U.S. Representative Mike Kelly Votes against Raising the Nation's Debt Ceiling without Significant Spending Reductions and Budget Reforms

U.S. Representative Mike Kelly Votes Against Raising the Nation’s Debt Ceiling Without Significant Spending Reductions and Budget Reforms

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (PA-03) voted against H.R. 1954, a bill that would have implemented President Obama’s request to unconditionally increase the amount of money the United States is legally permitted to borrow by more than $2 trillion, raising the current debt limit of $14,294,000,000,000 to a debt ceiling of $16,700,000,000,000.

Tonight’s vote was in response to a request made by the Obama Administration and more than 100 congressional Democrats to quickly consider a “clean” debt limit bill that will raise the debt limit without any spending cuts or reforms. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, although the current debt limit was reached on May 16, 2011, Treasury is taking “extraordinary actions” to provide more room under the limit and estimates that these actions will provide additional borrowing capacity until August 2, at which point America will default on its debt if the limit isn’t increased. H.R. 1954 overwhelmingly failed to pass the House of Representatives by a bi-partisan vote of 318-97. Representative Kelly issued the following statement:

“To continue spending ridiculous amounts of money and then expect to just raise the debt ceiling without addressing the irresponsible habits that got us here in the first place is unconscionable.

“Anyone with a credit card knows how this works. If you keep spending more that your credit card limit allows, the banks will increase your interest rate, lower your credit limit, or close down your account altogether. The banks wouldn’t just keep increasing your credit limit without any assurance that you’ll change your habits and better manage your debt . That’s just not how the real world works.

“Yet for some reason, Washington thinks it can play by a different set of rules when spending taxpayer dollars. Over the past two years, we have experienced the largest budget deficits in our nation’s history. The White House and the previous Democrat-led Congress have maxed out our nation’s credit cards and are asking us to increase the credit limit without making a commitment to stop the recent and reckless runaway spending.

“Right now, our national debt is more than $14.2 trillion, almost more than the size of our entire economy. We borrow nearly 42 cents of every dollar we spend, much of it from the Chinese, and then send the bill to our children and grandchildren. In fact, every child born in America today, and that includes the granddaughter my family just welcomed into the world last week, already owes $45,500 in debt they didn’t create.

“This is a shameful legacy we are leaving for our children and I and the American people will no longer stand for it.”

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