Debt Ceiling, Budget, and Economic Growth

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to warn of the risk of U.S. default. Its ripple effects will hurt countless people across our Nation and the Buckeye State.

Default will reverse the Biden recovery and historic job growth, heading our Nation into deep recession. Default will make it almost impossible to pay down the bills America owes, as economic growth will be stalled out.

Extremists in Congress don't seem to care. Their dawdling and irresponsible threats to not pay America's bills risk throwing a wrench in the heart of the U.S. economy. Stock market crashes and the unemployment they trigger hurt everyone.

Extremists heedlessness will trigger a recession, tank our stock market, kill off businesses, lead to mass layoffs, and reduce earnings on everything from retirement funds to new investments.

Extremist recklessness will cause America's economy great harm. We cannot allow this to happen. Only a growing economy can generate the momentum to pay our bills.

Following the worst pandemic in modern history and the market collapse of 2008, our Nation has just begun to stabilize our institutions, create record economic and job growth, and build forward again to pay our bills. More economic turmoil drives America backward.

Let me remind folks, America's debt, which has to be paid, didn't begin to accumulate in the last 2 years. The last time our Nation balanced a budget was during the Clinton Presidency. That was largely possible because of budgetary defense savings made possible by the peace dividend following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Since then, our Nation has fought an extended war on terrorism at a cost of $8 trillion and 900,000 lost lives. Further, our communities are still digging out of the horrible Wall Street-induced housing crash of 2008. We have been turning the corner on recovery from the massive pandemic that killed over 1 million of our friends and family members, and our health system is still struggling to recover from that.

In this hand, I hold up the President's budget, a 132-page document given to us over 2 months ago. This document outlines a real plan to continue to grow our economy from the bottom up and middle out in order to pay our bills.

The chart I brought to the floor today shows the rising debt of our country as a percent of GDP, which is how you have to measure it, and from the Biden administration the first time that we begin to move that line down.

On the other hand, we have extremists backpedaling, which aims to take a flamethrower to the programs that help Americans nationwide by making 22 percent cuts to all nondefense spending. This would hurt working families, stifle job growth, and impact millions of Americans who need care in our hospitals and depend on secure retirement income.

Our Nation is now in the midst of historic job growth, with nearly 13 million jobs added under President Biden in just 28 months. Think about it and think about those who would hold our economy hostage.

They would reverse economic growth. Our economy would shrink, eliminating millions of jobs, while reducing retirement earnings or tanking their accounts altogether.

Default would lead to a huge decline in consumer spending that would cripple economic growth, forcing cuts in critical Federal programs that put oxygen into the economy: Meals on Wheels, which bring food and company to homebound seniors and those in need.

Cuts will impact programs like LIHEAP that help people pay monthly bills for home energy costs. Extremist cuts will raise costs of childcare, pre-K and kindergarten spots for millions of children nationwide, forcing working parents to choose between expensive childcare costs or staying home and losing wages, deflating economic growth.

Balancing the budget requires economic growth not economic reversal. Our Nation came out of the pandemic as the strongest economy in the world. Let's build on this success, not take a wrecking ball to it.

Here is an idea to balance the budget. What if megacorporations and billionaires begin to pay their fair share of taxes?

Some pay nothing and because of their tax lawyers, many get a tax refund. Everybody has to help pull this boat called America.

So extremists in this Chamber want America to default on our obligations and stifle our economy. Responsible Americans know growing our economy will achieve new revenues necessary to pay the bills.

We need steady economic growth, economic progress, not default. I will choose economic progress every time.

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