Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I am so pleased to be here in this room with Democrats and Republicans, talking constructively with each other. It has been a long time since we have seen that. It is one of the things I heard day after day over the last 22 months as I had townhall meetings across the State of Colorado. I too wanted to read something from the words of the deficit and debt commission because I think it is important for people to understand, people who are watching this at home and people working in Washington, that this is not optional.

They write:

Large debt will put America at risk by exposing it to foreign creditors. They currently own more than half of our public debt and the interest we pay them reduces our own standard of living. The single largest foreign holder of our debt is China, a nation that may not share our country's aspirations and strategic interests.

In a worst-case scenario, investors could lose confidence that our Nation is able or willing to repay its loans--possibly triggering a debt crisis that would force the government to implement the most stringent of austerity measures.

As the President knows, I never ran for office before this election. I spent half my life in the private sector and half working in places such as the Denver Public Schools. The former Secretary of Education is here today. Nothing else in the world runs like this. Nowhere else would we say to ourselves that our theory is, we would look the other way, borrow the money from the Chinese, one of our greatest competitors, and stick our kids with the bills.

The reason this has become so important now is because the size and scope of this debt puts us in the position where one day--I will close with this--where one day somebody may say: I am not going to buy your debt at that price. The day that happens interest rates are going to spike, and this recession is going to look like nothing compared with what we are going to face. We owe it to our kids and grandkids to make sure we are paying our way. I am so pleased we are here today in a bipartisan way to talk about it.

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