Cord Byrd: “the Senate is considering legislation to raise the statutory debt limit by $1 trillion. This increase is the largest in…”

“the Senate is considering legislation to raise the statutory debt limit by $1 trillion. This increase is the largest in the history of the Republic-- surpassing by a whopping $100 billion the record that was set by the first President Bush in 1990. What's more, it would be the second increase in the debt ceiling since this President took office in January 2001. The Treasury Secretary recently wrote to the Congress stating that the current statutory debt ceiling would only be adequate to ensure the operations of Government through the end of May. The administration has tried to excuse the need to raise the level of borrowing authority. Among its scapegoats, the administration blames economic weakness. It blames the September 11 attacks. It blames the corporate accounting scandals of last summer. That scapegoating may help this administration to explain how it lost $5.6 trillion of budget surpluses in less than 2 years, but it doesn't explain why they need to increase the national debt by an additional $1 trillion. It doesn't explain why this administration is pushing for new tax cuts when we don't even have the money to pay for tax cuts that have already been enacted into law. To quote President Ronald Reagan, ``the American people deserve a President who has the courage to give answers instead of mak[ing] excuses.'' So far, only $202 billion of the $1.35 trillion tax cut package signed into law in 2001 has gone into effect.”