Madam President, today our Republican colleagues in the House planned to vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling for a few months before plunging this Nation and its economy back into a state of uncertainty. What I mean by that is under…
Madam President, today our Republican colleagues in the House planned to vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling for a few months before plunging this Nation and its economy back into a state of uncertainty.
What I mean by that is under their legislation, which would extend the debt ceiling for just a few months, and the latest report, because the numbers they have come up with are all wrong, we would come back in September if, in fact, we ever left here, and we would be debating the debt ceiling all over again. What a way to proceed. It is unbelievable they would come up with such a program.
Last night, Speaker Boehner pushed back that vote because his legislation did not even have the support of Republicans in his own Chamber. Group after group, from the Republican Study Committee, the Club for Growth, and many organizations have said they simply do not like his legislation.
But pushing back the vote by a day or rewriting parts of the bill will not solve the underlying problem: A short-term solution is not an adequate solution for our economy. Our country, our economy, and the world demand more.
Why do I say the world? Because our economy is the most robust, strongest economy in the world--the history of the world--and for us to fail to pay our debt would throw the world economy into a tailspin.
Even if the Speaker could get his legislation through the House of Representatives, I can assure everyone it would not pass the Senate. And certainly if by some strange phenomenon it passed, the President would not sign it. We do not have to worry about that. There will be no veto. This legislation is so weak that it will not get out of this Chamber.
Rather than lifting what economists call the fog of default, this Republican plan would usher in an era of bad economic weather that could last for years. A few weeks ago, Speaker Boehner said it was a terrible idea to merely postpone a default on the national
debt or to push the problem down the road for a few weeks or a few months. That is what he said. Back then he was not interested in a short-term solution. Back then he was right.
This is why: Economists, market analysts, and rating agencies have said the world economy simply cannot bear this kind of uncertainty any longer. They have said a short-term solution to the impending default would still result in the loss of our AAA rating that has kept interest rates low in this country and saved consumers money for more than 70 years. So I trust Speaker Boehner and other reasonable Republicans understand the seriousness of a default crisis. Here is what the Speaker said very recently:
That would be a financial disaster not only for our country
but for the worldwide economy. You cannot create jobs if you
default on the Federal debt.
But a short-term fix does not get the job done. It would cause many of the same calamitous results as a technical default, including rising interest rates that would essentially raise every person's taxes. American families will pay more for their mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit card bills, and everything else. Higher interest rates would not just be costly for consumers, it would also cost the Federal Government more, and would actually increase our deficits and debt--and very quickly.
A less than 1-percent increase in interest rates, which economists have predicted if the United States debt is downgraded, would cost our government more than $100 billion every year. I repeat: It would cost our government $100 billion extra every single year. In a decade, that would cost this country as much taxpayer money as Speaker Boehner's proposal would cut from the deficit. In effect, his short-term plan would yield not a single dime of savings. Nothing.
Republicans would like the American public to believe Democrats in Congress and the White House are insisting on a long-term deal for political reasons. They say Democrats want to push this off until after the Presidential election. That is not true. It is not Democrats who have asked for a long-term solution. It is the economy. The economy has demanded it.
If Republicans in Congress are willing to risk our economy by playing politics in July, why would they not do the same in September, October, November, when his proposal--Speaker Boehner's proposal--would run out of money? That is why every economist, every market analyst, every rating agency, has insisted any legislation to avert a default on the Nation's debt must take us through the end of 2012.
The Senate is considering a measure that would avert default and cut $2.7 trillion from the deficit. It is a reasonable measure. Republicans have supported every one of its cuts in the past, and it should be able to pass both Houses of Congress with bipartisan support. I have heard a number of my friends on the other side of the aisle come here and say: But they are talking about the overseas contingency fund. The Congressional Budget Office--the nonpartisan watchdog of Congress--has decided that is worth $1 trillion, just what we put in our bill. The Office of Management and Budget said it is worth $1 trillion. The legislation we are projecting gives each side something it wants. It protects Social Security and Medicare without raising a single penny of revenue. And, most importantly, it is a long-term strategy to safeguard the economy and give the markets the stability they need.
Unlike Speaker Boehner's legislation, which economists have rejected, it would not put us through all of this again in a few months--probably only a few weeks--and with even less certainty of achieving a compromise than now.
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George said: ``There is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps.'' That is true. Congress has a duty to do what it takes to avert a national default in one swift leap.
It will take political courage. I urge all of my friends, Democrats and Republicans, to join hands. We can take courage from one another and make that leap together. Because if we do not clear this chasm, our Nation's economy will go over the edge with us.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.