Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, pledged Wednesday night that he will push to change the way Washington spends money when it comes time to negotiate a possible increase in the debt ceiling later this year.
“I think it is critical that we change the way we’re doing business, and I intend to use the debt ceiling to ensure that we get fiscal and structural reforms,” he said on the House floor.
“And I’m not going to bow down just because a few of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and a few pundits on TV write nasty editorials, and some of my donors, some of the people out there in the world and activists text you, ‘Oh my gosh, what are you doing?! You’re going to risk default on the debt!’” he said.
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“You know why I’m not going to do that? Because it’s my job not to back down when people are afraid of what we’re supposed to do here. What we’re supposed to do is bring things to a decision in this body responsibly.”
Roy took the floor immediately after Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., spoke on the floor to say both Republicans and Democrats need to steel themselves for a fight over how to cut federal spending. Schweikert warned that spending would increase just because of rising interest rates.
“We’re not telling the truth about the fragility of interest rates,” he said. “Rising interest rates could push up the national debt towards 300%.”
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Many have predicted that rising interest rates could turn interest payment costs from $500 billion a year to $1 trillion a year or higher. Schweikert also noted that spending cuts need to be deep and broad based, and that cutting back in one small area, like foreign aid, won’t be enough.
“Every dime of foreign aid covers about 12 days of borrowing,” he said.
A debt ceiling fight is right around the corner for Congress. As of Tuesday, total public debt subject to the debt limit was at $31.322 trillion, and the debt ceiling is $31.381 trillion.
Once the limit is reached, the Treasury Department will undertake “extraordinary measures” to avoid breaching that limit, such as delaying contributions to federal retirement funds and other steps.
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Democrats have warned that failing to immediately increase the ceiling would threaten the credit of the U.S. government, but Roy said it makes no sense to continue spending the way Congress has been spending for decades.
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He said Democrats and others will argue, “’Don’t you dare demand that we actually change the things we’re doing that are causing the debt because we might default on the debt, so let’s keep spending money we don’t have, keep accumulating more debt, increasing our interest payments, making it more difficult to service that debt, while we undermine our own fiscal accountability.’”