Paul Tonko: “I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. We're here today, at long last, to vote on the Republican default…”

“I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. We're here today, at long last, to vote on the Republican default plan. After 200 days without a jobs agenda, after 200 days of saying that those hardest hit by the recession should bear the burden of unbalanced cuts, after 200 days of rhetoric and walking away, my Republican colleagues have finally brought their top secret default plan to the floor for a public debate and a vote. So, what did they offer up? Courageous leadership? A grand bargain? Sadly, no. When you walk out of negotiations and spend more time talking to the press than to the President, I'm not sure we expected more. We have before us the same tired policies that got us into this mess--cut taxes for millionaires, give kickbacks to special interests, pay for it all with cuts to the middle class. And never forget the central tenets of the conservative agenda: end Medicare and privatize Social Security. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle will no doubt come to the floor to say the bill explicitly protects Medicare and Social Security from cuts. That claim is blatantly false. It's a desperate campaign speech to counter the backlash that comes when the American people read the bill, like they read the Ryan budget. So I would ask my colleagues to take another careful look at the bill before us. It is only 57 pages long. There is even a summary online through the Rules Committee Web site.…”