[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11357-11358]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I wanted to talk a little bit about our 
debt ceiling and our deficit and debt issues as well.
  I wish to thank the Senator from Texas for her words of encouragement 
for the product that the so-called Gang of 6 read out this morning. It 
was a remarkable hour. To see roughly 50 Senators, both Republicans and 
Democrats, set aside the talking points and try to come across a 
partisan divide to hear their colleagues who have been working for such 
a long time on a plan, a bipartisan plan, three Democrats and three 
Republicans, to really try to address in a material way our debt and 
our deficit was, to say the least, refreshing. I wish it weren't as 
unique an experience as it has been, but in the 2\1/2\ years I have 
been here, I can't remember as thoughtful a conversation as the one we 
had this morning.
  I have said for months, month after month, week after week on the 
floor of the Senate, that I think I am pretty clear about what Colorado 
wants, whether it is red parts of the State or whether it is blue parts 
of the State.
  They want a plan that materially addresses the problem we face. They 
know we can't solve it overnight because the hole is so deep, but they 
want us to move past the rhetoric and the talking points and actually 
start materially addressing the problem.
  They want to know that we are all in it together. It took all of us 
to get to this point of a $1.5 trillion deficit and almost $15 trillion 
of debt, and it is going to take all of us to get us out of it, and the 
people in Colorado know that.
  They want the plan to be bipartisan because they don't have any 
confidence in either party's go-it-alone approach on this particular 
set of issues and I think on many other issues as well.
  The only corollary that I have added to all of that is we need to do 
something that satisfies our capital markets that their paper is worth 
what we have paid for it and that the full faith and credit of the 
United States is good.
  We face something momentous at this moment in our country. I wanted 
to quote just three brief quotes from the rating agencies recently.
  This is S&P, July 14:

       Today's CreditWatch placement signals our view that, owing 
     to the dynamics of the political debate on the debt ceiling, 
     there is at least a one-in-two likelihood, 50 percent chance, 
     that we could lower the long-term rating on the United States 
     within the next 90 days. We have also placed our short-term 
     rating on the U.S. on CreditWatch negative, reflecting our 
     view that the current situation presents such significant 
     uncertainty to the U.S.'s creditworthiness.

  It is important to realize this isn't just about the debt ceiling, 
although that is a very important piece of this.
  Here is S&P continuing:

       The CreditWatch action reflects our view of two separate 
     but related issues. The first issue is the continuing failure 
     to raise the U.S. government debt ceiling so as to ensure 
     that the government will be able to continue to make 
     scheduled payments. The second pertains to our current view 
     of the likelihood that Congress and the administration will 
     agree on a credible, medium-term fiscal consolidation plan.

  Now, I have taken the view all along that we shouldn't make raising 
the debt ceiling contingent because it has been a ministerial act for 
most of our history; it is about debts that are already incurred, not 
about debts that are coming forward. But I understand the politics in 
the moment and time, and the only point they are trying to make is that 
we have to do something material or we are going to be downgraded.
  Moody's also says: The government bond rating would very likely be 
changed to negative at the conclusion of the review unless substantial 
and credible agreement is achieved on a budget that includes long-term 
deficit reduction. To retain a stable outlook, such an agreement should 
include a deficit trajectory that leads to stabilization and then 
decline in the ratios of Federal Government debt-to-GDP and debt-to-
revenue beginning with the next few years.
  They said we are at a unique inflection point.
  I asked Chairman Bernanke the other day at the Banking Committee--I 
knew the answer, but I asked him anyway--when was the last time our 
credit ratings were threatened for downgrade. His answer was, not in 
the 20th century. And I said to him, well, we are now in the 21st 
century. The answer was, never. Never in our country's history, that I 
am aware of, has our credit rating--which is the envy of the world and 
one of the most important assets that we have as a country and as an 
economy--been threatened with a downgrade. And now we find ourselves in 
the position of potentially being downgraded because on the one hand we 
might not raise the debt ceiling--which I find unimaginable, but it is 
possible--and on the other hand because our politics look so 
dysfunctional to everybody who is watching this debate that there is 
real concern that we can never get to a long-term debt and deficit plan 
where the math actually pencils. What we know about a plan where the 
math actually pencils is it is going to require a comprehensive 
approach that involves discretionary spending cuts, both for military 
and nonmilitary, that requires entitlement reform and tax reform.
  A number of weeks ago, Senator Johanns and I sent out a letter that 
said just that. We passed it around the Senate offices. There are 32 
Democrats who signed it and 32 Republicans who signed it. That is a 
pretty big number around here, and that is a pretty bipartisan effort 
around here.
  Then I began to despair because it didn't feel as if we were making 
progress toward the goal many of us wanted to get to, and then today we 
had this conversation with the Gang of 6, who I think have presented a 
plan, as the Senator from Texas said, that is not perfect, and 
everybody is going to have a disagreement about this piece or that 
piece, but does meet the three-part test by and large that I have come 
out to the floor and I have said time and time again that we ought to 
meet for the people of Colorado, which is whom I represent.
  What I also know is this: At this remarkable time in the country's 
history, if we act in a way that leads to a downgrade of this country's 
credit rating; if we, the 100 people who are in the Senate at this 
moment, don't step up to make sure that doesn't happen, no one is ever 
going to care what pledge was made about this or that or where we drew 
the line in the sand. The only thing they are going to know about us is 
we allowed the full faith and credit

[[Page 11358]]

of the United States to be compromised for all time. No generation of 
Americans, no matter how dysfunctional their politics was, managed to 
sacrifice that much of our future.
  I believe the only path through this is a bipartisan one, and I 
believe the only path through this is a comprehensive one. I think that 
is what the people of Colorado want and what the American people want.
  So I think today marked an important turning point in the 
conversation we are having around here, and I for my own part believe 
that if we are confident in the people who sent us here, confident 
enough to do the job they have asked us to do, we can make sure we 
don't erode the full faith and credit of the United States because 
undoing that is going to be the work of generations if we don't protect 
the work of generations that have come before us. And I feel confident 
that we can and that we will.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennet). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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