On the recordMay 31, 2011
I thank my colleague for yielding. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a political stunt. I just heard my friend from Texas on the Republican side say Republicans wanted to tear up the credit card. It was just a few weeks ago when the Republican budget passed this House. All but four Republicans voted for it. Let me show you what that did to our credit card. Here it is. We are at about $14 trillion in debt. The budget all but four Republicans voted for takes us up toward $23 trillion, $24 trillion in debt. An $8 trillion increase in the national debt by passing the Republican budget, so that clearly this isn't about tearing up the credit card. What is this about? This is about threatening to default on the full faith and credit of the United States unless we put into place the Republican budget, including their plan to end the Medicare guarantee and to slash Medicare benefits. That's what this is all about. They've said, Whoa, we're going to hold this whole thing up until we get our way. Let me tell you what their way would do to seniors. And we've seen it before on the floor of the House. What it means is that seniors will be paying thousands and thousands of dollars more for Medicare or getting their benefits slashed beginning in 2012.…
