[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 63 (Monday, April 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1124-S1125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Debt Ceiling

  Mr. President, as I said, this Chamber has a lot to do--the 100 of us 
who

[[Page S1125]]

serve in this Chamber. One of the most critical tasks we have is to 
avoid a debt crisis. Back in January, the United States hit its debt 
limit, and the U.S. Treasury Department has begun using what they call 
extraordinary measures to prevent the government from defaulting on its 
debt.
  Since then, we have been operating, literally, on borrowed time. We 
don't know exactly when those measures will be exhausted. It depends, 
in part, upon tax returns or tax revenue being generated, and that can 
be a little bit unpredictable. But experts have said that it could 
occur as soon as June, which is a little less than 2 months away.
  As we know, nothing happens very quickly here in the Senate. It takes 
time to negotiate, to write, debate, and pass legislation; meaning, it 
is time to get serious about preventing a fiscal crisis. From the get-
go, President Biden drew outrageous red lines and ruled out any 
negotiations over spending reforms.
  Clearly, that was not a realistic nor a responsible position to take. 
President Biden has signed partisan spending bills totaling $2.7 
trillion just in the last year or so alone, and now he says it is up to 
the Republicans in the House to deal with the debt ceiling, and he is 
not going to negotiate. That is not a responsible position for the 
President of the United States to take.
  Moreover, the national debt is now $31.6 trillion and counting. 
Congress cannot just raise the debt limit and continue to borrow and 
spend like there is no tomorrow.
  Yes, this is like your child maxing out their credit limit and then 
asking you or the bank, perhaps, to raise the credit limit without 
regard to repaying the debt or at least some of the debt that they owe. 
No responsible actor acts that way, and the President knows it.
  So President Biden needs to get off his high horse. He needs to come 
to the negotiating table, and I am sure Speaker McCarthy will more than 
meet him halfway.
  Yes, we all agree, we need to avoid a debt crisis. No one wants the 
United States to default on its debts, but we also need to enact 
broader reforms to rein in spending, and that has traditionally been 
what happens when the debt ceiling is increased.
  We can't just slap a bandaid on the problem and call it a day. We 
can't just continue to indefinitely raise the debt limit and burden 
more and more of future generations with the responsibility that we 
ourselves should embrace because it is our responsibility and not those 
future generations.
  It is time for Congress to buckle down and get government spending in 
check, and this is a prime opportunity to have that debate and those 
votes. Of course, this is just one piece of the Senate's work to 
promote financial responsibility. We also need to pass regular 
appropriations bills on time and through the regular order. Move them 
out of committee, across the floor, give Senators a chance to offer 
amendments, and then vote. That is what we call regular order around 
here.

  Instead, what we have gotten, at least last year, was a $1.7 trillion 
bill, I think that was the final pricetag, an omnibus bill, which 
denied the opportunity for any Member of Congress or the Senate to 
offer amendments or debate different portions of it, to either add to 
or reprioritize some of the spending or--Heaven forbid--to cut some of 
the wasteful spending.
  Instead, we were given the choice of an up-or-down vote, and that, of 
course, is the way the leadership likes it. That is the way Speaker 
Pelosi and Senator Schumer, the Senate majority leader, likes it 
because it maximizes their authority, while it casts the rest of us who 
have been independently elected to this body on the sidelines as 
spectators, only to be called into action once the final vote is 
called.
  Well, unfortunately, Congress hasn't had much of a success record 
when it comes to regular order for appropriations bills. The Senate and 
House Appropriations Committees, as we know, are charged with writing 
12 separate bills to fund different components of the Federal 
Government.
  They are supposed to pass, as I indicated, both Chambers, the House 
and the Senate, and then those differences are reconciled and then 
signed into law before September 30 of every year. But that didn't 
happen last year, as I said. The Democratic-led Senate did not pass a 
single regular appropriations bill. And, again, that is not by 
accident; that is by design.
  But it doesn't serve the interest of our constituents; it doesn't 
serve the interests of rank-and-file Members of the Senate to be 
relegated to the sidelines like a potted plant; and it doesn't give the 
American people what they are entitled to, which is the kind of robust 
debate, prioritization, and, yes, some spending restraint and cuts, 
particularly in areas where we can all agree that that spending is not 
a high priority or is, indeed, wasteful.
  Instead of that regular order, we saw a temporary continuing 
resolution, which doesn't help the Pentagon or any other element of the 
Federal Government actually make plans for a yearlong spending 
appropriation, but rather has to deal with stopgap spending bills, 
pending this big Omnibus appropriations bill at the end of the year.
  And, of course, all of this happens in a rushed fashion, completely 
out of the public's view. We simply cannot accept this as the new 
normal. We need to abandon this habit of continuing resolutions and 
last-minute omnibuses and return to regular ontime appropriations 
bills.
  In order to plan and prepare for the future, Federal Agencies and 
certainly our military are looking at daunting challenges all across 
the globe. Whether it is in Europe or in Asia, in North Korea or in the 
Middle East, we have daunting national security challenges facing us. 
And this kind of inappropriate power play, frankly, by the leadership 
of the House and the Senate we saw demonstrated last December does not 
serve the interest of our military, our national security, or the 
public interest.
  And it results in big, bloated, spending bills that Congress simply 
doesn't have the opportunity to parse. Well, we know that it takes time 
to do that so it shouldn't be put on the back burner until we are 
approaching the end of the fiscal year, which is coming at the end of 
September. We need to get that process moving now.