Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information, and I want to join him. He and I both had the opportunity to speak to participants in the Hackathon that is going on as we speak. Mr. Cantor and I were cooperative in this effort as well, and Mr. McCarthy and I have continued this tradition. Like Mr. McCarthy, I believe this will be of great assistance in moving us forward with technology to make our institution more transparent, the people's business more available to them, and that we will benefit from this in this institution.

In addition to that, of course, we believe it will have ramifications beyond this institution as they brainstorm and come together on how technology can be used better in our democracy both in terms of our government and politics, but also in terms of our economy and growth of jobs.

So I thank the gentleman and his staff.

I want to mention my own staffer, Steve Dwyer, who is one of the real talents in my office and, in my opinion, within the House staff, Republican and Democrat, working together on behalf of the better use of technology.

So I thank my friend for his observation.

Mr. Speaker, this week we have had two bills that we have spent significant time on that purported to deal both with debt and with deficit reduction, neither of which I think anybody in this House, Republican or Democrat, would place much of a bet on becoming law. They were message bills. We now dealt with legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the 61st time, and we dealt with a bill to close down Planned Parenthood, which clearly is not going to happen. Indeed, it should not happen. Ninety-seven percent of what they do is providing health care to women who need healthcare services.

So we passed, also, a bill that the gentleman, the majority leader, points out we need to do something to extend the debt limit. He is right on that. We do need to do it. But we spent a period of time on a bill called debt prioritization. I call that a charade, Mr. Speaker. I believed it was a charade. I believe that once you don't pay one of your bills, you have defaulted. Whether or not you prioritize and pay 10 bills that you owe first, get those paid, if you don't pay the other 10, it is default. But we do need to pass a debt limit extension. We need to pass a clean debt limit extension. We will run out of time on November 3.

Mr. Speaker, my friend, the majority leader, was just talking to Mr. Ryan, who possibly will be the next Speaker of this institution. Mr. Ryan said, when asked a question in 2011, shortly after the Republicans took charge of this House--to be specific, on January 6, 2011--will the debt limit be raised? Does it have to be raised? Mr. Ryan answered yes.

Even more compellingly, Mr. Hensarling, one of the most conservative Members of this body, said that not raising the debt is not an option. He went on to say: What I do think is, yes, it would be catastrophic to have the Nation default upon its debt.

Hensarling said that to The Hill on April 10, 2011.

Mr. Speaker, I believe if we bring a clean bill to this floor Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, almost every Democrat will vote for it. Why? Because we agree with Jeb Hensarling not to do so would be catastrophic. It would also be irresponsible and malfeasance.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the majority leader, who has said that we need to do it, we must do it, can the majority leader tell us when that bill will be brought to the floor?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

It is one thing to pass the debt limit; it is another thing not to deal with the problem and not find a solution. That is why, in this House, we are very proud of the fact, when Republicans took the majority, we had always offered a budget that balances. We passed one. The balances were outraising new taxes within the decade. Unfortunately, the White House has never found a way to do that.

As the gentleman mentioned, the Secretary has moved the date from reaching the debt limit up to November 3. As I mentioned in the schedule, the House is expected to address this issue next week. There are bipartisan discussions that are ongoing, and I will keep Members abreast and advise them as soon as a path forward is determined.

I am hopeful that we stop kicking the can down the road. In our own budgets that balance, we know the debt limit will have to be raised. That is why you quote our Members saying that. We also acknowledge that it has to be solved. That is why we put a balanced budget up to pay for it going forward. That is why I am hopeful, in these bipartisan discussions, that we start the down payment where we don't have to worry about raising the debt limit, that we are actually paying off the debt and not leaving this to our children and grandchildren.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, that is a nice theory, nice rhetoric. We don't have an agreement on a number of things the gentleman says. What we do have agreement on, I presume, is that the gentleman, the majority leader from California, wants to see a solvent nation, a nation that pays its bills, a nation that does not create a lack of confidence in our own country and around the world, a nation that does not take hostage either its government by shutting it down or take hostage its creditworthiness by bringing us to the brink, time after time after time, on whether or not we are going to do something that Mr. Hensarling and Mr. Ryan and Mr. Boehner--I didn't quote him, but I have got a quote here from Mr. Boehner--said that if we don't do, it will have extraordinarily adverse effects on America and on every American. And the answer that I heard, Mr. Speaker, is an answer that, if you don't do something we want you to do, we may not extend the debt limit.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I would ask the majority leader, is that his position?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I hear a lot of things on the floor, but I have never heard the things that you just said about me on this floor spoken.

Mr. HOYER. What is that?

Mr. McCARTHY. That I would hold anything hostage.

Mr. HOYER. No, I didn't refer to you----

Mr. McCARTHY. So what you heard from me--and let me say my own words once again, and I will be very clear about it. I said we will deal with this next week. I also said we are having bipartisan discussions. I also said, if you want to know the confidence of the world around us with how America deals with it, don't avoid the issue. Don't leave this debt for a future generation.

It is hard for me to believe that the entire other side of this aisle wouldn't want to do something about the debt. It is hard for me to believe that we want to continue just to build it up, that somehow that is a positive experience.

So don't play one against the other. Why don't we come together, find a way to raise it, but find a way that we don't continue to add to it. Because I will tell you, as I go across the country, it is not Republicans or Democrats who say that. It is all Americans who say that because they have to deal with that in their own house.

I am not going to say you said something different than the words you used, and the only thing I would ask is that you do the same for me.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the majority leader's admonition, but the government was shut down because we wouldn't repeal the Affordable Care Act. In other words, the government was taken hostage because we wouldn't repeal the Affordable Care Act. We came very close, with 167 Republicans to do so, to shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. Now, Mr. McCarthy voted to keep it open, Speaker Boehner voted to keep it open, and Mr. Scalise voted to keep it open. But only 72 colleagues of theirs on the Republican side joined them.

So I do not refer to Mr. McCarthy personally, but the strategy seems to be that we won't do something that everybody in this body ought to believe needs to be done, and that is to ensure that America remains a creditworthy nation, unless we do something that, frankly, I don't think, Mr. Speaker, my Republican colleagues have pursued too diligently; because over the last Congresses that they have been in charge, they put bills on this floor that have cut revenues by over half a trillion dollars without paying for it. Presumably my children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren will have to pay that debt.

So this is not about tradeoffs. This is about making sure that our Nation remains solvent, responsible, and creditworthy. And, indeed, because the rest of the world relies on the value and stability of the dollar to value its products, its currency, it will affect the whole world.

So I am pleased to hear that the majority tells me that it needs to be on the floor. But I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, I have been, for 2 1/2 months, urging us to do what the majority leader now says we need to do: get to an agreement.

They passed a budget; he is correct. It implemented sequester. They didn't follow it. And 102 Republicans have said they won't vote for a CR that follows the sequester because they want to increase defense, because they think sequester will hurt defense if it is followed. And, in fact, when the bill came to the floor, they didn't follow their sequester. They used OCO, which, by the way, does not score, but it is real money and exacerbates the deficit.

So when you are talking about alternatives, the alternative is not just about whether we invest in our national security by investing in defense. We need to do that, and I, for 35 years, have been a strong supporter of that. I also believe that we need to invest in our highways if we are going to do another temporary, because we have not, in 90 days, been able to come to grips. The gentleman talks about coming to grips with alternatives. We are going to do another short-term highway extension bill. Why? Because the majority party hasn't figured out how to pay for it.

And the debt limit may be on the floor, but what I hear, Mr. Speaker, is it may be on the floor if something else happens. Well, I hope something else happens. I hope we get a longer term funding agreement. But very frankly, Mr. Speaker, we have got six appropriation bills that haven't even been brought to this floor, and there is no constraint on the Republicans bringing it to the floor. They are in charge, Mr. Speaker. But half of the appropriation bills that were the responsibility of this House to pass have not been brought to the floor.

And, Mr. Speaker, they say, well, the Senate hasn't been passing them. Well, we are not in charge of the Senate. We are responsible for actions on this floor. And one of our responsibilities, Mr. Speaker, is to pass a debt limit extension.

And I understand, Mr. Speaker, that the majority leader said that there aren't 30 votes or 40 votes on each side of the aisle to pass a clean debt limit extension. Mr. Speaker, I find that incredibly hard to believe because, as Mr. Hensarling said, if we don't do that, it will have a catastrophic consequence on the country and on the international community.

I hope, Mr. Speaker, that the leader is right, that we bring a bill to the floor unrelated to disagreements. Some legitimate, most legitimate differences we have between us, we will have to work them out. But in that process, we ought not to put the credit of the United States at risk. We ought not to put individual American consumers at risk of having their interest rate raised because we couldn't pass a debt limit extension. We ought to act responsibly, Mr. Speaker.

I hope the leader is right. I hope this bill comes to the floor. I hope it is clean, so that it will not be weighted down by political controversies that are so self-evidently existing in this body for all the American people.

We have got a Speaker who is resigning, couldn't fill the Speakership. You may now fill it maybe next week, maybe as early as next week, but this body has not been functioning effectively. Let us not risk the credit of the United States and international stability. Let's bring a clean debt limit extension to this floor, and, hopefully, all of us will vote for a solvent nation.

There is no deal on that. I presume that every Member of this body wants a solvent nation. Let us hope, Mr. Speaker, that we summon our responsibility and our duty to this country and our constituents to get that done.

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

$154,161--$154,161--that is the responsibility of every single American based upon the debt that we have right now of $18 trillion. My friend on the other side of the aisle thinks it is un-American that we do anything about that, that the only road we should follow is just raise it and keep adding to it, that somehow that will build confidence in this country, somehow that will give more opportunity to future generations, by bringing a debt limit bill to the floor that raises the debt limit but starts changing the trajectory of where it is going is wrong.

That is what is wrong with Congress because, I will tell you, I don't hear that anywhere across America. I don't have my phones lighting up, saying: ``Just keep raising the debt and do nothing about it.'' It is the complete opposite. And I don't think the gentleman gets any different calls than I do.

My words were the House is expected to address this issue next week. Now, we play politics with a lot of stuff in here, but I am tired of that. I could play any amount of games that you want to play. I can sit here and I can quote Harry Reid on the other side of the aisle, and Schumer, a good deal, to make sure no appropriation bill went through and then blame the Republicans. They talk to the White House, and it is all in the papers. It is a whole strategy. They have a title for it. It is the ``Summer of Destruction.''

But do you know what, count me out of that. Put me in the column that I want to start talking about the ways we find solutions. I will be the first one who comes to the table and tells you I know I am not going to get everything I want.

I want to lay one goal out for you. I want a debt limit that gets raised but does something about the debt, and I don't think that is wrong, and I don't think I am causing problems. I think I am giving more opportunity.

I don't want to be in the category that sits and lays blame on everybody else. I haven't been here very long; but the short term I am here, I want to make a difference. I am not going to blame others for the past, but the one thing I can do is change the future. So put me in that column, and I will be at any table that other people across the aisle want to be with me.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to answer that presentation because, in my view, it conflates two issues.

I have been on this floor willing to deal with the other side on a regular basis to bring down our debt and to apply discipline. Part of applying discipline is paying for what you buy. And the gentleman is right; we had PAYGO. But when the Republican side of the aisle took over, they negated that; and they negated it specifically for tax cuts because, I suppose, they believe they will pay for themselves.

I have been here for a longer time than Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Speaker. In 1981, they did that, and we increased the deficit under Mr. Reagan by 189 percent. We could have dealt with it then. Then we had a commission that was called Simpson-Bowles, which tried to deal with what the gentleman is talking about, and all three Republican Members from the House of Representatives voted ``no'' on it. Why? Because it asked us to pay for what we bought.

So, Mr. Speaker, talking about A when you need to do B is a way of not dealing with B. Do we need to deal with the debt? We absolutely do, and the bills that are supposed to do that, as I just indicated, have not been brought to the floor. They represented sequester. The gentleman, apparently, is for sequester. I am not for sequester, although the gentleman would say, ``Oh. Well, it is your party which instituted sequester,'' which is not right.

Mr. Speaker, we need to do a debt limit extension, and we need to reduce the debt of this country. It will be hard to do the latter. It ought to be easy to do the former. It will require courage to do the latter; but when Mr. Camp, the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, brought a tax reform bill to the table, it was dismissed out of hand by his Republican colleagues in the last Congress. Why? Because he paid for it. Dismissed out of hand. Never brought to this floor.

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I am just very hopeful that, in fact, we will do the only responsible thing we can do at this late date. Remember, Mr. Speaker, for 2 1/2 months, I have been asking that we have a way forward. The Republican

Party, Mr. Speaker, has been somewhat distracted. I understand that. Hopefully, we will get a way forward and a responsible way forward; but we only have 5 days to do this debt limit, and let us not take an action which is catastrophic, which is what Jeb Hensarling said it would be if we don't adopt it.

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