Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid chose tonight to delay, and not vote on his plan to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans requested over and over, on the Senate floor, to vote on the Reid plan tonight. The Congress needs to move past the Reid plan, which cannot pass the Senate, and cannot pass the House of Representatives. The Reid plan, full of gimmicks and budgetary tricks, hands the president another credit card to max out through his reelection — the biggest credit card in history.
The plan Republicans support avoids default, cuts spending, caps future spending, and balances the budget. This approach is supported by 60 percent of Americans. With the Democrats’ latest delay on a real solution to our nation’s fiscal problems, they bring us closer to default. We have just four days left.
America needs a credible plan for cutting spending. Instead of plans, they ask Americans to tweet #compromise while putting out slogans such as the “Boehner Drop.” This is not governing, this is politics as usual, and the American taxpayer foots the bill.
Without a serious effort to cut debt and prevent default, President Obama will be presiding over the first-ever downgrade of our nation’s creditworthiness. This will raise interest rates, a “debt tax,” on all Americans, which may cost by some estimates $100 billion a year. An anxious market has already lost over 530 points this week.
While Republicans offer solutions week after week, it’s the default Democrats who say no time and time again. Democrats were the only ones talking about a government shutdown during the debate over funding the government just a few short months ago. Now they are repeating that same playbook of scare tactics and electoral politics, with much higher stakes: our nation’s economy, an economy that we found out on Friday is not growing nearly fast enough to reduce unemployment. Democrats, if serious about avoiding a rating downgrade, will quickly move past the Reid plan. And the Congress should move forward with a plan that strengthens our financial future.