Sam Farr: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Last night, I was in a town hall meeting in California, and it was very clear. It…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Last night, I was in a town hall meeting in California, and it was very clear. It was a bipartisan whole group of people, and what they told us very truly is, Stop playing games. They know that the United States Congress, since 1940, has voted over 90 times--90 times--to raise the debt and never once with a game, never once with preconditions of, Oh, we've got to do this. We've got to do that. You guys are ruining this country's fiscal future by lighting a fire to our fiscal sanity and to our reputation. You want to take down our Constitution by requiring a two-thirds vote. You should look before you leap. California did this by initiative in 1990. That State has had a two-thirds vote locked up. It's impossible to get it out of any fiscal crisis, and it has dropped from the sixth wealthiest economy in the world. Do you want to follow that lead by amending the U.S. Constitution and locking in all these tax laws? You're just freezing in every single impropriety that's in the Tax Code. These people in my town hall meeting said, Stop playing games. They said it because they don't think you should put conditionality on it. Vote for a clean debt limit. I did. Not one of you did it. Not one Republican voted for that. Shame on you. Shame on you for playing fire with the United States Constitution. Shame on you on the cut, cap, and ruin of the United States. Vote ``no.'' Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore The SPEAKER pro tempore.…”