In a speech on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, outlined his opposition to the President’s request to increase the debt limit by $1.2 trillion, pushing the national debt to nearly $16.4 trillion.
“We are on the edge of the cliff. And it is time to carefully, but deliberately, take a few big steps back. Rates may be low today, but they can turn on a dime. And, when they do, the outsized federal government that we currently have will suddenly be exposed as unaffordable. And when that day comes, our creditors can go on strike as quickly as they have in Europe,” said Hatch.
“Last summer we got a taste of what is to come when we received the first downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt in history from a major credit rating agency,” Hatch continued. “Americans can never be allowed to forget that this downgrade occurred under, and because of, this Administration’s fiscal stewardship. We cannot risk what are likely to be further downgrades in the near future by raising the debt limit.”
“It is time to resist the siren song of cheap credit and put our focus back on the job at hand, which is to allow the private sector to create jobs and to get rid of the $1-trillion-plus deficits of the Obama Presidency; to get rid of our mountain of debt that surpasses the size of our entire economy; and to bring the size of our federal government back down to historical norms,” concluded Hatch.
Hatch has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to rein in the nation’s ever-mounting national debt. This Congress, Hatch signed the Cut, Cap, Balance pledge supported by dozens of members of Congress and advocacy groups committed to significantly cutting and capping Washington spending. Hatch is the lead Senate architect of a Balanced Budget Amendment that has garnered the support of all 47 Senate Republicans.