Senator Bob Corker made the following statement on Saturday after voting against the motion to proceed to S. 1569, the “Default Prevention Act of 2013.”
“The bill we considered today would have raised the debt ceiling for more than a year without implementing the spending restraints Congress needs to force us to deal with our fiscal issues, so I couldn’t support it. I’m optimistic that bipartisan discussions in the Senate will eventually produce a solution that reopens the government and strengthens our country fiscally.”
In February, Senator Corker, along with Senator Lamar Alexander, introduced the Fiscal Sustainability Act, S.
11, to reduce the growth of entitlement spending (Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security) by nearly $1 trillion in the next decade in order to improve the programs’ solvency. The bill incorporates many of the recommendations made by President Obama’s Debt Commission (Simpson-Bowles) as well as by former Republican Senator Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin, budget director for former President Clinton, the Corker staff said.
Senator Alexander said, “I voted against a 14-month increase of the debt limit that took no steps to reduce out-of-control mandatory spending.
“I hope and expect that during the weekend, the Senate Democratic and Republican leaders will recommend to the Senate a short-term funding bill that opens the government and raises the debt limit until early next year.
“Congress should use that time to explore options to reduce the growth of mandatory spending and use some of those savings to reduce the effect of the sequester on the military and other important discretionary spending programs.”
The motion failed.