Levin Statement on the Bipartisan Plan to End the Shutdown and Avoid Default

Statement

I support the agreement announced by our leaders today to end the ill-conceived government shutdown and to avert a catastrophic default on America's obligations. Like most Americans, my relief at this 11th hour reprieve from disaster is leavened by disappointment that the nation has had to endure an entirely unnecessary crisis.

The agreement reached by the Majority Leader and the Republican Leader would reopen the government by providing appropriations through January 15, and provide a short-term extension of the federal debt limit extending into February. In addition, it would provide what Senate Democrats have sought for months now: a House-Senate conference committee to resolve the disagreements between the chambers on a budget resolution. I commend our leaders for overcoming the huge difficulties we faced.

To say that reopening the government is critical is an enormous understatement. The consequences of this government shutdown have reverberated through the government and across the country. The rifle-shot repair attempts by the House of Representatives would have left the government full of holes. They would have done little to erase most of the damage. From Main Street small businesses to our school classrooms to our airports and factory floors, this shutdown has done real harm.

Bad as the shutdown has been, failure to raise the debt ceiling -- which is, after all, taking the necessary steps to pay bills we have already incurred -- would run the risk of economic catastrophe, not just here in the United States, but for the global financial system. Economists have repeatedly, and with increasing urgency, warned us that even raising the possibility of default is playing with fire. And, indeed, the mere threat of a default has already done harm. It has raised short-term borrowing costs for the government and put the nation's credit rating at risk of downgrade, which would raise borrowing costs -- and therefore the cost to taxpayers -- even further.

Compounding all this damage -- from stalled drug trials at the NIH to gated national parks -- is the tragic truth that none of this was necessary. A small number of ideologues forced a government shutdown and flirted with default on our debts in pursuit of narrow and partisan objectives, a strategy that even their fellow Republicans warned was risking disaster to no purpose. That we have averted the worst outcomes does not erase the damage that has been done, and it does not erase the responsibility of those who brought us to the brink.

Leadership demands that narrow partisan goals and political calculations should be made secondary to the good of the nation. It is clear to me that if Speaker Boehner and the House Republican leadership had allowed a vote weeks ago on legislation to avert the shutdown and prevent a default, both measures could have passed with bipartisan majorities. There is no good reason that one faction of House Republicans has been indulged to the point where we are only narrowly averting disaster.

The reprieve, Mr. President, is temporary. This legislation is urgently necessary, but it ensures that we will all soon face a choice. We can endure another round of crisis governance, of brinkmanship and posturing, of allowing the ambitions of a few to overwhelm the common good. Or we can recognize that the people we represent expect, and our democratic system demands, that we work together to move our nation forward. In the budget conference this legislation makes possible, neither Democrats nor Republicans will be able to impose our preference. Agreement will require real and substantive compromise.

For that to happen, Republican leaders will have to stand up to the Tea Party that doesn't mind negotiating by means of manufactured crisis and hostage taking. Democrats and President Obama have made clear that it is not acceptable to demand negotiations while a few members have placed a ticking time bomb on the conference table. The American people have spoken, and decisively, on the question of whether shutdowns or default brinkmanship are acceptable tactics. They are not.

A defining feature of the agreement the leaders have reached is that it is bipartisan. It is certain that any such agreements must be so. Only by working in a bipartisan fashion can we govern. The challenges before us are formidable, but they are not insurmountable if both parties can summon the leadership and courage to work together and compromise for the common good.

Source