On the recordJuly 21, 2011
I say to my friend through the Chair that they may send us something well-intentioned, but I am not sure they understand the rules of the Senate. There are a number of people who are Republicans over here who have stated publicly that they think the debt should be defaulted upon. As my friend knows, most everything we do here is by unanimous consent and, if not by unanimous consent, by the rules of the Senate, which are very strict and very difficult sometimes to comprehend, but they are there. So I am afraid that what is happening with the House leadership is they think they can send something over here and, as the majority leader, I can figure out a way to get it done. I cannot get it done if we have to follow the rules, which we have to follow, and I cannot get consent, and I cannot get consent on most anything I do around here. So I would like my friend to comment on that. I appreciate my friend saying that Speaker Boehner is a good person. I agree with that. But I am not too sure that this is not an easy way out for everybody over there, that they could say: Well, we did what we wanted to do. I am sorry the Senate could not do it, so I guess our debt is defaulted upon, and we will close down all of the functions of this government and wait for a better day.
