{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140228104300/http://brooks.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=25&itemid=1095", "Brooks Opposes Additional $60 Billion Debt Increase", "2013-12-13", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "AL", "Mo Brooks", "B001274", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-5) concurred with the views of Alabama Senators Richard Shelby 1 and Jeff Sessions 2 and voted against the Murray-Ryan spending bill that busts spending cap agreements and worsens America\u2019s projected two-year $1.5 trillion deficit by another $60 billion.\u00a0\n\n\t\u00a0\n\n\tCongressman Brooks stated, \u201cWhile parts of the Murray-Ryan spending deal are attractive, its two-year effects are financially irresponsible.\u00a0 America suffers from a $17 trillion debt and five years of deficits averaging more than $1 trillion/year. Interest on America\u2019s debt exceeds $250 billion/year and is projected by the CBO to reach $800 billion/year within a decade, thus jeopardizing our ability to pay for national security, Social Security, and every other federal program. Over the next two years, America\u2019s projected deficit approximates $1.5 trillion.\u00a0 The Murray-Ryan spending deal piles another $60 billion in debt onto an already bad deficit situation, making America\u2019s finances worse, not better.\u00a0 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen warns that debt is our greatest national security threat.\u00a0 America\u2019s Comptroller General Gene Dodaro warns that America\u2019s deficit and debt path is \u2018unsustainable\u2019.\u00a0 Prudence and common sense dictate that America heed these warnings and act responsibly.\u00a0 The Murray-Ryan spending deal does neither and is the wrong path to follow.\u201d\n\n\t\u00a0\n\n\tCongressman Brooks concluded, \u201cThe financially irresponsible policies that drove Detroit into bankruptcy run wild in Washington.\u00a0\u00a0 America can and must do better.\u00a0 For example, the Murray-Ryan spending bill could be fully funded without borrowing a dime if Washington instead cut tens of billions/year in foreign aid, stopped giving illegal aliens more than $4 billion/year in fraudulent tax refunds,3 and stopped making as much as $14 billion/year in unemployment compensation overpayments.4 \u201d\n\n\t\u00a0\n\n\tOther information about the Murray-Ryan spending deal:\u00a0\n\n\t\u00a0\n \n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tIt unfairly singles out retired military personnel for disproportionate COLA retirement cuts that no other federal employees must accept.\u00a0 Military personnel who have risked their lives serving America for twenty years should be treated the best, not the worst.\u00a0 The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Marine Corps League, Association of the U.S. Navy, AMVETS, Gold Star Wives, Military Order of the Purple Heart, National Assoc. for Uniformed Services, Vietnam Veterans of America, National Guard Assoc. of the U.S., and 18 other veterans organizations oppose the Murray-Ryan spending deal.\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tIt rescinds all funds appropriated for replenishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, thus cutting America\u2019s oil reserves and jeopardizing our economy and country, should America face another 1973-style oil embargo.\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tIt raises taxes that hurt America\u2019s economy and undermine jobs.\u00a0 For example, it raises $1.2 billion/year in taxes on air travel alone, costing air travel jobs.\u00a0\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tIt raises $790 million/year in taxes on pension benefit plans, thereby decreasing pension funds available for payment to America\u2019s retirees.\n\t\n \n\n\t\u00a0\n\n\t\u00a0\n\n\t1 Senator Richard Shelby is the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee.\n\n\t2 Senator Jeff Sessions is the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee and served on the conference committee that drafted the Murray-Ryan spending deal (which was presented to Congress despite the absence of a concurring vote by the conference committee).\u00a0\n\n\t\u00a0\n\n\t###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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://web.archive.org/web/20140228104300/http://brooks.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=25&itemid=1095"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3482780195772648, "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"}