Congresswoman Matsui Votes Against Unbalanced Debt Deal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 1, 2011

CONTACT: MARA LEE
(202) 225-7163

Congresswoman Matsui Votes Against Unbalanced Debt Deal
Opposes All Cuts Approach That Puts American Families, Seniors at Risk

Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) voted in opposition to the Budget Control Act of 2011, passed by the House today. While the Congresswoman has been working diligently for the past several months to help find a compromise that would avoid a default situation, she was not able to support this deal because of the long-term negative consequences it could have for seniors, the middle class, and the economy.

As middle class families and our seniors struggle to make ends meet, I cannot support a plan that maintains loopholes for corporations that ship jobs overseas and subsidies for Big Oil while putting American families and seniors at risk. Since assuming the Majority in January, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have continually gutted the very programs that would help our economy grow: job training programs, education, infrastructure and clean energy.

This plan creates a cloud of uncertainty, opening the door for severe cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and abdicating critical budget decisions to a newly-formed Commission. I will continue to stand firm against Republican efforts to undermine or weaken the long term solvency of these programs programs that amount to a promise made to the American people a promise that I intend to keep.

We should have never gotten to this point. Ensuring that the federal government pays its bills should have never created a default crisis, and has only produced a risky and rushed plan that could undermine our nation's economic strength for years to come. We must find a balanced approach to debt reduction that decreases spending and raises revenue, that does so within the legislative process, and that does not put American families and seniors at risk.

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