House Votes Down Clean Debt Ceiling Hike
June 1st, 2011
How much longer will that clock go up?
Last night in Washington, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to not have a “clean” debt ceiling increase of close to $2.4 trillion. This vote, taken last night to avoid a major disturbance on Wall Street, comes before Congressional leaders meet with President Obama to discuss a compromise that would, unfortunately, lead to an increase in the debt ceiling.
The vote was 97-318, which included unanimous Republican opposition, as well as opposition from half of the Democratic caucus, was a bill authored by Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Michigan) that was designed to fail. According to Mr. Camp, the bill’s failure was to point out that “America’s affection for deficit spending” was at an end. However, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) lamented that the bill was a “demagogue” aimed at being merely political theater, despite the fact that he wanted his caucus to vote against the increase.
While it is disappointing that Washington is so willing to raise the debt limit, we can take some solace in the fact that this inevitable ceiling increase will come with some spending cuts. Already, the Obama administration has offered a starting proposal of a $1 trillion decrease in spending over the next decade. Though it will barely make a dent in the deficit, it shows that there is some effort on Washington’s part to return us to fiscal responsibility. There are still some small government advocates that call the debt ceiling increase an admission that we can’t meet our debt obligations, and while that may be a sad but true statement, it’s still the politically easy thing to do. In the end, that might be all that counts in Washington, DC.
