[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 28, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H5468]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IT IS TIME TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, we have often turned to Lincoln. My 
good friends on the other side of the aisle have tried to be 
Lincolnesque, but I don't think they have dug deep into the virtues of 
Abraham Lincoln. They didn't delve deeply into his sense of courage and 
integrity.
  We know that his ultimate goal was to preserve the Union, as it 
should have been. He was, in fact, the President of the United States 
of America, not of the Union States, not of the Confederate States. But 
often as they pretend Lincolnesque, it is abandoned along the trash 
heap of highways of despair.
  First of all, the Build Back Better Act is paid for over 10 years, in 
contrast to the debacle voted on, to a one, by my friends on the other 
side of the aisle, of the Trump tax cut, 83 percent for those who were 
already flourishing in dollars, while it left the bus drivers and 
teachers and paramedics, nurses and emergency room doctors, along the 
highway with tin cups.
  Any plan for embellishing, staffing--and that is what it is--for the 
Internal Revenue Service, of which we should continue to have 
oversight, is to ensure that those who have paid not a dime--not a 
dime--not a dime, Mr. Speaker--pay their fair share.

  Do you think any American is against that? I have seen Republicans, 
Democrats, and Independents who are crucially asking the question: Am I 
carrying the entire burden?
  My friends stand stalwart, the Republicans; they are not going to 
raise the debt ceiling. First of all, it is the full faith and credit 
of the United States. Read the Constitution. It is to ensure that 
America's bills, money already spent, are paid.
  Just like you use your electricity, you are paying ahead of time; you 
are paying for the bill already spent. The electricity, the light was 
on for 20 days. You are paying for that light to be on.
  I am sad to say that there are so many who can't make ends meet, 
can't pay the light bill. I have heard it often. Can't pay rent; can't 
pay the water bill.
  So I am going to start with two icons from different eras about the 
word ``courage.''
  Abraham Lincoln eloquently spoke in 1862--he was a most visionary 
writer--``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy 
present.'' All that we talked about, all the contentiousness of 
yesteryear, you need to put it aside. ``The occasion is piled high . . 
.''--this day, this month, this 2021, this in the midst of a national 
health emergency, is piled high ``. . . with difficulty, and we must 
rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so must we think anew and 
act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our 
country.''
  Is anyone here willing to save their country? Are they willing to 
join as Americans to save the country?
  I know 2022 is coming. Great campaign ads about what Democrats did. I 
am glad that my terminology will be what an American did by the name of 
Sheila Jackson Lee. What did she do?
  ``Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without 
courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently,'' said the 
iconic and late Maya Angelou, who I had the privilege of teaching me. 
What a great memory I have of her being my professor.
  So I want to speak this morning on the cruciality of moving forward 
on the INVEST Act and the Build Back Better Act. Without a doubt, I 
want to be able to not give short shrift to the 2 years of free pre-K 
and 2 years of free community college, paid for, giving Americans the 
front-end and giving the opportunity to be able, for some, to be in 
college for the first time. They are moving on to historically Black 
colleges of their choice or other colleges of their choice.
  What about the Federal Medicaid program, when 12 States failed to opt 
in during the Affordable Care Act and left a trash heap of desperate 
people. Not the people desperate, but on the heap of despair, no 
healthcare, because they were below the threshold. Our friends as well 
decided not to do anything.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, how important it is to have the INVEST Act, 
with making sure we have broadband and making sure that we have high-
speed internet as well as highways that work not against us but for us.
  Let's do the right thing and have the courage of Americans. Let's 
stand for America.

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