[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LOOMING DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, I was very encouraged with today's 
reports that the Republican leadership is planning to teach their 
Members about how the debt ceiling works. This is a very good sign, 
especially after the embarrassing first week with 15 votes to elect a 
Speaker, and the House leadership ending up exactly where it started. 
Unfortunately, the leadership is hallowed out, but they have empowered 
the exact same element or any other faction who want to hold the 
Speaker hostage.
  But there is a key difference going forward. They are playing games 
with the full faith and credit of the United States, which is 
underpinning the global economy. Note, the debt ceiling is not just a 
way station on the way to a full government shutdown. While government 
shutdowns have real costs and consequences, the debt ceiling has 
massive ramifications that you cannot unwind.
  This game of chicken with the global economy is very much more 
consequential. You can recover from the shutdown. But the Trump attacks 
on professionals, for example, drove thousands of people out of 
government service, and it is going to take years and millions of 
dollars to repair. These implementations of political slogans have real 
consequences.
  In the end, I suspect we will be right where we started. The only way 
to reduce the deficit, to balance the budget books, is to actually 
reduce government spending, which they refused to do in the Trump 
administration when they were in total control of the government. They 
instead had a huge increase in the deficit. There were, of course, tax 
cuts that were a part of that, unfunded, and there was a major spike in 
military spending.
  My friend, Hal Harvey, a leader in climate science, is fond of saying 
that you can't refute science, math, and economics. That is exactly the 
situation that my Republican friends are facing with this game of 
chicken with the debt ceiling.
  There is no gimmick, there is no commission, and there is no slogan 
that avoids the painful truth that you actually have to reduce 
spending. There are real things we could do.
  I would suggest any Member could avail themselves of a secret weapon 
that is in each and every one of our districts. There are amazing young 
people who are involved with civics, with leadership congresses, with 
the efforts to understand how government works. I think we ought to 
employ them. They understand the dynamic: Cut spending, raise taxes, or 
just collect the taxes that are due and owing, which would be hundreds 
of billions of dollars. Unless and until we do this, all the rest is 
simply meaningless slogans and posturing, unfortunately with real risks 
of threatening the full faith and credit of the United States.
  My friends have no alternative to the borrowing, and I am afraid that 
we are going to end up going through this meaningless exercise, 
agitating ourselves, confusing the public, and losing an opportunity to 
make real progress, improving the budgeting process, and making the tax 
system more effective to just collect the taxes that are already due 
and owing, which we are ignoring.
  I strongly encourage the process that my Republican friends are 
involved with in terms of educating Members about the impacts of the 
debt ceiling, and I hope that we are able to come together to deal with 
the realities of what that implies.

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