Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the default on America act. The chairman just mentioned something that is noteworthy. He said, We are seeing a Republican plan, and for the next hour, we intend to make sure America gets a chance to see the Republican plan.

A reminder for those who might be paying attention to this debate today as to how we traveled on this road which, by the way, is eminently manageable through negotiation after a clean debt ceiling vote might take place.

So our Republican colleagues, I think--and I might be mistaken. You know what? I am sure. They voted for more defense spending. $800 billion we are now at with defense spending. They voted for pandemic relief. They voted for aid to Ukraine. How about the million and a half new veterans that we have in America in the aftermath of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? They deserve our care, and our Republican colleagues voted for that aid.

Republican Members, some of whom voted for the infrastructure bill, some of them who voted for the legislation on the Inflation Reduction Act, and some of them who voted for the CHIPS Act--that is what is in front of us at this moment.

Here is the real ringer, Mr. Speaker. In December of 2017--and I hope everybody pays attention to this argument--they voted to borrow $2.3 trillion over 10 years for the purpose of giving a tax cut to the wealthiest among us with, by the way, modest to limited economic growth.

Why is that important?

Because there has been $10 trillion worth of tax cuts over the last 25 years. Do you want me to recite it?

President Bush's tax cut in 2001, $1.3 trillion. They came back in 2003, another trillion, and subsequently presided over the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, which we should note the cost of which are in the trillions of dollars today.

They want us to believe that this problem that we have in front of us--which I mentioned is manageable--they want us to believe that this is the Democratic position on spending after they embraced the tax cuts that I have just described.

This is about America's credit. What ever happened to the Republican Party that talked about probity as it related to financial stability?

Whatever happened to the Republican Party that talked about the importance of investment?

These arguments that they make now are largely vacuous because it is inconsistent with the Republican Party I knew when I came to Congress. They could borrow money for the Iraq war month after month to keep it off budget so nobody would see what it was really about. They could borrow money repeatedly, and the moment a Democrat gets to the White House they are blamed for inflation.

I don't think Joe Biden should be blamed for inflation in the United Kingdom. How about Germany? That is how empty these arguments are that they are making.

There is a chance for us to do what we used to do here--and by the way, Democrats responsibly voted for raising the debt ceiling three times under the former President because we thought it was the responsible thing to do. Speaker McCarthy got himself into this by the promises that he made along the way.

The suggestion here is very simple, Mr. Speaker. Pass a clean debt ceiling and then let's get on with negotiating.

Bill Clinton, on January 19, 2001, had balanced the budget four times, projected surpluses in the trillions of dollars and 22 million new jobs. The Republican Party gave it away through tax cuts to wealthy people.

They are asking us today the following--they get to set the fire and then call the fire department because that is what this argument is about.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, my point was and is Republicans voted for the PATH Act, as we did, and the bill is due.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for calling attention to these tax credits.

Talk about fortuitous timing, Mr. Speaker, here is the author of these tax credits, all $370 billion, along with Earl Blumenauer. We intend to lay out where these tax credits are going to in Republican districts and see if those Members wish to take advantage of those tax credits or not.

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Mr. NEAL. Clark), the minority whip and a great talent in the Democratic Party.

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Mr. NEAL. DelBene), one of the most talented Members of this institution.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from Mr. Pascrell. Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Washington, DC, March 8, 2023. Hon. Kevin McCarthy. Speaker of the House, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker McCarthy: Our most basic duty as Members of Congress is to protect the well-being and security of our constituents. If Republicans block America from paying our bills, it would be a gross betrayal of our governing responsibility and invite cataclysmic damage to our economy. Therefore, I call on the House to advance legislation to raise our debt limit and prevent a second Great Depression.

It has been 48 days since the United States reached its current statutory limit and the Treasury Department began taking extraordinary measures to prevent a default. On February 15, the Congressional Budget Office raised the specter of a default as soon as July without urgent congressional action. Congress has acted to raise or suspend the debt ceiling 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents. This is a bipartisan responsibility.

According to the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), if the debt ceiling is not raised, Social Security checks will come to a halt and seniors will be without means to eat or turn on the heat. Medicare reimbursements will freeze, leaving tens of millions of Americans unable to pay for essential medical care. Our veterans will see their health care cut off.

It gets worse. The collapse of available credit would send shockwaves through the economy, leading to a bank run and a decimation of small businesses. The cost of borrowing would soar, leaving new homebuyers locked out of the housing market and causing regular people to lose everything. The jobless rate would skyrocket, with millions of Americans losing their jobs and elevated unemployment lingering indefinitely. Markets would be thrown into a postulated that the impact of default would be ten times worse than the 2008 recession.

Republican-precipitated default would be just as devastating for the global economy. America's treasury debt is considered the world's safest asset and the dollar acts as the globe's reserve currency. World confidence in our entire economy would be irreparably wounded by default.

When Republicans put our Nation's credit on the line, the result has been widespread turmoil and suffering. After Republicans threatened to breach the debt ceiling in 2011, Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S. long-term credit rating for the first time in history. Private sector hiring froze, job growth withered, and consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest level in 30 years. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that federal borrowing costs increased by about $1.3 billion, while the Bipartisan Policy Center estimated that the 10-year cost to taxpayers was a staggering $18.9 billion.

In 2013, when Republicans tried this play again, our Nation experienced an annualized 0.25 percentage point reduction in annualized fourth quarter's gross domestic product growth, resulting in an estimated 120,000 lost jobs. Investors stopped accepting Treasury bonds as collateral for short-term transactions, and the government was forced to pay higher interest rates at auction. Treasury's borrowing costs on securities increased by an estimated $38-to-$70 million, and rates for commercial paper also rose, disrupting private markets. After Republicans yet again menaced our Nation's credit in 2015, the Treasury Department postponed the release of a new 2-year bond due to lack of demand, and was forced to reduce bill issuance, leading to a drop of $210 billion in bill supply.

The full faith and credit of America is not a bargaining chip to be gambled whenever Republicans want to reverse policy they don't like. Refusal to let our Nation pay its bills would lead to a domino effect of catastrophic proportion. The effects of failing to raise the debt ceiling are real, tangible, and would be felt by every American family and business.

Given these risks, I ask: where is the Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling and when can we expect its consideration before Congress? Sincerely, Bill Pascrell, Jr. Member of Congress.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

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Mr. NEAL.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here to make a passionate plea to my Republican friends. Yes, we have to pay our debt, but we do not need to deal with this, putting it on the backs of the poor, our children, our veterans. We must stand down. It is a national security issue.

We must incorporate getting food to our veterans when 11.7 percent of our veterans live in food-scarce communities and households. Let me just sum it up and say that if Caesar were here, he would say the words that he said to Brutus: Brutus, yours is the meanest cut of all.

We cannot put this on the backs of our children, our grandchildren, our seniors, and our veterans. I plead with you in the words of Caesar and God almighty because if we do not, it is ungodly.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for acknowledging the role that the child tax credit played in that statistical analysis.

Mr. GOLDMAN of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Last week, Speaker McCarthy came to my district to speak at the New York Stock Exchange to give a speech about this proposed default on America act.

He threatened the Nation with economic catastrophe if we do not bend to the draconian cuts to spending for services that are essential to lifting up working and middle-class Americans.

The DOA doesn't touch the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. It doesn't touch defense spending. Instead, it solely targets domestic spending that hundreds of millions of Americans depend on, with an average cut of about 22 percent on those programs.

In my district alone, which is in New York City, there are more than 200,000 people who rely on Medicaid who will be at risk of losing their coverage.

In my district, there are 31 public housing NYCHA complexes that are crumbling that rely on funds from HUD just to maintain their poor condition, and those funds would be slashed.

This is not a theoretical discussion. This will do real and devastating harm to people in my district and around the country. We must not pass this bill.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I remind everyone that, in Georgia-3, there was $2.6 billion worth of tax credits; Ohio-15, $4.5 billion of tax credits; West Virginia-1, $22 million worth of tax credits. Those tax credits did not go to the Chinese. They went to American families.

Lois Frankel).

Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, make no mistake about it, extremists in this Congress are trying to hold us hostage. Republicans have given us a ransom note: choose between wrecking our economy or wrecking our families; lose jobs and retirement funds or inflict cruel pain on American families.

More children will go to bed hungry. More women will die during childbirth. More parents will be without childcare. More neighborhoods will be without police. There will be more evictions, more drug overdoses, more veteran suicides, and more carbon in the air. There will be more misery.

Make no mistake, Republicans are willing to sacrifice Americans in order to protect tax cuts for the very wealthy and for big corporations.

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Mr. NEAL. Chu), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your impeccable fairness once again as you have presided over this Chamber as usual. I call attention to the argument I made at the outset as to how we got to where we are today. This is a manageable issue that men and women of good sense and good instincts could come together on to find a solution.

The debt-to-GDP ratio, I understand the argument, but does that take into consideration a pandemic and aid to Ukraine, stopping the hostility of Putin's aggression?

Does it take into account our obligations--and for those who voted for the PACT Act here--to come to the aid of our veterans?

Does it take into account the infrastructure bill that some Republicans voted for?

Does it take into account the CHIPS and Science Act that some Republicans voted for?

Does it take into account the extraordinary increases in defense spending as China threatens America in the Straits of Taiwan and the South China Sea?

These are all parts of votes that both parties have cast. These are parts of the obligations that we have to members of the American family.

Republicans suggest, well, if we just chop Medicaid--and earlier today, Mr. Speaker, it should be noted this exclamation point that they have added to the argument that we have no intention of cutting Social Security or Medicare. Great. That is nice to hear. There are members of the Republican leadership in the Senate who have said precisely the opposite. They would put Medicaid and Social Security on the chopping block, and our side should not be restrained in calling attention to that, despite the debate that takes place in this Chamber.

The spending challenges that we have as they relate to defense, where every Republican voted, I believe, for that defense budget and the substantial increases that have taken place, that has been an act of responsibility based upon what happens with Putin and President Xi and others who would threaten freedom across the globe.

When we look at this argument that has been presented to the American people today, I want to ask you about their 401(k) plans. As they allow this argument to be pursued, the markets are going to begin to reflect this in coming days.

People are going to pull back from investment. People are going to pull back from what ordinarily would be an act of good fiscal prudence. People are going to begin to pay a great deal of attention to this.

The argument that Democrats have offered today is really simple: You and us, we were responsible for those increases in spending. Let us have a vote on a clean debt resolution here and then proceed to negotiation and discussion.

I have heard this argument when former President Bush never vetoed one spending bill during 8 years as President. I have seen this argument when we cut taxes, without the help of us, by $1.3 trillion in 2001 and, by the way, another trillion in 2003.

With the subsequent invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and a million and a half new veterans, these are our obligations.

Even though we disagreed, by and large, with those positions that were adopted by the then-majority, you recognize the reality, that the tally of the credit card is in front of us.

When you get the credit card, you don't get to say, ``Well, I don't like the part of the bill that I have run up here, so I am not going to pay it,'' or you don't say, ``I will only pay this.''

The bill is in front of us. The full faith and credit of the United States is in front of us.

I made reference earlier today to the fiscal probity of the Republican Party when I first came here. Whatever happened to the Republican Party when it relates to fiscal prudence and probity?

We pay our bills, and we don't threaten the currency of the United States where that dollar is recognized everywhere across the globe.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

This will be a 5-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 217, nays 215, not voting 3, as follows: [Roll No. 199] YEAS--217 Aderholt Alford Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bean (FL) Bentz Bergman Bice Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brecheen Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Burlison Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chavez-DeRemer Ciscomani Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Collins Comer Crane Crawford Crenshaw Curtis D'Esposito Davidson De La Cruz DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duarte Duncan Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Ezell Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fry Fulcher Gallagher Garbarino Garcia, Mike Gimenez Gonzales, Tony Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Harris Harshbarger Hern Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Houchin Hudson Huizenga Hunt Issa Jackson (TX) James Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kean (NJ) Kelly (MS) Kiggans (VA) Kiley Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Lamborn Langworthy Latta LaTurner Lawler Lee (FL) Lesko Letlow Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Luna Luttrell Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McCormick McHenry Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Molinaro Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Moran Murphy Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunn (IA) Obernolte Ogles Owens Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Santos Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Self Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Strong Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Van Orden Wagner Walberg Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (NY) Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--215 Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Balint Barragan Beatty Bera Beyer Biggs Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bowman Boyle (PA) Brown Brownley Buck Budzinski Burchett Bush Caraveo Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crockett Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Foushee Frankel, Lois Frost Gaetz Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Garcia, Robert Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Huffman Ivey Jackson (IL) Jackson (NC) Jackson Lee Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Krishnamoorthi Kuster Landsman Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Levin Lieu Lofgren Lynch Magaziner Manning Matsui McBath McClellan McCollum McGarvey McGovern Meeks Menendez Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Nickel Norcross Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Peltola Perez Pettersen Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Quigley Ramirez Raskin Ross Ruiz Ruppersberger Ryan Salinas Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Scholten Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Slotkin Smith (WA) Sorensen Soto Spanberger Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Swalwell Sykes Takano Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) NOT VOTING--3 Kelly (PA) Peters Watson Coleman

So the bill was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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