[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 1, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1014-E1015]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             INCREASING STATUTORY LIMIT ON THE PUBLIC DEBT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 31, 2011

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 
1954, a clean up-or-down vote on extending the debt limit, refusing to 
hold this critical measure hostage to other economic and political 
objectives.
  I must confess that I am perplexed to see the majority bring an 
utterly vital bill to the floor that it has no intention of passing--
and is actually urging its members to vote against. I must also note 
that it contains a poison pill: a hypocritical and deceptive clause 
that seeks to lay full blame on President Obama for the need for a debt 
limit increase.
  Mr. Speaker, how many members of Congress have voted for a tax cut or 
an appropriations bill over the past few Congresses? The answer is 
nearly all. While we may debate the merits of each of those past 
proposals and reach different conclusions on their merit, the bill for 
these prior legislative acts is now due. Not paying it would be 
reckless, and you don't have to be an economist to figure that out. 
Every American family knows that you must pay your bills when those 
bills come due. The United States can be no different.
  Passage of a clean debt ceiling bill would affirm that America always 
pays her bills. This isn't about authorizing new spending; it's just 
ensuring that we can pay for what we have already bought. Whether 
Congress is paying for tax cuts, tanks, or teachers, there's no free 
lunch.

[[Page E1015]]

  As troubling as the motivations behind this vote are, more troubling 
still is the majority's willingness to put the full faith and credit of 
the United States at risk to gain leverage over economic policy. 
Republicans should not be holding the economy hostage to advance their 
ideological agenda, especially when the economic recovery is still 
fragile.
  Earlier this year, I joined with my colleagues in asking House 
Republicans to support a clean debt limit increase, but today it's 
clear they will not. In short, the majority is playing with fire. 
Remember this: default would set off a catastrophic chain of economic 
consequences, putting not just the economic recovery at risk, but 
risking a new, deeper recession. It would affect every single American 
family, every single worker and every single retiree. There is no 
reason to manufacture a crisis, but we have seen this play before from 
the majority, who manufactured a crisis over funding the government in 
the 2011 fiscal year: a crisis that ended up costing taxpayers more 
money and realizing none of the promised savings this year.
  The majority can do better than partisan posturing, and it must. 
There are many members--on both sides of the aisle--who I suspect share 
this conviction. I have long advocated a comprehensive approach to 
deficit reduction. I believe any serious approach puts all the 
options--revenue, as well as domestic, defense and entitlement 
spending, carefully targeted in all cases--on the table as we chart a 
course back to fiscal balance. But where we cut and of whom we ask 
additional sacrifice should be consistent with our priorities and 
values.
  If we consider all the options, we can chart a course to fiscal 
balance, one that invests in the things that ensure our economic 
success: education, innovation, and infrastructure. If we consider all 
the options, we can safeguard our commitment to seniors instead of 
undermining it by turning Medicare into a voucher program. Congress 
must do better than a budget that ends Medicare as we know it to pay 
for tax cuts to oil companies and wealthy individuals, and at the same 
time sinks the country $1.9 trillion further into debt. Not long ago, 
many responsible members of the majority party favored a comprehensive 
approach. As we move forward, I urge them not to wilt on the vine in 
the face of pressure from those on the far right.
  Congress must come together and negotiate in good faith if we are 
going to do the two critical things required of us: to put the American 
people back to work in a fully recovered economy, and to chart a course 
back to fiscal balance. I will vote for this legislation today, because 
America must pay its bills. But this Republican move is far more 
symbolic than serious, harnessing only Congress' power as an instrument 
of partisan politics, and not its power as an instrument to answer the 
country's problems.

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