[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H987]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             BRING UP A CLEAN BILL TO EXTEND THE DEBT LIMIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Radanovich). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I listened to what the previous speaker, 
the gentleman from Ohio, said, and I do have the utmost respect for 
him. But I just do not understand how he can say some of the things he 
is saying based on what has been happening in this House in the last 
year.
  The only reason that we can wait until March 1 before we go into 
default is because the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Rubin, has been 
doing things basically since November 15 when the debt ceiling expired 
to try to prevent the Nation from going into default, and he has been 
criticized by the same Republican leadership for doing that.
  I think it should be understood by the American people that the 
default was a possibility on November 15, because the Republican 
leadership refused to bring up a clean bill to extend the debt limit, 
and in fact, some of the Republican leaders have actually called for 
the Secretary of the Treasury's impeachment because he has been doing 
what he has to do in order to avoid default.
  Now we see the leadership get up and say, oh, there is no problem 
until March 1; trust us, we will extend the debt ceiling when it comes 
to March 1. If you are going to do it, why not do it now? Why send us 
home for 3 weeks after tomorrow and basically risk the possibility that 
sometime before March 1 that it is not going to happen, or why suggest 
that you are going to load up this debt ceiling bill with all kinds of 
budget items that reflect your own ideology, come back here February 26 
or 27, just a couple days before this March 1 deadline? There is no 
question that what the Republican leadership is trying to do here is to 
hold this Congress hostage just like they did with the Government 
shutdown. They said, ``We are going to shut the Government down. If you 
do not go along with our budget, which is cut Medicaid, cut Medicare, 
cut environmental programs, cut educational programs, if you do not go 
along with this, we are going to shut the Government down.'' They did 
that several times.
  Now they are doing the same thing again. They are saying, ``We are 
going to send you home so you cannot sit here and debate this or try to 
come to a reasonable conclusion on this. We are going to bring you back 
2 or 3 days before this March 1 deadline, default deadline, that we 
have engineered essentially because we have not passed a clean debt 
ceiling, and we are going to then force you to our own ideology, to 
these same budget cuts. It is only going to be a down payment.'' Now it 
is not going to be the full-blown cut in Medicare, Medicaid, 
environmental programs, education, student loans. It is just going to 
be a down payment on that.
  I maintain it is the same thing. It is the same hostage environment. 
It is the same idea if you do not go along with our plan, then we are 
going to hold the Government hostage, either shut it down, or now, send 
it into default.
  How can sending this Government into default or decreasing or 
destroying the United States' credit rating possibly be the responsible 
thing to do? If I listened to the previous speaker's statements, he 
basically was saying in a somewhat, it seemed to him logical sense, we 
do not have to worry about this, because it is more important how the 
down payment and how these budget cuts that he has proposed, than it is 
to preserve the Nation's credit rating. That does not make any sense.
  The responsible thing is to preserve the credit rating. If the Nation 
goes into default, our budget situation, our financial situation is in 
critical condition. We are going to have higher interest rates. We 
could have a possibility where other countries, central banks in other 
countries or pension funds, decide they want to start selling our 
Government bonds. We do not know what our securities are going to be 
worth. We do not know what the impact is going to be of the higher 
interest rates not only on the Government but also on individuals who 
may have their mortgage rates go up or other interest rates that they 
have to face or their car payments or whatever. The potential, the real 
potential, exists for an economic downturn not only in this country but 
around the world.
  We are going to risk that? How could that possibly be the responsible 
thing to do?
  I would maintain over and over again that this Republican leadership 
has gone haywire. Some of us on the Democratic side have described them 
as a bunch of crackpots. No one, no one who is involved in the Nation's 
finances would ever suggest that it makes sense for us to threaten 
default, to even use it as a tool of Government policy. It makes no 
sense at all if you are concerned about the Government, if you are 
concerned about the economy, if you are concerned about where this 
country is going in terms of creating jobs and making it possible for 
us to have an economic upturn rather than an economic downturn.
  Let me tell you, this is not pie in the sky. We have already heard 
statements from some of the leading credit rating firms. Moody's, I 
think a week or two ago, came out and said the possibility of a default 
or the effect on the credit rating could be devastating to the Nation's 
economy. We have had statements this morning in our Democratic Caucus. 
We had statements from various Department heads who pointed out what 
the impact would be. Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human 
Services and Welfare, she said that if we do not pay our bills March 1, 
$26 billion in Social Security payments are threatened, $1 billion in 
veterans' payments are threatened, civil service payments and survivor 
annuities.
  These are people that are going to be negatively impacted, the little 
people, by this Republican default.

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