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The Debt Ceiling

Floor Speech

By: Jim Himes
By: Jim Himes
Date: July 13, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Taxes Government Budget and Spending

Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I stood on this floor with 3 weeks to go before August 2, the debt ceiling, to make the argument that we should abide by the commitments that we have made in the past. Today, I heard Chairman Bernanke of the Federal Reserve say that to fail to raise the debt ceiling would be devastating for jobs.

So what's the holdup? Don't take it from me. Let me read you a paragraph from The Economist magazine. This is not Mother Jones. This is not even The New York Times. This is The Economist magazine.

"The sticking point is not on the spending side. It is because the vast majority of Republicans, driven on by the wilder-eyed members of their party and the cacophony of conservative media, are clinging to the position that not a single cent of deficit reduction must come from a higher tax take. This is economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical.''

Let me read that again: "This is economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical.''


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