[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 24 (Monday, February 6, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H685-H686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EXTEND THE DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, on January 13, 2023, the Secretary of 
the Treasury, Janet Yellen, announced that the United States had hit 
its debt ceiling, which is a legal authorization that Congress has done 
on a recurring basis since the early 1900s that allows our Treasury to 
go out and sell bonds so we can pay the bills for our country,

[[Page H686]]

whether it is fentanyl issues, whether it is our military, or whether 
it is our education programs.
  Normally, when the Secretary of the Treasury gives that type of 
announcement, responsible leadership in Congress takes up the task of 
extending the debt ceiling so that our government can continue to 
function. We are talking about paying the bills for existing budgets 
that have already been passed. That is what the debt ceiling empowers 
by Congress moving forward.
  It has been 18 days since Ms. Yellen's warning to the country and to 
the world, and the leadership of the House has done absolutely nothing. 
We have passed a series of pointless resolutions that have no legal 
impact in terms of real lives of people in this country and a bunch of 
bills that we know are immediately dead on arrival in the Senate.

  Again, as the clock ticks, the world wants to know: What is the 
Speaker's position? What does he want in terms of doing what every 
Speaker, Republican and Democrat, has done over and over again to 
protect the full faith and credit of our currency and the paper that 
the Treasury sells, again, as basically the gold standard in terms of 
financial markets across the world?
  Mr. McCarthy has not told us.
  What is at work here? If we look at the Republican Study Group, which 
consists of roughly 170 Members, they have been talking openly and 
publicly about the fact that they want to do entitlement reform, which 
is to go after Social Security and Medicare.
  Madam Speaker, I would just say that this is a very off-target 
proposal and solution because, in fact, Social Security has no bearing 
in terms of the operating deficit of the Federal Government, which, 
again, the Speaker claims that he cares so much about.
  Social Security is funded through a separate revenue stream, the 
payroll tax that comes out of working people's paychecks every single 
pay period that goes into a fund that, again, is separate and distinct 
from the operating budget of the Federal Government.
  The proposals of the Republican Study Group, which are to raise the 
retirement age from 67 to 70 and to impose a degraded level of CPI 
cost-of-living adjustment, a changed CPI, would hit middle-class 
Americans hard, particularly younger ones because this is definitely 
proposed as sort of a two-tiered Social Security system.
  There is a fundamental flaw in the whole approach that is being 
suggested and discussed by the Republican Study Group, which is the 
claim that the Medicare and Social Security systems are entitlements.
  Entitlement is not a legal term. It is not a budget term. It is a 
political term. It is an attempt to try to mask the fact that Social 
Security, since Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law 80 years ago, is 
a social insurance program.
  If you don't believe me, look at your paycheck. What your paycheck 
shows is that the withholding for Social Security is separate from your 
Federal taxes, which go into the operating budget of this country, and 
is designated as the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, FICA, for 
old-age insurance.
  Again, it is an insurance program, and it provides coverage for 
people who are retired because they have hit retirement age, for young 
people who have lost a parent, or for people on disability.
  If we were responsible about trying to deal with the fact that Social 
Security is going to be challenged in 2033--it is going to have a 
shortfall; it is not going to go bankrupt, which the press sometimes 
says--there is a solution to that, which is to lift the earnings cap. 
Today, basically anyone who earns income above $160,000 suddenly 
doesn't have to pay into the Social Security system.
  As Warren Buffett, a billionaire, aptly pointed out, he is paying 
less into Social Security than his secretary. It is called the Buffett 
rule. The solution, which basically says everybody pays the same rate, 
or at least people whose income is above $400,000, would overnight push 
back the solvency for decades to ensure that young people, in 
particular, are going to have Social Security just like all the 
Americans in the preceding 80 years have had. That is really one of the 
pillars of middle-class economic security.
  In the meantime, the clock is ticking. We know that we are really not 
just going to go at the debt ceiling, but we are going to hit full 
default by June 1.
  This leadership has to do the right thing, just like we have done in 
past Presidencies and past Congresses: Extend the debt ceiling.

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