Republican extremism has impacted me in this way: I am a technical writer/editor for the U.S . Geological Survey in Tacoma (I live in your district in Seattle and commute to Tacoma) who has been furloughed as a result of the shutdown. This is already causing financial hardship on my family--my wife and daughter. And all this after having been laid off from a much higher paying job of 16 years two years ago and being unemployed for 6 months before getting my current U.S. Geological Survey job.

Republican extremism has impacted me in this way: I have family members who are out of work with student loans to pay back and no money for rent.

I am in your district. I started this petition to tell you what I feel about Republican extremism. I feel you are a hostage of the Tea Party at best--at worse you are willing to shut down the country to prevent good American citizens from having access to health care. I am a hard working person. I have spent some of my life without health insurance and it is very scary. You enjoy the best of health care--better than Obamacare, you do not allow your loved ones to face a health crisis without medical care. Yet you shut down our country to deny other good citizens any coverage at all--not for them, not for their spouses and not for their children. That is a sad and shameful action to take. Quit blocking Obamacare and harming good American families. Put aside partisan politics and do the right thing. Stop the shut down and free Obamacare to help the good people without health insurance.

There are over 400,000 veterans in Minnesota. Every one is experiencing the impact the GOP government shutdown is having on our lives. Yesterday, I had to contact my landlord and explain why I won't be able to pay my rent come November. Next week, I will have to alert City Hall and let them know why I won't be able to pay my utilities. Over 10% of Minnesota residents, like myself, are facing homelessness over the next several weeks, because the GOP, and Speaker Boehner specifically, refuses to allow the budget continuing resolution to be voted on by Republicans in the House of Representatives. Governor Dayton has convened a task force to try and handle hundreds of thousands of veterans that will show up at his door, begging for help. How many other Minnesota residents are facing the same negative impact on their lives?

My son is in the Army and he won't get paid. My friends work at military bases and they are off work and not getting paid. It is the ripple effect, it gets us all!

My mother continues to work for Department of Homeland Security because she is considered "essential" but she won't be getting her full pay and if the shutdown lasts longer she'll be working without pay--yet she has to somehow pay bills, and take care of my grandmother. I can't get my passport renewed because it's a "nonessential" service. I'm supposed to visit the UK at the end of the year but can't leave the country without a passport! The Tea Party loonies can't be allowed to hold our government hostage. That is a terrorist act! They should be fired and tried for committing a terrorist act against the American people.

Republican extremism has impacted me in this way:

Republican extremism has impacted me. I am worried that I won't have the money to buy medicine. I also worry about paying for food and vet care for my pets.

Congress is NOT doing their job. They do not negotiate, they do not know how to get past single-issue agendas, and they are controlled by special interests. They cannot pass a budget, which is perhaps the most fundamental task of our elected Representatives and Senators. Instead, they hold hostage 800,000 federal employees, withhold basic government services to all Americans, and put America's credit and credibility on the line, even as they bury our struggling economy at the rate of $1 billion per week. And, ironically, we elect and pay members of the House and Senate to do this. But this is NOT why we voted them into office. It's time to demand a recall vote, but the crafters of our Constitution did not authorize citizens' right to recall Members of Congress as they never envisioned that Congress would fail to do their job. The Constitution needs to be amended so that Americans do not have to be at the mercy of a Congress that is derelict in their collective duty.

Republican extremism will impact me in this way: Having just retired after 43 years of teaching, I am concerned about my state teacher pension and my Social Security. We could not handle our load.

It's disgusting to watch the Tea Party running things in Washington. And to think it's all about the greed of a few richest Americans! Republicans have ruined my life, and they continue to ruin more people's lives by running the government into the ground and then blaming it on my precious Obama. Please, Republicans, stop lining your own pockets at the expense of the working class!

My family is affected by this shutdown because my Marine husband has been furloughed from not one but two jobs: his VA position with the HAC and his Marine Corps Reserve position. Now I am off to figure out how we are going to pay our bills and feed our children. If this is what sixteen years of military service and Veterans' Affairs representation means to the powers that be in this country, then I am sad for the blind and greedy direction in which we are headed.