[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11251-11252]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        GOP WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutch) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour.
  Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was overcome with disbelief to 
hear my Republican colleagues, the same colleagues who are leading 
America head first into its first default of its obligations, call on 
President Obama to start picking and choosing who wins when we run out 
of money.
  Now, pay our seniors first, Mr. President. When we force a default, 
pay our bondholders first, Mr. President. Pay our soldiers first, Mr. 
President.
  The GOP is shockingly silent, however, remarkably quiet when it comes 
to naming who the Treasury should stop paying when they force us into a 
default.
  Now, in case you weren't aware, let me clue you in on the definition 
of a ``default.'' It means the inability, the failure, to meet our 
financial obligations. And we have many financial obligations we cannot 
afford thanks to the possibility of this default that our friends on 
the other side of the aisle are leading us toward. This is a crisis 
that they manufactured: two wars unpaid for; tax cuts for millionaires 
that were unpaid for; policies that ignited a fiscal crisis and sunk us 
into a sea of red ink.
  Now their refusal to accept responsibility for this debt that they 
created means that someone who the Treasury owes money to will not get 
paid. Someone will not get paid, and the full faith and credit of the 
United States of America will be broken.
  Now, they're playing a game with our economy to try to force through 
an extremist agenda. That's what we have been battling against. That's 
what you've been watching. That's what people around the country are so 
incredibly frustrated with. It is a game that I have right beside me. 
It is, in fact, the GOP Wheel of Misfortune, except in this game there 
are no winners; there are only losers. But, why don't we give it a 
spin.
  As we approach the defaults and we spin the wheel, the first one that 
comes up, I see, is 2 million Federal workers. Come August 2, the GOP 
default forces the Treasury to send every Federal employee home without 
a paycheck. From the personal care attendant who works for the 
Department of Veterans Affairs to the park rangers who lead families 
through our national parks, a GOP default will send 2 million workers 
home without pay. During this time of high unemployment, our economy 
will suffer even more with the ripple effects of suspending pay for 2 
million American workers and their families. So pay the Federal 
workers, we might be told.
  Let's figure out who else we might choose not to pay. What other 
obligations of the Federal Government will be broken? What will we 
choose to avoid if there is a default?
  Well, if we go back to the wheel, we spin the wheel again, and we see 
foreign creditors. Come August 2, the GOP will force the Treasury to 
stop paying interest to our foreign creditors who currently buy U.S. 
credit with total confidence. When you default on a credit card--
everyone knows this. When you default on a credit card, you don't save 
money. Your interest rates go up. The bank lowers your credit rating. 
And if the U.S. stops paying its creditors, then the U.S. credit will 
be downgraded, interest rates will skyrocket, and our economy will 
freeze. The damage amounting to a tax increase on every American family 
will be thanks to the Republican majority that will force this default.
  But perhaps we should pay the credit holders. Maybe that's who we 
should pay. Clearly, there is someone else that we will not then, so 
let's go back to the wheel.
  When we spin the wheel this time, we get to bondholders. Well, come 
August 2, again, someone won't get paid. The GOP default will force the 
Treasury to deny U.S. bondholders the money that they entrusted to our 
Nation. The college student cashing in a bond their parents bought on 
their first birthday; the retirees who steer their 401(k)s to the most 
secure, safest investments in the world, at least until the Republican 
majority forced a default.
  But perhaps we will pay the bondholders. We've been told we can pick 
and choose who we're going to pay when there's a default. Then we 
should find out perhaps who we might see next.
  If you spin the wheel again, it might turn out that we come up on 
Medicare. Now, on August 2, again, the GOP default will force the 
Treasury to stop paying for the trusted Medicare benefits that 54 
million seniors rely upon. Perhaps my friends on the other side of the 
aisle may finally have their opportunity to dismantle the system that 
keeps so many retirees from bankruptcy due to private insurance bills. 
The doctors who treat our Medicare patients, from the primary care 
physician who takes seniors' blood pressure during yearly checkups to 
the oncologist who treats our grandmothers and grandfathers when they 
struggle with cancer, won't get paid as a result of this default.
  But again, we've been told that we can simply pick and choose, that 
perhaps it is important for us to make sure that Medicare benefits are 
paid. What to do?
  We can go back to the wheel. We can spin the wheel again. It may turn 
up on veterans. Perhaps we have made a decision to make these others 
payments, but it comes up on veterans.

[[Page 11252]]



                              {time}  1330

  So, again, on August 2, if we do not come to an agreement, which is 
completely doable, and if we do not avoid this GOP-caused default, then 
the Treasury may stop caring for our veterans. In representing 
Florida's 19th District, I am privileged to serve thousands of 
veterans, many of them veterans of World War II--members of our 
Greatest Generation, the very people who built this Nation into what it 
is today.
  Now, Americans believe that we have to honor the sacrifices of those 
who serve, but by forcing America into default, the GOP will deny care 
to the men and women who embody patriotism and deserve every benefit 
that they earned while serving this country. This game, this 
unfortunate game that they wish to play, could go on and on and on. 
Maybe we choose to pay our veterans, but we stop paying our troops. 
Maybe we will, as the President pointed out, have no choice but to stop 
paying Social Security in the event of default. Come August 2, the 
potential of a GOP default would force the Treasury to deny seniors the 
Social Security benefits that they earned over a lifetime. In my 
district and around the country, going without Social Security for any 
period of time will mean destitution and extreme financial hardship. 
The Republicans have long fed the American people the lie that the 
bonds held by Social Security are junk. Well, they've never been junk, 
at least so long as America has never defaulted on its obligations. 
This is the wheel of misfortune that we have to avoid getting to. It's 
not a game anyone wants to play.
  This hardship thrust upon the American people in the event of a 
default is completely avoidable. The GOP could make history--make 
history--by working with President Obama to reduce the deficit in a 
meaningful, in a responsible and in a fair way. Instead, Republicans 
seem hell-bent on making history by tarnishing the full faith and 
credit of the United States of America for the very first time. The 
reason they won't come to the table, the reason we may be forced to 
spin the wheel of misfortune: preserving tax cuts for millionaires, 
preserving tax breaks for corporate jets, preserving tax loopholes and 
payments to oil companies.
  They seem more intent on subjecting the American people to the wheel 
of misfortune than standing up to the special interests that Americans 
want us to stand up to in the name of fiscal responsibility and 
fairness. In this game of partisan politics, a game that people all 
around the country are tiring of, no one wins--and the American people, 
unfortunately, always lose out.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be delighted to yield to the gentlelady from 
Texas.

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