Nan Hayworth Quotes
We have to honor our commitments to today's beneficiaries, but we can't solve the growing deficit and debt problems unless we are smart, courageous, and sensible in planning for future.
Hayworth, Nan. "Statement on the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget." Project Vote Smart, 15 Apr. 2011.
An unusual feature of the American governmental budgeting process is that Congress has passed a law limiting the amount of debt that the United States can maintain. When there is deficit financing, the law limiting the debt has to be changed periodically as the nation approaches the debt limit. Partisan politicians often take advantage of the fact that the debt limit must be passed and hold the passage hostage to obtaining something they want. The reality is that when Congress passed the previous budgets, they determined what the debt would have to be later. So they have already voted to exceed the budget ceiling. But the requirement of doing it in a second forum allows more pressure to be placed on the administration and the other party’s Congress members. While this process is ongoing, many people in the world are worried and often terrorized by the prospect of the debt ceiling not being passed, in which case the United States would have to default on its obligations—not pay interest, contractors, retirements, salaries, etc. Hence the admonition that the debt ceiling should never be a part of the budget negotiating process by most responsible statesmen and women. But the mist partisan of the politicians want to play politics with the debt ceiling precisely because the stakes are so high and they can get both headlines and leverage.
The 2 previous Republican-Controlled Congresses were at loggerheads with the President, determined to pass nothing for which he could take credit. These Congresses had passed fewer bills than any since the creation of our country. There was no way of have any medium or long term planning for any government agencies including the Department of Defense. The result was much money wasted and holes and inadequacies in our national security.
Nan Alison Sutter Hayworth is an American ophthalmologist and former Congresswoman for New York's 19th congressional district. A Republican, she was elected in 2010.
