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March 16, 2006
HOUSE PASSES TANNER’S
MOTION
TO END BUDGET DEFICITS
‘We Cannot Borrow Ourselves Rich,’ Tanner Tells House
- Congress Raises Credit Line to $9,000,000,000,000 -
WASHINGTON -- It is bad fiscal policy to borrow
billions of dollars to pay for pending tax legislation, Congressman John
Tanner said during debate on the House floor late Wednesday when presenting
a non-binding motion to stop such borrowing. The House of Representatives
agreed to his motion Thursday, adopting it by a bipartisan vote of 222-187.
Those who want to continue borrowing more money to pay for the government’s day-to-day costs are threatening the economy, Tanner said Wednesday during House debate on his measure.
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“They’re trying to do something that people have tried to do since, I guess, the dawn of civilization,” Tanner said during House floor debate. “That’s borrow themselves rich. It’s impossible.
“When you cut taxes with borrowed money, you are actually raising taxes.”
The conference committee is reconciling differences between two versions of a tax bill. The federal government would need to borrow $56 billion to cover the House-passed version and $37 billion to pay for the Senate-passed version. Interest payments on the additional borrowing amount to a “debt tax” that has to be paid now and by all future generations, Tanner said.
His motion stated: “Mr. Tanner of Tennessee moves that the managers on the part of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 4297 be instructed, to the maximum extent possible within the scope of conference, to insist on a conference report which will neither increase the Federal budget deficit nor increase the amount of the debt subject to the public debt limit.”
The vote is a non-binding agreement by the House of Representatives to pay for any tax cuts currently pending before the House conference committee.
He said on the House floor that he grew up learning three important financial rules.
“One is, live within your means. Two is, pay your debts. And three is, invest in the future, whether it’s for your own retirement, your kids’ college, or whatever. This government under this leadership is doing none of those. We are not living within our means. We are not paying our debts, and we are certainly not investing in the future.
"It’s not unlike a credit card,” Tanner continued. “You run your credit card up and you live well for a little while. If you have to start paying all of that interest and your monthly payment is only covering the interest, suddenly you can’t invest in anything using that credit card anymore because the service charges are eating you alive. That’s exactly what’s happening with this government.”
The federal debt is currently $8.12 trillion, and Congress has raised the federal debt ceiling – essentially the nation’s credit limit – to $9 trillion to allow for additional borrowing. Much of the borrowing is from foreign countries, Tanner said.
“We are mortgaging our country’s future to foreign interests,” Tanner said after the vote. “This is a national security matter that should concern every American.”
Tanner, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, is a founding member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 37 moderate to conservative House Democrats. The Blue Dogs, known as fiscal conservatives, have authored a 12-step plan to fix the nation’s broken budget process and begin paying down the federal debt.
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Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714
