Reply From Claire McCaskill on the Debt Limit

email | 7-18-2011 | Senator Claire McCaskill

[old3030]

July 18, 2011

Dear Mr. and Mrs. xxxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the debt limit. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

Americans have made it clear that they want the federal government to reduce spending. I agree and have made fiscal responsibility a centerpiece of my Senate service since the day I arrived. It is time to get our fiscal house in order.

I have never requested an earmark and I worked tirelessly to ban earmarks from Congress. As Chair of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, I have been working to root out waste and fraud in government contracting, especially at the Defense Department. I sponsored Pay-As-You-Go legislation that requires any new tax cuts or spending to be deficit neutral. With Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, I fought to impose binding caps on discretionary spending that came within one vote of passing the Senate. I have also introduced a bill requiring the federal government to balance its budget - if states are required to balance their budgets, then so should the federal government.

However, as you are well aware, we will soon have to vote to raise our nation's debt limit. Raising the debt limit is a bitter pill to swallow. Unfortunately, the alternative, defaulting on our obligations, will be far worse. Raising the debt ceiling is not like asking for a higher limit on your credit card. Refusing to raise it is like going out and buying a new car and failing to make payments on it. Ironically, many of those saying they are opposed to raising the debt limit actually voted for the spending that is requiring that we raise the limit.

Every financial institution in this country - including our small community banks in places like Cape Girardeau - holds U.S. Treasury bonds and uses them to conduct routine transactions. If the federal government were to default on its debt obligations, these banks, and any other of the millions of entities that hold U.S. Treasury bonds, would go from holding one of the most secure, safest investments in the world to something worth pennies on the dollar. Interest rates would climb dramatically, America would no longer have fiscal credibility, and businesses would shrink under the weight of those higher interest rates. There is broad-based, bipartisan agreement that not raising the debt ceiling would be catastrophic to our economy.

While I understand a vote against raising the debt limit sends a message, I think it would be a mistake for the greatest country on earth to actually make a decision to not pay its bills. However, this doesn't mean the federal government has a blank check continue spending. I remain committed to reducing our deficit and working toward long-term comprehensive solutions to our fiscal problems.

We have a difficult road ahead, and we need real, bipartisan solutions to our nation's complex fiscal problems. I will continue to work across the aisle to reduce spending even when my party leaders have opposed me. I hope politicians in both parties will do the same for our nation's credibility and our economic recovery. Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance to you on this or any other issue.

Sincerely,

Claire McCaskill United States Senator

[old3030]

I didn’t really expect to hear back from her, but I suspect she’s under quite a bit of pressure. And my email was very polite, though I doubt whoever handles contacts on her staff thinks I’m ever going to be a supporter. And they are right.

[old3030]

Yes, you get the distinct impression that the office people don’t read the letters all that closely.

[old3030]

Amen.

[old3030]

I’m ready to do my part.

Our Democrat governor vetoed a photo ID requirement which would have cost Cow McCaskill and others Dems several thousand bogus votes in St. Louis City.

Still, unless she gets killed in a tragic small plane crash a few days before the election, or the Republicans pick Jim Talent to run again, I think she’s gone.

[LibLieSlayer]

I am praying for you buddy.

LLS