Virginia Foxx: “I certainly agree with my colleague from New York that the bill itself is not a partisan bill. I am not talking about…”

“I certainly agree with my colleague from New York that the bill itself is not a partisan bill. I am not talking about the bill. I am talking about the rule. This is a very partisan rule. It didn't need to be a partisan rule. All the majority had to do was allow for amendments on the floor and it wouldn't have been a partisan rule. So I need to remind him that that is where the partisanship comes in. We are here debating the rule. Mr. Speaker, while debt limit increases have been passed under both Republican and Democratic Presidents and Congresses, the acceleration in the accumulation of the debt that brought us to this point merits examination. In January of 2007, when Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House, the statutory debt limit stood at $8.965 trillion. In less than 3 years, the debt limit has increased by more than 33 percent, representing an additional $1 trillion of debt per year. By comparison, the statutory debt limit, which stood at $40 billion in 1940, did not cross the $1 trillion mark until 1981. And it has been only 7 weeks since the Democrats voted to increase the debt limit by $290 billion on December 16, 2009.”