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Kirk Says Debt Limit Should Stay Put
(IRN)-Illinois' junior senator says there is a key opportunity for fiscal conservatives in the new session of Congress.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk says the upcoming vote on the federal debt limit is a key opportunity to enact anti-spending reforms to lower deficits and taxes.

The last Congress increased the federal allowable debt four times from $11.3 trillion to $14.3 trillion. As of Dec. 2, 2010, the federal debt totaled $13.8 trillion. Kirk says at the current spending rate, the federal government will reach the current limit on its debt by the end of the first quarter of 2011. Kirk and other Republicans say they won't vote to raise the debt limit unless there is a plan in place for dealing with long-term obligations, including Social Security, and for returning to 2008 spending levels.

Kirk has already outlined ways to avoid borrowing, such as selling surplus federal property and suspending federal hiring.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin doesn't doubt that there will have to be bargaining on some issues like the budget, but says the debt limit should not be the bargaining chip.

Top economic aides to the president say blocking additional borrowing would push the country into default and a far greater economic crisis than Americans saw in 2008.

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
01 28 11 by Newsroom
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