Finally got a response that at least doesnt look like a boilerplate response: Dear Mr. Baldwin: Thank you for contacting me about the recent government shutdown and the debt limit. As you may know, Congress failed to pass individual spending bills to fund federal government operations before the start of fiscal year 2014 on October 1, 2013. Because Members of Congress also could not reach an agreement on temporary funding for the new fiscal year, the federal government entered a shutdown period, which is required by law in the absence of available federal funding. Although exceptions to this act include operations involving the safety of human life or protection of property, a government shutdown mandates the prompt furlough of most federal personnel. In the midst of the government shutdown, the federal government came close to breaching its $16.699 trillion debt limit. Similar to a borrowing limit on a credit card, the debt limit caps federal borrowing authority at a specific dollar amount. A failure to increase our ability to borrow, combined with limited federal funds, could have resulted in the United States defaulting on its debt. While there are possible mechanisms to potentially postpone a default, either scenario would have had serious consequences for our already anemic economy. On October 16, 2013, after a 16-day government shutdown, Congress passed and the President signed H.R. 2775 in order to end the fiscal impasse. I supported the legislation, which funds the government until January 15, 2014. The bill also prevented a default on the debt by suspending the debt limit until February 7, 2014. And finally, the bill includes income-verification provisions to prevent fraud within the Obamacare exchanges. I do not take lightly the act of raising the debt ceiling. That is why it was most important to me that the budget agreement did not increase spending. I could not support an increase in the debt ceiling and an increase in spending, as some senators aimed to do. H.R. 2775 kept spending in check by preserving the deficit savings resulting from the automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester for next year. Though sequestration is an inelegant and blunt spending reduction tool, the spending caps are the most meaningful budget reforms in recent memory. Because they represent significant reductions in federal spending, there is considerable desire among Democrats to repeal, suspend, or replace them with budget gimmicks or phony savings. Coming out of this fiscal impasse with the fiscal year 2014 sequester limits intact is a clear victory for fiscal conservatives. Much of the attention surrounding the recent fiscal debate centered on Obamacare. To be clear, I have opposed Obamacare from the beginning and have taken numerous votes against the Presidents onerous health care law. While some advocate linking the defunding of Obamacare to the governments fiscal year 2014 spending and debt limit increase, I believe that the shutdown and possibility of reaching the debt limit was at best unnecessary and at worst harmful. Given the divided state of the government, I did not believe that such an approach could succeed. With the problematic rollout of the healthcare exchanges and credible concerns over the structural viability of the law, I will be looking for continued opportunities to put an end to Obamacare. Most recently, I have introduced S. 1490, a bill that would delay the health care laws entire implementation for a year. Having reached a short term solution for both fiscal year 2014 funding and the debt limit, Congress must work over the coming months toward a solid fiscal path that respects the framework created by the sequester. I look forward to working with my colleagues on entitlement reforms and targeting inefficient and wasteful programs in order to put the brakes on out-of-control federal spending. Please be assured that I will keep your comments in mind in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to do so again in the future. I also encourage you to visit my website at flake.senate.gov. Sincerely, JEFF FLAKE United States Senator Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 06:38:45 +0000
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