On the recordOctober 21, 2015
I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. Raising the debt ceiling has absolutely nothing to do at all with increasing government spending. It only has to do with whether America will pay its bills for obligations already incurred. Many of those obligations, by the way, are for expenditures that I vigorously opposed: trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, unpaid for, and trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the very wealthy that are unpaid for. But the United States of America, in good times and bad, through Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents, in Republican-led and Democratic-led Congresses, has always paid its bills--always. We have done it for two reasons. First, it is the right thing to do. A promise made is a promise kept. An obligation incurred is an obligation honored. Mr. Speaker, a confident nation keeps its word. A confident nation pays its bills, not some of them. It pays all of them. Second, running from our creditors, stiffing them, picking and choosing whom to pay among them is as fiscally reckless as it is dishonorable. This new theory that America can actually consider it feasible as an option to default is extremely dangerous and very costly. Mr. Speaker, in 2011, when this tactic was first seriously considered and we came on the brink of default, it cost U.S. taxpayers $19 billion in unnecessary interest charges.…
