Libby Casey, APRN – Washington DC
Alaska’s Congressman Don Young says he applauds last night’s stand in the U.S. House not to raise the debt limit until the nation’s budget problems are dealt with, but he says politicians – including Republicans – are going about solving the fiscal woes all wrong.
He says his own GOP is too hung up on spending cuts while he wants to see more development of natural resources to generate money.
“They have not focused on the real problem. I say you can’t cut yourself into prosperity. You can’t starve yourself into good health. And that’s really the question. Now controlling it and not expanding it is crucially important. But the big thing is creation of new wealth, and why we haven’t done it,” Young said.
Young voted Tuesday night with the rest of U.S. House Republicans against raising the debt ceiling. But he skipped a meeting this morning between the House GOP and the President to talk over debt and the budget, saying he had appointments already scheduled.
Last night’s vote failed by a wide margin, 318 to 97. 82 Democrats joined with all members of the GOP in rejecting the President’s request to increase the allowable public debt.
Republicans are calling it an endorsement of their goal to get big spending cuts before boosting the amount of money the government can borrow. President Obama had wanted a clean vote on the debt ceiling separate from the battle over spending cuts, but he lost that round last night.
August 2 is the deadline by which Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the $14.3 trillion debt limit must be raised to avoid defaulting on the federal debt, which he says would have “a catastrophic economic impact.”
