Lungren Against Debt Limit Increase Without Reforms

Washington, DC–Congressman Dan Lungren (R-Gold River-CA) tonight voted against raising the nation’s debt limit by $2.4 trillion dollars. The country’s debt burden is currently $14.2 trillion dollars and .42 cents of every dollar spent by the government is borrowed money. H.R.1954 was meant to implement the President's request to increase the statutory limit on the public debt.

“It is essential for those of us in the Congress to approach the vote on the debt ceiling with a full awareness that we have a solemn obligation not only to meet our existing debt obligations but also to take serious action to avoid a future debt crisis which could plunge our nation into another serious economic crisis.  CBO projects that if we continue on the current spending trajectory, our public debt will grow to 87 percent of the U.S. economy within 10 years.  This is simply not sustainable and could lead to what Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard and Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland have characterized as a tipping point for economic decline when a nation’s debt to GDP ratio reaches 90 percent,” Lungren said.   
Recently, the credit-rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) changed the United States’ outlook from stable to negative. According to S&P, this was a result of “very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness” and the lack of a “path to addressing these” problems.
“Any agreement to raise the debt limit should include meaningful measures to reduce spending.  The writing is on the wall.  The shift by Standard & Poor’s outlook on U.S. Treasuries from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ should be a wake-up call.   The debate over the debt ceiling should be used to achieve real spending cuts. The time to act is now,” Lungren concluded.

Source http://www.lungren.house.gov/