Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA-09) issued the following statement on the fiscal cliff legislation passed by the U.S. Senate:
“The Senate bill offers no commitment to debt reduction, only a demand from taxpayers to bail out Washington. As taxes rise, freedom diminishes. Without any spending reforms, the debt crisis continues. I cannot support a bill that protects Washington and promotes bigger government at the expense of my constituents and future generations.
“What began in 2011 as an effort to address our nation’s debt crisis has been twisted by the President into a mandate to raise taxes.
Every effort to reform spending has been bucked in favor of raiding the wallets of hard-working Americans.
“If Congress does not work with more conviction to solve the spending problem, we may soon realize we’re already over the cliff, and in a fiscal freefall.”
After voting in favor of legislation "to rescue 99 percent of the American people from a tax rate increase," Senator Bob Corker, R-Tn., said, “it’s time to move on to the spending reductions that will be part of the debt ceiling package.”
He said, “I am disappointed we could not address our country’s fiscal issues all at once, but unfortunately, the president made it clear that he was only willing to do this in two steps and leveraged the country and the economy to force revenues to be dealt with first. Now that we’ve addressed the revenue part of the equation, it’s time to move on to the spending reductions that will be part of the debt ceiling package. Passing fundamental entitlement reform is the most important action we can take in ensuring our country’s solvency and now we must have the courage to finish the job and make the tough choices necessary to get these problems behind us once and for all.”
Earlier this month, Senator Corker offered legislation to raise the debt ceiling by roughly $1 trillion in exchange for roughly $1 trillion in reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. (Click HERE for a summary of the Dollar for Dollar Act and HERE for the bill text.)