More of the Same: More Debt

This afternoon, the House passed yet another debt limit increase, without a single Republican vote. Today’s vote to increase the debt limit by $1.9 trillion is a giant Ponzi scheme to allow Democrats to continue spending taxpayer dollars and create massive debts for our children and grandchildren to pay. In the past two and a half years we have increased the debt limit six times, adding more than $4 trillion dollars to the government credit limit. Today we increased the limit on the government credit card again, but we continue to do nothing to slow the spending that keeps bringing us back to this same place. My question is: who is going to pay the bill?

As someone who studied accounting and ran a small business, the math just doesn’t add up. Simply put, President Obama and the liberals in Congress are addicted to spending. This 15.3 percent increase in the debt limit will allow the government to keep spending at leisure, accumulating more record debt to be passed along to our children and grandchildren. Furthermore, each American will shoulder an increase of $6,157 in debt, totaling $40,053 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.

If we want to bring relief to the people, we must address the cause of these continued and massive increases in our government’s borrowing: spending. Yesterday I introduced H.R. 4587, which would require Congress to pass 10-year statutory spending caps in conjunction with any increase in the statutory debt limit. This legislation will require Congress to have a plan for controlling spending before we simply allow the federal government to borrow more. If Congress can’t be more responsible when it comes to spending and running up the debt in first place, binding spending caps will force us to do so.

We cannot continue to borrow, spend and tax our way back to a growing economy. I firmly believe government should empower citizens to succeed in the economy, not erode their freedoms and encourage dependency. This debt increase undermines empowerment by reducing our economic growth and making America dependent on other nations for financing. The necessary road to recovery must be based on the principle of empowering Americans through limited government, fiscal and personal responsibility.