Political Quotes

“Lastly--and I know you are glad to hear that comment, as are the folks waiting to do 1-minutes--we have received a letter from Secretary Mnuchin on March 8. It was directed to the Speaker, Mr. Leader, and like most Secretaries of the Treasury, he is hoping that we will pursue financially responsible and confidence-building policies. I won't read the whole letter, but he says in the last paragraph: ``As I said in my confirmation hearing, honoring the full faith and credit of our outstanding debt is a critical commitment. I encourage Congress to raise the debt limit at the first opportunity so that we can proceed with our joint priorities.'' Mr. Speaker, I ask the majority leader whether that is going to be scheduled in the near term because, on March 15, we met the debt-limit extension. This administration and every previous administration have taken steps to prolong the time before we default by using extra mechanisms so that we are, in effect, not investing in the retirement system or something else and paying our debts. I have indicated publicly, Mr. Speaker, and I reiterate here, that I will urge my side to support a debt-limit extension if it is clean. What I mean by ``clean,'' if it does not incorporate something that is not agreed to and there is not a consensus on. By that I mean, simply, if there are things that we have a consensus on that need to be passed, certainly including those in the debt-limit extension would not be objectionable.…”