Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I rise to give voice to concerns about the pending battle over what is referred to as the debt ceiling. We have been told that the ability of the United States to pay its bills on time and its interest on bonds will expire on November 3, which is only about a dozen days from now--less than 2 weeks.

This is of grave concern to Americans. In fact, if it hasn't been a concern to someone, it should be because it touches almost every American household. This is all about the question of whether we are going to pay a bill that is due for previous spending on time or not. This is all about whether we are going to pay the interest that will be due on Treasury bills on time or not.

Great Nations don't pay their bills late. They are expected to be organized and competent and have their act together, but there is also a tremendous incentive to pay on time because when you pay late, the interest rate on your debt goes up because you become less creditworthy. Many folks in this Chamber say we should operate like a family and think about family values when it comes to finance. Here is the connection with how families operate: They know if they don't pay their mortgage or insurance or their Target bill on time, then their cost of credit is going to go up and their credit score will go down.

Sometimes families simply don't have any possible way of paying a bill when it comes up, and they struggle to get the funds together, knowing the more cases that fail, the worse it is for their credit score, which means if they borrow money to buy a car, a house, or for any reason, the interest rate is going to be much higher, and they will have to pay a lot more and will not get anything more than they would have gotten before.

Families understand they have to pay their bills on time. That is fiscal responsibility. But some may have forgotten that this lesson is not just anchored in theory, this is in practice. In 2011, when we dillydallied over paying our bills on time, the United States credit rating was taken down a notch, which meant that we had to pay a higher interest.

How about 2013--just 2 years ago--when we failed to act responsibly and the government shut down and it cost us not only 120,000 jobs, but it also cost us, by our best estimates, about $70 million more in interest that we wouldn't have otherwise had to pay because interest rates went up. Not paying your bills on time is fiscally irresponsible and, to put it more directly, it is a ``Dumb and Dumber'' tax on every American family. I am not sure why it is that advocates in the House and Senate are advocating for a ``Dumb and Dumber'' tax. The worst tax is when it costs money and you buy nothing, but that is what happens when you don't pay your bills on time.

We know the cost of paying more on Treasury bonds doesn't just affect the U.S. Government. We also know that the Treasury bond rate is used as an index for items, such as home mortgages and car loans. So our families have to pay more because of the irresponsibility of the Republican ``Dumb and Dumber'' tax on America. It is irresponsible, and it is damaging to our country and to our families.

It is not often that I turn to Ronald Reagan for insight, but in this case he had it absolutely right. Ronald Reagan said that fiscal responsibility is paying your bills on time. There were a number of times when he spoke to Congress and said, don't do a ``Dumb and Dumber'' tax.

To put it in his own words when he was at a radio address in 1987, he said:

This brinksmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans' benefits. Interest markets would skyrocket. Instability would occur in financial markets, and the federal deficit would soar.

He continued and said, ``The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations.''

At another time he wrote a letter to the majority leader of the Senate and said:

The full consequences of a default--or even the serious prospect of default--by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate.

He continued:

Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before Congress adjourns.

Let us listen to the voice of reason on fiscal responsibility to pay our debts on time. Let us not adopt the Republican ``Dumb and Dumber'' tax of failing to pay our bills that extracts huge costs, as President Reagan recognized, both on our Nation and on our families.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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