Emails (excerpted), responses to PolitiFact Texas, Sarah Dohl, communications director, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Jan. 8-24, 2013
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Jan. 8, 2013
The Congressman’s Facebook post is in reference to Senator Cornyn’s Friday commentary in the Houston Chronicle available here. The Congressman’s statement that “the last time Republicans held hostage a resolution to ensure that our country’s bills were paid cost us more than $1 billion in added interest and slowed the economic recovery” refers to the summer 2011 political debate over raising the federal debt limit in which Congressional Republicans threatened not to raise the country’s borrowing limit unless lawmakers reduced the deficit. According to a July, 2012 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a Washington Post article outlining GAO’s findings, “Delays in raising the debt limit forced the Treasury Department to pay an extra $1.3 billion in borrowing costs—and the final sum is expected to climb higher as multi-year obligations and other outstanding costs are added later.” The Bipartisan Policy Center found that the debt ceiling battle cost taxpayers $18.9 billion over 10 years. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the debt-ceiling standoff also hurt the job market and our economic recovery as the unemployment rate rose and job growth stagnated.
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Jan. 11, 2013
The NPR story below details the Republican opposition to increasing the debt ceiling. In an article entitled “Debt-Ceiling Deal? ‘Hell, No Caucus’ Stands Firm,” NPR quoted Speaker John Boehner, who said “We have a number of our members who just don’t believe they should ever vote to increase the debt ceiling.” The story goes on to note that “[i]n fact, as many as half of the House Republicans now appear inclined to vote against increasing the nation’s legal borrowing limit — something Congress has already done 89 times since 1939.” The problem is this “Hell, No Caucus.”
Debt-Ceiling Deal? 'Hell, No Caucus' Stands Firm
by DAVID WELNA
July 14, 201112:01 AM
A fourth consecutive day of talks at the White House for a deal to raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2 ended abruptly Wednesday night, with President Obama walking out on a meeting with congressional leaders. That was hours after the credit-ratings agency Moody's threatened to cut the U.S. credit rating, warning of an increased risk of a government debt default.
Meanwhile, GOP congressional leaders in particular are increasingly at odds with members of their own party in the debt-ceiling debate.
House Speaker John Boehner sounded a tad exasperated earlier this week on Fox News when asked whether he had enough votes in his big Republican majority to raise the debt ceiling.
"We have a number of our members who just don't believe that they should ever vote to increase the debt ceiling," Boehner said.
In fact, as many as half of the House Republicans now appear inclined to vote against increasing the nation's legal borrowing limit — something Congress has already done 89 times since 1939. Obama warned on CBS this week that not raising the debt ceiling by Aug. 2 could mean some people will not get their monthly Social Security checks.
"There may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," he said.
'Quit Lying'
In a Web video posted Wednesday, freshman House Republican Joe Walsh of Illinois accused the president of misleading people.
"President Obama, quit lying," Walsh said. "You know darn well that if Aug. 2 comes and goes, there's plenty of money to pay off our debt and cover all of our Social Security obligations."
Walsh, who got elected with strong Tea Party backing, is a leading member of what's been dubbed the "Hell, No caucus" — the Republican lawmakers who refuse to raise the debt ceiling. House Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who is running for president, accused Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner of selling the nation a bill of goods.
"It's this: that if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion, that somehow the United States will go into default and we will lose the full faith and credit of the United States," she said. "That is simply not true."
That puts Bachmann and many other House Republicans at odds with Boehner, who had this warning in the Fox News interview: "Missing Aug. 2 could spook the market, and you could have a real catastrophe. Nobody wants that to happen."
Will Opposition Backfire?
Fellow House Republican Louie Gohmert of Texas says he thinks Boehner has been bamboozled.
"The problem with the speaker, in him saying that, is he believed the president, and I will encourage the speaker not to believe the president anymore," he said.
Gohmert and other House Republicans are pushing legislation that puts active-duty service members and debt holders at the head of the line for government payments if the debt ceiling is not raised. Their willingness to allow at least a partial default on the debt alarms Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He told radio host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that Republicans would be saddled with the blame for a default. That, he said, would put them in a very bad position for next year's election.
"We knew shutting down the government in 1995 was not going to work for us," he said. "It helped Bill Clinton get re-elected. I refuse to help Barack Obama get re-elected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy."
McConnell has proposed a plan in which Congress would authorize Obama to raise the debt ceiling, without any of the massive deficit reduction that Republicans have been demanding. It's a fallback plan to be used only if a deal cannot be reached among negotiators.
But Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker calls it an embarrassment.
"This place is way too caught up in trying to protect each side for the 2012 elections," he said.
Still, Lamar Alexander, Tennessee's other GOP senator, predicts McConnell's contingency plan will only keep looking better.
"I think after about one week, maybe two weeks, there are going to be a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats thanking Sen. McConnell for leaving an option on the table so that we don't have a default," he said.
But there likely won't be many thanks from the "Hell, No caucus."
_____________________________
Sarah Dohl
Communications Director
U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett
From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) [mailto:wgselby@statesman.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 6:06 PM
To: Dohl, Sarah
Subject: RE: Following up re: Doggett politifact
Sarah:
...it looks to me like the GAO report estimates an interest impact, but it also includes methodological caveats. It also does not blame one party or another. A GAO spokesman told us that wouldn’t happen.
Separately, close observers of the debt debate seem to agree there was no measurable effect of the delayed debt-ceiling vote on the recovery, which continues. ...
...
wgs
W. Gardner Selby
PolitiFact Texas
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Jan. 24, 2013
In reply to your inquiry:
(1) According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the debt ceiling standoff also hurt the job market and our economic recovery as the unemployment rate rose and job growth stagnated. If you pull unemployment reports for June-August, 2011, you’ll see that the unemployment rate rose from 9.1% to 9.2% in June and that job growth slowed. As noted in this July, 2011 CNN article, “Hiring slows, unemployment rises,”
The job market hit a major roadblock last month, as hiring slowed to a crawl and the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose. The economy gained just 18,000 jobs in June, the government reported Friday, sharply missing most expectations and coming in even weaker than the paltry 25,000 jobs added in May. It marked the weakest month since September, when the economy was still losing jobs. Immediately after the release, stock futures plummeted and bond prices rose. The main culprit economists are point to: uncertainty. Businesses are hesitant to hire given uncertainty surrounding federal spending cuts and tax policy, as Congress still has yet to reach an agreement on the debt ceiling and long-term measures for trimming the nation's deficit. "I think a lot of this is the backlash to the impasse in Washington," Brusca said. "If you're a small business man, you sit back and say I'm not doing anything, I'm not hiring -- until I see what happens in Washington.”
(2) The GAO report notes that delays in raising the debt ceiling “Delays in raising the debt limit forced the Treasury Department to pay an extra $1.3 billion in borrowing costs—and the final sum is expected to climb higher as multi-year obligations and other outstanding costs are added later.” To what caveats in this sentence do you refer? Nor have we relied upon GAO as the source for allocating responsibility for this unnecessary cost. As noted in the NPR story I sent you, entitled “Debt-Ceiling Deal? ‘Hell, No Caucus’ Stands Firm,” Speaker John Boehner was quoted as follows: “We have a number of our members who just don’t believe they should ever vote to increase the debt ceiling.” The story goes on to note that “[i]n fact, as many as half of the House Republicans now appear inclined to vote against increasing the nation’s legal borrowing limit — something Congress has already done 89 times since 1939.” The blame lies with this “Hell, No Caucus.”
(3) The Bipartisan Policy Center study you request is linked to in your e-mail. You can find the $18.9 billion figure on pg. 48 of their report (click here for the report), also noted in a number of news articles, including this one from Politico: “Report: 2011 Debt Ceiling Fight Cost Taxpayers $18.9 billion.”