Foxx votes for Cut, Cap and Balance Act

Applauds passage of historic debt reduction bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, (NC-05) voted last night to pass the Cut, Cap and Balance Act (H.R. 2560).  The bill would cut spending by more than $100 billion next year and by $6 trillion over the next ten years.  Additionally, H.R. 2560 caps federal spending as a percentage of economic output and starts the ball rolling on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

“Cutting spending isn’t easy and that’s why this bill is so historic—because it actually makes meaningful and enforceable spending cuts,” Foxx said.  “Congress has ignored the reality of our rising indebtedness for too long.  With the Cut, Cap and Balance Act we are addressing Washington’s spending and debt problems head on and making sure that the government pays its bills on time.”

In June Foxx signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging him to consider legislation that would enact a Cut, Cap, and Balance strategy for tackling the nationaldebt.

H.R. 256, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, includes three major provisions.  First, it cuts spending by $111 billion in 2012 and by $6 trillion in the next ten years.  Then it places a statutory cap on the level of federal spending as apercentage of the economy.  Finally, the bill starts the process on sending a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification.  It includes a $2.4 increase in the debt limit, but the increase is only enacted if the balanced budget amendment passes both the House and Senate.

“We’re long overdue for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution,” Foxx said. “Nearly every state in the nation has some form of a balanced budget amendment—it’s time the federal government followed their lead.  Passing this historic bill demonstrates that Congress can get our budget in order and also pay for our national priorities.  I hope the Senate follows the House’s lead and takes up the Cut, Cap and Balance Act.”

The Cut, Cap and Balance Act passed the House 234-190 with bipartisan support.

Foxx also released a video interview today with Congressman Jim Jordan, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee.  In the interview Foxx and Jordan discuss the debt limit, federal spending reductions and the Cut, Cap and Balance Act.  Click here to watch.

###

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A North Carolina state government budget written by Republicans that cuts taxes, scales back environmental controls and trims courts and dozens of agencies became law Wednesday despite Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue’s arguments it would eliminate tens of thousands of jobs.

The two-year spending plan took effect after the Republican-led Senate agreed Wednesday afternoon to override Perdue’s veto on a party-line vote of 31-19. The House mustered a similar majority earlier Wednesday after midnight with the help of five Democrats.

The override means the budget, which spends $19.7 billion for the year starting July 1, will take effect. It lets temporary taxes expire, meaning the base sales tax consumers pay will be cut by a penny, from 7.75 percent to 6.75 percent. Additional taxes for the highest wage earners and corporations, approved in 2009 by Democrats during the depths of the Great Recession, also won’t be renewed.

Eliminating the temporary taxes was a top priority of the first Republican majority in 140 years. Their insistence on ending the taxes became a key reason why enough House Democrats agreed to cut a deal and the GOP won a significant victory over Perdue in what’s become a divided state government.

“I don’t think we’ve done any more than what we promised the people of the state we would do,” said Sen. Don East, R-Surry, during the override debate. (more…)