Senator Warren Speaks About the Shutdown and Why Government Matters
Video of the Senator's remarks is available here
Full text of the Senator's remarks is available here
WASHINGTON, DC - In remarks on the floor of the United States Senate Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke about the consequences of the Republican shutdown, and why government matters to the American people.
"The anarchy gang is quick to malign government, but when was the last time anyone called for regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in children's toys? Or for food inspectors to stop checking whether the meat in our grocery stores is crawling with deadly bacteria? Or for the FDA to ignore whether morning sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in our little babies?
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"In our democracy, government is not some make believe thing that has an independent will of its own. In our democracy, government is just how we describe all of the things that ‘we the people' have already decided to do together.
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"You can do your best to make the government look like it doesn't work when you stop it from working. You can do your best to make government look paralyzed when you paralyze it. You can do your best to make the government look incompetent through your own incompetence and ineffective through your own ineffectiveness.
"But sooner or later, this government will re-open. Because this is a democracy, and this democracy has already rejected your views. We have already chosen to do these things together, because we all know that we are stronger when we come together. And when this government re-opens, when our markets are again safe, when our scientists can return to their research, when our small businesses can borrow, when our veterans can be respected for their service, when our flu shots resume and our Head Start programs get back to teaching our kids, we will have rejected your views once again.
"We are not a country of anarchists. We are not a country of pessimists and ideologues whose motto is, ‘I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own.' We are not a country that tolerates dangerous drugs, unsafe meat, dirty air, or toxic mortgages. We are not that nation. We have never been that nation. And we never will be that nation."
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