Levin Floor Statement Opposing GOP's Default Resolution
Statement
Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) made the following statement on the floor of the House of Representatives in opposition to the Republican debt ceiling disapproval resolution, which passed this afternoon with nearly unanimous Republican support:
The week before last, 87 House Republicans joined 198 House Democrats to pull this nation back from the brink of a default that would have magnified the economic damage inflicted by the Republican shut down of the Federal Government. I can understand that those who voted no on October 16 would vote for this resolution in order to be consistent, though I urge -- as a matter of policy -- that they are consistently wrong.
What is hard to understand is how one who voted yes on October 16 to avoid a default would now vote yes on this bill that would bring about a default if it succeeded.
So they are saying that the serious impairment of our nation's full faith and credit, which economists warned would plunge us back into recession, was a bad idea on a Wednesday two weeks ago, but doing so is a good idea on a Wednesday two weeks later. The same person would be voting one way -- and then soon thereafter the opposite way. Against default then, for default now.
Earlier this month, after the Republicans took us to the brink of default, Senate Minority Leader McConnell said, "There's no education in the second kick of a mule." And he continued " we're not going to do this again in connection with the debt ceiling or with a government shutdown." But now House Republicans appear to be doing just that.
Every time the Republicans "fight another day" to not pay America's bills, the American economy pays the price. Republicans took us to the brink of default earlier this month, the Council of Economic Advisors estimates we lost 120,000 jobs that would have been created in October. Private forecasters (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Standard and Poor's) estimate that the recent crisis slowed fourth quarter GDP growth by between 0.2 and 0.6 percentage point.
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