[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 10, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1581-S1582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Debt Ceiling

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, it is May 10--May 10. If the President's 
Treasury Secretary is correct, in 3 weeks, the United States could 
reach the limit of its borrowing capacity, and--and, absent an 
agreement between the President and Congress to raise the debt ceiling, 
begin to default on its debts. But if you think that means the 
President has gotten serious about reaching a debt ceiling agreement, 
you would be wrong.
  The President did invite the Democratic and Republican leaders of the 
House and Senate to the White House yesterday, presumably, one would 
think, to finally begin negotiating. But as it turned out, the meeting 
was apparently a little more than an occasion for the President to 
reiterate his position that he won't negotiate.
  Here is the political reality: The President can't raise the debt 
ceiling by himself. He has to work with Congress, and, more 
specifically, he has to work with Speaker McCarthy and the Republican-
controlled House of Representatives. That is just the reality.
  The American people sent divided government to Washington last 
November, and divided government requires compromise. It requires 
negotiation. Frankly, it is the height of arrogance for the President 
and the Senate Democratic leader to think that they are somehow the 
exception to that, to think that they should be able to simply decree 
what they want--in this case, an increase in the debt ceiling with no 
spending reforms--and have everyone else just fall in line.
  That is not the way our system of government works. I get that the 
President would like things to work that way, but they don't, and the 
sooner he accepts that fact the better because the fiscal stability of 
our country is hanging in the balance here. Unless the President comes 
to the negotiating table for real, he is going to be responsible for 
the United States defaulting on its debts.
  Let's talk for a minute about why the President doesn't want to 
negotiate, why he is insisting on a clean

[[Page S1582]]

debt limit bill. Well, it is really quite simple. House Republicans 
want to pair any increase in the debt ceiling with spending reforms, 
and the President doesn't want anything that will restrain his ability 
to spend. He is intent on expanding the size and reach of the Federal 
Government, and spending reforms would get in the way.
  What President Biden does not seem to realize, however, is that our 
Nation is on an unsustainable spending trajectory. Spending under the 
Biden administration has reached staggering levels. The total Federal 
budget for fiscal year 2023 is up approximately 40 percent from 2019, 
the last budget before the pandemic--40 percent. And under the 
President's budget, over the next decade, the Federal budget would 
reach a staggering $10 trillion, a 125-percent increase from its 
prepandemic level. Think about it--a 125-percent increase in the cost 
of government from the prepandemic level. Our country and our economy 
cannot take that level of spending.
  Between October and March, the Federal Government borrowed $6 billion 
a day--a day. That is more than the entire 2023 budget for my State of 
South Dakota. The amount of money that the Federal Government borrows 
in a single day is more than the entire budget for the State of South 
Dakota for the entire year. Debt at that level threatens economic 
growth. It jeopardizes our national security and leaves us excessively 
dependent on other countries who hold our Nation's debt, and it sucks 
money away from essential government spending on things like Social 
Security and Medicare and our national defense.
  Just paying the interest on our debt is taking a toll on our Nation's 
budget. According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible 
Federal Budget, 50 cents of every dollar our country borrows in the 
next 10 years will go just toward paying interest on our national debt. 
By 2028, we will be spending more on interest than on national defense. 
By 2044, we will be spending more on interest than on Medicare. And by 
2050, we will be spending more on interest than on Social Security.
  How in the world are we going to be able to pay for these programs 
and other essential government functions if we are spending that much 
money just meeting the interest--the interest alone--on that massive, 
going-on-$32-trillion debt?
  Negotiating over the debt ceiling is hardly new. Seven of the last 
ten debt limit increases have included some mix of policy or budgetary 
changes rather than a simple, clean increase. And the Democrat leader 
of the Senate, the same Democrat leader who is now insisting on a clean 
debt limit increase, is on the record during the last administration 
talking about using the debt ceiling as leverage to achieve Democrat 
priorities.
  So the President and the Democrat leader's outrage that they might 
have to yield to the realities of divided government and actually have 
to negotiate over the debt ceiling is a little hard to swallow. And it 
is profoundly disturbing that, with a national debt in excess of $31 
trillion and growing every day, the President and the Democrat leader 
can't be brought to consider even the mildest spending reforms.
  House Republicans have proposed reasonable spending reforms. The 
nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget--where the 
President's own Treasury Secretary used to sit on the Board, I might 
add--called the Republican bill ``a serious package'' and a ``realistic 
and extremely welcome first step.'' But if the President doesn't like 
the House's proposed spending reforms, he should put forward his own 
spending reforms.
  What he should not do, however, and cannot responsibly do is continue 
to refuse to engage in negotiations. If he continues to reject 
compromise, if he continues to insist that it is his way and no other, 
then, come June, he will be responsible for our Nation defaulting on 
its debts.
  The President has already spent us into an inflation crisis. Let's 
hope he can see his way to negotiating before he plunges us into a 
default crisis as well.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.