Barbara Kennelly: “Today is February 28. Where is the debt ceiling? Speaker Gingrich, Majority Leaders Armey and Dole promised the…”

“Today is February 28. Where is the debt ceiling? Speaker Gingrich, Majority Leaders Armey and Dole promised the President in writing to act on debt ceiling legislation by February 29 in a manner acceptable to both you and the Congress, in order to guarantee the Government does not default on its obligations. Unfortunately, that does not look like it is going to happen. But the Republican leadership needs to understand they can't stall indefinitely without dire consequences. On March 15, the debt ceiling snaps back to a lower level pursuant to the legislation we passed earlier to guarantee March Social Security checks. This means that the debt will have exceeded the debt limit and as a consequence, no securities may be issued under any circumstance for any reason without increasing the debt ceiling. This snap back has potentially disastrous consequences for the Medicare and Social Security trust funds. Because the Treasury cannot issue any kind of securities, it cannot issue the $2 billion of new investments in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds that need to be issued on March 15 and each day thereafter. This is a very serious problem which, if the Republican leadership allows to happen, will require legislation to make the Social Security and Medicare trust funds whole. I call on the Republican leadership to bring a clean debt ceiling bill to the floor immediately and not jeopardize the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.”