Quote

A lot of nasty things were said about me in my own party about my unwillingness to demand the government shutdown.

During the Reagan years, government shut down eight different times under a Democrat Congress. The president and Congress worked together and got things straightened out. Under the Carter years, again a Democrat Congress, the government shut down five times.

A government shutdown is inexcusable.

Too many of my Senate colleagues overdid it. They stayed on too long - napping through committee hearings when they should have packed up and gone home.

Our constituents did not send us to Washington to shut down the government. They sent us here to make it more accountable.

Ever since I came to Congress in 1992, there are those who have been trying to silence my voice. I've been told to 'sit down and shut up' over and over again. Well, I won't sit down and I won't shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people.

I don't want a government shutdown. I don't think anyone does.

The consequence of shutting down the government was not healthy.

Shutting down the government is not how you make government work.

I think it was absolutely a mistake for President Obama and Harry Reid to force a government shutdown.