[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12332-12333]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1130
                             CREDIT DEFAULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority has once again 
proven its complete irresponsibility by putting our economy at risk in 
handling our Nation's finances. A little over a decade ago, there were 
projected surpluses as far as the eye could see. The Nation had 
achieved a firm financial footing. That was before the George Bush 
administration and the Republicans took us on a spending spree, paying 
out trillions in huge tax cuts, skewed to--guess who?--the top 2 
percent, the wealthy, whose investment decision then killed jobs in our 
country. The last month that George Bush was in office, we lost over 
700,000 jobs just in that month. The Bush Administration plunged the 
Nation during that decade into two wars they refused to pay for.
  History tells the story.
  Then came the big economic collapse of 2008 during the Bush 
Administration that included a loss in Federal revenues, which followed 
the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, due to George 
Bush's capitulation to Wall Street abuse. Now, Republicans claim to 
care about the Federal deficit?
  Well, yes, revenues have shrunk by about $400 billion a year because 
of the financial crisis they created we're trying to dig ourselves out 
of. Spread out over 10 years, that covers the, roughly, $4 trillion 
we're trying to eke out of this sick economy to pay down our debt. But 
it's a very delicate balance we're attempting because there are 14 
million Americans out of work and up to 24 million who are working part 
time, who want to work full time, or others who have completely given 
up and dropped out. We can't hurt them more.
  Fewer jobs mean lower revenues at all levels. It means lower profits 
to many companies, and it certainly means lower revenues into the 
Federal Treasury because there are more people who are on unemployment: 
more people who rely on government assistance, more people who rely on 
public health because their private insurance has dried up. How many 
people now can't afford to pay their COBRA? Millions who are not 
earning paychecks are not able to pay their contributions to Social 
Security and Medicare. So it's a vicious cycle.
  In any time of economic downturn, national economic policy must act 
like a fulcrum on a teeter-totter. It has to level impacts on people so 
they can reposition. The government has to at the Federal level help 
prop up the American people until they can find their footing again. It 
doesn't take a mental giant to figure that out. Unemployment is the 
major cause of the deficit that we are bearing now; yet we hear almost 
no discussion about jobs and how to create jobs, to get rid of 
unemployment, as the reemployed and

[[Page 12333]]

lift the economy--healing the Republic. Rather than talking about how 
to create jobs and how unemployment causes lost revenues and kills more 
jobs, all we're hearing is take more flesh off the bones of families 
and communities. House Republicans have placed the entire economy at 
risk now to satisfy the ideological wishes of a few.
  The American public sees what's happening. Importantly, they're 
feeling directly what is not happening. Nobody is being fooled. I've 
heard from thousands of people back home in northern Ohio who are 
concerned that the Republican leadership is playing politics--playing 
with fire--during a time when our economic recovery is very, very 
fragile. Putting our Nation's credit rating at risk is totally 
irresponsible and will cause more economic harm. I had somebody tell me 
yesterday he's trying to renegotiate his home loan, and the mortgage 
company wanted to raise the interest rate a quarter percent because of 
the market uncertainty all of this is causing.
  Since World War I, our country has always received a AAA status from 
credit rating agencies because, until now, we have always put the 
Nation first--not any political party first, but the Nation first. To 
force America to default for the first time in history would hurt our 
Republic and every working family, and it would hurt those who are out 
of work even more. It would mean higher interest rates on cars, on home 
loans, on credit cards, on student loans. It would mean fewer jobs and 
less growth.
  Instability, uncertainty, creates a downdraft on the recovery. 
Congress should be focusing on economic recovery and creating jobs if 
we want to close that deficit gap. You balance budgets by full 
employment economies. We surpassed the debt limit over 2 months ago, 
and come August 2, the Treasury will simply not be able to pay all the 
bills that are currently due.
  Yes, it's long overdue to reach a compromise. Instead, Speaker 
Boehner has walked away from the negotiating table and has chosen to 
roll out a hasty bill that hasn't gone through the normal committee 
process. Apparently, many in his own party reject it. This isn't 
leadership for America at a time when she needs it. It may be 
capitulation to Grover Norquist and his lobby, but our responsibility 
is far greater.
  Mr. Speaker, the way that you balance budgets is to put people to 
work and grow the economy. I support a balanced, bipartisan solution to 
reduce our deficit, create jobs and grow our economy, to expand our 
middle class and protect Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid 
beneficiaries. The solution to deficits is robust job growth and full 
economic recovery. Let's spend two months putting that initiative 
forward!

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