[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15498]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  STOP EXAGGERATING AND FEARMONGERING

  (Mr. MULVANEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. MULVANEY. Mr. Speaker, while we disagree from time to time, in 
fact, we agree more often than we probably disagree in this House. I 
think everybody can agree that one of the things we'd like to try and 
preserve is the concept of a reasoned debate. We want to have reasoned 
debate about the issues.
  It is impossible to do that if folks start exaggerating and 
fearmongering, and that is exactly what is happening right now on the 
discussion of the debt ceiling. We hear that if we don't raise the debt 
ceiling, the world is going to end.
  We've been trying to convince people for the last several weeks that 
the debt ceiling and the default are not linked in any fashion. 
Thankfully, just 15 minutes ago, somebody else came and agreed with me 
on this. It's Moody's, who says:

       We believe the government would continue to pay interest 
     and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt 
     limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact. The 
     debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of 
     its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government 
     from servicing its debt.

  It goes on to say these two things are not linked. Let's have a 
reasonable discussion about the debt ceiling and the import of raising 
it and the import of running the government.
  But let's stop trying to scare people and the markets into thinking 
that if we don't raise the debt ceiling that the Nation will default on 
its debt.

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