Risch and Crapo: Meaningful Reforms and Spending Cuts Needed

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (both R-Idaho) along with 22 Senate colleagues sent a letter to President Biden opposing any debt ceiling increase that does not include “real structural spending reforms that reduces deficit spending and brings fiscal sanity back to Washington.”

“Our nation’s fiscal policy is a disaster. Our country owes $31 trillion, a level of debt that now well exceeds the size of our economy. . . Meanwhile, [the Biden] Administration is directing federal agencies to continue to spend billions in taxpayer resources, expanding the size and scope of the IRS to go after families and small businesses . . . and pouring money into programs for a pandemic that [this] Administration has declared over,” the Senators wrote. “Americans are keenly aware that their government is not only failing to work for them—but actively working against them. We do not intend to vote for a debt-ceiling increase without structural reforms to address current and future fiscal realities, actually enforce the budget and spending rules on the books, and manage out-of-control government policies.”

The other Senators who signed the letter are: Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

The full letter is available here.