Max Baucus: “in the play ``The Taming of the Shrew,'' Shakespeare wrote: ``There is small choice in rotten apples.'' I feel a little…”

“in the play ``The Taming of the Shrew,'' Shakespeare wrote: ``There is small choice in rotten apples.'' I feel a little like that whenever we have to raise the debt limit. It is a small choice in rotten apples. The choices are all bad. Really, though, there is no choice. The legislation before us would increase the limit on the debt issued by the U.S. Government by $850 billion. The House has sent us this legislation. Essentially, we have no choice but to approve it. If we fail to raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. Treasury will default for the first time in its history. Plainly, especially in this credit crisis, we cannot let that happen. If we don't raise the ceiling before Monday, Treasury Secretary Paulson will be forced to take special measures to prevent the default from occurring. He feels those actions would create uncertainty in the financial markets. He thinks it would be unwise to add any uncertainty to the financial markets right now, and I agree with that. The markets already have enough uncertainty arising from the foreclosures on subprime mortgages. But there is no way around this. These are some rotten apples. This increase in the debt ceiling will be the fifth increase during this administration. It increased by $450 billion in 2002, it increased by $984 billion in 2003, it increased by $800 billion in 2004, and it increased by $781 billion in 2006.”