Debt Ceiling Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. SORENSEN. Mr. Speaker, nearly 6,000 people participated in a telephone townhall of mine on Tuesday night. It allows me to understand what is most important to the people of my district today. One issue came up over and over.

Cheryl from Moline asked about access to food stamps and what will happen to Social Security payments if we default.

Stacy from West Peoria was worried about what a default would mean for middle-class families. ``We are the forgotten ones,'' she told me.

Gayle, a veteran from Morrison, told me that she hates that politicians are about to take away her VA healthcare, something she uses every day.

Celeste in Bloomington wonders what this means for mental health care.

These are real people in my district who are scared, and rightly so. We can either choose to pay our bills or we can put the lives of working families and seniors at risk.

Real people told me what the right answer is. It is not scoring political points, and it sure as hell isn't driving our country's economy off a cliff.

Mr. Speaker, I call on the Republicans to come back to work.

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