Dan Coats: “Thank you, Mr. President. And I thank my colleague, also, for her patience. To send us here, after 7 months, and come up…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. And I thank my colleague, also, for her patience. To send us here, after 7 months, and come up with something that is short of the minimum, that continues the uncertainty--are they going to be able to pull it together with this two-stage process and gathering Senators and Congressman together to put a plan together that we have not been able to do in the first 7 months but we will do it in the next 5 months? A lot of people have some real problems with that. I want to close by saying we cannot give up on the process of getting America back to fiscal health. We have to keep working. I have proposed a way here to try to do something better than what we are going to be faced with in doing in order to avoid this default. I am hoping we have the opportunity to do that. If not, I am hoping we have the commitment to go forward and do what we all know we need to do for the sake of the future of this country--the country we love and want to be prosperous for the sake of the future of American families and their children. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.”