[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 89 (Thursday, May 25, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DEBT CEILING CRISIS

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, we stand here today, 7 days away from 
the X-date, the date that our Nation will default on the full faith and 
credit of our Nation's financial debt for the first time since the War 
of 1812.
  Madam Speaker, it is not too late for us to stop such a catastrophe 
by passing a clean debt limit bill just as Congress has done 78 times 
since 1960.
  Interestingly, the President who signed the most debt limit extension 
bills was Speaker McCarthy's hero, Ronald Reagan; 18 times in 8 years.
  I ask Speaker McCarthy to heed Reagan's words that he said in 1987 
when he signed one of those bills at the height of the Cold War.
  He said, ``The United States has a special responsibility to itself 
and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned 
reputation for reliability and credibility--two things that set us 
apart from much of the world.''
  In 2023, we have adversaries, China and Russia, who are watching with 
glee as we as a Nation are about to, for no good reason, not maintain 
our financial debt.
  They are waiting and want to pounce in terms of de-dollarizing world 
currencies that rely on international trade. Pass a clean debt limit 
bill for the sake of our Nation and free democracies.

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