The United States government is on the verge of bankruptcy.  HR 1 makes $61 billion in actual spending reductions for the remaining fiscal year ending on September 30.  Since 2008, federal spending has increased 24 percent; the cuts in HR 1 represent a 1 ½ percent reduction.  HR 1 isn’t enough to make more than a dent in the deficit, but at least it reverses the upward trend in spending and points us back in the direction of solvency.  It begins to restore this fundamental principle of federalism: programs that exclusively benefit local communities should be exclusively financed by those communities.  We will need to do much more as the debt ceiling approaches and still more as we take up the 2012 budget, but with HR 1, our nation begins its long road back to fiscal solvency and prosperity.

Congressman McClintock voted AYE on HR 1.  The legislation was approved by the House on February 19 by a vote of 253 - 189.