On the House Floor, Chairman McGovern Urges Congress to Raise the Debt Ceiling to Prevent Financial Armageddon
**Video of his remarks is available here**
WASHINGTON, DC — On the House Floor today, House Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern (D-MA) urged Congress to raise the debt ceiling to protect our economy and ensure America continues to pay its bills. The Senate Amendment to the House Amendment to S. 1301 will be considered hereby passed once the rule is adopted today. The rule also sets up consideration of H.R. 3110, H.R. 3992, and H.R. 2119, three bills that protect our nation’s children, families, and workers.
Highlights from Chairman McGovern’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are included below and video is available here:
- “M. Speaker, we are the precipice of what economists have called financial Armageddon. Financial Armageddon. Mark Zandi has said, ‘Even if resolved quickly, Americans would pay for this default for generations.’
- “And their answer, according to virtually all Republicans, is to go home. Really?
- “If we defaulted, 6 million jobs would be lost; unemployment would skyrocket to 9 percent; and $15 trillion in household wealth would be wiped away. Don’t take my word for it, M. Speaker. That’s according to the nonpartisan Moody’s Analytics.
- “And the only solution my Republican friends can come up with is to leave town?
- “Senate Republicans tried to filibuster this deal that Mitch McConnell developed to temporarily raise the debt limit.
- Now, House Republicans have used the tools they have here to unleash their own form of obstruction.
- “This isn’t about whether you like Mitch McConnell’s compromise. I sure don’t. I wanted to take the debt ceiling head-on in a longer-term way. This is about whether you want to lose those 6 million jobs, and see unemployment at 9 percent, and watch that $15 trillion in household wealth evaporate - whether or not we want to cause a financial catastrophe that will be felt for generations.
- “Members just cast their votes. We know which side they’re on. 198 Republicans voted to leave town, to adjourn this Congress without solving the massive problem in front of us. That’s stunning, M. Speaker. This is the sort of thing that can make you cynical - about Congress, about the direction of our country.
- “But I choose to focus on the 223 members, including 5 Republicans, who voted to stay here today to pay our bills.
- “I urge my colleagues: vote yes on this rule, vote yes on protecting the full faith and credit of the United States, and vote yes on preventing financial Armageddon.”
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