Dave Camp: “The Budget Control Act was signed into law on August 2. On August 5, Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States…”

“The Budget Control Act was signed into law on August 2. On August 5, Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States credit rating and did so because: The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the President recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics. There have been some speakers who have come to this floor who said we were downgraded because of brinksmanship. We were downgraded because there were those of us who wanted to see some approach to fiscal responsibility in our debt limit negotiations. Clearly, that is revisionist history, and the facts bear out. Standard & Poor's own quote was it was because we didn't go far enough, not because we tried to address our medium term and long-term debt. So this reinforces my point. We can't be satisfied with just increasing the debt limit. I realize that is where we are today, and as I have said, I will vote for this legislation, but as another speaker has said, they have viewed this as nonnegotiable, and what we really need to do is reach across the aisle and work together to find long- term solutions to both our medium term and long-term debt obligations so that these programs, like Medicare and Social Security, these valuable programs that serve many of our citizens, are not only viable and there today, but there well into the future.…”