[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H980-H981]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THREATS OF DEFAULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Brown] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, a lot of us in this institution are 
troubled by the threats to force the Nation into default, the comments 
made throughout the year by Speaker Gingrich and the gentleman from 
Texas, Mr. Armey, majority leader, that if they do not get their way on 
the balanced budget or if they do not get their way on a host of things 
that are they are going to shut the Government down.
  We heard those threats throughout 1995. Unfortunately, come November 
once and then in December a second time, they made good on their 
threats because they did not get the kind of, exactly the kind of 
balanced budget that they wanted. And they went ahead and shut the 
Government down. What that meant to lots of American families that 
depended on services from the Government, what it meant to people that 
work in Government, what it meant across the board to this country.
  Now the threats, in a lot of ways, Mr. Speaker, are even more 
serious, because those threats are to force the Nation into default, 
again, if Speaker 

[[Page H981]]
Gingrich and the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Armey, majority leader do 
not get their way with the balanced budget. At the same time as we move 
toward this default on March 1 or February 29, the Congress is going to 
recess today or tomorrow for 2 weeks and just go home and forget about 
it, when default can be imminent, when they are threatening default.
  The gentleman from Texas is with me who knows more probably about 
what default will mean to veterans, has been a leader on these issues, 
what exactly it will mean to an awful lot of veterans in this country 
in addition to all the other problems that the first default in the 
history of the United States of America in 220 years would mean.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Edwards].
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I know this issue of defaulting on the good 
faith and credit of the American economy and our Government debts is an 
issue that a lot of folks back home do not necessarily relate to 
themselves personally. But I would like to specifically address what 
the default on March 1 could do to men and women who put their lives on 
the line for our country.
  I am very grateful to have the opportunity to be the ranking Democrat 
on the Subcommittee on Hospitals and Health Care of the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs. So on a regular basis I have a chance to go out to 
our VA hospitals and see those men and women who were combat injured 
and put their lives on the line.
  Let me quote from Jesse Brown himself, a very distinguished combat 
veteran who was very seriously wounded in service to our Nation. He 
said that veterans and their families have suffered enough. They should 
not be the victims of a battle they cannot even fight. The battle that 
Secretary Brown is talking about is the game of Russian roulette that 
is being played with the American economy in threatening to shut down 
our Government once again and to default on our debt.
  Let me just put this in real terms, to how a Republican pushed 
default on our debt, especially if we are going into recess and get a 
paid vacation for the next month and only come back 4 days before the 
March 1 default, let me talk about how this would affect real American 
veterans: 2.2 million veterans with service-connected disabilities may 
receive bad checks March 1. More than 300,000 survivors of veterans who 
died from service-connected causes may receive bad checks.
  To be even more clear on that, what that means is that widows of 
combat veterans who died in service to our Nation may receive bad 
checks, in effect, hot checks on March 1 from the VA.

                              {time}  1140

  Nearly three-quarters of a million poor wartime veterans or survivors 
may receive bad checks. Also, $140 million a month in education program 
funds, G.I. Montgomery College loan funds would not go out to veterans 
on March 1 and for each month thereafter, if the leadership of this 
House does not keep us here for the month of February, and have us deal 
directly and honestly with the debt default issue. Hardworking VA 
employers and employees, people who try to take care of our veterans 
and hospitals all over this country, once again will not be paid for 
their work. That will have a devastating impact on the quality of 
people we can attract to work in our VA hospitals.
  The bottom line to all of this, Mr. Speaker, I would say to the 
gentleman and to our American veterans, is they need to understand that 
this complex, convoluted discussion of default is something that 
affects America's veterans, it affects 44 million senior citizens 
receiving Social Security checks, including many that are on SSI, that 
receive checks because they are disabled, in wheelchairs, and need that 
check to pay for their bills.
  This is a real issue, a terribly important one that affects real 
families. It is devastating, most importantly, to America's working 
families, those people who are working hard to pay their bills and put 
their children through college. Their mortgage interest rates could go 
up after March 1. The money they borrowed to keep their farm alive or 
to expand their business or keep their business alive, that they have 
struggled so hard to support for years, those costs could go up.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman, that 
simply does not have to happen. In 220 years it never has happened in 
this country, through the Civil War, through World War II, through the 
burning of the Capitol.

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