Christopher Hollis for moneyfactory.gov. Creative Commons license.

By Congressman Chris Lee

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just a few weeks ago, for the first time in our nation’s history, our national debt climbed to more than $12 trillion. Instead of immediately trying to cut spending, leaders in Congress chose to push through legislation that will raise the amount of money our government can borrow by an additional $300 billion.

What’s even more shocking is that this new $300 billion line of credit will only sustain spending for another two months. This is money that is borrowed from other countries, mainly China, and that must be eventually repaid by future generations of Americans. I voted against this debt limit increase because Washington’s spending habits must change.

To put in perspective just how large our national debt is, the annual interest payments alone are more than we spend on Social Security each year. Each Western New Yorker’s share of the national debt is approximately $40,000.

This huge increase in our debt comes as a result of a year-long Washington spending binge.

In February, the Democratic-led Congress passed a $787 billion economic “stimulus” that was promised to keep unemployment below 8 percent. Today unemployment has reached 10 percent, and more than three million jobs have been lost since the “stimulus” was passed into law.

Then came Congress’s cap-and-trade national energy tax (1,428 pages, $846 billion), its government-run health care plan (2,032 pages, $1.2 trillion), and a second “stimulus” costing an additional $150 billion. With no end in sight for this Washington spending spree, Congress was just recently forced to increase the legal limit on how much we can borrow.

Hard-working American families know they cannot spend more than they have, and if they do, they tighten their belts and look for ways to pare back spending. Our government should take a lesson from the American people and focus on cutting costs before looking for new ways to spend taxpayers’ money.

Western New York’s economy continues to bear the brunt of these tough times. That’s why I helped write an alternative economic recovery proposal focused on creating jobs and providing immediate tax relief for families and small businesses. Considering the massive growth of our federal government this year, it’s no wonder that Washington, DC is the only place in America experiencing significant job growth.

I’ve also written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama to encourage them to support many of the bipartisan, pro-growth, pro-consumer pieces of economic growth legislation I have helped author. These are meaningful proposals that will help grow our economy, increase the number of jobs in Western New York, and not saddle future generations with massive levels of debt. View them at my website: chrislee.house.gov.

We cannot tax, spend and borrow our way to prosperity, nor can we mortgage our children’s future to help fund new government bureaucracies. I will continue to work towards reducing government spending first and foremost so we do not to pass on more debt to our children and grandchildren. It should be a bipartisan goal to make the recent debt limit increase our last.