Rep. Kelly Discusses Government Shutdown on CNN’s “Crossfire”
WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) appeared on CNN’s “Crossfire” yesterday evening to discuss the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government and efforts by the House of Representatives to fund substantial parts of the government while delaying the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The program also featured Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).
Highlights from Rep. Kelly’s remarks:
“Our conference is made up of a lot of different people and diverse personalities and they have different views on things. I admire the Speaker for allowing everybody in our conference to get up and say what they have to say and then try to come together on something. And I think the one thing about this that was lost in the debate is it’s not about either party. The unforgotten party here is the American people. And so we say, ‘So what’s best for the American people? As we go forward, what’s best for the American people?’”
“I think the founders were very clear from the beginning. You can have legislation — some of the legislation’s not good, so they’ve given us different mechanisms to try and push back on things that we don’t think are basically fair. And fair to me means… nobody gets favor over somebody else. … I’m talking about almost everything we do in government because government cannot pick and choose winners. What they should do is pick and choose the best thing for America.”
“I have never met a member yet that I thought was not a good American. … I agree that we have a process that allows everybody to be heard. Now, we’ll see where it goes from there. And dealing in hypotheticals is always fun, but is not often factual.”
“My whole life, I’m an automobile dealer, and I know how to negotiate because that’s the way that I’ve stayed alive. But I’ve never ever gone into a room to compromise with somebody when the first thing out of their mouth is, ‘Just to let you know, I’m not compromising on anything.’”
“I have constituents calling me: Melissa called me today talking about her and her daughter Riley who can no longer afford the health care that they had and were paying themselves. Now, she started a business, on her own; her daughter’s working in a supermarket. She bought her own healthcare. It was $70 a month — it’s going to triple now. And all these things that we’ve talked about: ‘If you like the health care you’re on, you can keep it’ — not true. It’s going to reduce your monthly premium’ — not true.”
“I just say this: Look, do I want to compromise? I absolutely want to compromise. I’ve not talked to one member who’s relishing the thought that this country is shut down right now. And we are trying to do, on a piecemeal basis, as items come across, we will find ways to fund them. I just find it objectionable when people say, ‘You know what? No, no, no, no. All or nothing. All or nothing. You guys lost. The law was passed.’”
“Judge Roberts was very, very articulate when he said, ‘Look, it’s [Obamacare] constitutional. We can’t prevent the people from electing legislators that pass bad laws.’ But the founders gave us mechanisms that we can push back on and when we see something that’s … wrong, when we see something that’s not going to achieve what it was supposed to achieve. Then that’s our job. We have to do that as legislators, and we have to meet and we have to talk civilly.”
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve never seen anybody that has … more respect for the House [than Speaker Boehner]. Now, that wasn’t true… we could take this back one more session and you can find out before the wave election, when Ms. Pelosi was in charge, there was no discussion. There was no debate. There was no, ‘Let’s get the other side’s point of view.’”
“Speaker Boehner has been very good to let everybody come forward – the process, the committee work – and bring amendments. You know what? That’s the design. This government wasn’t designed to just go all one way or the other. This is not a monarchy.”
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