Jerry Moran: “I want to spend a few minutes here on the Senate floor discussing the debt ceiling agreement reached between the…”

“I want to spend a few minutes here on the Senate floor discussing the debt ceiling agreement reached between the Republican majority in the House and the Biden White House, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the bill that, presumably, we will be further debating, perhaps amending, and voting on yet today or tomorrow. I fully recognize that governing in a divided government is a challenging amount of work. The American people have given us that circumstance. This circumstance requires negotiation and finding common ground; otherwise, we can do nothing. Unfortunately, President Biden, for way too long, refused to negotiate with House Republicans. He refused for months to negotiate with House Republicans--I suppose in an effort to intimidate Republicans and pass an unaltered debt ceiling increase. This would have opened the door for more Democratic majority spending--in fact, spending even more money with perhaps no, but certainly fewer, strings attached. Fortunately, that tactic did not work, and the House Republicans acted to pass their own debt limit legislation. Without a realistic plan, a plan that could pass Congress, the Biden administration finally conceded and negotiated with House Republicans to create a deal, the deal that is before us now. My view: Defaulting on the national debt would send a message that we are a nation that cannot be trusted to pay our bills.…”