On the recordJuly 15, 2011
Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was overcome with disbelief to hear my Republican colleagues, the same colleagues who are leading America head first into its first default of its obligations, call on President Obama to start picking and choosing who wins when we run out of money. Now, pay our seniors first, Mr. President. When we force a default, pay our bondholders first, Mr. President. Pay our soldiers first, Mr. President. The GOP is shockingly silent, however, remarkably quiet when it comes to naming who the Treasury should stop paying when they force us into a default. Now, in case you weren't aware, let me clue you in on the definition of a ``default.'' It means the inability, the failure, to meet our financial obligations. And we have many financial obligations we cannot afford thanks to the possibility of this default that our friends on the other side of the aisle are leading us toward. This is a crisis that they manufactured: two wars unpaid for; tax cuts for millionaires that were unpaid for; policies that ignited a fiscal crisis and sunk us into a sea of red ink. Now their refusal to accept responsibility for this debt that they created means that someone who the Treasury owes money to will not get paid. Someone will not get paid, and the full faith and credit of the United States of America will be broken. Now, they're playing a game with our economy to try to force through an extremist agenda. That's what we have been battling against.…





