On the recordJanuary 18, 2012
I thank my good friend. Madam Speaker, I understand the Republican majority will vote today against the President's request to raise the debt limit. To borrow a phrase from the former Speaker of the House, can we please drop the pious baloney? Less than 6 months ago, 174 Republicans voted for precisely what they are voting against today. This Republican leadership created a national crisis and walked us to the brink of default. Then they voted for a bill to end the crisis, but slipped in a provision allowing them to attack the President for the decision that they now don't have the guts to stand by. This is not leadership, and it certainly is not governing. It's an ideological game that has ventured well beyond the absurd. Now, Mr. Flake, I think in a very important moment of candor, talked about the fact that the very budget that the Republicans passed this last year would, in fact, raise the national debt by more than $6 trillion over the next 10 years. You cannot square logically an opposition to raising the debt ceiling when you have then voted for a budget that does exactly that. It raises the national debt. And with all due respect to the gentleman from New York, when he says nothing's changed in the last 7 months--nothing has changed in the last 7 months. We agreed on something, we knew what the debt was going to be, the deficit. We agreed to accommodate it in this way.…
