Sylvester Turner: “this House is entitled to have an open debate and an open vote on raising the debt ceiling. Any family or any business…”

“this House is entitled to have an open debate and an open vote on raising the debt ceiling. Any family or any business or corporation that applies for debt or to be able to borrow money is going to have to apply for the credit and going to have to make the case. This Congress should do the same. The truth of the matter is our Republican colleagues do not want to have an open debate or an open vote on raising the debt ceiling because it points to the failed fiscal policies of this administration which has placed this country in the worst financial condition that we have been in our history. We are going to pass 13 appropriations bills to fund the government this year. We are going to borrow an amount equal to 60 percent of all of the appropriations that we vote on this year to run our government. We are in a ditch. We need to face up to it. We need to get honest. It is particularly objectionable to me to try to hide it in the defense appropriations bill because the truth of the matter is we have sent young men and women to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan; and we are telling them that someday when they come home, they will have to pay for the war that they have been sent to fight. That has never happened in the history of this country. We have always paid our bills in time of war. It is time to do the moral thing, the right thing by our troops and pay for this war with current dollars and not pass it on to the next generation.”