[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 9, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1556-S1557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Debt Ceiling

  Mr. President, on another matter, the President of the United States 
convened his first meeting of the four top congressional leaders to 
discuss the looming debt crisis. A potential default has been on the 
horizon for months now, and from the beginning, both sides--Republicans 
and Democrats--have said: We believe the debt ceiling needs to be 
addressed.
  Republicans, for their part, have said: We need to do what we have 
done before, and that is to couple a debt ceiling increase with 
spending reforms because you just can't keep maxing out your credit 
card and go back and ask that the credit card limits be increased 
without coming up with some plan to actually pay down the debt you 
incur. That has happened time and time again. I believe President 
Biden, when he was in the Senate, voted for that sort of coupling of 
spending reforms and debt ceiling increase. I think it was four times, 
if memory serves me correctly.
  But never before has the national debt been the size it is now. Of 
course, you can point to COVID-19. This was, to my mind, sort of the 
equivalent of a domestic ``World War III''; although, it was a 
healthcare battle and war, and we had to do whatever we could to deal 
with it, and we did. But that spending continued when President Biden 
was in office with a Democratic House and Senate; and, without any 
additional votes from Republicans, after we had done that together--as 
we should do things in a bipartisan way if we can--Democrats, including 
the President, added another $2.7 trillion to the national debt.
  And now the President takes the incredibly irresponsible position 
that: I am not going to negotiate. We just want to raise the debt 
ceiling. We don't want to talk about how we pay down that debt or any 
spending reforms.
  Now, we all know the fact that, at $31.5 trillion, $31.7 trillion, we 
are on an unsustainable path. Everybody knows that. And the debt 
ceiling is important because it forces us to do something we should do 
anyway, and that is have a serious conversation about our Nation's 
spending habits, about Congress's spending habits.
  Well, President Biden announced this debt ceiling crisis that was 
looming and subject only to how much money was coming in the door in 
terms of tax revenue as to when the ``X'' date would hit. Now we hear 
from the Secretary of the Treasury it is probably sometime in June. But 
instead of engaging back when the announcement was made, the President 
stuck his fingers in his ears and refused to even discuss any sort of 
negotiated outcome. Again, this is the party that spent more than $2.6 
trillion by themselves, and now they are refusing to entertain any 
ideas or any suggestion that, yes, America has a spending problem. But 
we know it does. We know we do, and we know Congress and the President 
are the only ones who can deal with it.
  Well, to make matters worse, Democrats in Congress, including the 
President, have even attacked Republicans for trying to act responsibly 
to deal with this debt ceiling and have the temerity to suggest that, 
yes, there are some spending reforms that need to be coupled along with 
it.
  Earlier this year, the Senate majority leader criticized House 
Republicans' approach to the debt ceiling as hostage-taking. He 
described it as

[[Page S1557]]

``dangerous'' and ``destabilizing,'' but he failed to mention this was 
the exact same approach he took several years ago.
  You know, that is one thing I have learned about the Senate. If you 
are around here long enough and if you are not careful, you are liable 
to find yourself on both sides of an issue and look a little 
hypocritical in the process.
  So back in 2017, our country was in a similar position. The United 
States hit the debt ceiling. The Department of the Treasury began using 
extraordinary measures to continue to pay the bills, and Congress was 
racing the clock to avoid a default. At that point, Republicans held 
the majority in the Senate, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the 
debt ceiling gave Democrats leverage in bipartisan talks. He and then-
Speaker Nancy Pelosi strategically used a potential debt crisis to 
strengthen their hand in broader negotiations, which is a pretty sharp 
contrast with Senator Schumer's position today. When he was the one 
trying to negotiate, the debt ceiling was fair game as leverage, but 
when it is House Republicans who are being the responsible ones by 
initiating a proposal to raise the debt ceiling--and I say initiating a 
negotiation, hopefully--he says it is dangerous, it is destabilizing, 
it is hostage-taking. The hypocrisy is palpable.
  The problem with Democrats' argument here isn't just rhetorical; it 
is also impractical. From the get-go, Speaker McCarthy has made it 
absolutely clear that a clean debt ceiling increase will not pass the 
House. The votes aren't there, plain and simple. Now, Senate 
Republicans have made it abundantly clear that a clean debt ceiling 
cannot pass the Senate. Those are the facts. It won't pass the House, 
and it can't pass the Senate.
  Last week, I joined 42 Republican colleagues in affirming our support 
for the House's proposal to initiate a negotiation to raise the debt 
ceiling. We signed a letter to Senator Schumer, that was led by my 
friend Senator Lee of Utah, saying, we will not vote for cloture on any 
bill that raises the debt ceiling without substantive spending and 
budget reforms.

  We all know that in a Chamber that requires 60 votes to move 
legislation, a united block of 43 Senators means it ain't going to 
happen. If Senator Schumer puts a clean debt ceiling increase on the 
floor, it will fail; he won't have the votes. And that is just a fact 
of life.
  The big question now is, Where does that leave us? I see two options. 
Option 1: The Senate can spend the next few weeks holding show votes on 
bills that are guaranteed to fail. Democrats can waste even more time, 
as our country inches closer and closer to a debt crisis--something 
both sides have said they want to avoid--or, second option, the 
President can get off the sidelines and start negotiating with Speaker 
McCarthy so we can make progress on a bipartisan bill that will 
actually pass both Chambers of Congress.
  I think we know what is going to happen. There has to be a negotiated 
outcome. The President can say: I am not going to negotiate. He will 
negotiate if he wants to avoid economic catastrophe.
  Already, the public is very anxious about the condition of our 
economy. Inflation is at a 40-year high. It has come down a tad, but 
the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates, make everything 
more expensive. Companies are laying off employees, particularly in the 
tech sector. People are worried. Their cost of living has increased 
dramatically.
  I was having lunch with a friend of mine in Austin, TX, yesterday who 
is a homebuilder. And he talked about the dramatic increase in the 
components of homes that he builds--everything from lumber to air-
conditioning, to plumbing. You name it, everything is more expensive.
  So President Biden will, contrary to his current position, negotiate. 
I am confident of that. But it seems like he is committed to a soap 
opera in the meantime--a lot of drama, a lot of wailing, and gnashing 
of teeth, a lot of speculation that is going to do nothing but to 
rattle the confidence of the American people in their economy and what 
the future may hold.
  This is really an unforced error by the President. It is time to 
accept the fact that a clean debt ceiling increase has no chance of 
becoming law.
  So the ball is in our Democratic colleagues' court. I think President 
Biden didn't think Speaker McCarthy would be able to pull together the 
votes to pass a bill in the House, and he thought, That gives me 
ultimate leverage because if Republicans in the House can't get it 
together, they are going to have no option but to deal with me on my 
terms.
  But Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans, I am proud to say, were 
able to come up with a reasonable bill that includes raising the debt 
ceiling.
  Now, I understand President Biden may say: Well, I don't like that; 
there are parts of it I simply can't accept. But that is how 
negotiations get started. But not if the President of the United 
States, the leader of the free world, is sitting on his couch, waiting 
for the American people to become more and more anxious about their 
future, including the future of the economy and their jobs.
  Last month, the House passed a bill to avert a debt crisis, and now 
it is the Democrats' turn to respond. That is negotiating 101: One side 
makes an offer, and the other side counteroffers.
  Each day our country is moving closer and closer to a debt default. 
President Biden has wasted months parroting the same ridiculous talking 
points, and now is not the time to double down on that tired rhetoric. 
It is time to start talking. And, again, it is not uncommon for debt 
limit increases to be coupled with broader negotiations.
  As I pointed out, Senator Schumer was a proponent of that back in 
2017. He said at the time the debt ceiling ``gives another ample 
opportunity for bipartisanship, not for one party jamming its choices 
down the throats of the other.''
  I agree with Senator Schumer in 2017, and I disagree with Chuck 
Schumer in 2023, in his current position.
  So far, Democrats have blindly adhered to this position of no 
negotiations, no reform; let's just keep on spending until we bankrupt 
this country.
  It is time to change course and to focus on solutions. The art of the 
possible--that is what we are here to do. We need to focus on solutions 
that can pass a Republican-led House and a Democrat-led Senate.
  And that means Speaker McCarthy and President Biden need to talk. And 
more than that, they need to reach an agreement and to do so soon. It 
is time for President Biden to respond to the House's offer with a 
reasonable counteroffer and to negotiate an end to this potential debt 
ceiling crisis.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to use a prop or 
two during my remarks.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.