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Contact: Rebecca Rudman
202-225-1986
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Rep. Calvert Votes for Debt Deal to Avoid Default
Washington,
Monday, August 01, 2011 -
Today Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) voted in favor of the Budget Control Act of 2011 to avoid default and put America on a path of fiscal discipline.
“The debate on the debt limit increase should not have come to this, an 11th hour solution that requires a quick vote on complex legislation,” said Rep. Calvert. “The House passed two bills in plenty of time but unfortunately the Senate could not even bring up their own bill, let alone the House bill and President Obama failed to ever produce a plan on paper.
“Having said that, I commend Speaker Boehner and all our leaders in the House for securing a deal that immediately cuts spending and does not increase taxes on the American people. Since Republicans took over the House in January, we have been able to change the dialogue in Washington from ‘How much money can we spend?’ to ‘We must stop spending money we don’t have and address the drivers of our debt.’ However, our work does not end here. As the Joint Committee moves forward in identifying cuts, I hope they first answer a vital question: what is the first responsibility of government? In short, it is the defense of our nation and the safety of our citizens. Steep cuts to defense spending would be disastrous for our country. I realize that everything must be on the table: including tax reform that does not raise taxes and entitlement reform that ensures that Medicare and Social Security are solvent for future generations. Like any budget, it is a question of priorities and I will be watching the progress of the Committee closely to ensure that the core principles of smaller government, strong national defense and low taxes are part of the end product.”
The Budget Control Act of 2011 would create and enforce discretionary spending caps to cut and restrain spending over the next ten years, provide a mechanism for increasing the debt limit from between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion in two steps (subject to congressional disapproval and more than dollar-for-dollar spending cuts), establish a Joint Committee to produce deficit reduction legislation, and provide for automatic sequestration of mandatory and discretionary spending to achieve cuts equal to a debt limit increase if the deficit committee’s legislation is not enacted or falls short of the amount of the debt limit increase. According to CBO, the bill would reduce deficits by at least $2.117 trillion over ten years with the possibility of greater reductions based on the enactment of legislation produced by the Joint Committee. Debt limit increases authorized by the bill could not exceed the amount of deficit reduction achieved either through the enactment of deficit reduction legislation proposed by the Joint Committee or through automatic sequestration (Source: House GOP Conference).
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