the administration behind closed doors, the shutdown can go on as long as it wants because it s politically advantageous. there are no winners here. every day it s shut down, it does real harm to the american people, and you need to step back and look at where we are as a country and kmaen. the united states has been fighting its way out of a recession since the great depression. if you re a parent relying on head start or somebody looking for medical care or a government agency that needs intelligence, they need to open the government up. they could do it today. you mentioned republicans have passed a series of bills in the house to fund parts of the government such as fema, such as the va. why not take them up on that off offer? it just doesn t work. they need to open up the whole government. you can t cherry pick an item here, an item there. there are too many important things the federal government does, and they need to open it up, and they could because a majority is ready
does, and they need to open it up, and they could because a majority is ready to do it. i started out my career in washington working on the hill. i worked for speaker o neal. he said the one thing the american people won t tolerate is obstructionism. the majority needs to be given a chance to work as well. as you know, we are facing a more potentially disastrous deadline, october 17 for the nation s borrowing limit for the debt ceiling to be raised lest the country default on its obligations. let me put this to you very, very clearly. is october 17 also the day the country defaults? let me be clear. we actually hit the debt limit in may. from may until this week, we ve been using what are called extraordinary measures to create a bit of additional headroom. on tuesday i informed congress that i had used the final extraordinary measures, there are no more. we are now limited to the borrowing capacity we have today. on october 17, we will exhaust our borrowing capacity.
long as it wants because it s politically advantageous. there are no winners here. every day it s shut down, it does real harm to the american people, and you need to step back and look at where we are as a country and kmaen. the united states has been fighting its way out of a recession since the great depression. if you re a parent relying on head start or somebody looking for medical care or a government agency that needs intelligence, they need to open the government up. they could do it today. you mentioned republicans have passed a series of bills in the house to fund parts of the government such as fema, such as the va. why not take them up on that off offer? it just doesn t work. they need to open up the whole government. you can t cherry pick an item here, an item there. there are too many important things the federal government does, and they need to open it up, and they could because a majority is ready to do it. i started out my career in washington working on the hil