Debt Ceiling Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, we stand here today, 7 days away from the X-date, the date that our Nation will default on the full faith and credit of our Nation's financial debt for the first time since the War of 1812.

Madam Speaker, it is not too late for us to stop such a catastrophe by passing a clean debt limit bill just as Congress has done 78 times since 1960.

Interestingly, the President who signed the most debt limit extension bills was Speaker McCarthy's hero, Ronald Reagan; 18 times in 8 years.

I ask Speaker McCarthy to heed Reagan's words that he said in 1987 when he signed one of those bills at the height of the Cold War.

He said, ``The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility--two things that set us apart from much of the world.''

In 2023, we have adversaries, China and Russia, who are watching with glee as we as a Nation are about to, for no good reason, not maintain our financial debt.

They are waiting and want to pounce in terms of de-dollarizing world currencies that rely on international trade. Pass a clean debt limit bill for the sake of our Nation and free democracies.

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