Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Virginia for his outstanding work. He knows this from a business perspective, an economic perspective, and a political perspective, and has been such a strong and vibrant voice about America paying its bills. I would like to add a couple of things. We have a group of people in the House and the Senate--not a majority--whom we call debt ceiling deniers. They deny that letting the debt ceiling lapse and going into default could be cataclysmic for America. They are wrong. Every person who has studied this knows it is wrong. The debt ceiling deniers fall in two camps. Some say: Well, we can pay certain debts and not other debts and that would be all right. Well, let them choose. Pick Social Security over veterans? Pick payments to pregnant mothers versus payments for food safety? We can't do it. Then they say: Well, maybe we should just pay Treasurys that come due and not pay Social Security. Well, let me tell you, as somebody who has consulted experts on the market, the overwhelming view is that if we don't pay any of our bills for the first time in U.S. history, the markets could very well freeze up, tighten, and create huge damage to our country. The second group of debt ceiling deniers say: Well, we don't know the date. And we don't. The markets are mystical, but once they come to their own most magical conclusion that the United States is going to default, we will be in trouble. That could be the 17th.…”