Kendrick Meek: “But I want to make sure we understand that he has a responsibility to make sure that this government doesn't run out of…”

“But I want to make sure we understand that he has a responsibility to make sure that this government doesn't run out of money. He is paying attention to what is going on, Mr. Speaker. By him paying attention, all he can do is react to the bad policies that come out of this Chamber, right here. He didn't do it by himself. He doesn't have the checkbook to write checks that he is not authorized to write. He is almost what you might call, Mr. Ryan, the accountant for the United States of America, the individual that makes sure we get a warning when we are heading down the wrong track. Here is a letter to Senator McConnell by Secretary Snow, dated the 29th of last year. This is almost on New Year's Eve, Members. This is like on New Year's Eve. This is during the high holy time. This is during the time that folks are with family and all and the Congress is out of session. But the last act of the Secretary, probably in 2005, was to write this letter, to write this letter so that hopefully maybe one day someone will pick it up and say, oh, wow. In this letter he is saying that we project that the debt limit, which is currently at $8.1 trillion, will be reached by mid-February, 2006, which is now, ladies and gentlemen. At that time, unless the debt limit is raised, or the Department of Treasury authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to continue financing government operations.…”