[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 160 (Tuesday, October 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10119]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       INCREASE DEBT CEILING NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I am talking to the regularly elected 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, who happens to be the head of 
the Republican Party here in this Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, three times the Secretary of the Treasury has written 
you this year asking you to move on increasing the debt ceiling. Every 
Member of your party has already voted to increase the debt ceiling to 
$5.5 trillion.
  Why the delay, Mr. Speaker? Are you attempting to cause a Government 
wreck? You know, Mr. Speaker, that the Government runs out of borrowing 
authority. In fact, it is already out of borrowing authority, but is 
can only be stretched until the end of this month.
  This is a serious matter. It is already costing the Federal taxpayers 
money. It already is acting as a tax increase to the tune of about $15 
billion over a 6-year period. And your refusal to allow the debt 
ceiling legislation to come to the floor so that it can be extended can 
only be classified, as far as I am concerned, as an attempt to 
perpetuate a government wreck upon the American people.
  Today the Treasury had to suspend selling special obligations to 
States and local governments. This will prevent the States and local 
governments from refinancing the debt that they had planned to 
refinance to reduce interest payments of their own citizens on those 
local debts. Already a number of States, including my own State of 
Florida, have had to cancel their refinancing because the Treasury 
window is not open, because the Treasury can no longer issue these 
obligations. This is just the first of a series of cascading events 
that are already in process.
  Mr. Speaker, you have done some remarkable things in your short 
career around here, but you are the first person, Mr. Speaker, to 
remove and put the Federal obligations in the role of having a risk 
factor added to them. In 200 years the U.S. Government has never 
defaulted on an obligation.
  Mr. Speaker, you said the other day that you did not care whether we 
defaulted on an obligation or not, you would keep the window closed on 
increasing the debt for as much as 60 days. I do not know who you are 
trying to bluff, but you ought to know, Mr. Speaker, that this is 
already costing the American taxpayers money, just like a tax would 
cost them money, this increase in interest rates.
  A 10-point increase in basis points will cost the American taxpayers 
$15 billion over a 6-year period. This increase in basis points will 
also reduce the value of American private pension funds. Let me repeat 
this: This 10-point basis-point increase in interest rates that has 
already occurred and is occurring at this very moment, and it can get 
worse, has already cost the private pension plans $8 billion in assets.
  Mr. Speaker, your actions are reckless. You need to bring up the debt 
ceiling legislation as rapidly as possible. Your obstinacy in doing 
this will prove nothing. Every Member of your party in both the House 
and the Senate have already voted to direct an increase in the debt 
ceiling until 1997, and the amount of money increase in the debt 
ceiling has already been fixed in legislation they are voting on.
  I cannot think of anything you are doing, Mr. Speaker, except trying 
to blackmail the Government into a government wreck. This is 
irresponsible action. You should back off of that course of action 
immediately, Mr. Speaker.

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