[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1979-H2039] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-26
Chamber: HOUSE
Ms. JACKSON LEE: no American, no patriot would stand on this floor representing the American people and argue for the default on America legislation. To refuse to pay our bills is an insult to the men and women who swore to die for this country. You want to know why? Because it would cut 30 million visits from veterans at the veterans' hospitals and 81,000 jobs from the Veterans Health Administration. It would increase the wait times for benefits like pensions and jeopardize the National Cemetery Administration caring for our cemeteries.  {time}  1500  If you are in retirement, $20,000 could be lost out of your retirement. Is that patriotic? In addition, you would cut grants for low-income students. You would cut and cause the expense of colleges to go up in Texas and around the Nation. In the 18th Congressional District you would jeopardize Social Security payments from $61,000, put public health benefits at risk for 242,000 people, and increase lifetime mortgage costs. You would raise the debt $1.74 trillion. This is unpatriotic. It is not representative of what America stands for. Vote against a bill that strips food assistance from 4,000 Texans. Mr. Speaker, as a Senior Member on the House Budget Committee, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act. This reckless proposal would painfully impact the lives of millions of Americans by making disastrous cuts to programs that workers and families count on every day and by risking the full faith and credit of the United States. The outrageous proposal sets the FY 2024 discretionary spending levels at no more than the FY 2022 level, which would require a total cut of at least $142 billion from the FY 2023 appropriations Act. Cutting FY 2024 discretionary spending back to FY 2022 levels would endanger public safety, increase costs for families, undermine American workers, hurt our seniors, and weaken our national security. Instead of investing in America, Republicans would rather focus on holding our economy hostage to advance unpopular and dangerous right- wing priorities. The Republican default package is playing a brinkmanship game using the threat of economic catastrophe to try to force cuts in green energy investment, a rollback in enforcement against wealthy tax cheats, a war on poor people, and service cuts for taxpayers and Social Security beneficiaries. Breaching the debt limit would provoke unprecedented economic damage and instability in the U.S. and around the world. Every single American would feel the effects of a first-ever default: An estimated 800,000 plus people would be out of work and the unemployment rate would double; Social Security checks would be halted to 67 million Americans; Medicaid services would be in peril, affecting 75 million people's health coverage; The average worker close to retirement could see their retirement savings decrease by $20,000 due to Republican brinksmanship impacting the stock market. Republicans suspended the debt ceiling three times under President Trump. In fact, the massive Republican tax cuts over the last 25 years have cost $10 trillion to date and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase to the debt ratio since 2001. Specifically, this extreme and reckless plan would have devastating impacts on thousands of hardworking families across Texas. This plan would: Strip food assistance from 994,000 Texans. Republicans are threatening food assistance for up to 855,000 Texans with their proposals for harsh new eligibility restrictions in SNAP. This proposal would also mean 139,000 women, infants, and children would lose vital nutrition assistance through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), increasing child poverty and hunger. Make college more expensive for 587,900 Texans. This proposal would not only eliminate Pell Grants altogether for 6,800 students in Texas, but it would also reduce the maximum award by nearly $1,000 for the remaining 581,100 students who receive Pell Grants--making it harder for them to attend and afford college. Raise housing costs for 39,700 Texans. Under this proposal, 39,700 families in Texas would lose access to rental assistance, including older adults, persons with disabilities, and families with children, who without rental assistance would be at risk of homelessness. Worsen Social Security and Medicare Assistance wait times for million Texas seniors. Under this proposal, people applying for disability benefits would have to wait at least two months longer for a decision. With fewer staff available, 5 million seniors and people with disabilities in Texas would be forced to endure longer wait times when they call for assistance for both Social Security and Medicare. Threaten medical care for Texas Veterans. This proposal would mean 46,100 fewer veteran outpatient visits in Texas, leaving veterans unable to get appointments for care like wellness visits, mental health services, and substance disorder treatment. Eliminate 27,400 preschool and child care slots in Texas. The proposal would mean 17,500 children in Texas lose access to Head Start slots and 9,900 children lose access to childcare--undermining our children's education and making it more difficult for parents to join the workforce and contribute to our economy. Deny 1100 Texans admission to opioid treatment. The proposal would deny admission to opioid use disorder treatment for more than 1,100 people in Texas through the State Opioid Response grant program--denying them a potentially life-saving path to recovery. More specifically, the impacts on my home district, Texas-18, would be catastrophic. The passage of this proposal would: kill 7,300 jobs in TX-18; Jeopardize Social Security payments for 61,000 families in TX-18; Put health benefits at risk for 242,000 people in TX-18 who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, or Veterans Affairs health coverage; Increase lifetime mortgage costs for the typical homeowner in Texas by $50,000; Threaten the retirement savings of 81,400 people near retirement in TX-18, eliminating $20,000 from the typical retirement portfolio. The proposal in front of us here today is not a reasonable middle ground, nor is it even a starting point for discussion. There never has been and never will be anything fiscally responsible about refusing to pay America's bills, risking millions of jobs, or threatening economic ruin. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee titled: ``TheSteep Costs of a Republican Default Crisis.''  Raising the debt limit in a timely manner is about meeting existing obligations and is the only option to avoid economic chaos. The effects of failing to raise the debt limit would likely be felt economy wide: From drastically increased costs for mortgages, credit card payments, and other borrowing, to disrupted payments for Social Security recipients, veterans, service members, and hospitals, to far-reaching effects in the financial system. As the 2011 debt ceiling crisis showed, even narrowly avoiding a default cost the country billions of dollars.  Republicans' default crisis will push up costs for families and small businesses  Debt-limit threats increase costs for families and small businesses. While breaching the debt limit would be catastrophic, the threat of breaching the debt ceiling alone can have serious economic consequences. As 2011 and 2013 Republican debt-limit brinkmanship showed, reckless talk about letting the U.S. breach the debt limit has a real impact on the economy, working families, and small businesses. These threats create uncertainty that the U.S. government will pay its bills, pushing up interest rates and undermining confidence worldwide in the U.S. economy. The average worker close to retirement could take a $20,000 hit to their retirement savings. According to the non- partisan think tank Third Way, the debt limit crisis of 2011 led to a significant decline in the stock market and the impact would be even more dire if the U.S. defaulted on the national debt. They find that a typical worker nearing retirement could lose about $20,000 from their 401(k) if debt-limit brinkmanship causes the S&P 500 to drop by 22 percent. Small business loans could go up $44 a month, costing about $2,500 more over the course of the loan. If, as happened in 2011 with mortgage loans, small business loans see an interest rate increase of 70 basis points due to debt-limit brinkmanship, an entrepreneur taking out a new startup loan with fixed interest would see a significant increase to their loan. About 20,000 businesses took out new loans each quarter in 2022. Similarly, an established small business owner with a variable rate loan will see their monthly payments rise by $53 per month. About 46,000 businesses had outstanding variable interest loans in the third quarter of 2022.