Political Quotes

On the recordJuly 12, 2011
Mr. President, I have been participating in the White House meetings with President Obama and the leaders of the House and Senate from both Democratic and Republican Parties for the last several days discussing the deadline we face of August 2, where we are required to extend the debt ceiling of the United States and the larger question about what we will do with our Nation's deficit and debt. It is a daunting challenge but one with a sense of immediacy. Most people across America would just react intuitively and say: Please, no more debt. They wonder why we want to extend the debt ceiling. It is a part of our government and part of our economy that needs at least a little bit of explanation. Imagine that you have decided to purchase a home and you have a mortgage. To stay in your home and enjoy it, you have to make your monthly mortgage payment. When the time comes, if you do not make your monthly mortgage payment, you run the risk of being pushed out of your home, evicted, foreclosed. That is what we face on August 2, in a different form. If we fail to extend the debt ceiling, we are, in fact, missing our mortgage payment, and it creates problems. The credit rating of the United States of America will suffer as the credit rating of any family would suffer if they did not make a mortgage payment. The likelihood that the United States could borrow more money soon without higher interest rates is diminished.…
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Dick Durbin
Democratic · Illinois

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