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Toledo
Blade
House
OKs suspension of U.S. debt
limit
Kaptur votes against legislation;
local GOP lawmakers favor passage
By Tracie Mauriello, Block News
Alliance
WASHINGTON
— Over objections from
minority members but with the tacit blessing of the President and
support of
Senate Democrats, the House on Wednesday voted to suspend the limit on
government borrowing.
The
bill, which heads to the
Senate, also includes a provision to hold lawmakers’ pay in escrow
starting
April 15 if they haven’t passed a budget by then.
The
legislation allows an
unspecified amount of additional borrowing through May 18 in order to
pay debts
already incurred and allows the government to avoid a first-time
default for at
least four months. It does not authorize new spending. It would suspend
the
$16.4 trillion cap on federal borrowing and reset it on May 19 to
reflect the
additional borrowing required between the date the bill becomes law and
then.
Eighty-six
Democrats joined 199
Republicans to pass the bill. Thirty-three Republicans and 111
Democrats voted
no.
U.S.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo)
voted no and released the following statement Wednesday: “The
Republicans have
again chosen to kick the can down the road. We need leadership on jobs
and fiscal
policy, not more gimmicks.”
U.S.
Republican Reps. Bob Latta
(R., Bowling Green), Jim Jordan (R., Urbana), and Michigan’s Tim
Walberg (R.,
Tipton) all voted for the bill.
“It's
time for Congress to get its
fiscal house in order," Mr. Latta said, adding that House Republicans
for
the past two years have approved budgets, while the
Democratic-controlled
Senate has failed to pass a budget in four years. “The Senate and the
House
have to pass a budget. If one of those doesn't pass a budget then [its]
members
will have their pay withheld.”
In
an unusual alliance, Senate
Democratic leaders sided with the House GOP. They promised a vote in
their
chamber, even as they declared the House vote was a victory for the
Democratic
administration.
Read
the rest of the article at the
Toledo Blade
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