READ: Gosar, Grijalva Comments On Avoiding Shutdown; Arizona's Delegation Votes For The Short-Term CR

Arizona's House delegation all voted to approve the last-minute deal to avoid the federal government shutdown. The House vote last night was 348-70.  Within an hour, Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-CD7) and Paul Gosar (R-CD1) had sent out news releases with their reactions.

Grijalva:  “I was glad to get the call to cast this vote, and I’m glad the government will continue normal operations. A shutdown would do drastic, immediate damage to our national economy and federal work force. No amount of ideological posturing is worth the pain it would have caused, and Congress is right to pass this budget resolution.


This process has been marked by House Republicans’ refusal to negotiate in good faith, and our government should never be brought to the edge of a shutdown for partisan reasons. Rather than laying out a reasonable position and compromising for the good of the country, Speaker Boehner spent weeks posturing for the benefit of his Tea Party base and refused Democratic offers that went beyond his demands. Threatening hundreds of thousands of working Americans with furloughs to make a political point is not leadership. The country deserves more.

This kind of brinksmanship is hardly inspiring, and while I cast my vote tonight to keep the government running until next Thursday, I am reserving judgment on any longer-term deal until the full details emerge. I regret that this vote was not on a full six-month proposal, because short-term resolutions are a poor way to run a government. I look forward to a more reasonable conversation in the coming days about a long-term deal than the conversation that took place over this last week.”

And, from the other side of the aisle:

Gosar:  “I voted for this continuing resolution H.R. 1463 so we can continue to fund our brave men and women fighting overseas to defend our freedom. However, I am very disappointed in the lack of leadership from the Senate and the Administration and their unwillingness to make serious spending cuts. I look forward to continuing the fight against this outlandish deficit spending in the upcoming budget and debt ceiling debates.


“The cuts made with the continuing resolutions are nearly four times greater than any cuts made in American History, but it only slows the bleeding. This is not a solution to our deficit spending. The budget for the bureaucrats in Washington needs to be on par with the budgets of the people of the first district who have been tightening their belts and doing more with less for years. We can claim a victory for the American people by now framing our future discussions on spending cuts, getting our financial house in order and Americans back to work. “

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