Larson: 'Why Are We Holding the American People Hostage? Let's Put America Back to Work'
WASHINGTON – House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (CT) made the following remarks on the Floor this afternoon during the debate on Speaker Boehner's proposed short term default act:
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"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Levin.
"At this very moment the whole world is watching in on the United States Congress. It is a sad day for the United States Congress. We in America, the preeminent military, economic and cultural leaders in the world, are governing like we're a third world country. It is a sad time for this body. It is a sad time for this body that we cannot come together. Sad is the American public who looks in at this and recognizes that it's theater, except that it's become the theater of the absurd. In a frail recovery where Americans are already overburdened, what we have in front of us is a manufactured ideological crisis.
"Eighteen times the debt ceiling was raised for Ronald Reagan, eight times for George Bush, because they would never stand in this body to see a default on the full faith and credit of the United States. As the world looks in and we default on a global economy and we default and march towards defaulting on a national economy, the most ruinous thing is that we are defaulting on household economies.
"What this body should be focusing on is dealing with this deficit and focusing, as Mr. Becerra said, on the real default that's taken place in Congress, the lack of job creation, the need to put people back to work so that we can restore the dignity that only comes when people are able to sit across their dining table and look at one another and know that they have the dignity that comes from a job. We need not go through this ideological hostage situation. Why are we holding the American people hostage? Let's put America back to work. We're a better nation; we're a better body than that."
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