Bruce F. Vento: “I reluctantly support this measure, H.R. 3136, the debt limit package. First, we need to honor the debt which our Nation…”

“I reluctantly support this measure, H.R. 3136, the debt limit package. First, we need to honor the debt which our Nation has incurred. The U.S. credit rating must not be in question, nor should the risk of default. For over 200 years through civil and world wars, recession and depression, the United States has honored our debt. Certainly it is deplorable that the total U.S. debt has grown so dramatically in the past decades, but the 1993 Clinton budget measure passed by Congress has had a dramatic and positive impact. The deficit of 1996 is half of the 1993 projected 1996 deficit, lowering the amount of deficit by $150 billion this 1996 fiscal year, and at the same time our Nation's economy has performed positively, inflation is in check, unemployment remains low and productivity growth, G.D.P., and business profitability are strong. This debt ceiling will act to accommodate the Federal budget needs until late 1997. It is past time to take this off the Republican political agenda. The threat of default and intimidation won't work, to sell GOP budget programs that lack merit. Included in this package of legislative measures is a constitutionally questionable line item veto power for the President. President Clinton, of course, wants this power, but this sloppy rearrangement of the fundamental separation of powers proviso won't pass muster. Furthermore, the line item veto power in this promises much but delivers little.”