[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 13, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H4957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE DEBT CEILING

  (Mr. HIMES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I stood on this floor with 3 weeks 
to go before August 2, the debt ceiling, to make the argument that we 
should abide by the commitments that we have made in the past. Today, I 
heard Chairman Bernanke of the Federal Reserve say that to fail to 
raise the debt ceiling would be devastating for jobs.
  So what's the holdup? Don't take it from me. Let me read you a 
paragraph from The Economist magazine. This is not Mother Jones. This 
is not even The New York Times. This is The Economist magazine.
  ``The sticking point is not on the spending side. It is because the 
vast majority of Republicans, driven on by the wilder-eyed members of 
their party and the cacophony of conservative media, are clinging to 
the position that not a single cent of deficit reduction must come from 
a higher tax take. This is economically illiterate and disgracefully 
cynical.''
  Let me read that again: ``This is economically illiterate and 
disgracefully cynical.''

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