[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] here we go. The committee will come to order. On january 27, 1838, a young state legislator named Abraham Lincoln spoke before a gathering in springfield, illinois. At the time, america was a deeply divided nation. Lincoln warned that the greatest threats to the young democracy were internal. He said, quote if danger ever reaches us, it must spring from up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. For the nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide, end quote. The actions of the past few weeks, the the extremism of a small core of pens in the house of representatives have put our nation on a very perilous path. For more than 200 years, t
Talk about the whatifs. Because, like many people throughout the country, they dont know what the next steps are. Theyve had to cut back and jill has even had to stop going to her doctor appointments because of her the injuries that shes been treated for that are associated with her military service. Her husband now is considering dropping out of school in order to bring home more money to help their family. And jill is applying now for a second job. What especially worries her is that if she has to work both night and day, and with her husband now not sure what hes going to have to do as far as his education or going back to work, is that her children, again, ages 4 and 6, might have to be with a babysitter not just during the day but at night now. And i would ask any mother or for that matter any parent who thinks that thats acceptable. Theres so much sacrifice that we have asked of our veterans and their families and in this case were asking so much for this family that all they wan
A cliff and if we keep walking in that direction, very soon, we will fall off. We may fall off on october 16 or october 17 or are over 25 or november 1 but we will fall off. The most interesting the most important point is we dont know which day we will fall off. The markets are somewhat mystical. They can come to the view that the u. S. Will default and anticipate that and treasuries go down in value and Interest Rates go up much of our Financial System freezes and we are back where we were in 2008 when aig failed. I want to ask you this question to be clear, isnt there a risk almost every single day starting around october 17, even perhaps a day or two earlier, and we cant tell exactly when we will not have enough money to pay our bills and default could occur . Even if you laid out the most meticulous plan and the world. I have been trying to be as transparent as possible for several months. I very much fear that miscalculation is something that could lead to a very severe consequen
There has been a minority that is held up the ability to go to a budget conference. Quite frankly, the majority needs to speak at some point. Im not talking about democrats or republicans. Im talking about a majority in this body that needs to speak to stop this kind of craziness. Lets get down to real life. Agriculture is pretty big and oklahoma pretty big in oklahoma. Operating loans are a pretty ommon thing. If we default, can you tell me what the impact will be on somebody going to get a oan . We still have to beat. Hopefully the lending will be available in the borrowing will be available. Any time there is the chill, the panic of uncertainty, there is a pullback. There will be a pullback. We will all scramble around to try to do the best we can to find quality borrowers and quality lenders. You will have commercial ctivity. In the act particularly, as you well know, there is a real linkage between what happens in washington and what happens on your farm or ranch. We have to be se
Our systems were not designed to not pay our bills. The legal issues are many. I do not know how you could make the legal issues are many. I do not know how you could make the decisions and i do not think the legal authorities are clear at all and i do not think the administrative process would permit the system to work. We write roughly 80 million checks per month. The systems are automated tube a because for 224 years, the policy of congress and every president is we pay our bills. You cannot go into those systems and easily make them pay some things and not other things. They were not designed that way because it was never the policy of this government to be in a position that we would have to be in if we could not pay all our bills. If you were to prioritize, its my understanding, we know what youre out pay obligations are to some degree. We have a Social Security payment due and major medicare bills do. On the other hand, knowing the revenues are a little bit sketchy. Could you go