Chicago City Wire

Washington, DC – On May 24, Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (IL-03) took to the House Floor to lead her Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues in a series of floor speeches to stand up against the Republican-made debt limit crisis and urge five Republican representatives to sign a discharge petition addressing the debt ceiling in a manner that doesn’t unnecessarily and cruelly harms working families.  The Special Order Hour comes as Republicans neglect to negotiate in good faith a deal that avoids a government default.“Republicans have made this all about political games. They’re more than happy to play under the guise of bipartisan negotiating to ”cut government spending.” But there are real-life repercussions to the theatrics,” said Congresswoman Ramirez during her speech. “What Republicans are doing right now is reckless and irresponsible. They are gambling with working people’s livelihoods and the global economy. Republicans would rather default on the debt than come to an agreement that protects critical investments in our communities across social security, SNAP, veteran health care, housing, Medicaid, and more.”

“Republicans are trying to pull one over on the American people, presenting a false choice between their extreme cuts and default. But there are other choices,from making the wealthy pay their fair share, getting a discharge petition to the floor with help of five reasonable Republicans who refuse to punish their own constituents, or even utilizing the 14th Amendment,” the Congresswoman from Illinois added. 

You can see Congresswoman Ramirez’s full speech here: Clip 1 & Clips 2

 

BACKGROUND:

As of on May 24, Wednesday, every House Democrat (213 signatures) has endorsed the discharge petition to force a vote on legislation to hike the debt ceiling and prevent a default. At the moment, Democrats need five additional signatures from Republicans to bring the vote to the floor before the government default. According to the Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen, the government could be in default as soon as June first. While there is still not a deal, Republicans have been championing drastic cuts that would result in a 33% cut in 2024 to housing, healthcare, education and more. It would:

• Put 780,000 people out of work and cost more than 1 million jobs
• Strip up to 21 million Americans of Medicaid coverage
• Deny access to affordable college to 60,000 people
• Kick 200,000 kids off of Head Start
• Force 100,000 families to lose access to child care
• Rob 1.2 million women, infants, and children of nutrition assistance
• Remove rental assistance from 640,000 families and evict 430,000 more from public housing

Original source can be found here.