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




      THE AMERICAN DEBT LIMIT HELD HOSTAGE--AN UNNECESSARY CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Olver) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, today we face an unnecessary crisis. The debt 
limit has never before been held hostage by any political party, 
because it is in every American's best interest to protect the credit 
of the United States; but now ideologues in Congress have hijacked this 
issue, and have pushed our Nation to the brink of default in rejecting 
all offers of compromise.
  Calls for massive spending cuts, and spending cuts alone, without 
raising any revenues whatsoever are irresponsible at least and 
deliberately destructive at worst. They would default on our debt, 
causing a global financial crisis, rather than see hedge fund managers, 
corporate jet owners or phenomenally profitable oil companies pay 
higher taxes. Their call for fiscal responsibility rings hollow, and 
the fiscal history of the last three decades shows that.
  This chart shows the growth of America's national debt since 1980.
  At the end of the Carter administration, the national debt was less 
than $1 trillion. Twelve years later, with President Reagan's 8 years 
and the first President Bush's 4 years, the national debt had grown by 
more than 300 percent--it had quadrupled--and we were mired in debt. 
The Reagan-Bush economic policies greatly increased the debt and led to 
soaring deficits and rising interest rates. It ended in a recession.
  In 1993, President Clinton was under severe pressure from the very 
Republicans who had meekly followed the two Republican Presidents as 
they raised the national debt by over 300 percent. President Clinton 
championed a balanced austerity program with, roughly, equal spending 
cuts and revenue increases--the Clinton years. Republicans in both the 
House and Senate voted unanimously against that program, arguing it 
would cost jobs and cause a recession, but the exact opposite occurred. 
More than 20 million jobs were created under the Clinton 
administration, and each of the last three budgets of the Clinton 
Presidency produced a surplus. Those three budgets were the only 
budgets and surplus in the last 40 years, and Clinton's balanced 
program is considered highly successful by economists. President 
Clinton raised taxes on those who could afford it and reduced spending 
to shrink our deficit, and the economy grew by leaps and bounds.
  The fiscal record of the second President Bush is a record of utter 
irresponsibility. It began with massive tax cuts, skewed sharply toward 
the wealthy, and with trillions of dollars spent on two long, unpopular 
wars--all of that paid for by borrowing. It ended in the Great 
Recession, caused by the collapse of an unregulated housing market 
which was fueled by Wall Street greed. President Bush turned President 
Clinton's surplus into more than 5 trillion additional dollars added to 
our national debt--all the way up to here--almost doubling the debt 
again.
  President Obama was inaugurated during the worst month of job losses 
in the Great Recession and cannot be blamed for what happened before, 
but the recovery has stalled, and we're short 12 million jobs.
  History has shown us what works and what doesn't. The Reagan-Bush 
economics led to hugely increased debt. The Clinton economics 
eliminated the deficit and accelerated economic growth, but it required 
some sacrifice by all Americans to fix the national problem.
  Now Republicans want to slash social programs, gut Medicare and 
Social Security benefits, and further reduce taxes for the wealthiest 
few. The Republicans threaten default on our debt. The only plan they 
offer would add hundreds of thousands of people to the unemployment 
lines by eliminating jobs in the public sector. They would protect the 
wealthiest few at the expense of the entire country. They offer no plan 
to create jobs and no long-term solution. Yet America needs a long-term 
solution, and that must include spending reduction and revenue increase 
in balanced proportion.

                          ____________________