[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              DEBT CEILING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, chaos over there in the House on the 
Republican side. Each day that passes in Washington, two things hold 
true: We keep getting closer to default but no closer to a Republican 
plan to lift the debt ceiling. I repeat once again: House Republicans, 
Speaker McCarthy, show us your plan. It has been more than a month 
since Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans began threatening the 
entire U.S. economy in order to secure drastic spending cuts that, in 
all likelihood, will hurt the American people badly. But in all this 
time, nobody can seem to get an answer to the $64,000 question: What 
cuts exactly are the Republicans proposing? Show us your plan.
  Some of the things we are hearing from the MAGA wing is the stuff of 
nightmares. Later this afternoon, I will join with a number of Senate 
colleagues to shine a light on how devastating the radical MAGA cuts 
would be for American families if the MAGA Republicans got their way.
  But where is the House Republican plan? How are they going to lift 
the debt ceiling? After months of no answers, now Speaker McCarthy has 
recently claimed Republican leadership is trying to come up with a plan 
right now. I am glad he is at least saying he wants to answer our 
question.
  Frankly, it is a lot easier said than done, and I don't think Speaker 
McCarthy will be able to unify his conference. It takes 218 votes, as 
we know, to pass anything in the House, and with the razor-thin GOP 
majority paralyzed by internal division and with the stronghold the 
MAGA Republicans have on the Speaker, Speaker McCarthy will have a very 
difficult time getting everyone on the same page, if he can do it at 
all.
  To quote from Punchbowl this morning, ``House Republicans . . . face 
an intractable political math challenge as they seek to reduce the $1.4 
trillion deficit.'' For one, Speaker McCarthy has insisted Republicans 
will only preserve the full faith and credit of the United States if 
they secure drastic spending cuts first.
  MAGA Republican hardliners have demanded Speaker McCarthy release a 
proposal to balance the budget over the next 10 years, one of the 
conditions for having supported his leadership. At the same time, 
Speaker McCarthy has also claimed Republicans won't touch Social 
Security and Medicare. Now, I will believe that when I see it because 
so many Republicans, not just a handful--so many--have spent years 
going on record calling for cuts and changes and privatization of these 
programs.

  All this leads to a terrible conclusion. If Speaker McCarthy is going 
to meet these goals, Republicans would need to cut 85 percent of all 
discretionary spending in order to balance the budget in 10 years. Let 
me say that again. If Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans are 
serious about balancing the budget in their 10-year plan without 
touching Medicare and Social Security, they will need to cut 85 percent 
of all discretionary spending. That would be Republican austerity at an 
apocalyptic level.
  Teachers, nurses, firefighters, student loan borrowers, police 
officers would all kiss Federal funding goodbye. Funding for scientific 
research, so vital in our competition with China, would likely 
disappear. Child hunger would spike without Federal nutrition programs. 
Housing programs would be starved of resources. We would be thrust into 
a greater housing crisis than we now have.
  So my point is this: Speaker McCarthy is not going to be able to keep 
his promise to balance the budget in 10 years while, at the same time, 
leaving Social Security and Medicare untouched. The math doesn't add 
up. Very soon, the MAGA brigade will see that the Speaker made a bunch 
of promises that he won't be able to keep, and I worry greatly that the 
dangers of slipping into default will only increase as the toxic 
dynamic within the House GOP gets worse day by day.
  That is why it is so important that now, early on, the House 
Republicans show us their plan.

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