Roscoe Bartlett: “What we did was to incorporate the Gephardt amendment, which said whenever we pass a budget resolution that the debt…”

“What we did was to incorporate the Gephardt amendment, which said whenever we pass a budget resolution that the debt limit ceiling would be raised whatever it needs to be raised to accommodate the spending anticipated by the budget resolution. But budget resolutions do not include emergency supplementals, and we keep voting emergency supplementals because we do not want the budget resolution to be such a high number. In the future, there will be another debate on raising the American debt limit ceiling, and I hope America is listening when we do that. What we are doing is amassing the largest intergenerational debt transfer in the history of the world. We cannot run our government on current revenue, and so what we are doing is systematically borrowing from our kids' and grandkids' future. When I ran for Congress 12 years ago, I promised those who I hoped to be my constituents, and they are my constituents now, that I would try to conduct myself here so my kids and grandkids would not spit on my grave because of what I have done to their country. I am still trying to do that. I think it is unconscionable for us to amass this larger and larger debt that we are going to pass on to our kids and grandkids.”