DPCC Co-Chair Debbie Dingell: Shutdown is Harming Hard-Working Americans and the Economy
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on Meet the Press Daily with Chuck Toddon MSNBC to discuss the government shutdown and its impact on working Americans and critical services across the country. Below are excerpts from the interview. Clickhere to watch the video.
"I've been in regular contact talking with people all week about how this is impacting them, but when you sit with people not getting their paycheck today and how scared they are, when they have a real world discussion about how it's impacting their personal lives and jobs that aren't getting done. You're going to see it happen across the country. I hope to God we see a change next week in attitudes."
"Before Christmas, the Senate voted 98-2 to fund six departments and open the government for several weeks, which is what Lindsey Graham tried to do before the President shut him down. I spoke to him for two hours last night. The House voted to reopen those departments, fund them through the rest of the year, and give us an extension for a few weeks on Homeland Security. We need to stop putting public servants in the middle of all this. Reopen the government back into regular order and have a discussion to get this done. There isn't anyone I know on either side that doesn't care about national security. We need to reopen the government, it is simply inexcusable right now."
"He has taken hostages, but the fact of the mater these are human beings that need to be able to make a mortgage payment. They're worried that their credit rating will go down…To me, this is a human issue. I care about every one of those government workers that are not getting paid, who are scared to death about how they're going to live, and by the way we should care about the services not getting performed. From keeping us safe in the skies, to food being inspected, to social security complaints, to people having housing issues, to food stamps, the list is endless. So yes he has taken us hostage and we can't let him do that…let's get back into regular order, we all care about national security, let's negotiate but what is happening right now is just not okay."
"If people's heart and souls are not being touched by this by the end of the weekend, I worry about if this a representative democracy."
"Real people are like get in the room, figure this out, do something – and so we have to do something…I'm hoping that we're going to start to see movement at the beginning of next week."