[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 14 (Thursday, February 1, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H1206-H1207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HERE THE CONGRESS GOES AGAIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I am going to follow up on the previous 
speakers a little bit.
  Mr. Speaker, here the Congress goes again, quite literally goes right 
out that door, heads for the airport, heads for the trains, heads for 
the highway, heading home.
  Of course, it has been a rough week that the Speaker's leadership has 
presented to the Congress. The Congress has been in session all of 2 
days of which part of it was being here for a joint session to hear the 
President of France, Mr. Chirac. There was a well-known Republican 
Attorney General named John Mitchell who served under President Nixon 
who had a saying, I believe it was Attorney General Mitchell, that when 
the going gets tough, the tough get going. The Republican leadership 
had modified that a little bit to when the going gets tough, it is time 
to go, go home, go anywhere, get out of here, because the going is 
tough right now.

[[Page H1207]]

  By March 1, this country will default on its debt, that is right, for 
the first time in 209 years, this country runs the risk of defaulting 
on the national debt.
  Now, I might express, Mr. Speaker, this is not debt, this is not 
voting to extend the debt ceiling so that you can borrow more for 
future spending. This is simply acknowledging and paying the debts you 
have already incurred. If you do not like future spending then you do 
it the old-fashioned way, you legislate it so you do not have any more. 
You cut the programs. This is honoring the country's debt that it owes.
  The previous gentlemen talked about the farm bill. Yes, that is also 
in crisis, and, yes, the Congress ought to be here working on it.
  But why is it not being brought up tonight? They provided the answers 
themselves. It came out of committee on Tuesday. There are many of us, 
such as myself, who are not on the Committee on Agriculture. The rules 
of the House provide for a 3-day layover so you can study these bills, 
and yet this Republican leadership is not willing for this House to be 
in session tomorrow, Monday, Saturday, whatever it takes to get this 
bill done.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, everyone knows about credit ratings. America's 
families worry a great deal about keeping their credit ratings solvent. 
Why is not this congressional leadership worrying as much about keeping 
the Federal Government's credit rating?
  I was thinking about this the other day, Mr. Speaker, as I wanted to 
look at our mortgage. We have an adjustable rate mortgage, and so we 
keep our mortgage and we keep a lot of our important papers like a lot 
of Americans keep their important papers in a metal box under the bed. 
We do that, we keep it in a metal box because if there is a fire, they 
will be protected, or a flood, those important papers like a mortgage 
will be protected, perhaps even from prying hands.
  But you know, Mr. Speaker, there is one danger, one crisis that a 
metal box cannot protect, metal, concrete, steel, Teflon, you name it, 
cannot protect against, and that is from a default. That is from 
interest rates going up on variable rate loans. That metal box cannot 
protect our variable rate mortgage from the $1,200 that the average 
family will pay additional if this country goes into default. That 
metal box cannot protect future car payments from being 2 to 3 percent 
higher. That metal box cannot protect us against these credit rates, 
Visa credit rates, Visa, MasterCharge, and so on, from going up. That 
metal box cannot protect us from the higher rates we will have to pay 
for our children to go to school. That metal box cannot protect us. 
Just as that metal box cannot protect this family, and a lot of us are 
families, guess what happens if this country goes into default, that 
metal box cannot protect the country.

  The country has a metal box, and in it it keeps Social Security, it 
keeps veterans payments, it keeps payments to veterans, honors its 
obligations to contractors. What happened to the country's metal box? 
Why cannot that be protected?
  This Congress voted by a narrow margin to go home instead of making 
sure that metal box was secure. The fact of the matter is that failing 
to deal with the deficit or failing to deal with the debt ceiling, Mr. 
Speaker, failure to keep this country from going into default now can 
only worsen the deficit, because this country will have to pay more for 
the inevitable borrowing that is going to take place.
  I voted against adjourning, Mr. Speaker. This Congress needs to stay 
here until it gets this problem worked out, until it gets the farm bill 
worked out we have got to preserve the credit rating for the United 
States.
  The first time in 209 years it has really gotten to this point. Does 
anyone really want to push the country to this edge?
  Mr. Speaker, in preserving the credit rating of the United States, 
this Congress could preserve a lot of credit for itself. We should not 
be going local this week.

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