WASHINGTON – Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) said President Obama’s expected call to freeze much of the federal budget over the next three years is a step in the right direction, but he said more must be done in order to address the Nation’s rapidly growing $12 trillion federal debt.

“Freezing federal spending is a good first step, but it must be combined with additional concrete steps to put our nation on a glide path toward fiscal responsibility,” said Lance. “We can’t fix our broken economy with more spending, higher taxes and increased deficits. But we can do it through real fiscal responsibility.”

For his part, Lance has introduced a legislative package of bills aimed to control runaway federal spending and limit our Nation’s ever-growing national debt and deficits. Specifically, Lance supports the following:

• Pay It Back Act: would apply unspent funds from the federal stimulus as well as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) directly to debt reduction.

• Deficit Reduction Act: would apply fiscally responsible caps on annual congressional spending and debt.

• Stop Raising the Debt Ceiling: would amend the Rules of the House to require that any increase in the statutory debt limit be considered as a stand-alone bill.

Congressman Lance also opposes raising the debt ceiling without meaningful action on reducing federal spending, and has led the effort in the House calling for a clean, up-or-down vote on congressional action to raise the debt limit.

“I hope in the President’s first State of the Union he concentrates on the economy and has a glide path toward fiscal responsibility. We must work together to reign in out of control spending, create jobs and make health care more affordable or we run the risk of our children living in a diminished America,” Lance concluded. 

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