By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R) from Saks said the question is whether President Barack H. Obama and the Congress will address run away federal spending or not.
Representative Rogers said, “Congress faces three massive spending challenges in the coming months: the debt ceiling, the Sequester and funding to keep the government open. The question now is whether President Obama and the Congress will tackle our spending problem as these three critical events approach.”
Congressman Rogers said, “They’re all on the heels of the fiscal cliff deal that both raised taxes and increased spending. I voted against that bill because it denied the core problem: Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.”
Rogers continued, “As most of us across East Alabama know, the Treasury Department recently announced it will likely reach the debt ceiling around the end of February or early March. After that point, the Treasury will then be unable to pay our nation’s bills without an increase to the debt ceiling. The cause: constant spending.” Rogers worries that if the
Rogers points out that even if the Senate passes the temporary debt ceiling elimination bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and the President signs it, sequestration goes into effect on March 1. If sequestration is actually implemented it would slash 9.4% from the Department of Defense as well as 8.2% across the board from domestic spending.
Congressman Rogers said, “On top of all of these issues, the law that funds the government expires on March 27. That means we are facing the real possibility of a government shutdown if Congress can’t agree on a budget. Again, spending is the problem. Out of control spending drives our growing debt that forces showdowns over raising the debt ceiling. It fuels desires by some to raise taxes. It forces us as a nation to unnecessarily choose between priorities. An old saying goes, “before you can fix a problem, you first have to recognize you have one.” Will President Obama and the Congress work to solve our spending problem?”
The U.S. national debt is $16,454 billion. The federal government is currently spending $3,541 billion which is $1,059 billion more than the federal government takes in in total tax revenues.
The U.S. government is spending $827 billion on Medicare/Medicaid and a massive Medicaid expansion is scheduled for 2014 as part of Obamacare. The next largest spending item is Social Security at $723 billion. Defense is third at $676 billion. Income security programs including Food Stamps, Suplemental Security Income, foster care, making work pay, etc. costs another $401 billion a year. Interest on the debt is the fifth largest budget category at $265 billion and federal pensions cost the taxpayers another $213 billion.
Congressman Mike Rogers represents Alabama’s third Congressional District. Rogers is beginning his sixth term in the United States Congress.
To learn more about the U.S. debt situation visit:
