[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[SENA]
[Pages 10971-10972]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ECONOMIC TEAMWORK

  Mr. REID. Madam President, sometimes it is very hard to find common 
ground in Washington. But there is one thing on which Republicans and 
Democrats agree: It is absolutely necessary that Congress prevent a 
catastrophic default on the Nation's debt that would put our economy at 
grave risk. I have said it, and so have my Republican colleagues.
  The business community is shouting out very loudly the same thing. 
This week, business leaders wrote to Congress--in fact, it was 
yesterday--and the White House to ask us to put our differences aside 
and avert a default crisis before it is too late. Literally hundreds of 
CEOs, including executives of some of the Nation's largest companies 
and the most respected business groups, signed the letter--more than 
300. They wrote, ``This is a risk our country must not take.'' They 
said that if we don't reach a deal soon, the stock market will be in 
``disarray.'' We all know that. We all know we cannot afford to have 
our country crash. Our economy is already struggling to stay on course 
to recovery. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donahue, who 
signed the letter, also said earlier this week that a default would 
have ``dire consequences for our economy, our markets, and Main Street 
Americans.''
  Business leaders are begging us to do something and to do it quickly. 
That is why I was shocked to hear the Speaker of the House say 
yesterday that averting a default crisis was President Obama's problem, 
not his. That is not what he said a few months ago when he urged us to 
``deal like adults'' with the problem. It wasn't what he said when he 
voted to raise the debt ceiling seven times while George W. Bush was 
President, increasing the debt limit by $4 trillion. In fact, when the 
Speaker voted to increase the debt limit by nearly $1 trillion one time 
alone in 2003, he didn't demand that it be accompanied by massive 
spending cuts or any spending cuts. Instead, a Republican Congress 
approved hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy, 
which contributed to our massive debt, and they were all on borrowed 
money. All those massive tax cuts people received around the country 
were on America's credit card that has now come due.
  Congress has raised the debt limit 89 times since it was created in 
1939--54 times with Republican Presidents and 35 times under Democratic 
Presidents. Ronald Reagan asked Congress to raise the limit 18 times--
and we raised it--twice as many as any other President. Republicans 
never claimed then that the issue was the President's problem. For 
Republicans to claim now that the deficit is a problem only for the 
President or Democrats in Congress is irresponsible. It is even more 
irresponsible considering President Bush, with the help of Republicans 
here in Congress, doubled the debt while he was President. That is more 
debt accumulated than any President in history, by far.
  This problem belongs to all of us in Congress, and it will take all 
of us working together--political parties aside--to make a deal 
possible. This is not money being borrowed to spend more money; it is 
money we need to raise the debt ceiling so we can pay the bills we have 
already accrued.
  Democrats realize finding common ground isn't always easy. If it 
were, we would have hammered out an agreement a long time ago. But 
reducing the deficit and getting our fiscal house in order is too 
important to quit when the going gets tough.
  Theodore Hesburgh, the famous president of the University of Notre 
Dame, said this about making difficult decisions:

       You don't make decisions because they are easy; you don't 
     make them because they are cheap; you don't make them because 
     they're popular; you make them because they're right.

  It is time for Democrats and Republicans to get together to do what 
is

[[Page 10972]]

right for our Nation. We simply cannot allow our country to fail to pay 
its bills for the first time in its history. I am confident we will 
find a way to get this done. The risks to our economy are too great not 
to.
  I was happy to hear yesterday--I received a phone call from the 
Republican leader at 12:30 yesterday. He has come forward with a 
proposal to address the debt limit. I am studying it and discussing it 
with my Senators. I have another meeting at 11 o'clock. Senator 
McConnell has spent a great deal of time working on this, and I commend 
him for his thoughtful and unique proposal. It is something we have to 
look at very closely. I am heartened by what I read. This is a serious 
proposal, and I commend the Republican leader for coming forward.
  I believe the Republican leader's proposal, combined with ideas he 
and I have been discussing to force a vote on deficit-reduction 
proposals, could go a long way toward resolving the impasse in which we 
now find ourselves. We both agreed a long time ago that the problem is 
not the President's. It is our problem, it is every American's problem, 
and certainly it is the problem of every Member of Congress.
  In the meantime, this afternoon congressional leaders will again meet 
with President Obama and his senior advisers to try to advance our 
discussions.
  Democrats realize finding common ground isn't always easy. As I said 
before, if it were, we would have hammered out an agreement a long time 
ago. But I say again, reducing the deficit and getting our fiscal house 
in order is too important to quit when the going gets tough. I am 
confident that somehow, someway, we will find a way to get this done. 
We can't allow our country for the first time in its history to fail to 
pay its bills. The risks to our economy are far too great not to.
  In that letter we received yesterday, American business leaders said 
it very well:

       Now is the time for our political leaders to put aside 
     partisan differences and act in the Nation's best interests. 
     It is time to pull together rather than pull apart.

  So I urge my Republican colleagues to remember this: We are not 
opponents, squaring off across a baseball diamond or some playing 
field. We are on the same team with the same goal in mind. Let's take, 
for example, the baseball team I just talked about. If the catcher 
doesn't show up or refuses to play, it doesn't matter how good the 
pitcher is, it doesn't matter how good his curve is or how fast he can 
throw that ball, the team doesn't stand a chance without a catcher. A 
team is needed to accomplish the goals of a baseball team. We need a 
team to accomplish the goals this Congress has. It is time each and 
every one of us here in Congress remembered that. In the words of 
American business leaders, ``It's time to pull together rather than 
pull apart.''

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