This vote stands as a defining moment in this crisis.  Every rating agency has warned that an increase in the debt limit without a credible plan to balance the budget will damage our nation’s credit.  Worse, fiscal experts warn that without such a plan, we risk a sovereign debt crisis within just a few years.

This measure gives the President his $2.4 trillion debt increase to pay for the bills that he and the Congress have recklessly racked up.  But it also calls for a constitutionally enforceable work-out plan to place our nation back on the course of fiscal solvency, the centerpiece of which is the balanced budget amendment that has been proposed in one form or another since the birth of our Constitution and that 49 other states have adopted. 

The Gentleman from Maryland reminds us that only a few states have both a balanced budget requirement and a 2/3 vote for tax increases.  California is one of them.

California’s deficits – as bad as they are – have been proportionally roughly half the size that the federal government has run.  These budget protections work – maybe not perfectly – but they do work.

And when California also had a real spending limit – as this measure calls for – California enjoyed an era of balanced budgets, prudent reserves, no tax increases, and steady economic growth. 

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House Floor remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock, July 19, 2011.