{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cruise-control-act-of-2011", "Cruise Control Act of 2011", "2011-08-19", "2011", "2011-08", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Tom McClintock", "M001177", "mcclintock.house.gov", "mcclintock", "https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "August 19, 2011\n\nFederal spending has ballooned 28 percent during the Obama Presidency while the government has amassed more debt than it acquired from the first day of George Washington\u2019s administration to the last day of George H. W. Bush\u2019s.\n\nOur nation is racing toward a fiscal cliff. Yet, as Sen. Jim DeMint noted, instead of hitting the brakes, Congress and the President just set the cruise control.\n\n\u201cThe Budget Control Act of 2011\u201d offers an object lesson in exactly the sort of empty compromise that has gotten our nation into its present mess. Faced with the devastating consequences of unprecedented and unsustainable federal spending, both parties agreed on only one thing: to lock in that spending for at least the next two years.\n\nBypassing the normal legislative process, the deal was written behind closed doors and dumped it into the laps of both houses under the threat that failing to pay the government\u2019s bills would jeopardize the nation\u2019s triple-A credit.\n\nUnfortunately, the deal didn\u2019t just pay our current bills \u2013 it gave the most spendthrift administration in history an open credit line to continue its spending spree beyond 2012. Ironically, it ended up costing the United States its triple-A credit rating by failing to rein in spending significantly.\n\nIndeed, Standard and Poor\u2019s had explicitly warned for the last two months that $4 trillion had to be cut from the projected ten-year deficit to preserve the nation\u2019s credit. Even if the plan works perfectly, it doesn\u2019t come close.\n\nYet the same politicians who ignored these warnings were shocked-just-shocked when Standard and Poor\u2019s lowered the boom four days later. Instead, they blamed the \u201cTea Party\u201d that has been sounding the same alarm for more than two years.\n\nApologists for the debt deal claim that they \u201ccut a dollar of spending for every dollar of debt increase.\u201d Actually, Congress voted to \u201ccut\u201d annual federal spending from $3.7 trillion this year to $5.4 trillion by 2021, and to \u201ccut\u201d the national debt from $14.3 trillion down to $22.7 trillion. Washington defines this as a \u201ccut\u201d because it would rather spend that much more.\n\nEven adjusting for such charming Beltway colloquialisms, most of the \u201ccuts\u201d don\u2019t take place until after 2017 while the debt increase all happens this year. In the words of the great economist J. Wellington Wimpy, \u201cI will gladly pay you a dollar of cuts ten years from now for a dollar of debt today.\u201d\n\nAt least we didn\u2019t get any tax hikes, right? We\u2019ll see. The so-called \u201csuper-committee\u201d that does the heavy lifting is charged not with cutting spending but with reducing the deficit \u2013 two very different things.\n\nIn Washingtonese, \u201ctax increase\u201d means the same as \u201cspending cut\u201d when referring to deficits. Since the debt deal already assumes restoring Clinton-era tax rates, it\u2019s a good bet that tax increases are on the way. After all, since Congress has essentially frozen spending at record levels for the next two years, we're going to have to pay back the trillions of dollars of new borrowing somehow.\n\nCentral to the deal is the success of the bipartisan super-committee (the 18th bipartisan commission since 1982 to solve the deficit, for those keeping score).\n\nSet aside, for a moment, the constitutionality of sidelining 523 elected representatives of the people while 12 handpicked appointees of the legislative leaders convene in their place. If a bipartisan group of current members of Congress (which we often call, \u2018the Congress\u2019) can\u2019t summon the political will to reduce spending to sustainable levels, why would we place far greater confidence in the proposed bipartisan panel of \u2013 wait for it \u2013 current members of Congress?\u201d\n\nTo its credit, the House adopted two plans that met Standard and Poor\u2019s criteria for preserving the nation\u2019s triple-A credit rating: the House Budget Resolution (also known as the Ryan Plan) passed in April, and the Cut, Cap and Balance Act passed in mid-July. Both would have eventually balanced the budget, both would have ultimately paid off the national debt and both died in the Senate.\n\nThis simple fact highlights the unfinished work remaining before the American people. Ultimately, they must decide whether they want to restore the traditional American principle of constitutionally limited government, or whether they are content to summarize this generation\u2019s stewardship of the American Republic with the chilling epitaph of Louis XV\u2019s reign, \u201cAfter us, the flood.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T21:12:39Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cruise-control-act-of-2011"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5796180814504623, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}