[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FAILURE TO PAY IS NOT AN OPTION

  (Mr. WALZ of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tell my 
colleagues what my constituents are saying, simply stop playing games.
  Now, we all come to this job with certain ideas, values, and 
principles. But that doesn't mean we get to let our ideology dictate 
the facts. Failure to pay our bills will have a catastrophic effect on 
our still-recovering economy. It's as simple as that.
  This isn't a question about enabling future deficits. The Federal 
Government needs to cover promises it has already made to our seniors, 
to our soldiers in the field, to our veterans, to our States, and to 
our creditors at home and abroad. We need to pay our bills.
  The need to address our debt is every bit as serious as the need to 
avoid a default, but we need a balanced approach and shared sacrifice. 
We cannot balance the budget on the backs of working and middle class 
Americans while simply refusing to ask corporations and billionaires to 
pay one penny more. We cannot ignore the facts, and allowing our Nation 
to default is no way to fix our budget problems.

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