Debt Ceiling

Floor Speech

Mr. President, the leader outlined it well. The House, for all its machinations, delays, and struggles, is pursuing a path to nowhere because their bill will not pass, will not become law. Fifty-three of the fifty-three Democrats have signed a letter saying they will not vote for it, and the President has said he will veto it--all for a simple reason: because if we do this short term, we don't calm the markets and, at the same time, we start all over in a few weeks going through this again.

As the leader said--and it is true--the bill he will put on the floor is our only chance, and the reason it is our last chance is very simple: After tonight, anything put on the floor--is this true, Mr. Leader, that after tonight, if we were to put anything on the floor, given the rules of the Senate, nothing could be voted on before default would occur?

Mr. REID. I say to my friend from New York, under the rules we have in the Senate, if I move tonight, we cannot have the final vote until Tuesday morning. The country defaults at 12 o'clock on Tuesday on its debt.

Mr. SCHUMER. Will the leader continue to yield?

Mr. REID. Sure.

Mr. SCHUMER. That means this bill the leader will put on the floor tonight is the last train out of the station, and it also means, given the rules of the Senate, that only with bipartisan cooperation can we do it.

So we are hoping and praying that our colleagues from the other side of the aisle, led by their leader--and 15 signed a letter talking about a bipartisan compromise as part of the Gang of 6, or Gang of 8--that that group could come forward and make suggestions, not simply say the Boehner bill because that will not pass, but make suggestions on modifications to the Reid plan. That is our only hope of avoiding default, and we must act now. Is that a correct depiction of the status on the floor and of where we are headed?

Mr. REID. That is absolutely true.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I will ask one more question. If we are unable to come to a compromise on the leader's bill, there is virtually no time, no matter what the House does, for the Senate to do anything before default is over. That means our Republican colleagues have the ball in their hands in terms of default; is that correct?

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been told personally by some Republicans in the Senate they will do everything they can to stop legislation from proceeding. That is not a majority; it is a handful of people on the Republican side of the aisle.

That is why I said in my remarks that I hope the Republican Party will turn back to the party of Ronald Reagan. He raised the debt ceiling 19 times during the time he was President. He was a man who compromised. That was who he was. He hated communism. Who was the man who brought down the Iron Curtain? Ronald Reagan. He was willing to compromise even with somebody he spoke of in the worst terms. He knew how to compromise, and even though he was elected as the most anti-Communist President in the history of the country, the day he was elected he sent his embassy personnel to the Soviet Union so they could work with them. That led to the great decision by our countries to bring down the Iron Curtain.

Mr. SCHUMER. I see that the minority leader is here, and I thank the majority leader for yielding.

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