Mike Levin: “well, here they go again. The Republican Leadership in the House is once again attempting to sneak through a back-door…”

“well, here they go again. The Republican Leadership in the House is once again attempting to sneak through a back-door increase in the federal debt limit. Hidden within the resolution before the House is a provision that would allow the debt limit to rise without even requiring Members to have an up-or-down vote on it. This is the same procedural sleight-of-hand the Majority attempted last month in the budget resolution. Actions have consequences. What it is it about the consequences of their economic policy that members of the Majority Party are afraid to confront? When the Bush Administration took office, the federal government was looking at a projected ten-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion. In less than four years, the Majority's economic policies have turned that record surplus into a projected deficit of nearly $2.9 trillion. That's a fiscal reversal of over eight trillion dollars. Instead of gradually paying down the public debt as we were during the Clinton Administration, the policies of the current Administration have resulted in record budget deficits that require Congress to once again raise the limit on the nation's credit card and pass even more red ink along to our children. To all my colleague who voted to adopt these unsustainable budget-busting policies over the last four years, I would ask why you are so reluctant to face up to the consequences of your actions.”