[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 88 (Wednesday, May 24, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DEBT CEILING CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, in 1 week, on June 1, the country and the 
world is going to witness something that we have never seen before.
  There will be an office in the United States Treasury, less than a 
mile from here, in which a group of people will decide: Are we going to 
pay the soldier deployed in Syria to combat ISIS, or are we going to 
send out Social Security checks?
  Are we going to pay air traffic controllers, or are we going to 
support the Medicare program that provides healthcare for retirees?
  That is tragedy in and of itself, but the world is going to see 
something it has never seen before. It is going to see that the United 
States is no longer trustworthy; that we don't pay our bills; that we 
don't abide by the obligations that we freely took in this Chamber.
  Even worse, Putin and Xi and the leadership of North Korea and Iran 
are going to say, look, democracy does not work. The supposedly 
greatest country in the world won't pay its bills.
  Now, are we in this place because we don't have the money? Of course 
we are not. We have the money. We are the richest, most powerful 
country in the world.
  We are in this place because my Republican colleagues have figured 
out that they have a perfect hostage situation; that if this Congress--
and make no mistake--it is the Congress' obligation to raise the debt 
ceiling.
  It is not the President's obligation under the law. It is the 
Congress' obligation to raise the debt ceiling. They understand that if 
we don't raise the debt ceiling, catastrophe ensues.
  They have a list of ransom demands, and we saw it because it passed 
in this House 2 weeks ago. It would require veterans with mental 
illness to work in order to receive food stamps.
  It would reverse the historic measures that the Congress took to turn 
around the tragedy of climate change.
  We know what the ransom demands are. Now, I happen to disagree with 
those ransom demands, and we have a mechanism by which the Republican 
majority could pass those.
  Anybody who ever watched ``Schoolhouse Rock'' knows what that 
mechanism is. You pass it in the House, you pass it in the Senate, the 
President signs it, and you get your way.

  Of course, they can't get their way because they understand that that 
list of ransom demands is deeply, deeply unpopular with the American 
people.
  Instead, they are saying, unless you do this stuff, Mr. President, 
Mr. Schumer in the Senate, we are going to destroy the global economy 
and the reputation of the United States of America.
  Now, am I being unfair and saying that it is a hostage situation? My 
colleague from Florida said yesterday: ``I think my conservative 
colleagues for the most part support Limit, Save, Grow''--that is, by 
the way, the ransom list--``and they don't feel like we should 
negotiate with our hostage.'' A Republican Member of Florida: ``They 
don't feel we should negotiate with our hostage.''
  Now, Democrats, because we feel some sense of obligation and 
responsibility to the full faith and credit and the dignity of the 
United States, didn't do this under Donald Trump.
  Three times Democrats acceded without a ransom list to a raise in the 
debt ceiling when Donald Trump was President.
  Donald Trump, when he was President, said this about the debt 
ceiling. ``That is a very, very sacred thing in our country, the debt 
ceiling. We can never play with it.''
  Let me quote the Speaker of the House yesterday. The Speaker of the 
House says, when he is asked, What do the Democrats get in this 
negotiation?
  You get reversing climate change. You get work requirements for 
Medicaid and food stamps. What do the Democrats get?
  The Speaker said, ``We are going to raise the debt ceiling.'' The 
quiet part is being spoken out loud. This is a hostage situation.
  The implications here, and I try to make this case to my Republican 
friends, eventually we Democrats will learn from this level of 
irresponsibility.
  The next time there is a Republican President, we will have a ransom 
list. Is this the way we want to legislate in the greatest country in 
the world? I don't think so.
  To illustrate how corrupt this enterprise is, how corrupt the 
reasoning is, here is what is happening. The Republicans passed the 
Trump tax cuts, $2 trillion in deficit addition.
  By the way, a quarter, a full quarter of the national debt was 
accrued under one President, Donald Trump. A quarter.
  This country has a 245-year history. One quarter of the debt was 
accrued in the 4 years of Donald Trump. Here is what is happening.
  We have a big old dinner. We order the appetizers. We order the hors 
d'oeuvres. We order expensive wine. We order four courses.
  This is the spending and the tax cuts that this institution likes, 
and then we say, we are not paying the bill. My friends, that doesn't 
work. Let's get past this debt ceiling insanity.

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