Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said on Tuesday that reforming entitlement programs, and not suspending the debt limit, is the way to reduce the national debt.
“The debt limit debate provides us with an opportunity to reexamine or nation’s fiscal course and take steps to correct it,” Hatch said. “…Quite simply, it would be folly to approve of yet another debt limit increase without also working to address these programs, which are the main drivers of our debts and deficits.”
The recent federal government shutdown ended when the House and Senate passed the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2014. The act gave the president the authority to extend the debt limit, which he used to extend the debt limit to Feb. 7.
Hatch said he supported a resolution to disapprove of the president’s exercise of authority to suspend the debt limit. If the resolution were passed, the president’s authority to extend the debt limit again would be removed.
“While it is ostensibly true that Congress has that power to raise the debt limit, it is not true that Congress makes spending decisions unilaterally, with no role being played by the executive branch,” Hatch said. “No amount of spending can be enacted without the president signing it into law.”
Hatch said that both Congress and the executive branch must work together to reform the budget, instead of continuing to postpone the debt ceiling and build the nation’s debt.