Lummis Votes Down Senate Bill Full of Budget Gimmicks
“Let’s not waste another minute talking about another round of irresponsible gimmickry, which has gotten our country in its current state of fiscal disarray in the first place.”
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
Jul 30, 2011 -
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis voted against H.R. 2693, Senator Reid’s “Budget Control Act of 2011,” a blank check to President Obama that is full of budget gimmicks and absent of meaningful solutions to solve the core of our countries’ debt crisis. H.R. 2693 failed, with 11 Democrats voting “nay.”
Lummis released the following statement:
“Parties on both sides of the aisle agree that in order to show the world that the full faith and credit of the United States means something, America’s debt ceiling must be raised. House Republicans have proposed two bills in the past two weeks containing meaningful reform; Senate Democrats have proposed, but not even brought to the Senate floor, a bill with a false claim of savings.
“The American people are tired of the gimmicks and games. House Republicans have proposed and passed real solutions to raise the debt ceiling and put our country on the path to fiscal sanity. Let’s not waste another minute talking about another round of irresponsible gimmickry, which has gotten our country in its current state of fiscal disarray in the first place.”
BACKGROUND:
· PHANTOM SAVINGS: H.R. 2693 claims to reduce the deficit by $2.19 trillion over ten years, however, it includes $1 trillion in phantom savings for war spending which has never been appropriated or requested, and is not expected to be spent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
· FAILS TO CUT MORE THAN IT HIKES: Even including these phantom savings, H.R. 2693 increases the debt limit by $216 billion above the claimed savings. We are considering the single largest debt ceiling increase in the history of the United States and H.R. 2693 just wants to keep spending money. When phantom war savings are excluded, CBO states that the bill would only reduce spending by $927 billion over ten years compared to a debt limit increase of $2.4 trillion.
· HANDS THE PRESIDENT A BLANK CHECK: H.R. 2693 would allow the president to increase the debt limit by $2.4 trillion in two $1.2 trillion tranches and without requiring legislation to pass Congress with real structural reforms.
· The latest House-passed proposal would require the Joint Committee’s cuts to be enacted before future increases in the debt ceiling.
