Cagel Post: The Madness Needs To Stop

With a debt vote taking place in the House of Representatives later today, the debate over America’s unsustainable $14 trillion national debt is sure to intensify. The clean debt vote – a straight up or down vote on whether to raise the debt ceiling without any spending cuts, as President Obama called for at first – is more of a symbolic vote and will fail in the House. The clean debt vote is meant to send a clear message to President Obama and Democrats in Congress that the status quo is not working for America.

The Obama Administration says it would be irresponsible not to raise the debt ceiling; we say it would be irresponsible to raise the ceiling without offsetting cuts of the same amount. Congress has raised the debt ceiling 98 times since 1940, without cutting back on any spending. The clean debt vote will lay down a very telling marker that the 99th raising of the debt ceiling will not follow the model of years past.

In millions of homes across the country, families sit around the kitchen table and work on a budget that will not break the bank. Washington needs to follow what American families are doing each and every day. The American people have spoken: this time there will be no debt ceiling increase without substantial cuts and reforms.

Read the full op-ed here