Donald M. Payne: “I thank my colleagues, the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from Nevada for their continued leadership on these…”

“I thank my colleagues, the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from Nevada for their continued leadership on these CBC Special Orders. I am honored to join them once again on a topic that is paramount right now in our Nation's history, and also a situation that we must deal with in a manner to keep this Nation moving forward. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my friends on the other side of the aisle to do one simple thing. It is something that we expect from every American, and every person in this country expects it from us. That simple thing I am asking for, Mr. Speaker, is for Congress to pay our Nation's bills on time. There should be no resistance, no strings attached, no threats of default. Americans deserve better than to have the full faith and credit of the United States of America held hostage so that some of my Republican colleagues can demand ransom for their radical agenda. Mr. Speaker, the full faith and credit of the United States is nonnegotiable, period. So I am urging this Congress to raise the debt ceiling swiftly and to do it with no strings attached. Only recently in our Nation's history has the debt ceiling been used as a reckless bargaining chip. In fact, since the great hero of the other side, Ronald Reagan, took office, the debt ceiling has been raised 45 times. It is nothing new, and it is nothing radical. Now the allegations put out there about what raising the debt ceiling will do to our deficit are misleading at best.…”