Senate Republicans slam the Reid plan

Natalie Gonnella
Follow Natalie on Twitter

With the Senate set to vote on a series of deficit reduction proposals starting early tomorrow morning, Republicans today reiterated their opposition to Harry Reid's debt limit plan.

Much like the Democrats recent statement to House Speaker John Boehner, in a letter to the Senate Majority Leader, 43 GOP senators stood firm in their views against the strategy, ensuring the measure will fall short of the seven Republican votes needed to avoid a filibuster.

Republican Senators Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Scott Brown, and Lisa Murkowski declined to endorse the letter.

According to the Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the floor shortly after the chamber convened Saturday afternoon that the senators had delivered the letter to Reid’s office.

Citing insignificant spending cuts and charging the Democrats' with a penchant for political games, here's a look at what GOP senators had to say ahead of tomorrow morning's vote:

Dear Leader Reid:

We are writing to let you know that we will not vote for your $2.4 trillion debt limit amendment which, if enacted, would result in the single largest debt ceiling increase in the history of the United States. In addition to this unprecedented increase in borrowing authority, your amendment completely fails to address our current fiscal imbalance and lacks any serious effort to ensure that any subsequent spending cuts are enacted.

The plan you have proposed would not alter the spending trajectory that is putting our economy and national security at risk. In return for an unprecedented $2.4 trillion debt limit increase, your amendment reduces spending by less than $1 trillion over the next decade. Setting aside the $200 billion shortfall between the CBO scored savings and the $2.4 trillion debt limit increase, identified by the Congressional Budget Office, most of the proposal’s alleged savings are based on a false claim of credit for reductions in war-related spending that were already scheduled to occur. This amendment proposes no change to our military posture and, for that reason, these savings are the sort of widely ridiculed accounting gimmick that breeds cynicism about our ability to tackle our fiscal challenges. The only possible justification for a $2.4 trillion increase in borrowing authority is to allow the President to avoid any accountability for these issues before his 2012 election. It is by constantly putting off these tough decisions that we have found ourselves with a national debt nearly equal to the size of our gross domestic product. The time for action is now, we cannot wait until we accumulate another $2.4 trillion in debt.

For all of these reasons, we must oppose your unprecedented $2.4 trillion debt limit amendment. Given the nation’s enormous future spending challenges, it would be irresponsible to give the President this unprecedented additional borrowing authority without requiring the enactment of significant spending reductions and reforms. We urge you to abandon this reckless proposal and instead pursue a more responsible course of action that would rein in spending, reassure the financial markets, and help promote private sector job growth.

Sincerely,

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

Republican Whip Jon Kyl

Senator Lamar Alexander

Senator Kelly Ayotte

Senator John Barrasso

Senator Roy Blunt

Senator John Boozman

Senator Richard Burr

Senator Saxby Chambliss

Senator Daniel Coats

Senator Tom Coburn

Senator Thad Cochran

Senator Bob Corker

Senator John Cornyn

Senator Mike Crapo

Senator Jim DeMint

Senator Michael Enzi

Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator Chuck Grassley

Senator Orrin Hatch

Senator Dean Heller

Senator John Hoeven

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

Senator James Inhofe

Senator Johnny Isakson

Senator Mike Johanns

Senator Ron Johnson

Senator Mark Kirk

Senator Mike Lee

Senator Richard Lugar

Senator John McCain

Senator Jerry Moran

Senator Rand Paul

Senator Robert Portman

Senator James Risch

Senator Pat Roberts

Senator Marco Rubio

Senator Jeff Sessions

Senator Richard Shelby

Senator John Thune

Senator Patrick Toomey

Senator David Vitter

Senator Roger Wicker

Comments

[Ricardo's Ghost]

The fall into insanity continues.

These clowns are really going to try and filibuster the Reid plan? This increasingly looks like a Republican attempt to stage a political coup: run the government from the House, only allow the Senate to object if it can muster a supermajority, and reduce the Presidency to a figurehead. Utterly grotesque.