WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) voted in favor of a plan to responsibly address the debt ceiling while also significantly restraining our unsustainable spending. The bill, crafted by Speaker of the House John Boehner, passed in the House before the Senate rejected it, 41-59. The bill would have raised the debt ceiling by $900 billion, allowing the U.S. to continue paying its bills, while simultaneously cutting federal spending by $917 billion and demonstrating Congress is ready for a serious effort to rein in government spending and debt.
"This bill addressed our three immediate challenges: cutting spending, raising the debt ceiling, and establishing a framework to get our country back on a long-term, fiscally sustainable path," Johanns said. "I find it disappointing that the Boehner plan failed, especially so close to the debt limit deadline. It's time to put elections and politics aside and actually solve this problem."
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the U.S. Treasury will not have enough money to pay all of the country's obligations beginning on August 3.
The Boehner plan would have cut federal spending by $917 billion, an amount more than the debt ceiling increase.
Additionally, it would have called for the creation of a Joint Committee of Congress, tasked with crafting legislation to reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over ten years. The credit rating agency Standard and Poor's this month warned it is considering downgrading the U.S. government's credit rating "if a debt ceiling agreement does not include a plan that seems likely to us to credibly stabilize the U.S.' medium-term debt dynamics."
The Boehner bill also would have required passage of Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment; Sen. Johanns is a co-sponsor of the Senate version.
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