Default Prevention Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANsCRIPT

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I have been here for some period of time, and I have heard a lot about caucuses. But I would like to see us do what the gentleman from Indiana says, although I disagree with him on his conclusion.

I would like to see the formation of a responsibility caucus, a caucus that is honest with the American people, that doesn't pretend that this debt limit vote is a real vote.

It is a real vote when you cut revenues by hundreds of billions of dollars and don't pay for it. And if you think that that does not up the debt and somehow pays for it, you haven't been around for the last 35 years watching.

The responsibility caucus would say to the American people: If we bought it, we are going to pay for it. Whether it was Social Security, Medicare, an aircraft carrier, roads and bridges, whatever it was, we will pay for it.

But one of the first things our Republican friends did was they negated pay-for, and they certainly wouldn't have it apply to tax cuts. Almost every responsible economist I have talked with says there is no way you can do this without effectively having default.

Because if you prioritize debt, by definition, what you are saying is there are some debts we will not pay. As soon as you say that, you have defaulted. You may not default to a bond owner, but you have defaulted on an obligation of the most creditworthy nation on Earth, the United States of America.

This is a game. It is an irresponsible game. It is a game unworthy of responsible representatives. Of course we are going to pay our debts. We are America. When we say of course we are going to pay our debts, it means that we will pay our debts.

In order to do that, you need to up the debt limit. If you don't want the debt limit to go higher, stop buying things or pay for things or do both.

I urge my colleagues to reject this irresponsible charade that is a pretense of fiscal responsibility, not a reality. This is not worthy of this Congress or the American people. It is clear that this House has been a deeply divided House and a dysfunctional House for a number of months now, indeed, for a number of years.

I understand that there are some people who demand legislation like this that won't go anywhere and really won't do anything, and it will put the credit of the United States at further risk. Let us reject this charade.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source