Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Critical Need To Avoid A First-Ever Default By The United States Government

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the need to work on a bipartisan basis to raise the debt ceiling and avoid an economic disaster that would be devastating for every single American. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

In America, when it is time to pay the bills, we do so without fail and without delay. That's what families must do. That's what our government must do. It is one of the bedrock principles of this country, one that holds true no matter who is in the White House and which party holds majorities in Congress.

Not even during the Trump Administration was this solemn duty neglected, even if many MAGA Republicans may feel differently today.

When I was Minority Leader here in the Senate, I sat down with President Trump to find a path to raise the debt ceiling multiple times. We didn’t engage in hostage taking. We didn’t resort to blackmail or brinksmanship. By no means was it easy—and many on the other side didn’t want to go along—but Democrats worked constructively with the Trump Administration to get it done. And it happened three times.

The same thing must happen again this year: no brinksmanship, no hostage taking, no default on the national debt. Congress must raise the debt ceiling on a bipartisan basis without the hostage taking, without the brinksmanship.

So, I was very glad to hear President Biden reaffirm this truth after his meeting with Speaker McCarthy. He reiterated we ought to pass a clean debt ceiling extension.

President Biden is correct: the American people expect us to do the right thing in the coming months, because if we default on the debt every single American is going to pay the price.

Now, later this morning I will join with some of my Democratic colleagues to put a spotlight on the consequences of default, because they are not remotely theoretical or abstract. Debt ceiling is not just an abstract exercise somewhere up there in the clouds. If we fail to renew it, it's going to affect every American family's pocketbooks and wallets with many, many dollars taken away.

A default on debt would create a crisis unlike any we’ve ever seen in our country. Mortgages, car loans, credit cards rates will all go shooting up. American families with an adjustable rate mortgage or seeking to buy a house would pay thousands of dollars more each year. What a terrible nightmare, at a time when costs are already too high in housing and everywhere else.

But just as terrible as that sounds, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

If the US defaults, retirement savings—the money that people have scrapped away, put away so they might live in dignity towards the end of their lives—will be utterly devastated. By one measure, the typical retirement account could lose $20,000 in value. $20,000! We’re talking about people’s livelihood, money that people set aside little by little every month so they can reach a retirement with some degree of dignity. A default would rob Americans of that.

And the devastation would go on and on and on. Social Security would suffer, Medicare would suffer, over 18 million veterans could lose their hard-earned benefits like disability compensation.

America’s reputation on the world stage would be permanently stained, and few things would hand the world over to the Chinese Communist Party more than a first-ever default by the United States of America.

So the bottom line is simple. Playing games with the debt ceiling is dangerous, destabilizing, and would spell disaster for every single American. Dangerous, destabilizing, disaster.

The last thing we should be doing in Congress is using the debt ceiling as a political bargaining chip.

Instead, we need to come together and make sure the US is able to pay its debts on time, without brinksmanship, without hostage taking, just as we’ve done throughout our history.

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