Sylvester Turner: “I think all of us tonight have a great deal of concern about the suggestion that we increase our statutory debt ceiling…”

“I think all of us tonight have a great deal of concern about the suggestion that we increase our statutory debt ceiling, because we all know that the statutory debt ceiling is the last remaining line of defense to protect us from total fiscal irresponsibility in Washington. We all thought that there was another line that protected us from fiscal irresponsibility, and that is the pledge of this Congress never to spend the Social Security trust fund monies on anything other than Social Security. Back in 1997, all of us here tonight were present when we voted for the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. It reversed a trend that had been present in the Federal Government for 30 years of spending every year more money than the government took in. And for 3 years after that Balanced Budget Act, we actually had a surplus in the everyone. As the gentleman from Kansas pointed out, just a year ago it was projected that we would have over $5.6 trillion in surplus funds flowing into the Federal Treasury over the next decade, but then came a major tax cut, a recession, and a war. That surplus has disappeared.”