Shared Sacrifice in Resolving the Budget Deficit

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, how much time remains?

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. On the Democratic side, 15 minutes remains, and there is no time on the Republican side.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I rise to speak about the budget and deficit issues that are facing us. The first point, which is becoming clearer and clearer to the American people, is how bad a default would be.

The bottom line is very simple: America has never defaulted on its debt--nor should any country, particularly the greatest country in the world--debt that is a promise of expenditures that have already been made. When we raise the debt ceiling, we are simply saying we are going to pay our bills.

The bottom line is that every family in America has to do that. If you own a mortgage, you can't say, after you have signed the mortgage and lived in the house: I am not going to pay my mortgage unless ABC happens.

If you have credit card debt and you have incurred significant debt, you can't say to the credit card company: I am not going to pay that debt unless you do ABC.

Yet some of our colleagues on the other side--and particularly in the House of Representatives--seem to say that. It would lead to disaster. It would lead to disaster for the government. In August America has $306 billion--this government, this Federal Government, has $306 billion in obligations and $172 billion in income.

If we don't raise the debt ceiling, we are going to have awful choices: Do we pay the Social Security recipients and not the veterans? Do we pay the veterans and not those to whom we owe money? Do we say we will pay veterans but not pay people who inspect food or guard our borders? The choices are awful, and choices the American people should not have foisted on them by an irresponsible Congress that says we will not raise the debt ceiling.

It will also hurt American homeowners and debtors. If you are a mortgagor, your debt will go up. If you have a variable-rate mortgage, and we don't raise the debt ceiling, you will pay perhaps hundreds of dollars more each month. If you have credit card debt, which most Americans have, the rates are likely to go up.

Overall, at a time when we need jobs and the economy is so precarious, it could send us back into a recession and perhaps even worse, according to some economists. So not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting on our debt is not an option.

Yesterday, Senator McConnell realized that. The substantive good news here is that the plan Mitch McConnell offered, for all its faults, makes the likelihood of our not paying our bills, of not raising the debt ceiling less likely. However, the plan has a good deal of fault to it. It seems to be a political document. It says what we care most about is two things: It says we want to throw the responsibility of raising the debt ceiling to the other side, and it says the Republican Party cares more about preserving tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate America than actually bringing down our debt.

All the talk about deficit reduction, all the talk about getting a handle on our debt has been thrown to the wind, all in an effort to say: We know if we raise the debt ceiling there will be trouble. Senator McConnell is well aware--he is very smart when it comes to the politics of it--that had the debt ceiling not been raised, the blame would have fallen on the party that has been saying they don't care about raising the debt ceiling.

Hundreds of members of the Republican Party throughout the country--scores in this Congress both in this House and the other--have said: We are not going to raise the debt ceiling. Senator McConnell, realizing the consequences of doing that would fall on the party that doesn't believe it is important to do so, had to act. But at the end of the day, where is the debt reduction? Where is the deficit reduction we have heard about in speech after speech after speech from the other side?

The bottom line is very simple: Again, when President Obama offered a plan that would remove tax breaks from the rich, that would close corporate loopholes, the other side said: We can't tolerate that, even if it means debt reduction. The McConnell plan shows what the other party, the other side of the aisle, cares about: preserving tax breaks for the rich and preserving corporate loopholes much more than reducing our deficit and bringing down our debt.

Having said that, as I said, Senator McConnell has at least recognized, even if partially politically, the gravity of the situation, and he joins the other leaders in Washington in doing that. President Obama has as well, and that is why he put out his $4 trillion plan. Speaker Boehner has also. That is why he was willing to entertain--until the rug was pulled out from under him--a big plan. Leader Reid and Leader Pelosi have constantly talked about their views and ways we can reduce the deficit and avoid default. There is only one person who hasn't come up with a plan, who hasn't compromised, and who hasn't reached out to the other side in an effort to move forward, and that is the majority leader in the House, Mr. Cantor. He is the only one who still says: My way or the highway. Every other leader has said they are willing to make certain concessions--even though they do not like them--to avoid default.

The Nation, and, of course, this Congress is waiting for Leader Cantor to step to the plate in a similar way so that maybe we can come to a compromise that actually avoids default and, at the same time, gets a handle on the debt and deficit problems and reduces both of those.

Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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