[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8434]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               DEBT LIMIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Stearns) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Lost in the hyperbolic statements and calls of doom--
``if Congress does not raise the current debt ceiling''--is the real 
problem that our Nation faces: the out-of-control spending that has 
become epidemic here in Congress. No doubt a technical default in 
August surely would be problematic. But much worse would be the results 
if Republicans caved to Democrats and no significant spending reforms 
are implemented.
  Today, my colleagues, 68 cents of every dollar is spent on 
entitlement programs. By the year 2025, the government will spend 100 
percent of every dollar of revenues on entitlements.
  The United States is over $14 trillion in debt, and without spending 
cuts in the deficit, our national debt will continue to grow. We must 
begin to rein in spending and bring about the fiscal changes to protect 
our children from this growing burden of debt.
  Mr. Speaker, importantly, markets understand the difference between a 
technical default in which investors may have to wait a short period of 
time for an interest payment and an actual default in which a country 
is unable to repay its debt. If Congress does not act appropriately 
now, very soon the country will not face merely a technical default, 
but instead a real default. Then the calls of doom will be appropriate.
  Investors have every incentive to want Congress to balance its budget 
and get its house in order finally. If this means investors will have 
to wait a few days for an interest payment to be repaid, then so be it. 
Because fixing the real problem now guarantees to investors that this 
government can make its payments 10 years from now, a realization that 
will comfort investors much more than preventing a mild delay--
particularly if that mild delay means future delays, future debt limit 
debates, and future possible defaults.
  The best solution, of course, is no default at all, not technical and 
not actual. Congress must quickly come together and make some tough 
decisions that will forever affect the future of our country. But we 
will not be coerced into a position that fuels the spending addiction 
that has landed us in this situation where we stand today. We will not 
succumb to a vote to increase the debt limit if we are not compensated 
with significant spending cuts.
  As our Speaker John Boehner has said, ``It's true that allowing 
America to default would be irresponsible, but it would be more 
irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking 
dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process'' 
itself. And it can be done.
  We can look back to understand what will happen next. Several years 
back, Russia had a real default, yet within 2 or 3 years they reached 
all-time low interest rates. Earlier this year, the House passed a 
budget resolution for fiscal year 2012 which set non-security 
discretionary spending to below 2008 funding levels. It calls upon 
repealing the costly and burdensome health care law and envisions 
reforming some entitlement programs to contain costs and pay down the 
national debt.
  My colleagues across the aisle have criticized portions of this 
legislation. But the question is asked, where is their alternative? 
There can be no debate if the other side cannot produce a logical 
document that seriously sets out to solve our Nation's crisis, the real 
crisis. Just like the solution to a drug addiction is not to increase 
one's intake, the solution to our Nation's spending addiction is not to 
increase one's capacity to continue to accumulate debt.
  The time is now for real reform. Only after we have curbed the 
trillions of dollars of debt that we continue to pile up can we then 
consider raising the debt limit.

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