[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12675]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we will be gathering this 
morning in a number of conferences and caucuses to assess the work over 
the weekend that addresses a procedural process that most Americans 
were never made aware of for the last 100 times since 1917, that we 
raise the debt ceiling. It is tragic that these two words have become 
such dastardly words in the American psychic and the American 
vocabulary, and it has been characterized as reckless spending in 
Washington more than what it is, which most Americans do at the end of 
the month, and that is to pay their bills.
  I had the privilege of joining in a balanced budget process in the 
1990s, and, frankly, it was a joy. It was good to do good things in a 
bipartisan manner on behalf of the American people.
  Out of that process came something called the Children's Health 
Insurance Program that helped insure, over these last couple of years, 
millions and millions of children and, yes, we had a balanced budget. 
In the course of it, of course, in the rush of doing that budget we 
skewed the reimbursements for physicians, the doctors that you see in 
your hamlets and villages and counties and cities and States, the 
doctors that many of you send to medical school who happen to be your 
children, the doctors who take an oath to care for the American people.
  Yes, we skewed their reimbursement. So, now, every year we have to 
confront the unfairness of how we reimburse our doctors, the doctors 
who work in public health institutions, county hospitals, clinics. This 
is what happens when you rush to do something that should be ordinary.
  So today I rise looking towards the meetings that will go on today. 
In many of them we will huddle together to try and do the right thing. 
But I asked months ago for us to raise the debt ceiling, as has been 
done 17 times for the President of the United States, President Reagan 
and other Presidents who have asked to have that done, and then begin 
to look long term. As Mark Zandi has indicated, and a number of 
economists have said, immediate cuts will be damaging to this economy.
  But I rise today to speak of the vulnerable persons who really can't 
speak for themselves. Many people think seniors have lobbyists in one 
of the major, largest, if you will, lobbying group for seniors, and 
they do a great job.
  But I know seniors who really are huddled in small apartments and 
old, old homes left to them by their deceased spouse, something they 
paid for but has deteriorated over the years. Because we are not 
helping seniors with their rehab anymore, and many of them got reverse 
mortgages that really took them to the cleaners and left them with 
nonperforming contractors who did a poor job on their homes, these are 
the seniors who don't have voices.
  Or, maybe, the vulnerable families in Latino and African American 
communities where the wealth distinction has showed, where our majority 
Americans, white Americans, have a wealth factor of $113,000; and, 
respectively, African Americans have $5,000; and Hispanics, Latinos at 
$6,000. Now that doesn't cover all. There are people in Appalachia and 
other places around the Nation where that disparity is very, very 
strong.
  But it does mean that there is a population of vulnerable Americans. 
And the question is whether or not the approach that we are going to 
take today in doing something as simple as raising the debt ceiling to 
allow us to pay our bills has a dastardly part to it that causes the 
laying off of hundreds of thousands of Americans because there is no 
job creation.
  Because when you cause us to stop spending money to encourage the 
economy to move such as the 3 million jobs that were created with the 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, then there is no job creation. 
Our private sector is not moving as fast as we would like.
  We hope this will spur them on, but I have heard that before. I have 
heard, during the TARP and the bailout of banks, just give us a chance. 
And you ask any small business around America whether they are able to 
access capital to build their structure and their business, small 
businesses that I truly believe are the backbone of America. If we did 
nothing on this floor but every day do something, give a gift to small 
businesses and health care, give a gift to them in tax relief, give a 
gift to them in incentive to grow their business, and you would see 
Americans being hired.
  Small businesses are as small as one individual sitting in front of 
their computer. That is what we should be doing.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned about going forward with a complex 
approach to the debt ceiling while thousands of Americans are out of 
jobs, where airlines are taking money they should not take, while the 
FAA is shut down. We have many other problems to take care of while 
construction jobs are at a standstill.
  What about the vulnerable Americans? That's what my concern will be 
about as we go through these meetings and approach this floor today.

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