Mike Thompson: “I believe this would be the wrong approach. As we have heard many times tonight, just a year ago the administration…”

“I believe this would be the wrong approach. As we have heard many times tonight, just a year ago the administration predicted Congress would be able to operate under the Federal debt limit for the next 7 years. Now we are being asked for a $750 billion increase in the Federal debt limit. The Treasury Department predicts this increase will cover government needs until 2005. So we went from being able to stay under the Federal debt limit in 9 years to being forced to raise the limit by $750 billion just so government can continue to operate for another 3 years. We are in danger of opening the flood gates of fiscal irresponsibility by increasing the Federal debt limit without having a plan in place to balance the budget and to pay our bills. Funding our national priorities such as homeland security and our efforts against terrorism must be done.”