The House of Representatives recently voted to approve a $792 billion tax cut.

I voted "no" and I want to tell you why. While we currently have a federal surplus, our nation actually owes a big debt to our children. $3.6 trillion to be exact. That is the amount that the federal government borrowed to pay the bills of the deficit years of the past two decades. As a result, this year we will pay $132 billion in interest alone on that borrowing. That is fully 11% of our federal budget that cannot be used for education, defense, social security, Medicare or anything else.

Paying our debts is not only the ethical thing to do, it also makes a lot of economic sense. We see the benefits in reduced debt in our reduced interest costs which allows us to fund other programs or finance tax reductions. But we also see the impact on interest rates in general. By reducing our federal borrowing we free up more capital for consumers. According to the Department of the Treasury, if we eliminate our debt we would see significant reductions in interest rates. This is good news, because each one-percentage point decline in interest rates would mean a cut of $200 to $250 billion in mortgage costs borne by consumers over the next 10 years.

Congress also has debts that it owes to our seniors, veterans and school children that would have to take a back seat to the tax cut. The bill that the House passed included no funding to save Medicare, restore veterans hospital cuts or improve our schools.

I support reduced taxes. I think families should get a break for education for their kids. I think that we should encourage saving more for retirement. But I think that a responsible government - like a responsible family - should pay its debts.

Congressman Anthony D. Weiner