July 19, 2011
07/20/11 Tuesday, Congressman Joe Donnelly released the following statement regarding H.R. 2560, The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
“I plan on voting against the ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance Act’ today because it is not a serious effort to get our fiscal house in order and address the impending debt ceiling issue,” said Donnelly. “This legislation would create a framework that could lead to severe cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that assist the least among us while continuing to provide tax breaks for millionaires and companies that ship jobs overseas.
I am a strong supporter of common-sense efforts to get our nation’s fiscal house in order, which is why I have supported a reasonable balanced budget amendment to the Constitution since coming to Congress. I am a co-sponsor of H.J.Res. 10, which would require the President to propose a balanced budget without cuts to Social Security and require a 3/5 vote in Congress to approve any deficit spending. However, the ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance Act’ explicitly leaves out the balanced budget amendment that I support as an option and instead endorses only amendments that would make it much easier for controversial policies like the Republican budget proposal to privatize Medicare to be enacted.
The ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ Act would require both the House and the Senate to pass a balanced budget amendment before either house could address the looming debt ceiling issue. Constitutional amendments must be passed by two-thirds majorities in each house before moving to the states for their consideration. Given that there is no realistic scenario in which this bill would garner 67 votes in the Senate, it is fair to conclude that its House sponsors are less serious than they claim to be about meeting the debt ceiling deadline, which is now less than two weeks away.”