From Congressman John Culberson
Today Congressional Democrats are set to raise the debt limit again by $1.9 trillion to $14.3 trillion roughly the size of the entire U.S. economy. This will be the largest one-time debt limit increase in history and the fifth increase in less than two years from the Democrats.
If all this borrowing werent enough President Obamas budget would force Congress to raise the limit once again in just nine months.
The United States is facing an urgent fiscal crisis. Our national debt currently stands at $12.3 trillion which is a $3.7 trillion or 42 increase since the Democrats took over Congress in January 2007.
In three years Congressional Democrats have accumulated more federal debt than in our nations first 200 years. Yesterday Moodys Investors Service Inc said the U.S. governments Aaa bond rating will be jeopardized unless strict measures are taken to reduce our budget deficits.
Americans across the country do not budget their finances this way and neither should the federal government. Congress has to start living within its means or we will end up like Argentina fiscally insolvent. Instead of raising the debt limit and charging more on our credit card we should use repaid TARP funds and unspent stimulus money for deficit reduction.
We should also amend House rules to require that any increase in the statutory debt limit be considered as a stand-alone bill and pass with a supermajority two-thirds vote. I believe by taking these small steps we can put our country back on a path to fiscal stability.
