to keep the government funded until thursday. it was a sigh of relief for federal workers and those waiting for tax refunds. a lot of people are working people and they depend on that. i m a single mom and i depend on it, as well.