[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 153 (Tuesday, October 20, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7310-S7311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE DEBT LIMIT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, over the last 10 months, congressional 
Republicans have proven they are incapable of governing--at least 
governing productively. Instead, Republicans are governing 
destructively. It is hard to understand or fathom, but this seems to be 
what they want: destruction. It is not a word I decided to bring into 
the conversation today. One Republican Congressman said very recently: 
``We are looking for creative destruction in how the House operates.'' 
This Republican Congressman said, I repeat, ``We are looking for 
creative destruction in how the House operates,'' and they are as good 
as their word in the House and sadly also in the Senate.
  Time and time again, Republican leaders have brought the United 
States to the brink of unnecessary disaster, and sadly here we are 
again, facing another manufactured crisis courtesy of Republicans in 
Congress. This time it is a debt limit crisis. On November 3, just 2 
weeks from today, our great country--the United States of America--will 
default on its debt unless Republicans start legislating more 
constructively to solve the problem. Let's be clear about what the debt 
limit does and doesn't mean. Adjusting the debt limit--when it is 
absolutely necessary, and it will be in 2 weeks--is necessary to pay 
this country's bills that are already due. What we face now with the 
debt ceiling isn't about a penny of new spending. It is not about a 
penny of new programs or a penny of new taxes. It is not about creating 
new obligations, only meeting existing ones. The debt limit is about 
paying what we already owe.
  What are these debts? A large, large, large chunk of these is what we 
owe as a result of an unpaid war, a second unpaid war, and tax breaks 
for the rich that were unpaid for. Remember, this great theory of 
President Bush was that these wars would bring a new democracy to the 
world. Well, the invasion of Iraq was the worst foreign policy decision 
probably in the history of the country. Look what it has done, and it 
has been done at the cost of trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money, 
and that is part of the debt that is due.
  These tax breaks for the rich. Why did the Bush administration push 
these tax breaks? Because it would be great for the economy. Well, it 
has been great for the rich people. They are getting richer, the poorer 
are getting poorer, and the middle class are getting squeezed. All 
these tax cuts were unpaid for. If we don't act, we allow the United 
States to default. The day of reckoning will be terrible. We will hurt 
American jobs, families, businesses, and the fallout will be felt 
around the world. If some Republicans in Congress get their way, the 
United States will default on this debt. What happens then? The short 
answer is economic catastrophe.
  The former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas 
Holtz-Eakin, described last week what will happen if the United States 
defaults:

       The first thing you'll see is a market reaction. Then 
     you've got dramatic impacts on consumer confidence, the 
     world's melting down again and they go into an economic fetal 
     position . . . there's just no good news there.

  This wasn't some leftwing blogger; this is a man who did a good job 
representing this country on a bipartisan basis in the Congressional 
Budget Office--by the way, during a Republican administration. He said:

       The first thing you'll see is a market reaction. Then 
     you've got dramatic impacts of consumer confidence, the 
     world's melting down again and they go into an economic fetal 
     position . . . there's just no good news there.

  The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a 
reasonable Paul Ryan, said as much last week:

       If the United States missed a bond payment, it would shake 
     the confidence of the world economy. All kinds of credit 
     would dry up: loans for small businesses, mortgages for young 
     families. We could even go into a recession.

  That is what we will face in 2 weeks if Republicans don't get their 
act together, and by all signs, it doesn't appear they are going to. 
All signs indicate that House and Senate Republicans are still not 
serious about dealing with the debt limit. If they were serious about 
paying our bills and keeping America on sound economic footing, they 
would not be proposing an absurd idea of having a ``partial default.'' 
You can't be partially pregnant; you can't have a partial default. 
House Republicans have engineered legislation to pick and choose which 
debts to pay and which to ignore.
  Listen to this: Their proposed legislation is going to pay foreign 
creditors first, such as China, but they don't want to meet our 
obligations to veterans, Medicare beneficiaries, and millions of 
middle-class Americans. No. They want to start paying down the debt we 
owe to China. Think about that. The truth is this pay-China-first 
approach is just default by another name. This approach would lead a 
middle-class family into financial ruin, and just imagine what it would 
do to world markets. I repeat: There is no such thing as a partial 
default. A partial default is a default.
  We can't allow the Federal Government to be delinquent in paying its 
debts. We have 2 weeks to get something done, and we can if the 
Republicans come to their senses. This unnecessary drama over paying 
our bills is already rattling the financial markets. The bond market 
has already been hurt, and we can see it.

[[Page S7311]]

  I say to my Republican friends, especially the leaders in the House 
of Representatives and the U.S. Senate: Start governing in a way that 
is not an embarrassment to Congress and the American people.
  Mr. President, please announce what we will be doing here today.

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