Wendy Sherman: “We have already hit the debt limit. Republicans say they want to negotiate. We negotiate about spending all the time.…”

“We have already hit the debt limit. Republicans say they want to negotiate. We negotiate about spending all the time. What they really mean is that they want additional leverage by threatening this country with a default on our debt, which would cost us, according to Moody's Analytics, 6 million jobs, a 9 percent unemployment rate, $15 trillion lost in our investment markets. Already they are dillydallying with this debt limit. Their playing Russian roulette with our economy has already hurt our economy. As the chief Democrat on the Capital Markets Subcommittee, I am here to tell you that the cost of capital is higher and projects are not going forward because of the actions they have taken so far. They want to negotiate? They want to negotiate going backward. They want to negotiate reducing Social Security benefits. They want spending cuts, but they won't specify what they want. If we are going to negotiate, let's negotiate going forward. Let's talk about increases in Social Security benefits, let's negotiate getting rid of the $2 trillion of unjustified Trump tax cuts that went chiefly to corporations and the wealthy. You want to negotiate? Fine, we will negotiate going forward, but ultimately we will end up with a clean debt limit. You can't just love your country when your guy is in the White House. You can't play Russian roulette just because you don't like the President and you think that President will take the political hit.…”