[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 45 (Thursday, March 9, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1211-H1212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I thank the Ways and Means Committee

[[Page H1212]]

for taking up my bill, H.R. 187, the Default Prevention Act, today.
  Similar bills I introduced passed this House in 2013 and 2015, and I 
am gratified the committee would take it up in this session. The bill 
simply provides that even if there is a fiscal impasse in our 
deliberations over the debt limit, the debt of the United States will 
always be paid in full and on time.
  Frankly, that is already the law. Our revenues vastly exceed our debt 
service costs. As every family knows, if you are living off your credit 
cards, you better make the minimum payment first. The law and the 
Constitution require it.
  The organic act that established the Treasury Department in 1789 is 
clear on this point: `` . . . it shall be the duty of the Secretary of 
the Treasury to digest and prepare plans for the improvement and 
management of the revenue, and for the support of public credit. . . 
.''
  I repeat: The management of the revenue and the support of public 
credit.
  The Constitution is also crystal clear. The 14th Amendment commands 
that the public debt is not to be questioned. The GAO spelled it out so 
there would be no doubt when they answered the Senate Finance Committee 
in 1985, ``The Treasury is free to liquidate obligations in any order 
it finds will best serve the interests of the United States.''
  Yet, over the years, various Presidents have threatened to default on 
the debt as a way to roil markets and pressure lawmakers to bend to 
their will. This President, sadly, is no different.
  Even while the Obama Treasury Department was denying it had the 
ability to prioritize payments to pay the debt first, we later 
discovered it was making preparations to do exactly that. We also 
discovered documents that revealed that Federal Reserve officials were 
appalled that the administration would ever suggest defaulting because 
such statements ran a severe risk of panicking credit markets. We are 
hearing those same statements today from some Democrats in this 
Congress and in this administration.
  The Default Prevention Act simply takes this threat off the table. 
Amendments being offered by the committee also require priority be 
given to Social Security, Medicare, and defense to assure no President 
can threaten to hold seniors or servicemembers or veterans hostage, as 
well.
  Nor is this unusual. Most State constitutions provide that first call 
on any revenues is to maintain and protect their sovereign credit. 
Indeed, several years ago, in testimony to the Senate, Federal Reserve 
Chairman Ben Bernanke praised these State provisions for maintaining 
confidence in State-issued bonds.
  This is not to endorse a prolonged impasse over the debt limit. 
Postponing prompt payment of other bills is not a good thing, but the 
full faith and credit of our country is fundamental to paying all of 
those other bills, and that is why we should prevent any President from 
threatening to default on that credit.
  The most preposterous claim we hear is that this prioritizes paying 
China before other obligations. The fact is, most debt is held by 
Americans, including most likely your pension fund. China holds about 
3.2 percent of our bonds.
  The debt limit is there for a reason. If your family is living beyond 
its means and needs to seek an increase in its credit limit, it had 
better sit down around the kitchen table and have a very serious 
discussion over the circumstances that have gotten it into this 
predicament and what steps it needs to take to get out. That is why we 
have a debt limit, to have exactly that discussion as a nation.
  That is why it is so disturbing when the President says he is not 
even willing to discuss the subject. Well, considering the fact that he 
has added $3.7 trillion to the national debt in just 25 months in 
office, that is irresponsible.
  Not discuss it? Why in the world does he think we have this building 
with the dome on top at the very center of our Capital City?
  It was built exclusively to have these discussions, to talk out our 
differences, and to reach a wise and satisfactory conclusion for our 
public policy questions.
  Not discuss the biggest fiscal threat our Nation has ever faced?
  He can't be serious.
  However, serious or not, no President should have the ability to 
threaten to default on our debt, to destroy the full faith and credit 
of the government, or to take hostage our seniors, our veterans, and 
our other servicemembers. This bill prevents him from ever threatening 
to do so again, and it needs to be enacted.

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