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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, for the past 2 years, we have made historic, steady progress to strengthen the American economy. Under President Biden's leadership, we have successfully navigated one challenge after another, from the COVID pandemic to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, to supply chain snarls and persistent inflation.

While America's economy has remained resilient in the face of these challenges, it is not invincible. We received a reminder of that just a few days ago when financial regulators took swift action to prevent a catastrophe.

Over the weekend, Federal regulators seized a major bank that was teetering on the brink of collapse, First Republic, and sold it to JPMorgan Chase. These actions not only protected First Republic's depositors, they could have saved our economy from potential recession. Why do I say that? Well, First Republic was the third major bank to fail in 2 months. In fact, it was the second largest bank failure since 2008. So think about what could have happened had regulators failed to contain the damage from First Republic's collapse. Today, we would be reading headlines about panicking investors, panicking depositors, and turmoil throughout the financial system. Thankfully, we avoided that outcome. It is because the Government had the good sense to step in and maintain confidence in the banking system.

Now, Federal regulators stepped in to protect our economy when the crisis at hand was a bank with $229 billion in assets, but that $229 billion bank asset pales in comparison to a much larger undertaking we are facing in Washington today--the future of America's $23 trillion economy.

Right now, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker McCarthy is threatening our economy with the first-ever Federal debt default, the first time ever in our history. Let's put Speaker McCarthy's dangerous gamble in context.

Just days ago, some of the smartest financial minds in the world were convinced that a $229 billion bank could be the difference between financial stability and financial calamity. Well, that $229 billion is a tiny fraction of the $23 trillion economy that Speaker McCarthy is gambling with.

We are only weeks away from the deadline of June 1. That is when Secretary Yellen says America could default on our Federal debt. So every day the House Republicans refuse to perform the most basic responsibility of government--paying our bills--they are spreading uncertainty throughout the global economy. That uncertainty is dangerous and costly.

Over the past few years, our Nation has emerged from the depths of a once-in-a-century pandemic; we have navigated one market disruption after another; and, today, we are finally moving in the right direction. But now, Speaker McCarthy, in the House, wants to throw all of that historic progress away. Why? To please the most radical members of his party. The debt ceiling proposal House Republicans passed last week is not a budget; it is a MAGA manifesto. It is a ransom note to the American people: Either suffer the disastrous consequences of debt default or face devastating cuts in services and programs that millions of Americans rely on every day.

I just left a hearing in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. Appearing before that committee was the National Institutes of Health. This is the premier medical research Agency in the world. Of the 500-plus new prescription drugs, they are responsible for almost all of them in basic research. Just this week, we had a dramatic announcement in Chicago by Northwestern University in its doing medical research. And I am going to try to say this properly as a liberal arts-trained lawyer when I get into medicine and science. But they have finally found a way to successfully breach the blood-brain barrier. What does it mean? We had two of our most famous Senators in modern times--Ted Kennedy and John McCain--both pass away because of glioblastoma--brain cancer. The Presiding Officer understands that personally more than any other Member of this body. We watched as they went through surgery, which was the only technique that could be used on this brain cancer, in an attempt to remove the tumor and all of the cancer cells. Well, naturally and unfortunately, that process is not as good as it should be. Tumor brain cells remained and, ultimately, took their lives.

Well, now these doctors at Northwestern have found a way to breach this blood-brain barrier so that they can apply chemotherapy drugs to the brain directly. It is a dramatic development that could have applications as well when it comes to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. That was discovered this week because of an NIH grant, a National Institutes of Health grant--millions of dollars to these researchers that could transform the way we treat brain cancer in America as well as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

So what does Speaker McCarthy want to do with the budget of this Agency, the National Institutes of Health? He wants to cut it by 20 to 25 percent. That is an outrage to think that we would forestall the research that could save lives and alleviate suffering across America and the fact that our leadership and the world of medical research would be jeopardized because of gamesmanship by Speaker McCarthy on the issue of the debt ceiling.

His proposal for a budget--if you want to call it that--is a MAGA manifesto. They don't care. They are determined to preserve the Trump tax cuts at any expense. When you look at cutting 20 to 25 percent from medical research, it is true that they will go to the extreme.

What would debt default look like?

Well, it would wipe out also trillions of dollars in savings of families across America, and the 401(k)s would take a beating. It would kill millions of jobs and force businesses to grind to a halt, and it would send our economy into a recession.

Does Speaker McCarthy believe that any of us were sent to Washington to achieve that goal?

Defaulting would send interest rates soaring, making costly credit cards and mortgages even more expensive. It is a nonstarter, but so is accepting any of the destructive cuts that I have described.

Their MAGA manifesto would cause needless suffering all across America. It would hurt virtually everybody in this Nation except the top 1 percent, which would have their Trump tax cuts preserved.

To start, this Republican bill would decimate funding for America's veterans--eliminating 80,000 jobs in the Veterans Health Administration--and threaten housing and food security for them as well.

This proposal would also wipe out 30,000 law enforcement and Border Patrol jobs.

Next week, we have got a watershed event occurring on the border. I am sure the Presiding Officer is aware of it as he represents the State of New Mexico.

The question is, What is going to happen when we eliminate title 42? Are we going to have an onslaught of thousands of people seeking asylum in this country, and are we ready for them?

I have heard many Members of the Senate from the other side of the aisle suggest they are unhappy with the situation. I am, too, but we need to respond to it in an orderly, direct fashion. Defunding Border Patrol agents is a ridiculous outcome, and to think that Speaker McCarthy would defund Border Patrol agents in this country at this moment in history is just nonsensical.

I would just say that, when it comes to the defunding of the police and Border Patrol agents, it is a bad idea even if it comes from the Republican Speaker.

If this proposal became law, I might add--the proposal by Speaker McCarthy for his budget--we would also cut 1 million senior citizens' Meals on Wheels. What does this program do? For many of our elderly citizens, particularly those who are in a compromised medical state, this is the only social contact they have each day--perhaps with the mailman as well. That is it. To eliminate this Meals on Wheels in order to preserve the tax cuts from the Trump administration is just unfair.

Let me tell you what the cuts would mean in my State of Illinois.

The Republican proposal would force 13,000 children in our State to lose childcare and preschool. It would strip food assistance from 55,000 women, infants, and children. Does that make any sense at all? It would threaten the medical care for more than 186,000 veterans in Illinois, and 50,000 seniors would lose their Meals on Wheels in my State.

Yesterday, my office heard from the Greater Chicago Food Depository-- a food bank that is one of the best. It provides meals to seniors and families. Here is what one of their staff members said:

These proposed cuts are coming at a time when the need we're seeing in the community is as high as it was during the beginning days of COVID. Families are really struggling.

These are the families who Speaker McCarthy would abandon with his MAGA manifesto. And for what purpose is he doing this? I will tell you--to keep tax cuts for the wealthiest people and the most profitable corporations in place--another windfall for the well-off.

We can and should debate our spending practices for the year to come, but this is not it. This is not the place to do it, and this is not the time to do it with the debt ceiling looming. Right now, we have one responsibility--to maintain the reputation of the United States of America in upholding the full faith and credit of standing behind our debts and making our payments. That is our constitutional duty. The path forward is clear. We need a clean bill for the debt ceiling, and then we can debate the issue of the budget and appropriations.

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