Santa Cruz Standard

Washington, DC – United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) provided the following statement from his speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about his support of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, formally titled the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (H.R. 3746), which will avoid a national default and protect our country’s progress:

“I support the Bipartisan Budget Agreement so that we can raise the debt ceiling.  Failure to do so would devastate global markets by undermining faith in the world’s most important financial system, the United States of America.  While I support a clean raising of the debt ceiling, elections have consequences, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle wanted to use their leverage to gain concessions.  In divided government, we must negotiate and compromise, which led to this Bipartisan Budget Agreement between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“This legislation would raise the debt ceiling until 2025, so that partisan politics doesn’t prevent us from paying our bills on time.  The Bipartisan Budget Agreement would stop the drastic cuts proposed by Republicans and it would protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  And although it limits SNAP for certain ages, it also expands those types of benefits for veterans, the homeless, and foster youth.

“Furthermore, through negotiations, we were able to protect the historic legislation that we passed last Congress to invest in our infrastructure and semi-conductor chip manufacturing, reduce drug costs, and care for our veterans.  At the same time, there are parts of this legislation that would help streamline our investments in clean energy and help us combat the climate crisis.

“We have much more to do if we want to get serious about reducing our debt and deficits.  However, we must first stop governing by crisis and start governing by leadership.  With continued negotiation and compromise, we can not only uphold our nation’s creditworthiness, but also strengthen the credibility of Congress, and ultimately, the future of the United States.”

Original source can be found here