On the recordJuly 29, 2011
I would like to ask through the Chair if the Senator from Ohio would yield for this question. He may recall the time not that long ago when we closed down the government of the United States for a period of time, and there were some radio talk show hosts who argued that America wouldn't notice, just as they are arguing now that America won't notice if we default on our national debt. I know the Senator from Ohio can recall that and the fact that America did notice, and those who engineered that crisis paid a heavy political price. What I am really getting to at this point, though, is to ask the Senator from Ohio--Monday night, when the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, went on national television with the President of the United States and announced he had a bipartisan plan, he called it, that he could pass in the House of Representatives, many of us had the impression that was going to be done on Tuesday. Well, it wasn't done on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday. It is only today that they are voting on it, some 5 or 6 days later. I would like to ask the Senator from Ohio, losing that 4- or 5-day period of time when we could have been moving forward to a compromise-- the impact that has as we face this looming deadline of a default on our national debt on August 2.
