[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 14 (Monday, January 23, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S42-S43]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Monterey Park Shooting

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, today the thoughts of the Senate are 
with the people of Monterey Park, CA, as they heal from this weekend's 
tragic and terrible shooting. What should have been a weekend of joy 
and celebration within the AAPI community as they celebrate the Lunar 
New Year, turned into another occasion of grief and mourning.
  I spoke yesterday with the sheriff of Los Angeles County and assured 
him that the Federal Government is ready to provide whatever assistance 
they need right now. While first responders are still investigating the 
causes of this incident, it is clear that the prevalence of guns in our 
country have made tragedies like this one too frequent. While the 
Senate passed bipartisan gun safety legislation last year--and that was 
a very welcome move--more should be done.
  My thoughts are with all the families and the loved ones of the 
victims of this insidious attack. I thank all the first responders and 
even the private citizens who responded quickly to stop the shooter and 
prevent even more lives from tragically being cut short.


                             118th Congress

  Madam President, I want to also welcome our new colleague from 
Nebraska and wish him the best.
  Now, this week, for the first time in the 118th Congress, both 
Chambers gavel into session to begin anew the work of serving the 
American people. It is a new era here in Congress, an era of divided 
government where both parties will have to demonstrate they can work 
together to solve our Nation's problems. Democrats begin the 118th 
Congress with an open hand of cooperation, and I urge my Republican 
colleagues to respond in kind so we can hit the ground running.
  We have a lot of difficult and important work ahead of us, perhaps 
none more important than working together to raise the debt ceiling and 
protecting the full faith and credit of the United States. In America, 
when it is time to pay the bills, we have followed through on our 
obligations without any exception.
  In the months to come, I expect we are going to hear a lot from our 
Republican colleagues about the debt ceiling. So let me begin by making 
a few things perfectly clear at the onset.
  First, few issues require more bipartisanship, cooperation, and 
serious-mindedness than making sure that America is able to pay its 
debts on time. At stake is the health of our economy and the very 
stability of the global financial system. Should the U.S. default on 
its debt, the consequences could be severe, and it is going to affect 
just about every average American family. This is not some esoteric 
issue that is just abstract and way up there in the clouds. It is going 
to affect all of us.
  Listen to what could happen if we default: Interest rates will go up 
on mortgages, on car loans, on credit cards; pensions, the money people 
have put aside, will lose billions, so will IRAs and 401Ks, in all 
likelihood. Home values will decline because when mortgage interest 
rates go up people are willing to pay less for homes. That is a lot of 
money for lots of people. For many people, their home is their rock. It 
is all they have. By playing brinksmanship, some of the MAGA 
Republicans on the other side of the aisle, on the other side in the 
House, are risking just that.
  So, again, this is not an abstract issue. Real Americans will see 
real dollars from so much of what they own disappear from their 
pensions, their IRAs, their home value. Merely approaching a default 
could raise costs on everything from mortgages and car loans to credit 
card interest rates.
  So it is going to hurt average families. This is not an abstract 
argument. And as the months go on, and as we get closer and closer to 
the day that we have to act, the American people will see this, and we 
are going to make sure of that.
  Second, raising the debt ceiling has consistently been a bipartisan 
responsibility for decades. Neither party has played brinksmanship. 
Since 1960, the debt ceiling has been raised approximately 80 times 
under both Republican and Democratic administrations, under both 
unified and divided government. I will note once again that while 
President Trump was in office and Republicans had the House and Senate, 
Democrats voted to raise the debt ceiling. We did it not once, not 
twice, but three times, including twice under Republican majorities in 
the House and Senate. Of course, we could have done what some MAGA 
Republicans want, threatening to block debt ceiling extensions unless 
we got our way. But we knew how badly it would hurt the American 
people, and we didn't do it. This time should be no different. 
Brinksmanship, hostage-taking, default on the debt should be off the 
table. Both parties should work together to ensure we can continue to 
pay our debt on time, and we Democrats are ready to move quickly in 
order to make that happen. Indeed, we are ready to move well in advance 
of default, because even brinksmanship over the debt ceiling can cause 
serious damage to the economy and to individual American families.
  Unfortunately, Madam President--unfortunately, House Republicans have 
kicked off their new majority by saying yes to brinksmanship, yes to 
hostage-taking, and yes even to risking default, all because of 
draconian spending cuts pushed by the hard right. House Republicans' 
approach to the debt ceiling is dangerous, destabilizing, and the only 
thing it accomplishes is making a bipartisan solution less likely. If 
Republicans want to show that they can govern effectively, they are off 
to a pretty poor start.
  If House Republicans are serious about taking the debt limit hostage 
in exchange for spending cuts, the new rules that they adopted require 
them to bring a proposal to the floor of the House and show the 
American people precisely what kind of cuts they want to make. It is 
not enough to hide behind the old GOP talking points about wasteful 
spending. When you are in the majority, substance counts. If 
Republicans are talking about draconian cuts, they have an obligation 
to show Americans what those cuts are and let the public react. And 
let's let them do it now, not 6 months from now when the danger of 
default is much closer.
  House Republicans: You voted for rules that require regular order for 
bringing bills to the floor. So put your proposals for debt ceiling on 
the floor, let the entirety of the House debate it and vote on it, and 
let the American people see and assess these cuts for themselves. 
Otherwise, Americans are going to be left with some pretty big 
questions.
  Republicans say they want spending cuts. Well, does that mean cuts to 
Social Security or Medicare or childcare or Pell grants or our military 
or pay raises for our troops or funding police and law enforcement?
  Many House Republicans are serious about cutting national defense in 
exchange for raising the debt ceiling. I hope they are not but many 
seem to be--or maybe they are pushing cuts to public health and nurses 
and hospitals. Whatever the case may be, Americans deserve to know what 
kind of cuts Republicans want to make and why they think it is worth 
forcing an unnecessary crisis that will hurt most American families.
  Frankly, I expect the House Republicans themselves will struggle to 
come up with a serious answer, because deep down, they know that no 
matter what they propose, their cuts are likely to be deeply unpopular 
with the American people.
  This is the central quandary of the new majority. By yielding so much 
to the whims of the MAGA hard right,

[[Page S43]]

House Republicans have boxed themselves in and now have to choose 
between serving the American people or pleasing the extremists within 
their ranks. We are already seeing this play out when it comes to the 
debt ceiling.
  I yield the floor.