{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sen-rand-paul-announces-cut-cap-and-balance-act-2015/", "Sen. Rand Paul Announces Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2015", "2015-10-16", "2015", "2015-10", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rand Paul today announced plans to introduce the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2015 once the U.S. Senate is back in session next week. Building off of the Cut-Cap-Balance effort in 2011, this legislation would cut the 2016 deficit in half, cap spending going forward on a path to balance by 2021, and require Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution before raising the nation\u2019s debt limit.\n\n\u201cBold action is needed to address our nation\u2019s debt crisis \u2013 our national debt currently stands at $18.4 trillion. We cannot keep piling debt on top of debt forever,\u201d Sen. Paul said.\n\nSen. Paul also plans next week to introduce the Default Prevention Act, which prevents a default whenever the United States has reached the national debt limit and prioritizes spending as revenue comes in.\n\nBackground information and top-line points can be found below.\n\nBACKGROUND INFORMATION\n\nThe Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2015\n\nCuts the deficit in half this year.\n\n$207 billion in cuts this year\n\nSocial Security, Medicare, military pay, veterans\u2019 benefits, and interest are not subject to the additional cuts\n\nCaps spending going forward at a balanced level of 18%.\n\nProvides a glide path to balance at 18% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 5 years\n\nCaps spending at 18% of GDP going forward\n\nBalances the budget permanently through a balanced budget amendment.\n\nNo debt limit increase until Congress passes a balanced budget amendment and sends it to the states for ratification\n\nThe Default Prevention Act\n\nPrevents a default whenever the United States has reached the national debt limit and prioritizes spending as revenue comes in.\n\nGives debt service, military pay, Social Security, and Medicare payments priority over other spending as revenue comes in.\n\nAverage monthly revenue is more than enough to cover these and other priorities.\n\nAverage monthly revenue is $271 billion\n\nAverage monthly spending on priority items is $158 billion per month\n\nOn average there is $113 billion per month to spend on other programs\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:28:00Z"]], "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://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sen-rand-paul-announces-cut-cap-and-balance-act-2015/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7994738407433033, "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"}