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.

12-SJR34 on Jan 23, 2012

Congressional Vote: Vote #4 in the House: 239 Yeas; 176 Nays; Senate declined to vote on the Resolution.

OnTheIssues Explanation: On Jan. 12, 2012, Pres. Obama notified Congress of his intent to raise the nation's debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion, two weeks after he had postponed the request to give lawmakers more time to consider the action. Congress then had 15 days to say no before the debt ceiling is automatically raised from $15.2 trillion to $16.4 trillion. Hence the debt ceiling was increased.

In Aug. 2011, the US government was nearly shut down by an impasse over raising the debt ceiling; under an agreement reached then, the President could raise the debt limit in three increments while also implementing $2.4 trillion in budget cuts. The agreement also gave Congress the option of voting to block each of the debt-ceiling increases by passing a "resolution of disapproval." The House disapproved; the Senate, by declining to vote in the 15-day window, killed the Resolution. Even if the resolution were passed, Pres. Obama could veto it; which could be overridden by a 2/3 majority in the House and Senate. The House vote only had 57% approval, not enough for the 67% override requirement, so the Senate vote became moot. The same set of actions occurred in Sept. 2011 for the first debt ceiling increase.

Also see the related House of Representatives bill HJR98.

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: Sponsored disapproving of increasing the debt limit (Score: -2)
• Headline 2: Disapprove of increasing the debt limit (Score: -1)
  
  Participating counts on AmericansElect question 1.
• Headline: Sponsored disapproving of increasing the debt limit (Answer: B)
• Headline 2: Disapprove of increasing the debt limit (Answer: B)
• 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.