On the recordJuly 26, 2011
We voted last week on a plan put forward by my Republican colleagues that I strongly opposed and was rejected by the Senate because it would have ended Medicare as we know it while preserving giveaways to Big Oil and corporations shipping jobs overseas. Now Speaker Boehner has introduced a new plan which he says follows the spirit of the last plan. Rating agencies say Mr. Boehner's plan won't work. It won't prevent a ratings downgrade, it will destroy hundreds of thousand of jobs, weaken the American dollar, and raise interest rates on loans to keep families in their homes and students in school. It is a plan that experts tell us up front won't work, is not worth voting on, let alone passing. Instead of retreating to our partisan quarters and refusing to cooperate, when the going gets tough we expect leaders to get to work. This default crisis is a test of leadership and those willing to drive our country over the economic cliff fail that test and need to get serious. ____________________
