[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RAISING THE DEBT CEILING

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan said the 
following: ``The full consequences of a default--or even the serious 
prospect of a default--by the United States are impossible to predict 
and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of 
the United States would have substantial effects on domestic financial 
markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The risks, the 
costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one 
conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress 
adjourns.''
  Thank goodness Congress had the good sense to listen and pass a 
higher debt limit with no conditions at a time, by the way, when 
Medicare solvency was far worse than it is today, and then did it 16 
more times during the Reagan Presidency.
  Today, we have the head of the national Republican Party, Reince 
Priebus, saying yesterday, don't worry, the government will find some 
other way to pay its bills. That is dangerous nonsense. It is time for 
the Republican Party to stop playing Russian roulette with the American 
economy and American families. Let's pass a clean debt limit and move 
on to growing the U.S. economy and creating jobs.

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