The following video is from earlier this afternoon at Gravelly Point in Arlington, next to National Airport (you can hear the planes taking off). In the press conference, Rep. Gerry Connolly and Rep. Jim Moran, plus Virginia’s next Governor Terry McAuliffe, denounced the Tea Party-led government shutdown, and demanded that Ken Cuccinelli condemn his Tea Party allies in Congress for using the threat of a government shutdown as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations and against “Obamacare” (which they are obsessed with, despite the fact that it was passed through Congress, signed into law, deemed constitutional, an issue in the 2012 elections – which Democrats won resoundingly, etc.). The potential consequences if Congress fails to act are that the government will shut down at midnight Monday, which could seriously hurt Virginia’s and the country’s economies. For what?!? Because Republicans can’t accept a duly-passed/signed/approved-by-the-Supreme-Court law?!?
A few key points from the press conference:
*Rep. Connolly said Republicans have “recklessly decided to hold the entire country hostage until they get what they want” on the duly-enacted LAW colloquially known as “Obamacare.”
*Connolly added that the economic consequences of a Tea Party-caused government shutdown “would be catastrophic,” particularly here in Virginia.
*Connolly: “We have a clear choice in this election on November 5. We have somebody who works well with everybody, somebody who’s willing to reach across the aisle and work with anybody willing to work, and that’s Terry McAuliffe. On the other hand we have somebody who is a member of the same club that thinks shutting down the government or defaulting on the sovereign credit of the United States is a tactic and the consequences be damned; someone who has put ideology ahead of the economy consistently as the Attorney General…somebody who has spent his time trying to ferret out researchers because he doesn’t like the product; somebody who would turn this Commonwealth back…who would hand it over to a small band of ideologues…that’s Ken Cuccinelli.”
*Connolly concluded that the Republican ticket is the most extreme in the history of Virginia, and he hopes “they get what they deserve at the ballot box on November 5.” He strongly endorsed Democrats Terry McAuliffe, Ralph Northam and Mark Herring.
*Rep. Moran said Terry McAuliffe wants to move things forward, he’s a “pragmatist” who will do what “executive leadership needs to do.” In contrast, Moran said that McAuliffe is running against somebody “who epitomizes what’s wrong with Washington.”
*Moran said “if you like Ted Cruz, you’re going to love Ken Cuccinelli.” Amazingly, Cuccinelli has asked Cruz to campaign for him next week.
*Moran: “So, Ted Cruz is going to have to take a little time off from trying to shut down the government, putting hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of business…that’s what he’s about.”
*Moran noted that Cuccinelli wouldn’t use the Affordable Care Act to enable 400,000 Virginians to be able to get health care coverage by expanding the Medicaid program (with 100% federal funding).
*Moran: “We don’t need Cruz and Cuccinelli steering this state into the far-right corners of American policy…unwilling to compromise…while they serve themselves, their own ambitions, they dis-serve the public that they were elected to serve.”
*Terry McAuliffe said “Virginia’s economic health can not be collateral damage from the Tea Party’s ideological war…Everyone agrees that a government shouldn’t be risked in negotiations, everyone EXCEPT Ken Cuccinelli and the Tea Party.”
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