Raising the Debt Ceiling

Floor Speech

Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan said the following: "The full consequences of a default--or even the serious prospect of a default--by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.''

Thank goodness Congress had the good sense to listen and pass a higher debt limit with no conditions at a time, by the way, when Medicare solvency was far worse than it is today, and then did it 16 more times during the Reagan Presidency.

Today, we have the head of the national Republican Party, Reince Priebus, saying yesterday, don't worry, the government will find some other way to pay its bills. That is dangerous nonsense. It is time for the Republican Party to stop playing Russian roulette with the American economy and American families. Let's pass a clean debt limit and move on to growing the U.S. economy and creating jobs.

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