Political Quotes

“I will remark, if I might, on the brevity of this measure, the succinctness of its purpose, which is to increase the debt ceiling of the United States from the present $4.9 trillion to $5.4--one should not use decimal points when referring to trillions--$5.4 trillion. This $500 billion increase will provide sufficient borrowing authority for the Federal Government until about the end of May 1997. Mr. President, I offer this amendment on the circumstance of the 11th time since 1984 that the Federal Government has been in a ``debt issuance suspension period,'' commonly known as a debt ceiling crisis. The repeated past crises of the debt ceiling, and the present unprecedented, protracted crisis that has been upon us since the debt ceiling was reached over 2 months ago, has left the Secretary of the Treasury, the distinguished Secretary Robert Rubin, with little recourse under law by which he could allow the Government to continue. But he has now stated that there are three remaining ones, with the very specific sums associated with each, and that in no circumstances can the Government meet its financial obligations after the 29th of February or the 1st of March. What we face, Mr. President, is the prospect of default. Moody's Investors Service has placed on review for possible downgrading--those are the terms--some $387 billion of obligations of the U.S.…”