Dan Coats: “I appreciate the remarks of my colleague, Senator Levin. I just caught the tail end, but it is a good segue into what I…”

“I appreciate the remarks of my colleague, Senator Levin. I just caught the tail end, but it is a good segue into what I wish to speak about today. Today is May 16, an important day for me, because it happens to be my birthday, although I am not anxious to have any more birthdays and it is no big deal. This day is more important because this is the day that Treasury Secretary Geithner said we have reached the debt limit ceiling. I read from this missive that came out a little bit ago: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced on Monday morning that the Federal Government had met its statutory borrowing limit of $14.294 trillion cap. This is the day we have been talking about for a long time. In fact, this day had been advertised as the likely date on which the United States would hit the debt limit. Here we are with an empty floor on a Monday and people are saying, Whoa, shouldn't you guys have been in every night last week and all weekend to avert hitting this limit, because doesn't this mean we have to default on our debt? Well, as the article goes on to report: Treasury will now begin a series of ``extraordinary'' measures designed to stave off a potential government default. Treasury has been able to move some money around so that now we won't reach that magic date until August 2. Is this good news or bad news?…”