Today, Americans for Tax Reform and its affiliate, the Center for Fiscal Accountability, sent a letter to the House Appropriations Chairman, Rep. Hal Rogers, urging him to include language from the Full Faith and Credit Act in the Continuing Resolution. The stop-gap funding measure is supposed to be unveiled tomorrow after Rep. Rogers announced today his committee would cut more spending from the bill than previously decided upon. From our letter:
The Full Faith and Credit Act requires Treasury to service its debt before paying any other obligations. Currently, the government is projected to hit the debt ceiling in the early spring – including this language in the CR would ensure it could do so without defaulting on its debts.
This language would ensure U.S. creditors that the country will be able to fulfill its obligations, providing certainty as debate on the looming debt ceiling escalates. It also provides evidence to U.S. investors that the country is serious about improving its fiscal health in not just the short-term, but for generations to come.
Prioritizing debt service allows lawmakers to correctly focus on the cause of the debt: out-of-control government spending. The recent CBO report showed spending is projected to vastly outpace revenues over the next decade, even though tax receipts are projected to level out one percentage point higher than their traditional average. Thus, the country will be in a perpetual race against the debt clock if significant reform is not implemented.