Political Quotes

“I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record at this time an opinion piece written by Kevin Hassett and Abby McCloskey on page 23 in today's Wall Street Journal entitled ``Obama Rewrites Debt-Limit History.'' There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 3, 2013] Obama Rewrites Debt-Limit History (By Kevin Hassett and Abby McCloskey) As the government shutdown continues, the nation gets closer and closer to the day--probably Oct. 17--when Washington hits the debt limit, and with it the specter of default. President Obama may be getting nervous about what will happen to his negotiating position as that day approaches. He keeps asserting that the debt limit has never been used ``to extort a president or a government party.'' Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is selling the same story, saying ``until very recently, Congress typically raised the debt ceiling on a routine basis . . . the threat of default was not a bargaining chip in the negotiations.'' This is simply untrue. Consider the shenanigans of congressional Democrats in 1989 over Medicare's catastrophic health coverage provision. In this case, the problem was political infighting within the Democratic Party between the House and the Senate. ``Weeks of political maneuvering brought the government to the brink of financial default,'' the New York Times wrote on Nov. 8 of that year.…”