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This past September, the Administration notified Congress that our
government would soon be approaching the federal debt limit of $7.384 trillion,
and that Congress would need to raise the limit on the amount of debt our
country can incur. This request stemmed from the Treasury Department's
estimate that the national debt would exceed the statutory debt limit before
the end of the year.
The federal debt limit has already been exceeded. And in order to avoid
breeching the statutory debt limit until Congress reconvened November 16th,
the Treasury relied on cash taken from government trust funds and by suspending
investment in those funds to operate our government.
Taking such action is absolutely irresponsible. In September, fellow
conservative Blue Dog Coalition Member Charlie Stenholm of Texas proposed
an amendment that would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from taking
money from the Social Security trust fund, the Civil Service Retirement
and Disability Trust Fund, the Military Retirement Trust Fund, the Government
Securities Investment Fund, the Unemployment Trust Fund, railroad retirement
trust funds, the DOD Education Benefit Trust Fund and the Black Lung Disability
Trust fund to fund our government. This amendment was introduced in an
effort to force Congress to take responsibility for the increase in the
nation's debt by approving an increase in the debt limit before adjourning
in October instead of waiting until we return to our nation's capital later
this month. The House passed legislation with the amendment, but the Senate
has not yet taken action.
We should have a full and open debate on whether to increase our national
debt limit. The Republican leadership's tax plan funded tax cuts, not by
cutting spending, but with borrowed money that has given us the largest
budget deficit in our nation's history for a second year in a row. If this
pattern of spending continues, our children and grandchildren will be left
with a daunting financial burden.
Increasing the debt limit is now necessary, but Congress is obligated
to re-examine our budget policies in an effort to reverse the current financial
slump we find ourselves in. Increasing the debt should be an absolute last
resort, not the solution. We must restore some common sense, fiscal discipline
and accountability to the budget process just as we all have to do as families
and small business owners, and I will continue to work with my colleagues
in a bipartisan manner to stop deficit spending and move toward a balanced
budget.
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