[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12532]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                             DEFAULT CRISIS

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the default 
crisis, and unfortunately we are still talking about giving America the 
green light to pay her bills, because the plan this body passed just 
last night has since failed in the Senate.
  Here we are again, my friends. Here we are again wasting another day 
as the deadline looms even closer. And while the plan passed in this 
body last night might have been good politics, it's not good 
government. My constituents are tired of it, I'm tired of it, and, 
actually, anyone who watched the nightly news for the last 6 months is 
tired of it.
  Washington loves to kick the can down the road. That's how we got 
here in the first place. This is our moment, but will we seize it? We 
need a plan, not another Republican manifesto. And there are better 
plans out there, plans that would create jobs, because the biggest 
crisis America faces right now is a jobs crisis, plans that will 
protect Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid, and plans that rely 
on a fair approach between spending cuts and asking the most fortunate 
Americans to pay their fair share.
  Mr. Speaker, we must compromise and pass that plan. The American 
people and their economy are counting on us.

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