On the recordJune 30, 2011
Mr. President, I have had the opportunity to listen to my colleagues from across the aisle and while my purpose is to address another subject, I do want to respond to what we have just heard from three Democratic Senators and a number of Republicans regarding the need to address the serious issue of debt and deficit and how we are going to proceed before we run into a situation of national default with consequences we cannot begin to imagine, I think it is appropriate to say there is bipartisan support for serious debate and discussion. I was disappointed, obviously--in fact, I was more than disappointed. I was very frustrated yesterday with the President's press conference, the President essentially said the Congress is not doing its job and compared what was being done here to undisciplined children, who couldn't do their homework. He was targeting the opposition, which sounded like a lot of campaign rhetoric. This is very disappointing. At a time when we face a serious fiscal crisis, he shouldn't even be thinking about the election of 2012 and focusing on any campaign rhetoric--we ought to be thinking about and working to address the crisis before us that is going to have implications for every American now. If we don't come to an agreement on how to proceed before August 2, we are going to see how the financial markets react to what we have not been able to do.…





