[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 174 (Monday, October 4, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              DEBT CEILING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I want to begin today with a 
quotation:

       Because this massive accumulation of debt was predicted, 
     because it was foreseeable, because it was unnecessary, 
     because it was the result of willful and reckless disregard 
     for the warnings that were given and for the fundamentals of 
     economic management, I am voting against the debt limit 
     increase.

  Now, Madam President, that was then-Senator Joe Biden in March of 
2006, right before every single Democratic Senator voted against 
raising the debt limit and made a unified Republican government do it 
alone.
  Here is another quote:

       Today's fiscal mess . . . is the inevitable outcome of 
     policies that consistently ignored evidence and experience. 
     My symbolic vote against raising the debt limit would have 
     been a protest of the policies that have brought us to this 
     point, and a demand that we change course.

  Well, that same speaker, then-Senator Biden, 2 years earlier in 2004.
  As Senate Republicans have made clear since last July and as I 
reminded the President in a letter just this morning, his sentiments 
then are our sentiments now. His sentiments then are our sentiments 
now.
  For the last few weeks, Washington Democrats tried to forget that 
they lined up to oppose debt limit increases during unified Republican 
government. They pretended these votes are always bipartisan. Well, 
that was simply not true.
  So now our colleagues have moved on to yet another new argument that 
is equally flimsy. Now they claim they would be perfectly happy to 
handle this responsibility with 51 votes done one way, but they would 
rather risk the Nation's credit than doing it with 51 votes a slightly 
different way--two different ways to achieve 51 votes. I am not 
kidding. This is the position they are taking. The President said it 
today.
  The reconciliation procedure would be slightly more inconvenient, 
they said--a few more days, a few more votes they would rather duck. 
The Democratic leaders running America are saying with a straight face 
that the entire U.S. economy should live or die based on the procedural 
convenience--convenience--of Washington Democrats.
  Now, they have got no problem using the party-line process over and 
over and over to spend trillions and transform the country, but now, 
for this purpose only, they suddenly and mysteriously find it 
unappealing.
  Democrats could not be more capable of handling this on their own. 
Just months ago, the Democratic leader won new powers to reuse 
reconciliation over and over. They don't even need our consent to set a 
vote at 51 instead of 60. They need even less help raising the debt 
limit than majorities needed in the past. So trust me, Madam 
President--if Republicans were sitting on a hidden veto power to stop 
reconciliation bills, you would have heard about it way back in the 
springtime. The majority doesn't need our votes. They just want a 
bipartisan shortcut around procedural hurdles that they can actually 
clear on their own, and they want that shortcut so they can pivot right 
back to partisan spending as fast as possible. They want a bipartisan 
shortcut to get right back to more partisan hardball. And Republicans 
have spent 2\1/2\ months--this is no surprise; 2\1/2\ months ago--
explaining that this is the way they needed to go forward on the debt 
ceiling.
  This unified Democratic government is having trouble governing. They 
couldn't even pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill which the 
President negotiated and the Speaker of the House promised would pass 
last week.
  The majority needs to stop sleepwalking toward yet another 
preventable crisis. Democrats need to tackle the debt limit. We gave 
them a roadmap and 3 months' notice. I suggest that our colleagues get 
moving.

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