WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins issued the following statement after voting against legislation to increase the nation’s debt limit by $1.9 trillion:
 
“While families across the nation have struggled through the past year cutting back to make ends meet, the federal government has gone on a reckless spending spree with the American public’s hard-earned dollars. For the third time in one year, our nation has reached its debt ceiling. Today, instead of tightening the federal government’s belt, the Democrat leaders in Congress pushed through the largest single debt limit increase in our nation’s history.
 
“I am extremely disappointed that today fiscal responsibility was held hostage to the Democrat’s big spending agenda. In order to gain votes, Democrats attached pay-as-you-go budgeting restrictions to this record debt limit increase. While I support the concept of pay-go and have voted for it in the past, today’s efforts are nothing more than a cynical political tactic to further a fiscally irresponsible agenda and increase the debt limit by $1.9 trillion.
 
“These spending habits are unsustainable. They are threatening our nation’s long-term stability and our national security, and they are burying our kids and grandkids under mountains of debt they should not have to pay back. Kansas families are struggling, and the policies coming out of Washington are making it harder on them. It’s time to stop making empty promises and start making sense.”