those signers are tina smith, elizabeth warren, jeff merkley, ed markey, mazie hirono, peter welch, dick blumenthal, jack reid, shelden white house and jack fetterman. throughout the history of our country, the united states government has done what it is supposed to do, not too surprisingly we pay our debts. that's what we have always done. in fact, over the past 63 years, the national debt limit has been raised nearly 80 times. 49 times when a republican has been president and 29 times when a democrat has been president. sen. sanders: it was raised under ronald reagan, president bush and three times under president donald trump, when the national debt increased by some $8 trillion. with no strings attached. bottom line, we pay our debt. that is what a major country does, the largest economy in the world welch pay our debts -- world does the. we pay our debts. and let's be clear, what the debt ceiling is about is paying money that has already been appropriated and spent. it has nothing to do with future budgets and future spending. you can debate that. that is simply a question of payin