 Senator from Vermont. Thank you Mr. President. I want to speak about the looming debt crisis the fact that within 30 days there is a real and substantial likelihood that America will do something that America has never done and that has failed to pay its bills in full and on time there's a lot of discussion about the debt it's 31 trillion dollars there's very little discussion about what that debt is who owns that debt and what the implications are to all of us the people we represent our state and local governments our private institutions and our economy if in fact we do the unthinkable in default on the debt of that 31 trillion dollar debt eight trillion is held by governmental entities and that includes the federal reserve two social security trust funds the medicare insurance trust us u.s. military retirement plan anything we do to jeopardize the value of those treasury bills where 100 cents is what they're worth on the dollar compromises the security that Americans depend on from those trust funds the 24 trillion in treasuries held by the public includes three trillion held by individuals by households by for-profit and not for-profit entities by endowments if we jeopardize that one dollar for one dollar risk-free asset it means those individuals who own as part of their portfolio a treasury bond lose value 2.8 trillion is held by money market mutual funds every one of our constituents knows what those are most of our constituents have money deposited in a money market account they absolutely believe that they're going to get one dollar out for every one dollar they put in we jeopardize that treasury bill by defaulting on our debt they may get 95 cents or 90 cents that's real havoc and real pain for so many Americans 2 trillion is held by banks that's the money that they have to guarantee the deposits if we think we have an issue with the run on the banks of first republic and svb way till this happens and there's a run on these banks who because of an action that this congress took has a vast and a cataclysmic reduction in the value of their deposits 1.5 trillion is held by various state and local governments that's the town you live in it's the town I live in where that's set aside to help their citizens they lose value on those securities they can do less for water and sewer for schools and roads in their own communities 1.1 trillion is held by private pension funds that's folks who have saved and put into their pension fund for the retirement that asset the treasury bond declines in value because of the default their retirement is in jeopardy 7 trillion is held by foreign central banks and foreign investors that helps us because they help us keep our interest rates down and they do that because the dollar in is a dollar plus interest out that's jeopardized by this reckless plan to default on our debt as a leverage device to get things totally outside of what that debt is number one treasuries are the bedrock of our financial system because they're viewed as a safe asset and they've been safe ever since the founding of our country equally important treasury bills are considered risk-free you put that dollar in you buy a treasury you're going to get that dollar back absolutely plus the interest on the coupon third treasuries are the device in our willingness to pay unquestioned that has made the dollar the reserve currency of the world I go back to what I said earlier 7 trillion our own by foreign banks they put their money here because they have total incomplete confidence that it's safe we default on our debt we lose that status they lose that assurance we in this country start paying higher interest rates there's real harm to individuals as well as the economy goes through a cataclysm of the first time default in the history of the country the analysts who've looked at this say a typical worker near retirement and I'm including folks in Vermont would see a $20,000 reduction in what they have available for retirement the average new 30-year mortgage would be increased in cost over the life of its mortgage $130,000 think of what you could do with that to help your child with an education it would become much harder to borrow the national debt the national debt would increase by $850 billion so the folks who are advocating default as a way of quote cutting down spending are doing the single most destructive thing that they could do that will result in increasing spending so mr. president this notion of defaulting on our debt or using that as a tactic to get something completely unrelated to what we all know is the obligation to pay our bills a confident country always pays its bills is a disaster for the economy and has long-term devastating implications for everyday americans as well as our reputation and strength as a country you know this it's not accustomed it's embedded in our dna as a country that we pay our bills in full and on time and it started just after we became an independent country we were broke alexander hamilton as you know is our first treasury secretary and he had to make a decision we had borrowed a lot of money to prosecute our revolution those bonds that represented that borrowed money were worth pennies on the dollar in the question for alexander hamilton was pay pennies on the dollar or pay a hundred cents on the dollar and despite the fact that this was an incredible hardship alexander hamilton in our government then made the decision that those war bonds were going to be repaid in full the benefit of that to us was that we established as a country that we were safe we were sound we were we were reliable and no matter what the circumstances were if we owed the money we paid the money that was owed we paid it in full and we paid it in time the benefits to our country and to us as individuals over the generations where we've kept that commitment have been incalculable so the notion that we should put that in jeopardy and even threaten not to pay our bills to something that has never ever happened before in this country and should never happen and on this question of negotiation let me ask the question why would president biden why would any president republican or democrat negotiate when the effect of that is to threaten the pension deposits of the people we represent why would the president any president negotiate when the outcome of that negotiation threatens your money market deposits why would this president or any president negotiate when the outcome of that negotiation would weaken our pension funds where that negotiation if it comes out the way the proponents of default as a tactic wish is going to make it really tough on everyday people our small businesses our local governments our savings for our kids education we pay our bills in full on time that's what the united states of america has always done that is what the united states of america must always do mr president i yield back