This page contains bill sponsorships in the Senate and House. Bill sponsorships indicate the topics that legislators are most interested in, and spend the most time on.

11-S1326 on Jul 5, 2011

[Explanatory note from Wikipedia.com "Debt Ceiling Crisis"]:

The US debt-ceiling crisis was a financial crisis in 2011 that started as a debate in the Congress about increasing the debt ceiling. The immediate crisis ended when a complex deal was reached that raised the debt ceiling and reduced future government spending. However, similar debates are anticipated for the 2012 and 2013 budget. President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner announced on July 31 that an agreement had been achieved. After the legislation was passed by both the House and Senate, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act. On August 5, the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit rating of US government bond for the first time in the country's history.

Under US law, an administration can spend only if it has sufficient funds to pay for it. These funds can come either from tax receipts or from borrowing. Congress has set a debt ceiling, beyond which Treasury cannot borrow. The Obama administration stated that, without this increase, the federal government would shut down and the US would enter sovereign default, thereby creating an international crisis in the financial markets. Alternatively, default could be averted if the government were to promptly reduce its other spending by about half.

An increase in the debt ceiling requires the approval of both houses of Congress. A large majority of Democratic legislators (who held a majority in the Senate) favored tax increases along with smaller spending cuts. Supporters of the Tea Party movement pushed their fellow Republicans to reject any agreement that failed to incorporate large and immediate spending cuts or a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

Also see the related House of Representatives bill HR2663.

Participating counts on VoteMatch question 20. Question 20: Stimulus better than market-led recovery Scores: -2=Strongly oppose; -1=Oppose; 0=neutral; 1=Support; 2=Strongly support.
• Topic: Budget & Economy
• Headline: Increase debt limit from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion (Score: 1)
• Headline 2: Sponsored bill increasing debt limit to $16.7 trillion (Score: 2)
  
  Participating counts on AmericansElect question 1.
• Headline: Increase debt limit from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion (Answer: C)
• Headline 2: Sponsored bill increasing debt limit to $16.7 trillion (Answer: C)
• AmericansElect Quiz Question 1 on Economy: When you think about the US budget deficit, which of the following solutions is closest to your opinion?
  • A: Cutting existing programs
  • B: More spending cuts than tax increases (mix of both solutions)
  • C: More tax increases than spending cuts (mix of both solutions)
  • D: Raising Taxes
  • E: Unsure
  
  
  
• Key for participation codes:
• Sponsorships: p=sponsored; o=co-sponsored; s=signed
• Memberships: c=chair; m=member; e=endorsed; f=profiled; s=scored
• Resolutions: i=introduced; w=wrote; a=adopted
• Cases: w=wrote; j=joined; d=dissented; c=concurred
• Surveys: '+' supports; '-' opposes.