Ways and Means Democrats Urge Speaker Boehner to End Debt Ceiling Brinksmanship, Start Work on Budget Agreement
Ways and Means Democrats Urge SpeakerBoehner to End Debt Ceiling Brinksmanship, Start Work on Budget Agreement
WASHINGTON –Today Ways and MeansCommittee Democrats sent a letter urging Speaker Boehner to stop playing gameswith the debt ceiling and get to work on a conference committee on the budget.On Wednesday, the Ways and Means Committee will mark up a bill to prioritizethe bills that the U.S. government pays in the event of default. The letter wassigned by all 16 Democratic members of the Committee. The full text ofthe letter is below and available online here:
April 23, 2013
The HonorableJohn Boehner
Speaker
United StatesHouse of Representatives
Washington,D.C. 20515
Dear SpeakerBoehner:
Tomorrow theWays and Means Committee is scheduled to mark up H.R. 807, legislationintroduced by Rep. Tom McClintock to prepare for a U.S. government default byprioritizing debt payments. The bill would essentially legislate who gets paidand who doesn’t in a default. It is our understanding, based on news accounts,that House Republicans are preparing to bring this bill to the floor in May,despite warnings from economists across the political spectrum that such aneffort will only further undermine the stability required for our economy to continueits recovery.
What’s equallytroubling is that even as the Republican Conference works to repeat the debtceiling brinksmanship that so badly damaged our economy nearly two years ago,you refuse to work toward a budget agreement that will help grow our economyand achieve balanced deficit reduction to replace the harmful sequester.
We urge you tostop playing games with the debt ceiling, appoint conferees immediately andconvene a conference committee so that we can reach a budget agreement. There isno time to waste.
Sincerely,
The HonorableSander Levin
The Honorable Charles Rangel
The Honorable Jim McDermott
The Honorable John Lewis
The Honorable Richard Neal
The Honorable Xavier Becerra
The Honorable Mike Thompson
The Honorable John Larson
The Honorable Earl Blumenauer
The Honorable Ron Kind
The Honorable Bill Pascrell Jr.
The Honorable Joseph Crowley
The Honorable Allyson Schwartz
The Honorable Danny Davis
The Honorable Linda Sanchez